Minutes from our December 4, 2012 meeting featuring Culver City historian Julie Lugo Cerra.
The Culver Crest Neighborhood Association’s next general meeting will be on Tuesday June 25, 2013, at 7pm, at Marycrest Manor. This meeting will be predominantly about emergency preparedness, with reports from the Emergency Prep Subcommittee.
- 7pm start
- approval of minutes and treasurer’s report
- Neighborhood Watch
- PXP Oild Field issues update
- Emergency Preparedness Program
- New Business
Update: Minutes from this meeting are now available here.
The Los Angeles County ordinance regulating the oil field in the Baldwin Hills includes a provision requiring 5 year reviews to determine if modifications should be made. Since we are approaching the fifth anniversary of the ordinance, the County is now beginning the review process.
The first step is to solicit community input as to what works and does not work in the current ordinance, and whether new provisions should be added or existing provisions removed or modified. There are several opportunities for residents to provide input on these matters.
First, you can attend the May 23, 2013 meeting of the Community Advisory Panel (CAP), which will be primarily devoted to this topic. Suggestions made at this meeting will be recorded by the County and will be considered as part of the review process. This meeting will be held at the community center at Kenneth Hahn Park at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 23. A copy of the official notice of the meeting can be found online at planning.lacounty.gov/baldwinhills/cap
Second, you can submit your comments on a survey form that has been prepared by the County. This survey can be accessed online by going to planning.lacounty.gov/baldwinhills/csd and clicking on the “Go to Survey” link. If you would prefer not to complete the survey online, you can print out the PDF copy of the survey, complete it by hand, and send it to Rena Kambara, County Planner, 320 W. Temple Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012.
Finally, you can submit comments by sending an email to Rena at rkambara@planning.lacounty.gov
In this scoping phase of the process, the goal is to generate an extensive list of potential changes, so that the County can consider the widest possible range of options and decide upon the ones that will have the most beneficial impact. During a very brief discussion of this topic at the April CAP meeting, some of the potential issues mentioned were:
- Add provisions regulating fracking at the field
- Increase the amount of insurance and bonds that PXP is required to maintain
- Expand the role of the CAP from simply disseminating information
- Provide remedies for homeowners who claim their homes have been damaged by oil field drilling operations
The above list will hopefully give some idea of the potential changes that could be considered. However, everyone hopes that the process will generate a much more extensive list.
So, if you have any thoughts or suggestions, please pass them on to the County via any of the methods described above.
From the City Manger’s bi-weekly email:
South Coast Air Quality Management Board Hearing (SCAQMD) on Reporting Requirements for Oil and Gas Wells and Chemical Suppliers – On April 5, 2013, Council Member Meghan Sahli-Wells made a statement before the SCAQMD Board in support of adoption of SCAQMD Rule 1148.2 “Notification and Reporting Requirements for Oil and Gas Wells and Chemical Suppliers”. The Rule establishes reporting requirements for owners and operators of onshore oil and gas wells, when conducting oil well drilling and production stimulation activities, such as hydraulic fracturing, gravel packing and/or acidizing. Emissions and chemical reporting requirements are also included. Council Member Sahli- Wells stated that the City is greatly concerned about impacts which may occur as a result of oil operations and hydraulic fracturing in the Inglewood Oil Field located within and adjacent to Culver City and surrounding communities. She supported the Rule as a first step towards collecting vital emissions and chemical information to better understand potential related air quality and health impacts, while urging the Board to make certain there are adequate financial resources to enforce the reporting and monitoring. In addition, the Council Member asked that the Board take the next step following collection of this information, which will be to impose stringent air quality regulations on oil operations, in order to protect the public health.
You are cordially invited to our CCNA Emergency Preparation Committee meeting this Wednesday evening, 7:30 to 9PM at the DeBenedittis Residence, 10708 Northgate Street.
At this initial meeting, we will look at what is needed for the Crest to be adequately prepared and begin to take action. Below is a list of potential sub-committees. If there are others that you see a need for, please email Suzanne DeBenedittis at: MakeCCsafe@gmail.com.
Thank you to all who have responded. Please do so if you have not already done so.
See you soon,
Suzanne De Benedittis
310-204-0570
Proposed Sub-committees/Teams:
- Reach-out Hosts
- One per street in the Crest, hosts a coffee klatch to invite everyone on both sides of their block to learn more & get involved to cooperate.
- Assures there is a host for follow up mtgs for this street.
- Communications
- Puts together talking points for coffee klatches for hosts and/or presents them at respective gatherings if host prefers.
- Vendors’ Fair &/or “Scavenger Hunt”
- Connects with Vendors to ascertain discounts for bulk buying.
- Handles orders.
- Organizes a Gathering where participants agree to handle buying respective items for those preferring this option.
- Water Pump
- Connects wth Fire Dept/City officials to work w Golden State to bond a CC resident or two to turn on generators in case of need.
- Maintains connections.
- Directory
- Does outreach to assure everyone who wishes to be included is included in Community Directory, with listed or unlisted option.
- Creates and maintains Directory listing Culver Crest health professionals, trades people, etc. needed to help during emergency situations.
