LADWP DS 104 Task Force Meeting #7 Summary

LADWP DS 104 Task Force Meeting #7 Summary

Wednesday 12/12/2012

Report by Jim Rea, Task Force Member

The comments on this meeting will be limited.

The Task Force met and did finalize the placement of the sites into Tiers 1, 2 and 3.  Given an overwhelming desire by the members of the Task Force to not interrupt the spirit of the holidays, it was agreed that any reports regarding the specifics of sites assigned to any of the Tiers would be embargoed until after the end of the year.  At that time, LADWP will issue an announcement in the Palisadian Post regarding the placement of sites into the Tiers.

A public workshop will be held on Tuesday, January 15, 2013 from 6:00 to 8:00 PM at the Palisades Charter High School.  Members of the Task Force and LADWP staff will be on hand to answer questions regarding the selections and to solicit feedback from the community regarding their preferred sites.  All interested members of the community are encouraged to attend.  

The members of the Task Force wish everyone in the Pacific Palisades community a happy holiday season and we look forward to continuing our process in the new year.

LADWP DS 104 Task Force Meeting #6 Summary

LADWP DS 104 Task Force Meeting #6 Summary
Thursday 11/28/2012
Report by Jim Rea, Task Force Member

My apologies for the delay in getting these notes published, but I left town immediately after the last meeting and am just getting dug out from an overloaded inbox.

There was little to report from this latest Task Force meeting.  We reviewed the last seven sites under consideration.  Several of the sites were very similar to sites that we have already reviewed.

We next began the process of placing sites in Tiers I, II and III. To recap, Tier I is for the four most preferred sites, Tier II is for four sites to serve as backups to the Tier I sites in the event they are eliminated during the CEQA process and Tier III is for sites that either have minimal feasibility or minimal support within the community.

We will go through a series of votes to place sites into the tiers until a consensus can be developed.  It is not clear how long this will take, but given the ability to register multiple votes per meeting, it is expected that the process will be completed during the next one or two meetings.

In the meantime, given that the Tiering is a "work in progress", the members of the Task Force have agreed not to discuss the interim results of the Tiering votes until the Tiering exercise has been completed.

The handout materials for the meeting are available for download at:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BwkQFPaAN4zwR3VZSEhSTlhNWU0

DWP Task Force Meeting #5 Summary

LADWP DS 104 Task Force Meeting
Wednesday 11/14/2012
Report by Jim Rea, Task Force Member

This will be a short report since the first hour of this week’s Task Force meeting was devoted to discussion of planning of activities for the next several meetings in preparation for the public workshop to be held in January.

The agenda today calls for detail evaluation of 4 additional sites.  The next meeting will be devoted to detail evaluation of the 7 remaining sites.  After the detail evalualtion of all 15 sites has been completed the Task Force will begin the process assigning the 4 most preferred sites to Tier 1 along with 4 backup sites to be assigned to Tier 2.  The remaining sites which are the least desirable will be assigned to Tier 3.

After the tiering exercises are completed, the LADWP staff and Task Force members will work on presentation materials for the upcoming public workshop.   The time and location of the public workshop has not been finalized but it is anticipated that it will take place in the second week in January.

The public workshop will feature a condensed presentation of much of the information that has been presented to members of the Task Force in recent weeks.  This will include:

    The Purpose and Need for DS 104
    Existing Distribution Stations
    The Geology of Pacific Palisades
    Information About All 15 Candidate Sites
    The Preferred Sites
   
The Task Force next reviewed details for Site 5 on Sunset Blvd. at Marquez, Site 13 at the end of Via Santa Ynez, Site 14 in the Marquez Canyon below the Marquez Elementary Charter School and Site 15 on Paseo Miramar adjacent to Via Nicholas.  The details for each location are included in the meeting handout which is attached.

The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, November 28th.

The meeting handouts may be downloaded from the following link:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BwkQFPaAN4zwa1FlLXpQaU1VcDg

DWP Task Force Meeting #4 Summary

LADWP DS 104 Task Force Meeting
Tuesday 10/30/2012
Report by Jim Rea, Task Force Member

Task Force meeting opened with a request from the facilitator for additional suggestions of sites for consideration. 

Gil Dembo mentioned a site at the foot of Bienveneda that has long been offered for sale.  A large host of comments came from several members of the Task Force, including that it is subject to large liabilites, it has geological issues (what site doesn’t), used to be a haul dump site, has a history of many slope failures, it is a riperian area, meaning there is flowing water on the site.  There was little or no interest from the Task Force in securing additional information about the site.

