Latest news!!!
Appeal to the California Coastal Commission
is now in progress. Click here to see the staff report recommending a "substantial issue". This issue will be heard at the California
Coastal meeting June 11th, 2010 (if the land owner does not ask for a delay) rescheduled for the November
2010 meeting in the Orange County area. Letters of support written to the Coastal Commission would be appreciated and
people to attend the meeting if possible.
COASTAL PERMIT
APPLICATIONS a. Application No. A-5-LOB-10-15 (2H Properties,
Long Beach) Appeal by Commissioners Shallenberger & Wan, Los Cerritos Wetlands Trust (Elizabeth Lambe, Executive Director),
Thomas Marchese, Heather Altman, Mary Suttie, David Robertson, El Dorado Audubon Society (Mary Parsell), and Our Town –
Long Beach (Joan Hawley McGrath, Sandie Van Horn, Pat Towner, Cindy Crawford, Tarin Olsen, Kerrie Aley, Allan Songer &
Brenda McMillan) from decision of City of Long Beach granting permit with conditions to 2H Properties approved (after-the-fact)
for importing 1,000 cu.yds. of soil to re-establish and maintain cap over existing landfill (in response to Coastal Commission
Emergency Permit 5-09-068-G), and allow weed abatement and remediation, at 6400 Loynes Drive, Long Beach, Los Angeles County.
(CP-LB)
Sample letter to Coastal:
Attn: Commission Staff
I support the appeal (A-5-LOB-10-15, 2H Properties, Long Beach, June 11th
agenda item #9a) by Commissioners Shallenberger & Wan, Los Cerritos Wetlands Trust, Thomas Marchese, Heather Altman, Mary
Suttie, David Robertson, El Dorado Audubon Society and Our Town Long Beach.
I am in agreement that the permit lacks an enforceable
habitat protection and restoration plan; instead I would like an appropriate enforceable plan including re-vegetation to prevent
erosion and 5 year monitoring. I believe this is important to protect Alamitos Bay from water runoff pollution.
The area is adjacent
to Los Cerritos Wetlands and the LCP designates this as a future brackish pond restoration which I fully support. I
strongly feel the LCP is correct in it’s designation of brackish pond restoration and should be treated as an important
wetlands.
Thank you very much for your
consideration on this matter.
Sincerely,
Your name & address
Mail to:
California Coastal
Commission
200 Oceangate, 10th Floor
Long Beach, CA 90802-4416
Or email to awillis@coastal.ca.gov
If you could please attend the Coastal Commission
meeting in November 2010 it would really help. We need to make an in-person presence on this
issue. You don’t need to be a resident of Long Beach or even of California to participate in letter
writing or meetings – the coast belongs to everyone!
Thanks!
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Recent news articles about the Coastal Commission appeal:
March 12, 2010, Long Beach Press Telegram, "New
hearing ordered on restoration of graded area near Los Cerritos Wetlands": http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_14665850
March 12, 2010, lbreport.com: http://www.lbreport.com/news/mar10/hitchccc.htm
March 11, 2010, Long Beach Press Telegram, "Coastal Commission wants new hearing on Los Cerritos Wetlands
grading case":
http://www.insidesocal.com/greennotes/2010/03/coastal-commission-wants-new-hearing-on-los-cerritos-wetlands-grading-case.html
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Most of the older news story links on this
page have been removed from news sites. Below is a few older news articles still online:
Construction Firm Probed in Leveling of Salt Marsh article,
March 2009:
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/mar/24/local/me-wetlands24
Pictures of seasonal ponding still
occurring on the damaged land 9 mos later, Dec 2009:
http://www.egretsnotregrets.com/2009/12/ponding-on-hitchcock-land.html
Transcripts of citizen complaints/reports and communications
at City Hall at the time of bulldozing without a permit, April 2009:
http://www.lbreport.com/news/apr09/loycpra.htm
AQMD reports
on excavation without a an approved plan with AQMD, March 2009
http://www.lbreport.com/news/mar09/aqmdwet2.htm
Blog posts following the situation:
http://www.egretsnotregrets.com/search/label/Sean%20Hitchcock
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Friday March 19th is the "1 year anniversary"
of the destruction...please attend our protest or "vigil".
| Vigil
or "protest"at Loynes Drive, Subarea 23 |
| |
| Fri, March 19th is the anniversary of the illegal destruction of the acreage on Loynes Drive.
Imagine what a restoration here would look like! Make/bring your own “restore our wetlands”
sign...you can get creative with your own sign, or you can just stand next to someone else who has a sign. And
please ask friends, family, and neighbors to join! |
| |
| When: Fri, March 19th, 2010, 6:30pm |
| Where: Loynes Drive near Studebaker Road |
On
March 19th & 20th, 2009 new land owner Sean Hitchcock leveled a 10 acre parcel, grading around 10' deep removing the
protective cap from this former 1950's landfill. No permits, no studies on hazardous waste cleanup...the land owner
claims he was making a soccer field.
Constructing an unpermitted ball field on a now potentially
hazardous dump site (since it was graded) and sending children out to play on it with no consideration of toxic
cleanup, should be a crime in itself.
So should air quality. Witnesses say the gases from the
landfill during the grading were overwhelming. Now most of the site is a graveyard of trash sticking up from the
dirt. Many bottles and newspapers have been found dated in the 1950's or earlier, fully intact. Mold
and strange smells still fill the air nearby the site. Mature palm trees were destroyed along with bird nests of Snowy
Egrets, a bird common to wetlands.
Since then an emergency permit was issued by the California Coastal Commission
to cover the methane gas leaks with 4" to 6" of soil was issued. And to date no further action has been
taken.
This land is zoned as "wetlands" and subject to a number of environmental protection laws and
is has been on the list for acquisition to be included in the Los Cerritos Wetlands restoration. The
far East side of Long Beach already has a huge amount of acreage developed as city parks with ball fields. Eldorado
Park has around 975 acres, all sections combined. We also have nearby Stevely Park. Natural or Nature Parks,
we have only one (at El Dorado Park) totaling almost 100 acres.
Wetlands are not only habitat for native
plants, animals and birds but they benefit us as well. Wetlands are buffer zones for flooding, they act as storm water
filtration systems preventing ocean pollution, to name a few--hardly a "waste of money" as some uninformed people
think. Click the link below to learn more about this topic: http://www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands/vital/people.html
Help protect and restore Los Cerritos Wetlands, please write or call the City of Long Beach,
the California Coastal Commission, letters to the newspaper editors, etc.
If you need more info about the land owner, their website is: http://www.2hconstruction.com/company.asp
For more information about this issue and the Los Cerritos Wetlands restoration see the Los Cerritos Wetlands
Land Trust site: 
