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> City Council will meet Tuesday, July 15th to further discuss Redevelopment District for the Catalina Area (former Heart of the City) and will also discuss the Heart of the City Process for Developing Public Consensus V

> City Council will meet August 5th to further discuss the Residential Design Guidelines VV

Quick Notes (meeting details for above follow):

The City Council contacts page has been updated so that council contacts are current. To EMail your city council members from our "Contact Your City Officials" page, click here.

To go to the Redondo City Council Agendas page to view the agenda for the upcoming council meeting this Tuesday (see below), click here.

To view a well-worded opinion from Ellen Allan on Redevelopment and whether it is right for the Catalina (Heart of the City) area, click here.

Alan Mackenzie is a developer with Mar Ventures who/which wants to develop the village core south area - where you can find the boat hoist, Chiller's/Latitudes, Captain Kidd's, Blue Moon Saloon/Samba, etc. Alan has written a letter to the City Council in favor of creating the Redevelopment District. To view Alan's letter to the council, click here. This letter requires Adobe Acrobat Reader - if you need to download the Adobe Acrobat Reader software, click the icon below.

A report by Chris Norby was mentioned at the last council meeting, Chris Norby is an Orange County Supervisor who is against Redevelopment Agency's establishing Redevelopment project areas for a variety of reasons. To view Chris' report, click here.

To learn more about Redevelopment Successes, Problems and Consequences, click here.

The California Redevelopment Association is an advocate for Redevelopment Agencies. To read about what they have to say about Redevelopment, click here.

To view Responses To Oral Questions Raised at July 8 Joint Public Hearing, along with other documentation, including the Five-Year Implementation Plan, Initial Environmental Study (IES), Owner Participation Rules, etc, click here.

Here are some recent articles in the local newspapers:
Beach Reporter: Redevelopment area debate continues (7/10)
Easy Reader: City considers Catalina redevelopment project, anti-mansionization measure, Part 1 and Part2

The City is beginning the process of developing next year's wall Calendar for the city, which is sold to the public. The city is looking for some new ideas on a theme. If you have any ideas, including ways to improve the calendar in general, please let Terri Arden know at Terri.Reynolds@redondo.org.

If you are interested in applying for a city commission seat, the deadline is August 1st. Call the City Clerk's office for details and to find out what seats are available at (310) 318-0656. You may download the application here: http://www.chriscagle.info/info/commappl.pdf (this requires Adobe Acriobat Reader).

Important City Council Meeting Tuesday, July 15th, 2003 regarding continued discussion of the establishing a Redevelopment District for the Catalina Redevelopment Project Area (prior known as Heart of the City).

The City Council will meet to continue public input into the establishing a Redevelopment District for the Catalina Area (former Heart of the City). Last Tuesday, only one out of many who spoke spoke out in favor of establishing the Redevelopment District. In addition, a local attorney pointed out the unjust method of public input being limited to 3 minutes per person while the Council is Considering a decision that could put the city into debt for 40 years (or more) into the future. This may be your last chance to come out to the Council Chambers and voice your opinion on this very important issue. Where the Heart of the City plan and zoning issues were addressable by public referendum, a Redevelopment District is much harder, if possible, to stop or change once it is accepted. For details on Tuesday's Council Meeting Agenda, go to the Redondo City Council Agendas page.

Residential Design Guidelines meeting scheduled for August 5th.

Although there is no agenda yet posted for this meeting, you may check the Redondo City Council Agendas page to see details when they are available.'

Old News...

City Council Discusses Catalina Redevelopment Project Area and Residential Design Guidelines at City Council Meeting of 07/08/2003

The City Council (and Redevelopment Agency) had a "lively" meeting this evening on two subjects of great public concern and involvement. One comment made was "why two such important meetings/discussions on the same evening?" as such scheduling can easily take a meeting past midnight. The Council seemed to agree, and will hopefully look into avoiding such aggressive schedules in the future.