The facilitor noted that as we get further into the process, we will find it necessary to stop accepting ideas for new properties soon.  So if there are any properties needing to come into the discussion, they should be submitted as soon as possible.

We discussed the presentation of sites at the public workshop.  Initial materials had only mentioned that Tier 1 sites will be presented to the public.  Given concerns from the community that all sites (Tier 1, 2 and 3) should be presented at the workshop, it was agreed that there was no problem in presenting all three Tiers to the attendees. The emphasis in the public workshop will continue to be on the Tier 1 sites, though the public is free to comment on any of the sites.

Some questions were raised about safety at distribution stations around the city.  Questions were raised as to whether there were explosions or major fires at any of the 120 distribution stations around the LADWP service area.  DWP staff (Eric Hartman) reported that he does not recall any explosions in the past.  There have been occasional minor fires as insulation or equipment wears out or overheating of conduit or cable, that can lead to arcing.  All of the fires he is aware of are minor in nature.  He did report that there have been larger fires at large receiving stations, but they operate at much higher electrical loads with much larger transformers than do distribution stations.

DWP Geologist Jim Chestnut gave a presentation on geological issues and means of mitigation at construction sites.  The discussion picked up with the concerns about safety from earthquake damage.  Distribution stations are built to the same standard of safety as are schools and hospitals, which is the highest level of safety as mandated by law.  All distribution station equipment is tested on shake tables to the maximum ground shaking levels expected in the Southern California area.

Next he discussed the seismic hazard and liquefaction areas in the DS 104 target area of the Palisades.  Basically all of the sites will have one form of seismic issue or another.  They are a common problem for the DWP and there are reliable mitigation measures that can be applied to address most issues.  One thing that slows down the process in the Palisades is the fact that this area was never surveyed for Alquist-Priolo Active Fault maps.  Thus, each property under final consideration will have to be investigated to to determine to what extent, if any, active faults exist on the site.

He spoke about the typical mitigation techniques, including setbacks from faults and slopes, use of caissons to create deep foundations, use of retaining walls and debris walls, ground improvement and buttress fill techniques.

The next presentation came from DWP Manager of Environmental Assessment Chuck Holloway about Electro Magnetic Fields (EMF).  He explained what EMF is and described some of the common sources of EMF.  He showed comparison of EMF from power systems with other sources of electromagnetic radiation including radio, TV, microwaves, ultraviolet, x-rays and gamma rays, demonstrating that powerline EMF operates at the very lowest end of the frequency spectrum.  Of the two components of EMF, electric fields and magnetic fields, magnetic fields are more of an issue.  Electric fields can be easily shielded.  Magnetic fields are more difficult to shield.

He spoke about health concerns in the late 1970’s and revealed that there was never conclusive evidence of causation of health issues with individuals.  HIs conclusion was that after 25,000 studies over 30 years, “there is not a strong enough case of cause-and-effect for scientists to conclude tht long term exposure to weak electromagnetic fields is harmful.  If there is a risk it is very small”

We had a side discussion with Bill Piazza from LAUSD regarding the practical standards they maintain when situating a school near a distribution station.  He said that the state has a standard of 500 feet for facilities with 50 Mv. capacity or more, however distribution stations do not fall under that standard since they operate at 34.5 Mv.  He said that ordinarily, when a facility is situated near a power intensive facility they will have a member of the school staff wear a measurement device over a period of several days to determine what the ambient EMF is in the area. Anything over 2 or 3 mG ( .001 Gauss) is cause for investigation.

Contrasting that in Holloway’s presentation, he showed measurements of 3 mG or less beginning at 20 ft. or more from the exterior walls DS-66.  He also showed a chart of common household appliances with mG measurements ranging from 5 to 250 mG at a distance of one foot.

There were so many lengthy and detailed side discussions during the course of the evening that the Task Force was unable to get to the detailed evaluation of the next four candidate properties.  So this portion of the agenda was deferred to the next meeting.

The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, November 14, 2012.

