1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT MEETING 11 HERMOSA BEACH, CALIFORNIA 12 APRIL 10, 2014 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 ATKINSON-BAKER, INC. COURT REPORTERS 22 (800) 288-3376 www.depo.com 23 24 REPORTED BY: CYNTHIA L. VARELA, CSR No. 5917 25 FILE NO.: A801973 Page 1 1 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT MEETING taken at 2 1315 Valley Drive, Hermosa Beach, California, beginning 3 at 6:30 p.m., on Thursday, April 10, 2014, before 4 Cynthia L. Varela, CSR No. 5917. 5 6 PLANNING COMMISSION PANEL: 7 Peter Hoffman Kent Allen Lauren Langer Ron Pizer 8 Pamela Townsend Sam Perrotti Mike Flaherty Ken Robertson 9 10 SPEAKERS: 11 Gary Brown John Bowler Lorie Armendaring Jeff Krag 12 Dean Francoìs Ray Dussault Martha Logan Sheryl Main 13 Anna Vitali Mike Matronini Pauline Miller Craig Cadwallader 14 John Lang Chris Miller Loretta Sparks John Arbelaez 15 Karl Grossman Bob Rasmussen Cindy Smith Walt Kashon 16 Dan Rudin Al Sattler Lisa Santora Joe Galliani 17 Ryan Ueda Dave Andrey Andre Sharp Bob Rasmussen 18 J.R. Reviccky Jim Rosenberger John Carlson Stacey Armato 19 Damon Nagami Joel Shapiro Person in yellow suit David Machamriz 20 Jim Sullivan Jim Rosenberg Brandon Gersh Nanette Barragan 21 Roger Light Marcelo Kraus 22 Mike Collins Barbara Ellman 23 Logan Allen Jan Rice 24 Iatianna Geur Tom Malone 25 Peter Shellenbarger Page 2 1 HERMOSA BEACH, CALIFORNIA; THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 2014 2 6:30 P.M. 3 4 5 MR. HOFFMAN: Our agenda tonight I think 6 everyone is aware is a one-item agenda. We are here 7 tonight to continue. This is a continuation of the 8 previous meeting last Wednesday night. This is a 9 continuation of the opportunity for members of our 10 community to comment upon the draft EIR. 11 I think everyone is aware that this is a 12 standard part of the CEQA process. That once an 13 environmental impact has been prepared, the document is 14 considered a draft. It does not receive public comments 15 of matriculation. We are just now reaching the end of 16 that period. 17 Comments on the draft EIR are due to the city 18 no later than April 14th. April 14th the draft period 19 will end. At that point all of the comments that have 20 been submitted in writing, as well as those made here in 21 this meeting, which is really a two-part meeting, all of 22 the comments that have been made will be forwarded to 23 our consultants to prepare the draft. 24 They will respond. So everyone is aware 25 tonight. They will be responding to the factual Page 3 1 comments on the EIR. 2 The comments will be incorporated in the 3 questions and comments. They will be responding to 4 those that are factual comments on the draft EIR. 5 Those of you that may choose to simply state 6 that you're for or against or whatever it might be, the 7 oil property, the oil drilling and so on, opinions will 8 not be part of this process. 9 So the most useful comments tonight are those 10 comments that are factually-based, related to the EIR. 11 By "factually-based" you don't have to be a petroleum 12 engineer to make a factually-based statement. 13 You can comment on your own experience, based 14 on your own experience, your understanding of the impact 15 of the oil project that's proposed, the traffic that 16 will be associated, whatever mention it is. 17 You are free to comment on any part of this 18 project. Critically though, ideally though, those 19 comments will be related to the Environmental Impact 20 Report as they are discussed. Or if you feel there is a 21 need that it should be discussed in the final EIR. 22 We are not tonight -- so everyone is clear on 23 this. There's a little bit of the confusion. There are 24 two additional reports. They are not part of the CEQA 25 process. Page 4 1 There's a Health Impact Assessment which the 2 city asked to have prepared. That report, the draft was 3 prepared. That draft has been retracted. We anticipate 4 that sometime in approximately another month there will 5 be a final hearing on the Health Impact Assessment. 