Seventh District Councilmember Roberto Uranga said that the property located at 712 Baker St., which is adjacent to two City-owned parks, could be cleaned up. The land is currently owned by Oil Operators, Inc., who has expressed a desire to sell the land, which had been previously used in the oil industry to separate brine from petroleum.
“It’s an opportunity here to create some open space that would be available for people to enjoy,” Uranga said in a phone interview. He acknowledged that Oil Operators are in negotiation with Integral Communities, a real-estate developer in Newport Beach.
The area was part of the RiverLink conceptual plan, which sought to connect Long Beach residents to the Los Angeles River and create an integrated system of open spaces for the city. Its 2007 report identified a key destination— an area in the southern part of Wrigley Heights, which includes the Oil Operators Property.
Uranga convinced the city council last week to request that the city manager identify funding sources to purchase the property for the City to use as open space. The vote didn’t commit the City to purchase the property. The council unanimously approved the request by a vote of 8 to 0. Councilmember Lena Gonzalez was not present for the vote.
Wrigley Heights resident Richard Gutmann liked the outcome of the vote, but he was also skeptical of the City’s intentions to buy the property.
“It’s encouraging,” Gutmann said in a phone interview, “but we’ve had so many lies from the City over the years about this property.”
Gutmann emailed the Signal Tribune the comments he collected through his social-media interactions. Other residents echoed Gutmann’s skeptism of whether the City really intended to buy the property. Gutmann pointed out that both Michael Conway, who serves as the City’s director of economic and property development, and even Kevin Laney, a spokesman for Oil Operators, have acknowledged that the property is in “escrow” with Integral Communities.
Uranga took exception to the skepticism.
“I’m going to be blunt,” Uranga declared. “We don’t do anything half-assed. If we go after something, we’re doing it because we really believe in it and want it to happen.”
He continued to explain that it would be “a waste of people’s money” if they are just “going through the motions.”
“I’d be wasting my time,” he concluded. “Why would I waste my time?”
Oil Operators spokesman Laney said that Integral Communities is continuing with their feasibility study while the City is pursuing funding to try to purchase the property. He hesitated to comment more beyond acknowledging the interest from both parties, but he did say that the City is trying to find the money.
“I believe they are going to make a diligent effort to try to come up with an offer,” Laney concluded.
Celina Luna, Uranga’s chief of staff, explained that the “escrow” has been opened for Integral to do its own fact finding. Both Uranga and Luna said that the sale to Integral has not been completed and there is no formal application from Integral filed with the City to develop the property into 275 townhomes.
“The word ‘escrow’ doesn’t mean that it’s about to be sold,” Luna said. “They (Integral Communities) [opened] it up with the intent of doing further investigation and research.”
Prior to his request to find funding to pay for the property, Uranga had not taken a public position on the potential sale to Integral Communities. He said that he was prompted to take the request to the council after getting feedback from the residents who were upset about the potential development.
Uranga is hopeful that there are funding sources outside of the city to pay for the property. The councilmember noted that he sits on the board for San Gabriel & Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy, which had previously awarded the City $5 million a few years ago to purchase the property from Oil Operators. That particular deal fell through. He was hoping to get that money back. He also noted there are other cap-and-trade programs and potential state sources.
The estimated price of the property if it is cleaned up is around $17 to $23 million, according to Uranga. He believes that the property could fetch a lower price if the City takes on the clean-up process.
For residents like Gutmann, the green spaces are a priority.
“We’ve been asking for open space over there for I don’t know how long,” Gutmann said. “We’d like to see…anything but a bunch of buildings. We’d be happy to get some trees, grass, paths, benches, anything like that.”
Joan Greenwood, who serves as the president of Wrigley Area Neighborhood Alliance, said at last week’s council meeting that her members are in support of a low-impact development.
“The other thing is that particular property would serve as a superior urban-forest buffer for that neighborhood,” she said, “because they live in a corner with some of the worst air pollution around.”
She noted that those residents are close to freeways and downwind from some of the major refineries.