The meeting handouts may be downloaded from the following link:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BwkQFPaAN4zwT1A2eVZ6NlJBd28

LADWP Posts DS 104 Task Force Materials Online

The LADWP has posted the meeting mintutes and handout materials from the first two meetings online at the following web address.  Check here for future updates on this information.

https://www.ladwp.com/ladwp/faces/ladwp/aboutus/a-power/a-p-projects/a-p-p-distributingstation?_adf.ctrl-state=vps2u6yxs_4&_afrLoop=776160952183532

CERT - Community Awareness Response Training

At the 10/26 PPCC meeting last night we had a presentation from Captain Christopher Cooper and Firefighter Susan Jensen regarding community emergency response and CERT Training, which stands for Community Emergency Response Team.

CERT trains local individuals to be able to assist in the response to community emergencies such as earthquakes, wildfires and other natural disasters until emergency agency personnel such as fire and police are able to arrive.  It is expected that in the case of widespread community emergencies, it may take as long a seven days for emergency personnel to make it to a particular site.  Thus, it is extremely important that individuals in the community take the initiative and complete the 17 1/2 hour CERT Training program.

For more information, please go to http://www.cert-la.com.

Introducing the PPCC Area 3 Blog

My name is Jim Rea.  I am the Area 3 representative of the Pacific Palisades Community Council.  Area 3 extends from Palisades Drive to Bienveneda, north and south of Sunset Blvd.  Area 3 encompasses the Marquez Knolls area, the Bel-Air Bay Club area as well as other streets and homes in the vicinity.  I also serve on the Board of Directors of the Marquez Knolls Property Owners Association and was recently appointed to the Task Force addressing the site alternative for the proposed LADWP Distribution Station 104.

The work of the DS 104 Task Force is contentious, to say the least.  There is not going to be any site that pleases everyone.  Yet the members of the Task Force have all agreed to go through the process to see if we can agree on the best candidates.  Because of the contentiousness of this issue, a colleague of mine recently challenged me to think of a better way to interact with my community of constituents, provide a better way to keep them informed about issues that are of potential concern to them and to provide a better way for them to express their concerns to me.

Fortunately, we live in an electronic world, and those so motivated can accomplish these objectives with a little determination.  So I have taken these steps to meet the challenge suggested by my colleague and I hope that those in the community will take advantage of the opportunity to share their concerns with me.

I would like to offer three ways that we can stay in touch.  First, you can reach me by simple email at jarea "@" kw "dot" com.  Second, I have set up a mail list where I will distribute email announcements of interest to the community.  I don't expect the volume of emails will be more than one or two messages a week at this stage.  You can sign up to receive these messages at http://eepurl.com/q3IrX and you are free to unsubscribe at any time.  Finally, I have created a blog where I will post the messages that are sent out on the mail list.  You can reach that blog at http://PPCCArea3.blogspot.com.

I look forward to your participation and hope that together we can address the issues of concern to our community in a transparent and productive manner.

DWP Task Force Meeting #3 Summary

LADWP DS 104 Task Force Meeting
Wednesday 10/17/2012
Report by Jim Rea, Task Force Member

Note of change in date for next meeting.  Next meeting to be held at 7:00 pm on Tuesday, October 30, 2012 to avoid conflicts with Halloween on Wednesday evening.

Overview of process - all sites have strengths and weaknesses.  Each site is a unique combination of tradeoffs. Process will be to evaluate the tradeoffs on each site with the ultimate goal of assigning sites to three separate Tiers.

Tier 1 - Four of the best sites identified by the Task Force

Tier 2- Four of the sites to be considered if Tier 1 sites all turn out to be infeasible

Tier 3 - Sites identified as not compatible with the community

This week we review the top 4 sites recommended from the last meeting. We will vote at the end of the meeting to recommend the next 4 to 6 sites for detailed review.

Once enough sites have been reviewed that it is possible to start assigning sites to Tiers 1, 2 and 3, the ranking process will take place.

When four sites have been placed in Tier 1, they will be presented at a public workshop for additional input from the community.  Recommendations will only come from the Task Force members and not from DWP staff.

Following up on discussion in the last meeting, Nancy Graham, the Task Force Facilitator made a brief presentation regarding her experience as a Facilitator.  She spoke about her style of managing facilitation projects, provided a large list of Facilitation Clients, all significant governmental entites at local, state and national level.  She gave a brief overview of her involvement in one long term facilitation project with LA County Parks and Recreation department mission to identify additional areas for Off Road Vehicle recreation.  The presentation covered basics of the project, the process followed and the results.  She noted that the parties, off road enthusiasts and environmentalists were in extreme opposition, yet the facilitation process yielded consensus results that were comfortable outcomes for both camps.

