Jim York Is Back and So Am I

I am so far behind with this blog that I feel as if I'm in the middle of a horrible nightmare ...you know the one...it's the end of the semester and it's the day of the final exam and you haven't been to the class all year and you don't even know where the class meets!

But the headline on the front page of Monday's Daily Breeze woke me up, so here we go again.  

If you missed it, it says, "Developer Decides to Farm Pristine Peninsula Land." Anyone who has walked around the big white gate across from the Equestrian Center, and has Point View in the last year knows that this isn't particularly news. Jim York has had avocado trees and a vegetable and herb garden up there for ages...but, wait...there's more.

If you check the RPV website, you can find the details of his proposed project, for which he is seeking a Conditional Use Permit. His plan includes:

• 17.5 acres of organic avocados
• 1.5 acres of citrus and avocados
• 8.5 acres of vineyards
• 2.5 acre non-commercial 9-hole golf course with two greens and traps that will not have any employees. It will not be open to the public, nor will it have regular operating hours and will have no clubhouse. Play will be limited to daylight hours.
• And last but not least, an Event Center, planned as an ancillary use of the property (see note below), for no more than 30 events a year including fund raising and charity events, private parties, public and community events, weddings and wedding receptions, corporate parties, outdoor conferences and educational events. (That means one event every third week if he uses it year 'round, or at least two a week if he doesn't rent the place out during the six months of what we, in California, refer to as winter. (Time of rain, wind, mud, heavy jackets, etc.)

Quick explanation: Ancillary use is the important term here. York can't get a Conditional Use Permit for a stand alone Event Center on property zoned residential.  But it turns out, under city zoning regulations, he can build a golf course on the property and he can call the Event Center ancillary to the golf course, and then it's legal!

According to the plan, attendance at Event Center events would be limited to 300 people, not including event staff, security/safety personnel, etc., with an occasional special charity event that could generate up to 750 people. Hours of operation will be from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Way down at the bottom of this proposal, we find this interesting paragraph:

Miscellaneous – To improve on-site circulation and access, the proposal includes legalizing an after-the-fact roadway segment that was paved to provide a secondary access to the site from the Narcissa Drive gate.  Further, a new paved roadway is proposed to provide main access to the property via Palos Verdes Drive South.  The after-the-fact roadway is a 700-foot segment constructed of impervious asphalt; while the new main roadway is currently an unpaved dirt road measuring 1,880-feet in length, and is proposed to be paved with impervious asphalt.

This is very hard to understand in light of the judgement against James York and Long Point Associates in 2001 in which the Hon William G. Willett ruled in the case of Portuguese Bend Community Association Inc. vs James York, York Longpoint Assoc. Limited Parntership, et al.,  Judgment dated July 27, 2001 that:

Page 3, Number 4, line 14:

YORK LONG POINT, and it's successors, shall have the right to use the Portuguese Bend Roads for maintenance and all lawful purposes of the YORK LONG POINT property, so long as such use does not allow use of the Portuguese Bend Roads by members of the general public.

The italics are mine. And thanks to Claudia Gutierrez for providing a copy of the Willetts ruling. 

If someone can explain to me how York plans to have public events at Long Point and get access to the site from the Narcissa gate, I'd like to hear it.

But wait, there's more!

Check the agenda for the January 18 RPV City Council meeting (that's tonight folks!) and you will find that Item 6 on the agenda is the award of a contract for services to prepare a Mitigated Negative Declartion for the proposed Point View Agriculture, Golf Course and Event Garden Master Plan Project. This will cost $64,707, which amount Mr. York has ponied up to start the development process. The proposed contract, with interesting background and details on the project is here.

 Be sure to check the map of the proposed project here.

But wait, there's even more!

Item 4 on the Agenda is as follows: Adoption of Ordinance No. 517, to create a Ministerial Process to adjust the landslide moratorium boundary line. This is the second reading of this proposed ordinance; if the council adopts it Tuesday, will take effect February 17, 2011. 

This is the item that Jim York was talking about in the Daily Breeze article, when it said:

York is also hoping to see a new ordinance approved Tuesday that would enable him - and other landowners - to request removal of portions of their property from a 32-year-old city building moratorium instituted over concerns about landslides.

The change would allow the boundaries of the landslide moratorium to be moved if an applicant could provide scientific evidence to the city's geologist that the existing lines are inaccurate. There's already a process - the subject of a lengthy lawsuit that the city lost - to get individual properties exempted from the moratorium for specific construction plans.

The new process would be broader and would not require building plans. It would give the city geologist the authority to adjust the boundary without a public hearing.

If the line that York desires is eventually granted, about 13 more acres of his land would be developable, for a total of nearly 47 buildable acres.

Overseer for the Point View Project is Senior Planner Eduardo Schonborn. You can call him at (310) 544-5228, or email him at eduardos@rpv.com

The City Council meets tonight, Tuesday, January 18, at Hesse Park, 29301 Hawthorne Blvd., at 7 p.m. If you have anything to say about all this, this meeting is the place to say it.

If you want to keep updated on this issue, subscribe to the appropriate city listserver group here.

One last note:  During the next week, I'll be doing a little backtracking on this blog, discussing what I know about what's happened at the last few PBCA Board Meetings, what's happening on the Zone 2 Environmental Impact Report, and a bit of local art news.

If you have anything you think our neighbors should know, be sure to email me.