- Core organizing team
- 1 or 2 others committed for the long haul to work closely with me, the City and CERT to assist each of the committees.
- Has overall responsibility to assure we are progressing and ever more prepared.
- Any other team/sub-committee the group recognizes a need for?
There is a new CCNA subcommittee, the Emergency Preparedness Committee. Even if you were unable to attend our last general meeting on emergency preparedness, we urge you to join in with the subcommittee. There will be a meeting of this subcommittee at Suzanne DeBenedittis’ house, either on March 22 or March 27th, please RSVP.
Christine Parra, CC Fire Department & I (Suzanne DeBenedittis) will facilitate this hour long meeting. (If need be, this meeting will be 90 minutes max).
Our focus will be on how to
- Provide each family in the Crest the opportunity to adequately prepare so that your family is not imposed on in an emergency.
- Work as a team for cost-savings bulk buying.
- Invite neighbors on your Street to get actively involved so that you can rely on each other.
- Assure the Golden State water generators will pump immediately if there is need.
- Anything else you deem needed to insure our resilience.
Meeting will close with Sign-ups for sub-committees/teams to carry each aspect of our Emergency Prep Project to success.
Yummy refreshments will be served! Bring neighbors & family too, as “many hands make light work” Let’s make it fun too!!
Our next general meeting is on February 26, 2013, at 7pm at Marycrest Manor. The theme of the evening is Disaster Preparedness, and will cover things like CERT, emergency supplies, and what we as a neighborhood can do as “best practices” to help ensure our safety in case of some unforeseen calamity. Guest speakers include Christine Parra, the Emergency Preparedness Coordinator of the Culver City Fire Department, and Lieutenant Iizuka of the Culver City Police Department. We will as well have a vendor presentation to describe what might be good items to keep on hand in case of a disaster.
We are pleased to announce a new neighborhood oriented social network website, culvercrest.nextdoor.com
NextDoor.com is a social network designed specifically for neighbors to keep in touch with each other. It is a great place to collect recommendations, find out about local happenings, ask your neighbors a question, or get the latest information on what’s going on within the neighborhood. The requirement to joining is that you live within the Culver Crest boundaries.
The new culvercrest.nextdoor.com is for the benefit of all neighbors living on the Crest. It is administered by NextDoor, not by the Culver Crest Neighborhood Association, and thus CCNA is neither responsible for nor has any jurisdiction over the contents therein. We suggest you read NextDoor’s Manifesto and their About page to make sure it’s right for you before joining.
You can join either via an email invitation from one of your neighbors, or by going to culvercrest.nextdoor.com and forming an account with your Culver Crest address.
PXP has submitted an Amended 2013 Drilling Plan to the County for approval. The County is now accepting public comments, but the comment period is quite short, ending on December 20. The essential purpose of the Amended Plan is to increase the number of wells PXP can drill in 2013, with the amendment allowing them to drill 53, the maximum number allowed by the CSD and the Settlement Agreement.
If you want to read the Amended Plan, it can be found at http://www.inglewoodoilfield.com/plans, where it is currently at the top of the list labeled “Plans Reviewed by CAP.” (The label is somewhat misleading, since the Amended Plan has not been reviewed by the CAP. While it was mentioned by PXP at our last meeting, it was not made available until after the meeting, and comments must be submitted well before the next CAP meeting.)
We encourage you to submit your comments regarding this Amended Plan. (Only four comment letters were submitted for for the original 2013 Drilling Plan last fall, and aside from the letter written by our own John Kuechle, none of them came from Culver Crest.)
As you may have heard, PXP is being acquired by the much larger Freeport McMoran Copper & Gold, Inc. While shareholder approvals still remain to be obtained, the current thinking is that the merger will close this June. We were told at the CAP meeting that this will not change the management team responsible for the Baldwin Hills oil field.
From City Manager John Nachbar’s Dec. 7th, 2012 bi-weekly email:
- Cranks/Tellefson Hillside Slide Repair Project Reimbursement – In late November, the City received a payment of $425,000 from the California Emergency Management Agency (Cal-EMA) for the Cranks/Tellefson hillside slide repair project. Additional money is expected from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), with the total of both sources expected to be approximately $1.6 million. Combined with payments that the City has already received, this brings the total assistance received by Culver City for the 2005 disaster to over $2.5 million.
- West Los Angeles College (WLAC) Demolition Bash- WLAC has informed the City that it will begin demolition of 43-year-old “temporary” buildings during the Winter break as part of its on-going campus transformation funded by voter- approved construction bonds. To mark the occasion, WLAC is planning to hold a Demolition Bash at 2:30 pm on Tuesday, December 11th. All are invited to participate in the farewell photo. Be sure to wear your favorite 1970’s and/or construction worker apparel. Get your photo taken swinging a ceremonial sledge hammer then graffiti your thank you message to these well-used buildings on one of the walls. Following the event, guests are invited to explore the dramatically renewed campus with three new LEED certified, multi-story buildings and lovely new walkways and courtyards. The new Café West is open for lunch and the adjacent expansive lawn behind the Student Services Building offers a great view of Culver City. Parking will be free in Lot #5, which is located off of Freshman Drive.
Culver Crest Neighborhood Association 