She also presented a letter from a Vice President at AECOM, certifying that AECOM would not participate in any of the activities expected to be contracted out by LADWP with respect to the development of DS 104.

Beginning with the proceedings the facilitator asked if there were any new candidate properties to be presented to the Task Force. During the prior week, several members of the Task Force had met with the owners and broker representing the Marquez Canyon site.  I read a proposal from the broker to the Task Force (attached) which proposed a land swap in Marquez Canyon where 1.25 ac. would be deeded over to LADWP on the front portion of the 6.44 ac site on Sunset below the DWP’s site adjacent to the Marquez Charter School, now identified as property #14.  The proposal provided for other incentives in order to smooth the way for the prospective buyer to develop the site for multi-family housing.

Considerable skepticism was expressed from various members of the Task Force about the likelihood of the purchaser/developer succeeding in securing approvals to develop the property as intended.  At the same time, the question was posed why the DWP couldn’t just purchase the 6.44 ac property and situate the DS 104 there.  The consensus appeared to be that whatever the alternative, the 6.44 ac property should be evaluated by the Task Force for its suitability as a site for the distribution station.

The Task Force next reviewed details for Site 3 on PCH below Mantua Road, Site 4 on Sunset, the former location of Bernheimer Gardens, SIte 9 the state park land on Los Liones Dr. and Site 10 on Via Nicholas off of Porto Marino.

Review of each site included photo documentation, maps, ZIMAS profile information and then a detailed discussion by Eric Hartman, LADWP manager responsible for distribution station development.  The detail discussion included whether the property is available for sale, land use zoning, access to connecting circuitry, access for equipment delivery, geological factors including the necessity for mitigation work, retaining walls and soil stabilization, whether public works improvements are required, site configuration factors, whether grading is required, view shed issues, available space for landscaping, development restrictions and available easements.

In the summary after the discussion, estimates were presented for expected site development costs for each of the four sites, ranging from a low of $31.6 million to a high of $45 million (or more).

The final activity had the Task Force completing a ballot for the next four sites to be evaluated in detail at the next meeting on Tuesday, November 30.




Proposal Regarding Marquez Canyon Presented to Task Force

As we discussed at the site on Tuesday, the current owner and potential buyer/developer of the +/- 12 acres of undeveloped land, as reflected in the attached aerial, would like to propose a several tier land swap/use opportunity that we believe would be to the benefit to the neighboring residents, the school, DWP and the prospective buyer/developer.

_         A +/- 1.25 acre section of land on the lower land parcel close to Sunset Blvd and the eastern portion of the hillside area would be given/exchanged to DWP for their switching station which is to be heavily landscaped, etc to minimize anyone in and surrounding the canyon parcels view of the facility.

_         DWP would donate/exchange their Marquez adjacent land parcel to the current owner or new buyer of the two respective land parcels Mr. Powers is selling (see attached aerial).

_         Seller/Buyer would coordinate with the school district to determine where a portion of the upper land parcel adjacent Marquez could be donated to the school for their use (additional parking or open space play area or nature park, etc)

_         Seller / Buyer would in turn receive support from the school, DWP and hopefully the neighboring residents for a low to mid-level density multi family or condo development which will have a well-balanced landscaping and building design that would beautify the canyon as well as bring proper access to water for fire mitigation / control of the densely.

Note that the current Buyer we are working with is a long established development company that has built apartments throughout the country and are very familiar with working with and accommodating neighbors and residents similar to those in the Pacific Palisades. As the buyer has asked to get our sale contract fully executed prior to spending money on renderings of what they envision, we currently don't have anything to present you/DWP. Hopefully in the coming weeks we will have finalized the PSA and have something for all to look at.

Dan Riley | Senior Vice President | Lic.1057519_Investment Properties | Private Capital Group - Retail Specialty_CBRE | Broker Lic.00409987 | Capital Markets_2221 Rosecrans Ave, Suite 100 | El Segundo, CA 90245_T 310 363 4899 | C 310 748 1328 | F 310 363 4905_dan.riley@cbre.com | www.cbre.com/pcglaretail | www.cbre.com/retail24-7




The handouts for this meeting can be downloaded at:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BwkQFPaAN4zwd0tOTTJJUExMX2s

DWP Task Force Meeting #2 Summary

LADWP DS 104 Task Force Meeting
Wednesday 10/3/2012
Report by Jim Rea, Task Force Member

The DS 104 Task Force met for the second time last night and the meeting went fairly smoothly.