There will be another meeting next Tuesday, July 15th. Check the Redondo City website for more information on the time and agenda. Visit the "Agendas & Minutes" link on the "City Council" page (under "Living in Redondo") at the Redondo City Council Agendas page.

Important meeting Thursday, 06/12/2003 at Council Chambers regarding the Heart of the City Redevelopment area - renamed this year as the Catalina Redevelopment Project Area !!

The city is having a 'Community Meeting' to discuss "...the proposed Redevelopment Project Area and its associated Redevelopment Plan..." on Thursday, June 12th at 6:30pm in the City Council Chambers.  This is the same area that was included in the "Heart of the City" plan (less the area west of Harbor Drive) that was rescinded a year ago.  Please come down and give your input on this Redevelopment Project and the associated Redevelopment Plan.

The City's website indicates that " ...Your input is critical! "
Last year the City Council and Planning Commission both ignored public input at their respective hearings regarding the Heart of the City.  However, this year there is hope - that with new members on the Council, the City Council at large will be more respectful of and responsive to public sentiment on such issues and projects.

To go to the City's page where the Community Meeting is announced and see a map of the redevelopment area, click here.

To see the schedule of the redevelopment process and plan, click here.

To download a copy of the Redevelopment Plan, click here. This is a pdf file, and you'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it.  If you'd like to go to the Adobe site to download the Acrobat Reader, click on the image below.

Try to attend the meeting Thursday if you can !!

Szerlip Appears to Win District 3 Council Election - see below...

There is a very important Planning Commission meeting at 7pm on Thursday May 15th at the Council Chambers !!

Anastasi Development plans to redirect traffic from Torrance Boulevard onto South Guadalupe Avenue. This is a reversal of the position that they agreed to take in order to get neighborhood agreement for the development of new condos and their headquarters building.

Anastasi Development is building their new Headquarters and some condominiums at this location at Torrance and Guadalupe. Anastasi originally committed to having the main driveway entrance into the newly constructed structure off of Torrance Boulevard. Now, after starting construction, Anastasi Development is asking the city to allow the main driveway into the structure be placed off of Quadalupe Avenue, and not Torrance Boulevard. This will result in more traffic and local congestion on both Guadalupe and Camino Real.

There will be a City Planning Commission meeting on May 15th at 7pm in the City Council Chambers, where the commission will vote to approve or deny the change. It is very important that you attend the Planning Commission meeting and let the commission (and any planning department staff present) know that this change is unacceptable. If you'd like to EMail the Planning Commission members (via William Meeker) or any of the Planning Department staff, about 2/3 of the way down our "Contact Your City Officials" page, there are check-boxes for EMailing Planning personnel. To go to Email your planning officials, click here

If you have any questions regarding the Planning Commission meeting on the 15th, or anything else regarding this issue, please feel free to contact Adele Borman at (310) 318-1188.

District 3 Council Elections Results as of 10pm 05/13/03

The above reads:

	Szerlip	Aust
Absentees:	200	267
Precinct 22	254	173
Precinct 29	209	116
Totals	663	556

With 37 absentee and 2 provisional votes yet to be counted.

Old News...

District 3 Council Member Election Will Take Place On Tuesday, May 13th - REMEMBER TO VOTE !!

This is the final "run-off" election after the prior field of 4 was reduced to 2. The two candidates running for District #2 are:

        Donald Szerlip - To read-up on Don, including his statements
         on issues and some of the groups and individuals who endorse
         him in his candidacy, click here.  If you'd like to EMail Donald,
         he may be reached at don@adwerx.net.

        Pat Aust - Pat may be reached at pataust3@aol.com.

The polls are open from 7am to 8pm. Your District 3 Polling Locations are as follows - both locations are accessible to the handicapped...

    Precinct 29 (includes 29, 94, 95 & 97 - east side of Rindge and all east of Rindge):
                Washington School Library
                1100 Lilienthal

    Precinct 22 (includes 22, 48, 92, 93, 96 & 98 - west side of Rindge and all west of Rindge):
                Historical Museum
                Dominguez Park
                200 Flagler

Be sure to get out and vote Tuesday !!