6 When it is prepared it will be circulated. It will be 7 available on the city website. I'm sure that the City 8 Council and the Commissioner and others will make the 9 public aware of when that Health Impact Assessment has 10 been finalized. 11 The other report is the Economic Analysis, the 12 Economic Benefits Analysis, Cost Benefit Analysis. That 13 document is out. It's available on the city website. 14 You can also come to the Community Development 15 Department to get a copy of that. It's also available. 16 It's not part of this CEQA process. 17 But you certainly should look at that document. 18 If you have comments or questions about that, you can 19 direct those to the city staff. 20 This is a regular meeting of the planning 21 commissions. It's a special topic of the regular 22 meeting. We're going to conduct it as we did the first 23 half of this meeting with our normal protocol, which 24 means that we are going to invite people to come up. 25 We're going to limit comments to three minutes. Page 5 1 If you have additional comments, certainly you're free 2 to submit those in writing of any length that you wish. 3 But if you would like to speak for more than three 4 minutes and there's someone else here with you tonight 5 who is prepared to concede their time to you; in other 6 words, they would prefer not to speak, they prefer to 7 give you their time, we will extend your time by two 8 minutes up to a maximum of, say, three or four speakers. 9 Other than that, the fire department -- I think 10 we actually have a couple of representatives here. We 11 need to keep the aisles clear. We need to stand in the 12 back. We need to make sure that leave a straight fire 13 exit. 14 I am going to ask, however, that once we begin 15 to receive public testimony, if you would please come up 16 so that we have someone at the podium and then one or 17 two people may be cued up so that we don't spend a lot 18 of time with who's next, who's next kind of thing. Just 19 kind of line up so we keep this going smoothly as 20 possible. 21 I think all of us are prepared to stay here 22 until every single one of you has commented, if that's 23 what your choice is tonight. So feel free and please do 24 come forward. I think this is an important thing. 25 The city attorney, the other day it just Page 6 1 occurred to me, commented that what we are really doing 2 here is to enhance public comments. Ordinarily this 3 process is done strictly by writing. 4 The city thought this is such an important 5 issue. The planning commissioners certainly did. So we 6 wanted to hear from the public so that we are aware of 7 the issues in the EIR, that all of you think are 8 important, as well as what we got as we did our reading. 9 So that's why we are having this as public meeting 10 tonight. 11 So with that we will move to that. 12 I do want to make one other announcement since 13 everyone is here. Hermosa Beach is certainly a city 14 with a lot of stuff going on. Obviously the oil 15 drilling process is the focal -- is at the front of 16 this. But I think most of you or many of you are aware, 17 the city is also in the midst of revising our general 18 plan. The city general's plan. That process is 19 ongoing. 20 We have serious announcements that are in the 21 local papers. You can come to the city website to get 22 more information. But you need to be aware or you 23 should be aware that the general plan is going to begin 24 with the process here. It's going to begin with a 25 series of public workshops dealing with some of the Page 7 1 topics. 2 The first meeting -- they are all here at 7:00 3 in the City Hall of Chambers. The first meeting is on 4 April 14th. The topic is climate change and 5 sustainability. Our general plan is going to look and 6 be focused on the urban neutrality and sustainability on 7 environmental issues. That will be the topic the first 8 night. 9 The second meeting will be on April 21st. The 10 topic that night will be economics and land use. 11 And then on April 30th the third meeting will 12 be transportation and public health. 13 And then looking a little bit ahead so you have 14 a head's up, on May 8th we're going to have a community 15 workshop. That will be a 7:00 meeting down at the Clark 16 Building on Valley Drive down by Clark Stadium.