South Bay Echo for Oct 14
AES power plant extension, thoughts on Mark Ridley-Thomas, Cubensis returns to The Lighthouse
Hello friends… Welcome to the seventh edition of South Bay Echo, your source of local hometown news with a real estate angle.
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State Water Board considers another extension for AES power plant
The California Water Resources Control Board meets next Tuesday, Oct. 19, to consider another extension of the AES Redondo Power Plant. Originally slated to shutdown at the end of 2020 because of the plant’s use of once-through ocean water cooling, the water board in September 2020 extended the generating station’s life for another year. Now the board is considering another extension until the end of 2023. But it’s anyone’s guess whether that deadline will be followed either.
The reasoning for prolonging the life of the plant has to do with an unexpected heat wave that triggered rolling blackouts in August 2020. Recent drought conditions too have reduced the state’s hydroelectric generation by 37% this year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. So the state wants to hold onto as many power generating stations as it can.
This is all bad news for those who would like to see this polluting eye sore on our coastline finally removed. But there is big money at stake. City officials estimate the plant is earning roughly $40 million per year. Officials also presented at this week’s council meeting some of the details around the AES sale to Leo Pustilnikov and his shadow partners made up of multiple LLCs and business partnerships.
Tax records indicate Pustilnikov and company spent $28 million for the nearly 50 acre site, a shockingly low number. Larry Kosmont, an attorney who works closely with the city on dealing with the power plant site, called the deal a complicated and highly structured transaction over many years that could include contingencies such as site remediation or entitlements. Certain clues in various tax forms lead officials to believe the total sale value was about $65 million with the balance due at a later date.
So much about the future of the AES site is still up in the air. What will be built? How much of it will be parkland? When Pustilnikov last year reneged on a deal to sell the city half of the site for parkland, much of the initial planning fell apart. None of that really matters anymore until there is a firm date for the plant’s closure, which as it’s looking right now will not be anytime soon.
To follow and submit comment on next week’s Water Resources Control Board meeting, click here.
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What will the elimination of AES do for home prices?
It can’t be overstated the significance the AES power plant has on our community as a polluting eyesore. Many invisible, harmful pollutants would no longer be emitted from the smokestacks. Human health would improve. Soot would no longer rain down onto personal property. It could improve tourism as visitors would no longer ask why there’s a power plant in our beautiful marina. But perhaps the most significant aspect of the plant’s closure would be the removal of the power lines along 190th. Taking away this massive array of power lines would drastically improve the ocean views and in all likelihood raise the value of many homes along the north side of the street. The corridor where the power lines sit now will likely never be developed, although that’s not a certainty. But with so little open space as it is and such massive opposition to increased development, the chances of voters approving new zoning designations there is very unlikely. A certain amount of development on the AES site itself, however, will be unavoidable as a contingency for tearing the plant down. So far, what’s been proposed (though not in a formal sense) is a commercial development with offices, retail, restaurants and a hotel, in addition to roughly half of the site preserved for parkland and wetlands.
Career politician makes career ending mistake
The news this week that L.A. City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas was being indicted on bribery charges came as a shock, but it shouldn’t really be a surprise. Ridley-Thomas is one of the region’s most prominent public figures. He is also a career politician who carries himself with an air of extreme self-importance. He seemed to think the only way he could contribute to society was by bouncing back and forth between L.A. City Council and the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. I think this should have been a red flag for voters. Politics shouldn’t be a career. It should be a way for good people to give back to society. Any career politician ultimately serves themselves. Sadly, there are many such self-serving politicians in Los Angeles. Ridley-Thomas is the third L.A. City Councilman to be indicted recently. And I can think of a few more across the region who might be coming next.
Cubensis at The Lighthouse Saturday
Despite the closures of some notable music clubs in recent years, the South Bay still has quite a selection of live music venues including the AC Hotel in El Segundo and R10 Social House in Redondo Beach and lots of others in between. This Saturday, Oct. 16, the Grateful Dead tribute band Cubensis returns to The Lighthouse Cafe in Redondo Beach 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. If you’re a fan of the legendary rock band and haven’t seen this group perform at this historic club, it’s really a show worth catching. The energy and enthusiasm of the crowd with all that tie-dye moving and shaking you’d be forgiven for a moment if you flashed back to 1985. For advanced tickets click here. Then you can also catch the real thing (or the latest version that is) with Dead and Company Oct. 30 at Hollywood Bowl. See you there!
Don’t forget also this weekend is Rocktoberfest… a three-day event with cover bands and creole food at the Seaside Lagoon. For tickets click here.
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading and see you next week.
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David, Thanks for this column. The AES plant near the coast reminds me of the huge DWP gas-fired plant in Sun Valley, except I think they only run that one during high power demand, and it's also owned and operated by the LADWP. One of the actual perks of living in the city of LA is having a public utility, even if it's a utility that shovels tons of cash into the city's general fund.
Having private owners and operators of a power plant leaves a lot of room for cutting corners.
But I'm sure all would welcome a return of the land where the power lines run.
On MRT, I still can't believe that all the news about him, his son and USC came out in 2018, and USC said they kicked it over to federal authorities. Between now and then MRT ran for and won his council seat. They didn't have enough in 2020 to announce that the investigation was ongoing? I guess not.
The sad part is that MRT is a fixer, for sure, and he was just trying to help his son. He probably could have helped him in 1,000 other ways, but there still that element that makes it different from the Huizar and Englander situations.
I bet we agree on which council members are most likely to be indicted. They really need a stepped-up Ethics department over there. I vaguely remember them saying they would do this, but it seemingly either hasn't happened or didn't work.
Wouldn’t it be cool to have an open air market there. Something similar to Pike Place Market in Seattle. Artists, food, music, farmers…