(The following information/pdf file-access was inadvertantly removed during a recent update)

Tuesday, May 6th, 2003 - There was an important City Council Meeting to Discuss "Process for Community Consensus" with regards to planning, zoning and redevelopment of the "Catalina Redevelopment Project Area" - formerly the area of Heart of the City that lies east of Harbor Drive - - As of that week...

This meeting is particularly important as the City has the opportunity to accept a "Process" that gives real public input into the planning, zoning and redevelopment process that involves our city's Harbor and Catalina Corridor areas. The "Process" used for the Heart of the City plan was a dismal disaster as over 6,000 votes testified. The referendum passed by over 6,000 votes is due to expire this summer, and it is very important that we have a just and fair publicly visible and accessible process as this project will affect us all for a long time to come. If you'd like to download and review a copy of this process, click process4-30-03.pdf. To view this file, you must have Adobe Acrobat installed. If you'd like do download Adobe Acrobat, click on the icon below.

Come down to the City Council meeting Tuesday evening and voice your support for a process that was born out of citizens' concern for citizen input in this process, and designed by citizens. The item is #47 on the agenda, so it will likely come up late in the evening. You may watch the Council meeting on channel 8 (starting at 6:30pm) and note the progress. If you cannot attend the meeting, you may EMail your comments to City Clerk Sandy Forrest at sandy.forrest@redondo.org. Indicate that your comments are in regards to Agenda Item #47, and that you'd like them attached to the item and distributed for the meeting. EMail your comments as early in the day as possible so she has time to print and distribute them. If you'd like to go directly to this week's agenda, click here. If you'd like to go to the City's Agendas and Minutes page (or if the prior link does not work properly), click here.

Tuesday, April 1st, 2003 - Important City Council Meeting Tonight

RB Redevelopment Agency to vote on (HOC area) Redevelopment District April 1st, 2003 !!!

The Redondo Beach City Council will again consider passing a proposal that would designate the Heart of the City area as a Redevelopment District.  They had done this once already and reversed it when the public spoke out against the via the referendum process. Now the city staff has put another Redevelopment District proposal up for approval by the Redevelopment Agency (aka City Council personnel).  Some items to consider include:
        - This is the same area known formerly as the Heart of the City project area, simply
          "...[renamed as] the 'Catalina' Redevelopment Project Area." (per BACKGROUND
          section of memo from Barry Kielsmeier to the Redevelopment Agency being
          presented tonight).
        - Reducing the debt limit from $450 Milllion to $120 Million (per Proposed
          Redevelopment Plan section of memo from Barry Kielsmeier).
        - Removing the technical term term "eminent domain" from the document, although
          it is expected that the City "...shall take all actions necessary to insure fulfillment
          of the purposes of this plan..." (per Section VII of the resolution).
        - The above "...shall..." also include "Revision of zoning within the project area to
          permit the land uses and development authorized by this Plan or necessary to
          carry out this Plan (per item 3 under Section VII of the resolution).". This basically
          directs that the City is expected to change/adopt zoning so that the items in the
          plan would not be non-conforming.
        - There are still provisions that allow the city to...
                > Buy land, write down the value, and sell it at the reduced price
                   to anyone it wants, without public bidding
                > Provide funds to assist property owners with cleanup of their parcels
                > Buy equipment from industrial users
The bottom line?  -  Although a Redevelopment District of some definition may eventually have a valid role in eventual enhancement of the former Heart of the City area, this current proposal is not acceptable as a vehicle to enhance the City to the benefit of its residents.

This whole set of documents was released for public review on the Thursday or Friday prior to the Tuesday City Council meeting. This is clearly not enough time to allow the public to review and comment on such a document. You should also consider this (lack of) process time in your comments to the City Council. Even if their intention is not as such, all impressions could well result in an appearance that City Staff and the Council are trying to "slip through" a document that has the potential of major impacts on our City's environs, budget and quality of life.

