HomeMy Public PortalAbout77-223RESOLUTION NO. 77-223
' RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY
OF CARSON RELATING TO SPECIAL USE PERMIT
NO. 118-74.
THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CARSON DOES HEREBY FIND,
DETERMINE AND RESOLVE AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Planning Commission of the City of
Carson heretofore adopted its Resolution No. 74-304 on
December 17, 1974 granting Special Use Permit No. 118-74
on certain conditions therein set forth. An appeal was
thereafter taken to this City Council and on January 20,
1975 the matter was referred back to the Planning Commis-
sion to consider additional conditions in order to pro-
vide for more adequate consideration of the hazards from
methane gas and to provide more adequate protection against
such hazards if the permit should finally be granted. Addi-
tional conditions were added providing for the employment
of an independent engineering consultant to report to the
City Council on matters pertaining to methane gas, includ-
ing but not limited to gas migration, gas control, gas
production, subsidence, odors, other environmental hazards
and other matters. Special Use Permit No. 118-74 was there-
after conditionally granted, subject to and on the condi-
tions therein set forth, on February 3, 1975, by approval
of Resolution No. 74-304, as amended.
SECTION 2. Pursuant to the conditions set forth in
said resolution, a consulting engineer, Emcon Associates,
was retained and thereafter submitted its written report
and recommendations to the City Council. This City Council
received testimony and other evidence relating thereto and
considered said report and recommendations on September 2,
1975. Thereafter, on September 2, 1975, this City Council
disapproved the final report and recommendations of the con-
sultant as inadequate to enable the City Council to deter-
mine that the proposed development will not constitute a
hazard to persons or property, or endanger or constitute
a menace to the public health, safety and general welfare
or be materially detrimental to persons or property in the
vicinity, and adopted Resolution No. 75-171 making findings
of facts upon which such determination was based. Tinder
the terms of said resolution this City Council denied issu-
ance of a building permit without prejudice to further ap-
plication for a building permit for the proposed develop-
ment.
' SECTION 3. Thereafter Syufy Enterprises filed a peti-
tion for writ of mandate in the Superior Court of Los Angeles
County, No. C 138,131, seeking to compel issuance of a build-
ing permit for construction of the proposed project. The
Court entered judgment for defendant City of Carson denying
said petition on April 30, 1976 and said judgment became final.
Res. Na; 77-223/Page 2 of 5
SECTION 4. Thereafter Syufy Enterprises modified
its proposal and made further application to the City of
Carson for a building permit for said project, on or about
June 28, 1977. This City Council employed Engineering
Science, Inc. pursuant to said Resolution No. 74-304, as
independent consultant in place of Emcon Associates, with
respect to such further application. Said consultant pre-
sented its report to this City Council under date of July
27, 1977. Thereafter this City Council granted extensions
of time to Syufy Enterprises to study and respond to said
consultant's report, and to said consultant to finalize
its report, and on September 26, 1977 said consultant's
final report was filed with the City of Carson and a copy
thereof was provided to the applicant.
SECTION 5. On October 31 1977 this City Council, at
a regular meeting thereof, received said report and oral
evidence in support of and in opposition to said applica-
tion, duly considered the same, and directed preparation
of a resolution making findings of fact and disapproving
the further application of Syufy Enterprises for a permit
for the proposed development.
SECTION 6. The applicant proposes to construct and
operate a six -screen drive-in theater on a site of approxi-
mately twenty-four acres located easterly of the Harbor
Freeway and bounded by Francisco Street on the north, Main
Street on the east, the Los Angeles City Department of Water
and Power easement lying northerly of Del Amo Boulevard on
the south, and said easement (adjacent to Figueroa Street)
on the west. Said site is adjacent to, or in the immedi-
ate vicinity of, properties utilized for a trash or waste
transfer station, a salvage yard, various industrial and
commercial uses, a golf course and driving range, said De-
partment of Water and Power easements and an organic refuse
dump which has been filled, the surface of which is unused.
The subject site is zoned M-1, for light manufacturing uses.
A drive-in theater is a permitted use in such zone subject
to the issuance of a Special Use Permit. The site is desig-
nated for future light manufacturing or recreational use in
the redevelopment plan adopted by the Carson Redevelopment
Agency for Project Area No. 1. Automobile.access to the
site is proposed through an entrance and exit on Main Street
with traffic circulation to Main Street originating from the
Harbor Freeway "off" ramps in the vicinity and from local
surface streets. An entrance and exit is also proposed to
and from Figueroa Street across the Los Angeles Department
of Water and Power easement. Said Department has not given
its consent to applicant for the opening of a street across
said easement but has indicated that such an opening is pos-
sible if requested by the City of Carson for public street
purposes. No such request has been made by the City of Car-
son pending further consideration of the subject application.
The proposed project has been approved by various agencies
as to matters within their jurisdiction as reported by En-
gineering Science, Inc. in its report to this City Council
dated April 26, 1977. A Draft Environmental Impact Report
Res. No. 77-223/Page 3 of 5
was filed with the Planning Commission in connection with
its processing of the application for Special Use Permit
in 1974 and a Notice of Determination was filed with the
'
County Clerk on February 7, 1975 following the action of
this City Council on February 3, 1975 approving Resolution
No. 74-304, as amended. No further Environmental Impact
Report was filed or considered in connection with the appli-
cation filed in 1977.
