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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