If you'd like to view the current City Council and Redevelopment Agency agendas, you can go to the City Clerk's Agendas page (which lists agenda links for City Coujncil meetings), then click on the Agenda for April 1, 2003. This will display the Agenda for the City Council meeting. Once on this agenda, click on item "7. REGULAR MEETING OF THE REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY", and the Redevelopment Agency agenda will appear for your review. NOte that to view the Redevelopment Agency agenda, you will need to be running IE (Internet Explorer).

To open up a new window and go directly to the Redondo City Clerk's Agendas page, click here.

Important information in the news as of 02/10/2003...
(continue reading following this section regarding the upcoming election)

Planning Commission Public Hearing regarding "Residential Design Guidelines..." - On page A12 of the 02/10/2003 Daily Breeze is a Public Notice indicating that there will be a hearing regarding the commission possibly recommending to the City Council the adoption of "Residential Design Guidelines and development standards...".  Details of the hearing are as follows:
        Date and Time:    Thursday, February 20, 2003 at 7:30pm.
        Location:               Redondo Beach City Council Chambers,
                                         415 Diamond Street, Redondo Beach.
        Add'l Info:             You may review the "project file and Negative Declaration"
                                         at the Planning Department throught Door E at City Hall,
                                         415 Diamond Street, Redondo Beach.  For more information
                                         you may also contact Randy Berler of the Planning
                                         Department staff at (310) 372-1171, ext. 2488.
                                         For more info from the City Website, click here.
                                         For see links to the Draft Recommendations
                                         on the City Website, click here.
The issues addressed by these new guidelines will supposedly encourage retaining the more quaint neighborhood appearance throughout the city that has been somewhat lost due to the "mansionization" and building height, setbacks, and other details.  It is not known at this point whether density is an issue being addressed as well.  Please find time to review the draft recommendations as accessible above, then attend the hearing and encourage your friends and neighbors to do so also.

Upcoming City Election - March 4th, 2003

This will be an infrequent opportunity for you as a voting individual to take about 15 minutes out of a day to decide who your city officials will be for a period of years. We urge everyone who is elegible to vote to do so, and give plenty of thought to your choices for office.

Redondo Life would like to invite candidates for city offices to have their name and link to their website provided on the Redondo Life website. See the information following the candidate list below for more information.

For the office of Redondo Beach Treasurer:

        Gary Ohst - Gary was active with the group "Citizens for a Vote
         on Heart of the City" that brought the referendum to the City Council.
         Gary Ohst's website can be found at www.electgo.com.

        Ernie O'Dell - "I have served as your City Treasurer for the past
         eight years and have saved and earned Redondo Beach taxpayers
         over $6 million in that time."
         Ernie O'Dell's website can be found at www.ernieodell.com.

For the office of Redondo Beach City Clerk:

        Sandy Forrest - Sandy is running as an unopposed incumbent.
         Sandy can be reached at Sandy.Forrest@redondo.org.

For the office of City Council District #3:

        Pat Wickens - "I supported Chris Cagle and the Citizens Group
         in the petition drive to rescind the Heart of the City Plan..."
         For more information about Pat, click here.

        Donald Szerlip - Donald may be reached at don@adwerx.net.

        Ann M. Garten - Ann may be reached at gartena@yahoo.com.

        Pat Aust - Pat may be reached at pataust3@aol.com.

For the office of City Council District #5:

        John Parsons - John is running as an unopposed incumbent.
         John can be reached at John.Parsons@redondo.org.

For the Members of the School Board:

        Dave Wiggins - Dave may be reached at dwiggins@bnet.org.

        Polly R. Kinsinger - Polly may be reached at kinsingers@adelphia.net.

        Paul Connolly - Paul may be reached at redondopapa@aol.com.

        Carl Clark - More information about Carl can be found at http://www.newschoolboard.org.
                              (Note that this website will only work with Internet Explorer - IE)

        Jane Diehl - More information about Jane can be found at http://www.newschoolboard.org.
                              (Note that this website will only work with Internet Explorer - IE)

        Arlene Staich - More information about Arlene can be found at http://www.newschoolboard.org.
                              (Note that this website will only work with Internet Explorer - IE)

Redondo Life would like to invite candidates for city offices to have their name and link to their website provided on the Redondo Life website.

