Recommendation to authorize remediation and purchase of a portion of the former Public Service Yard, including grant of reciprocal access easements; Authorize the relocation and limited restoration of the former railroad station building to Willow Springs Park; and Increase appropriations in the Capital Projects Fund (CP) in the Public Works Department (PW) by $3,000,000. (Districts 1,7)
Next item on item 14 is a report from the city manager with the recommendation to authorize the remediation and purchase of a portion of the former Public Service York and authorize the allocation of limited space relocation and limited restoration of the former railroad station building to Will Springs Park and increase appropriations in the Capital Projects Fund. Mr. WEST. Mr. Vice Mayor, Council Members will have a quick report by our business services director fresh from his Grand Prix win. Mike Conway. Thank you very much, Mr. West. Vice Mayor Garcia, members of the City Council in 2009 and 2010. City Council authorized the exchange of land between the city and L.C. W Partners, exchanging a portion of the public service yard for a portion of the low street US wetlands as a condition of the exchange. Both parties indemnified the other relative to existing environmental conditions. Additionally, both parties were obligated to work cooperatively to minimize the other parties exposure to remediation costs. At the time of the exchange, environmental remediation costs for the public service yard were estimated at $2,853,300. Since that time, the property was sold to a Leer property group and a leader in the city have worked together to receive environmental closure. To date, nearly two thirds of the property has received a no further action letter from the oversight agency at minimal cost. The remaining property, totaling about 5.2 acres, contains debris from the 1933 earthquake, and it was expected that this debris could be collected and disposed during grading activities at minimal cost. However, during grading, it was discovered that the debris had been systematically burned, resulting in lead based paint being spread laterally throughout the property. Because the lead is immobile and insoluble, it poses no environmental concern while situated in the soil. However, during grading efforts, the LED impacted debris would need to be transported to an appropriate environmental facility at a cost estimated at $7.2 million. In further cooperation, the parties arrived at an alternative solution. Instead of transporting the debris off site, we intend to instead consolidate the debris on the northerly 1.8 acres of the 5.2 acre site, and then reacquire that site in order to control any future environmental issues. The remaining 3.2 acres will have been completely remediated and cost to remediate and reacquire. The 1.8 acres is $2,346,000, with a 10% contingency. Total cost is estimated at $2,581,000. Included in the original exchange agreement was a right of access by the city to the former public service yard property to remove the historic train station. That right of access expires this June. Grading activities will be hampered, but with the train station in its current location. So these activities present an opportunity to address both the grading and relocation. Included within the recommended action is authority to relocate and to the extent possible, renovate the historic train station, the current recipient site for the relocated train station as well as Springs Park. So staff request that council approve the recommended action. And this concludes my staff report and I'm available for questions. Okay. Thank you. Any questions, Councilman Johnson? Well, thank you, Vice Mayor. And I just want to thank staff for what I think is a very creative re-use of this historic building. And I think many of us one thing we love about Long Beach is our history. And here's an old railroad building, which my hope is will be our new visitor center at Willow Springs. So instead of going out and building new center, the tremendous costs for reusing it. So I want to congratulate you with, I think, a great idea. But Kill Me, May Miss Frick. What what can be done with the funding set aside here? Certainly it's an older building. What can we expect when it's moved to. Well, Springs? What kind of condition the building will be in and what might be its potential uses? We are currently undertaking an assessment of the building to determine what kind of improvements and what that potential investment would be in order to upgrade it, to convert it into a visitor center. So I don't have what that number is right now, but I can let you know that we are looking at it and working on that assessment. Okay, great. I just you know, given the city's continued financial constraints, we'll continue this conversation. But I would suggest that there may be non staff uses of the area. In other words, maybe some public educational materials or things that may not require an ongoing staff need so that when when it is closed, people can come there and still enjoy the property. But thank you. I think it's a great idea and I look forward to seeing it at Willis Springs. Thank you. See no other council comment. Is there a motion to get? Is there a second? Yeah, there's been a motion in the second. I mean, open up to a public comment on the item. Thank you so much, Mr. Vice Mayor, for the opportunity to speak to the council and the staff. And if Gary Shelton, the address. Is 240. Chestnut Avenue, about a block away from here. My thought on this is that right now the item seems to lack clarity and completeness. And I would suggest that you listen carefully to the five points I'm about to make in support of that statement and ask staff to delay this and come back with a more complete report. The timing consideration, by the way, is unsubstantiated. There seems to be no actual reason for today being a deadline of any kind. First of all, in the backup information, there is no map of the site which shows where the north portion is either the five point something acres or the one point something acres. And so you and the public are all left in the dark as to the actual site that you're being asked to pay these millions of dollars for. Number two, it's not exactly clear, except from the staff report that was verbally given right now where Mr. Conway suggested that Lear and the city have been cooperating with this. It's not exactly clear whether a Lear actually purchased the obligation to indemnify when they purchased this property that the originally that Al CW partners had agreed to. That's not clear. Third, the staff mentions that the letters, acquisition costs and temporary holding costs of this property equal the value of the north portion. But there's nothing to substantiate that. There's no fair market valuation of the property or any other evaluation of the property and staff refunds that that portion of Lear's payment to purchase the property be refunded without question as to whether its initial purchase price was reliable or whether and made any sense. Fourth and almost last of the staff changes the original sense of minimizing environmental liability to actually eliminating any environmental liability. And it's an overreach of the original agreement's intent. And finally, will the portion that one point something acre is it's going to be capped at this point be of any use to the city. Is there any access by the city to it or preparations to operate that access? Or will Alere use it in some way or another as any agreement to that effect at all? So I submit that without any information as to the answer to any of those questions, you're not ready to decide on this today. Thank you. Thank you. Very good. You click as the address. I think the prospect of of reclaiming that old building realization is certainly intriguing and should be followed. The one thing that does trouble me, though, is they're the same. There are a number of the same ringtones with this relative to the OP's, we found some more toxic items and so forth . We didn't have to think. We deal with those have the same ringtones as when the city went ahead and raised six s in the Marine Stadium and then came back and said, surprise, surprise, we found toxic material in an abandoned oil field. It's just it smells a little excuse me. And I'm I'm not so sure that this. Deal is straightforward and would pass the smell test. I think you should hold it over, take a look at it, and make sure that there's nothing, quite frankly, nothing crooked about it. Thank you. Thank you. Unless you want to address the councilmembers. Senor. The public comment. Councilman Alonso. Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. I wanted to just indicate to staff that I was very happy to see that the historic rail depot will be adaptively reused at Willow Springs. I know this falls in line with the larger, broader effort that we've taken on in the city for adaptive reuse. So I'm very appreciative. Thank you. See no other comment from council. From council. There is a motion on the floor to approve the item. Members, please go and cast your votes. Motion carries eight votes. Thank you. Thank you. Next item.