SECTION 7. The site was used as an organic refuse
and garbage dump under industrial waste disposal permits
issued by the County of Los Angeles prior to the incorpora-
tion of the City of Carson in February of 1968. The proper-
ty was filled with organic wastes and other refuse, the ex-
act nature of which is unknown, to a depth in excess of
thirty feet to depths of approximately fifty feet, the ex-
act depth of the organic fill throughout the site being un-
known. The organic refuse and garbage is covered by com-
pacted earth fill to depths of four or five feet. The or-
ganic materials deposited in the site are undergoing de-
composition, and as a result thereof are generating and
emitting methane gas in large quantities and will continue
to generate and emit large quantities of methane gas for
many years until the decomposition process is completed.
The methane gas so emitted is inflammable and under cer-
tain conditions of mixture with the air is explosive. At
the present time the methane gas generated from the site
escapes into the atmosphere and also migrates laterally
through the strata of ground surrounding the site into
other properties where it has been found in flammable quan-
tities. The methane gas concentration in the site varies
at different locations but has been detected as being as
high as -fifty to sixty percent in portions of the site. The
lower explosive limit of methane gas is five percent (by
volume) in air. Methane produced in a sanitary land fill
-may collect in closed spaces such as basements, vaults,
storage roams or beneath floors, or it may also migrate
into sewers and storm drains, creating an extremely hazard-
ous condition. The decomposition of the organic refuse re-
sults in subsidence of the surface of the site which sub-
sidence varies at different locations due to the differences
in the nature of the fill. The annual subsidence rate at
various locations on the surface of the site ranges from
approximately three inches to in excess of seven inches per
year. Differential settlement of the site is expected to
continue to occur. Construction of the proposed concession
building on pilings, as proposed, will result in a substan-
tial differential settlement between the building and sur-
rounding areas. Differential subsidence will result in
cracking of the site surface through which methane gas may
be expected to escape unless adequately controlled.
'
SECTION 8. The applicant proposed to control the
methane gas through both active and passive subsystems de-
signed to induce movement of the gas to preferred locations
for dispersal and to prevent migration of the gas into
spaces where it could represent a hazard to persons or
Res. No. 77-223/Page 4 of 5
property through ignition or explosion. Engineering
Science, Inc. reports that such systems, if constructed,
maintained and functioning perfectly as designed, would
' probably provide adequate control. Imperfect functioning,
mechanical failure and human error are possibilities which
may occur and which the City Council must take into account
in determining whether to approve the requested Permit. It
further appears that the system would withdraw gas along
the perimeter of the site and such withdrawal would prob-
ably cause methane gas from the adjacent land fill to flow
toward the site, resulting in increased concentration of
methane gas in the street and right-of-way adjacent to
the site. The report of the first consultant, Emcon As-
sociates, recommended that the City obtain an opinion from
its legal counsel regarding potential liability of the
City as a result of hazard resulting from such possible
conditions. The City Attorney has advised the City Council
that the City may incur legal liability for damages oc-
curring as a result of such possible increased migration
or concentration of methane gas from other properties. The
effects of such inflow and concentration of gas have not
been adequately evaluated. The possible migration of gas
into the Sanitation District's trunks or sewers appears to
be a possibility which has not been eliminated. Utilization
of the site as proposed could result in the concentration of
as many as two thousand automobiles on the site at one time,
occupied by thousands of persons and containing many thousands
' of gallons of gasoline, over ground containing a flammable
and combustible gas. Neither the consultant of the City
nor the engineering consultant of the applicant is able to
provide an opinion that there is assurance satisfactory to
the City Council that there would be no risk to life or
property from ignition or explosion of methane gas if the
project is permitted to be developed. The applicant concedes
that all risk to life or property from methane gas hazard
on the subject site has not been eliminated if the develop-
ment should proceed. The applicant had knowledge of the
methane gas, fire, explosion, subsidence and other hazards
affecting the property prior to acquiring it for the proposed
land use and knowingly took a business risk as to approval
or disapproval of the proposed project. This City Council,
in approving Planning Commission Resolution No. 74-304, as
amended, on February 3, 1975, reserved discretion to approve
or disapprove the final report and recommendations of the
consultant with respect to the proposed development.
SECTION 9. This City Council does not approve the re-
vised proposal of Syufy Enterprises as reflected in the final
report and recommendations of the consultant with respect to
the proposed project as adequate to satisfy this City Council
that the proposed development will not constitute a menace
to the public health, safety and general welfare, or be ma-
terially detrimental to persons and property in the vicinity.
The requested building permit sought by Syufy Enterprises
for the proposed project, as revised, should be and hereby
is denied.
D
Res. No. 77-223/rage 5 of 5
PASSED, APPROVED AND ADOPTED the 17th day of October,
1977.
ATTEST:
CITY CLERK
--
STATE OF CALIFORNIA )
COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES ) ss.
CITY OF CARSON )
I, Helen S. Kawagoe, City Clerk of the City of -Carson, California, do
hereby certify that the whole number of members of the City Council of said City is
five; that the foregoing resolution, being Resolution No. 77-223, was duly and
regularly adopted by the City Council of said City at a regular meeting of said Council,
duly and regularly held on the 17th day of October , 1977, and that the
same was so passed and adopted by the following roll call vote:
AYES: COUNCIL MEMBERS: Marbut, Calas &Yamamoto
NOES: COUNCIL MEMBERS: Bridgers & Smith
ABSENT: COUNCIL MEMBERS: None
City Clerk, City of arson, C lifornia