If a candidate has a website of their own - the candidate may EMail his/her name, office being sought, 25-word (or less) introduction, website URL, and phone number and mailing address (for verification) to:  webmaster@redondolife.org.  Upon verification of the candidate's request, the information will be posted on the Redondo Life website.

If a candidate has no website of their own - Redondo Life will allow space for up to 25 words of introduction, one photograph and up to 100 words for each of the categories listed below (unless mentioned otherwise).  Each category title will be listed followed by the response.  No extra nor new categories will be considered unless by prior arrangement:
        1) What makes you uniquely qualified for this position, and what
            work and life experiences would you bring to this job?
        2) What do you see are the 5 most important issues facing the people
            of Redondo Beach?  List in decreasing order of importance.
        3) What are your views on the 5 items listed above, and how will you
            be able to work within your office toward your vision? (200 words)
        4) How do you plan to get input from your consitituents, and how
            will you keep them informed?
        5) Do you have any immediate thoughts on the upcoming budget issues
            regarding their priorities, and touchable and untouchable items?
        6) Statement of personal life and experience.
You may substitute information from your standard/published literature for information requested above.

The introduction will appear immediately following the name listed, with the photograph and remaining information on a separate page.  If you are running for office, do not have a website of your own, and are interested in having your information posted on the Redondo Life website, then please EMail the above-described information, along with a phone number and mailing address (for verification) to:  webmaster@redondolife.org.

NOTE:  Redondo Life reserves the right to edit any submitted material for length/size, and appropriateness of content to subject, and to delay posting of information until information and source may be verified.  Photo should be JPeG format, and all other information should be in simple text format (no HTML encoding).

Other Issues...

>>>  There is a group that is seeking to effect change in the Redondo Beach School Board.  Three School Board candidates above are supported by this group.  If you have heard about the group, and/or would like to learn more about it and the candidates it supports, consider visiting http://www.newschoolboard.org. Note that this website will only work with the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser (aka IE). Other browsers, including Netscape, will likely return a page with some kind of error message.

>>>  If you have heard about recent rumblings about Governor Pete Wilson preparing to sign / vetoing a bill that could result in auto resigration fees increasing by as much as tripling - and maybe want to do something about it - you might want to check out California State Senator Tom McClintock's website at www.tommcclintock.com.

Update - January 21st, 2003...

We'd like to present to you...

Latest News (12/17/2002):

>>> There is a Redondo Beach City Council Meeting tonight, Tuesday, 12/17/2002. Items 12, 44 and 45 deal with Heart of the City issues. Items 12 and 44 address California Coastal Commission issues, and item 45 specifically addresses Councilman Bisignano's request for establishing a "Blue Ribbon Committee". Click here to go to the Agenda.
Council John Parson's comment: "We have a planning Commission and a City Council - those are the blue-ribbon committees," can be seen in today's Daily Breeze (12/17/2002). Click here to go the the Daily Breeze article.

Latest News (12/17/2002):

News (11/17/2002):

>>>  There is a Redondo Beach City Council Meeting on Tuesday, 11/19/2002. Item number 37 deals with discussions regarding the California Coastal Commission's request that the the City of Redondo Beach's current "Local Coastal Program Application" be withdrawn, and a process for developing a "consensus" for use and intensity plan in the specific area.  Click here to go to the Agenda.

>>>  In their Saturday issues, the L.A. Times and Daily Breeze both published front-page articles describing 'new evidence fo fraud' regarding AES and WIlliams Cos. activities during the recent California Power crisis.  The L.A. Times article, "New Evidence of Fraud in Power Crisis" can be accessed via the L.A. Times website.  "Energy firm tapes emerge", the Daily Breeze article, can be accessed at http://www.dailybreeze.com/content/bln/nmenergy16.html.

