[Editor’s Note: At last Monday’s City Council meeting, the Council affirmed last month’s approval of an automatic car wash at the Valero Service Station, corner of Culver and Motor, which bitterly opposed by a group of neighbors. Among several disputes that arose at the meeting was whether residents would be permitted to address the City Council.]
Dear Mayor Corlin and interested Members of the Press:
This email is in reference to timemarks 1:06:29-1:08:00 and 1:16:33-1:17:40 of the following Dec. 17 City Council webcast:
http://www.culvercity.org/agendas/priornetcast.asp?f=121707&d=12/17/2007
In reference to this discussion at the Council meeting, please see the emails below which
demonstrate our assertion of CRITICAL miscommunication by your Planning Office.
Members of the press, please note: This Dec. 17 meeting was to finalize the applicant's resolution for a car wash. Following the Council's Nov. 14 repeal of the Planning Commission’s previous 5 to 0 denial, the residents immediately hired a noise expert to confirm our assertions of a major oversight in the applicant's noise study. Our noise expert worked tirelessly to complete the study on Sunday, Dec.16, the day before the Council's Dec. 17 meeting.
In addition, we had also just received reports from Shell Oil, Los Angeles County and the California Water Board which confirmed the presence of Benzene and MTBE soil contamination on-site…and off-site!
Per email below, we began trying the next morning, at 11:30, to get confirmation if our experts would be allowed to speak. Note we never received a response to this email.
Our attorney, Arthur, was also calling the City for confirmation. Late in the day, at 4:25 p.m., he finally received the email below which clearly indicates we might not be allowed to speak at the Council meeting.
This miscommunication of information critically undermined the residents’ attempts to pull together the necessary experts.
The residents presented the Council with factual reports regarding Benzene contamination of soil as well as a noise analysis from a certified professional which demonstrated a critical oversight in the applicant's noise study.
In the interest of public safety, the City should have delayed their approval of the resolution and granted the residents the opportunity to present this information by the experts in a fair and balanced manner.
Mayor Corlin and City Council, please advise us why it was so important to expedite this approval and ignore key reports that were placed before you.
Regards,
The Concerned Residents of Carlson Park
From: Arthur Pugsley
Sent: Monday, December 17, 2007 4:27 PM
To: Langston, Mark;
Subject: FW: Hearing format tonight
Here's the format, it's pretty open-ended on whether we get to speak
From: Tahvili, Nancy [mailto:nancy.tahvili@culvercity.org]
Sent: Monday, December 17, 2007 4:25 PM
To: Arthur Pugsley
Subject: Hearing format tonight
Arthur:
I'm sorry I missed your call. I'm still preparing for tonight's presentation so I thought it would be quicker to email you.
Fill out a speaker card for the item at the beginning and the Council will call for any speakers during the Valero item — if they choose. Since this is no longer a public hearing item I don't believe they are required to hear from the public, but can choose to. You can also fill one out for "item not on the agenda" if you choose.
Nancy Tahvili,
Assistant Planner
Planning Division
City of Culver City
(310) 253-5751
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: "Langston, Mark"
To: "Tahvili, Nancy"
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 11:32:37 -0800
Subject: RE: carlson park car wash
Nancy,
Please review this report carefully as we will be going to the press with these results as well as the Shell site contamination reports and additional critique of the City Council. If you haven't reviewed the Shell site contamination reports, I would advise that you do so immediately as it confirms the Benzene and MTBE contamination has spread offsite (ie., MW-7 and MW-8).
Note that our noise report professionally confirms an oversight in the applicant's noise study and consequently demonstrates a violation of the noise element of the General plan… EVEN WITH THE CITY'S CURRENTLY PROPOSED MITIGATION OF A 10 FOOT WALL!!
We went into great detail regarding this oversight in the Public Hearing and your guys wouldn't listen…so here's the proof.
Please let me know if we need to arrange an appearance by Dr. Hale.
Regards,
Mark
From: Arthur Pugsley
Sent: Monday, December 17, 2007 10:26 AM
To: Tahvili, Nancy
Cc: Mark Langston
Subject: carlson park car wash
Nancy, this is the follow-up noise study that the Concerned Residents' consultant prepared. It shows exceedance of a significance threshold under the current condition, but not with additional mitigation.