>>>  In their 11/14/2002 issue, The Beach Reporter reported in "Coastal Commission continues review" that "In July, the city sent the Coastal Commission a letter formally notifying the commissioners that it had adopted resolutions repealing the Heart of the City Specific Plan and associated general plan amendments... But the city's letter also emphasized that the other land use amendments submitted for review were not repealed.".  Click here to go to the Article.

>>>  For the latest Beach Reporter information (11/14/02) regarding the runoff election, check out the related article.

>>>  For recent (11/14/02) letters to the Easy Reader on the Heart of the City, go to Letters, part 1, and Letters, part 2.

- - - MORE NEWS - - -
Updated November 6th, 2002

>> At this last Tuesday's City Council meeting (yes - on election night - November 5th, 2002) Chris Cagle presented the Mayor and City Council a copy of the response-letter from the California Coastal Commission (CCC) regarding application filed for the "Heart of the City" project. Even in light of two petitions forcing the issue, the Council's recision of two of the plan's issues, and huge amounts of public feedback, the City never withdrew its application from the CCC. The letter Chris presented was dated October 28th, 2002. The Mayor and Council all "claimed" to not know about the response, even though it was dated more than a week prior to the time Chris presented it. You may download a copy of the CCC letter by clicking here. This is a pdf file and you will need "Adobe Acrobat Reader" in order to view it. You may click on the picture below if you need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader from the Adobe website. The download is free.

>> Reported October 18th by the Daily Breeze, Redondo Beach City Manager Lou Garcia files court papers for a plan what is "a substantially identical project" to the controversial "Heart of the City".

>> Get involved - attend City Council meetings. You may view the City Council meeting agendas at the agendas page at the redondo.org website Tuesday, November 5th (after you vote).

>> The city has a major traffic revision planned for the Herondo / PCH / Catalina intersection. Check the City's website at redondo.org and the agendas page at the redondo.org website for more information.

>> There were two town-hall meetings regarding the City asking for public input on the Heart of the City. There was a possibility of a third meeting, but it was scrapped after the first two. They were:
Saturday, September 21, 2002 - 11am-2pm at the Main Library
at 303 N. Pacific Coast Highway.
Monday, September 30, 2002 - 7pm - 10pm at the Redondo Beach
Performing Arts Center at 1935 Manhattan Beach Boulevard.

On June 5th, the City Council rescinded the Heart of the City Plan.

On June 5th, the City Council rescinded the Heart of the City Plan.

On June 18, a joint meeting of the City Council and the Redevelopment Agency withdrew consideration of establishing the Heart of the City Redevelopment District.

This is great news for people who want the Plan re-visited and re-drawn.

However, a question remains as to whether or not the application for the Heart of the City Plan, that has been filed with the California Coastal Commission (CCC), should be withdrawn. At present, the plan is "on hold" with the CCC. As the current HOTC plan has been rescinded, and the HOTC redevelopment district has been withdrawn, it might be best to start with a "clean slate", and therefore submit a new application to the CCC when a new plan is drawn up. Please feel free to make contact with us and get on our mailing list (below) and give your input on this issue.

Get on our Emailing list - Click Here !

Other things to see and do while you're here...

Get involved...
        To get on our Emailing list, Click Here
        To go directly to the City Council meeting Agendas page, Click Here
        If you'd like to Email your City Officials, Click Here
        If you would like to contact any of our committee chairs or
                precinct captains, Click Here

Catch up on events and information...
        To get on our Emailing list, Click Here
        To read a recent message from Chris Cagle, founder of
                "Citizens for a Vote..", Click Here
        To go directly to the City Council meeting Agendas page, Click Here
        To go to links to related newspaper articles, Click Here
        To go see photos and a video of the Petition Delivery,
                April 18th, Click Here
        To see photos of the Petition Event Day April 13th, Click Here
        To goto our 'Links' page, Click Here

Support...
To get on our Emailing list, Click Here
To offer support to "Citizens for a Vote on Heart of the City", Click Here