At the beginning, there were some procedural concerns about the process and about the independence of the facilitator, whose employer AECOM had some early involvement with some environmental documents filed regarding the Marquez Knolls site.  DWP uses four separate contractors for CEQA matters and AECOM is one of them.  The early involvement was news to the facilitator and to the LADWP personnel on hand.  The facilitator pledged to bring a written statement from AECOM that they will have no further involvement in the development of the DS 104 site.

Issue was also raised about selection of the facilitator and a request was made to interview a variety of candidates and allow the Task Force to make a selection.  DWP response was that process would take 18 months, to write a RFP, select base candidates, etc.  It was decided in the interest of limited time for the Task Force's duties to reach into their contractor pool and bring in a facilitator from there.

Final issue was with regard to the experience with the existing facilitator (Nancy Graham).  She pledged to bring in a summary of her experience with similar facilitation engagements for the next meeting.

Meeting then moved to the first agenda item: presentation on the need for a new DS located in the western portion of Pacific Palisades.
Presented a map showing Pacific Palisades divided into two zones with the western zone extending though Sunset Mesa to the LA County line.  DS 29 is provides distribution service to the eastern portion and the load center for DS 104 is at the approximate center of the  western section.

The fundamental argument for the need for an additional DS is that DS 29 has been operating at levels over design capacity since 2004 and at its peak in 2010 has reached levels above 33% over capacity.  The DS can operate at those levels but not without a toll on equipment and long-term reliability.  They indicated that load growth is increasing at a rate of 1% per year.  Given the protracted amount of time to deploy a new DS (5 1/2 years) they have to proceed without delay in siting this new DS.

DWP indicated that they do have the alternative of extending circuits from DS 29 up into the western Palisades region but that alternative would be very expensive, disruptive while lots of streets would be opened up and the lines would suffer from energy loss due to the length of their runs.

Discussion went to shifting of demand and I challenged their assertion that solar does not work when the sun does not shine, citing Laura Mack's insistence that alternatives featuring local storage be considered.  DWP's response was that they took a look at the local storage examples provided by Ms. Mack and concluded that 1) they were early stage technology and small implementations, 2) would require a facility of similar size to the DS to locate the batteries, giving a rough estimate of 10 or more shipping container sized units to be deployed, so there still has to be a site selection and 3) a back of the envelope calculation of $40 million for that amount of storage capacity.

We moved on to the final stage of the process which was to examine each of the sites that have been considered.  Large maps showing satellite views and street views were laid out presenting 13 sites that DWP had considered.  My immediate question was why the 6.42 acre parcel on Sunset behind the strip mall at the base of Palisades Drive, which is currently listed for sale was not included on the map, as I had specifically discussed the site with DWP real estate staff (as had Councilman Rosendahl's office and others).  DWP did not have a good answer but promised to include the site on the map for the next meeting.

The Task Force looked at each site and gave comments good and bad for each.  The object of the exercise was to identify 4 or 5 sites that we could review in detail at the next meeting, while not spending time on sites that the community felt had no merit.  As we reviewed the sites, there were some candidates, that at this cursory level of review appeared to have some merit among the consensus of the Task Force.  At the end of the meeting, we were given ballots for each of us to select our four favorite candidates for further consideration.  That will serve as the input to the sites we discuss in the next meeting.

Finally, we were each given 'homework' to go look for additional sites that might be candidates for consideration and to bring those recommendations to the next meeting.

The next meeting of the Task Force is October 17 at 7:00 PM.

The handout materials for the meeting can be downloaded from the link below:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BwkQFPaAN4zwbFhNX1g3d0NlZW8

DWP Task Force Meeting #1 Summary

LADWP DS 104 Task Force Meeting
Wednesday 9/26/2012
Report by Jim Rea, Task Force Member

The DWP Taskforce for selection of a location of Distribution Station 104 met Wednesday, September 19th at 7:00 at the Palisades Luthern Church.  The meeting was closed to the public and only Taskforce members, LADWP staff, CD-11 staff and school district staff were allowed to attend.

Summaries of Taskforce discussions along with meeting materials will be posted on a website and made available to the public.  I will provide the address to the website when it is made available.

Meeting opened with Norman Kulla making the announcement that the sole purpose of the taskforce was to identity a location for the new distribution station.  DWP General Manager Ron Nichols then emphasized that no amout of alternative energy, reduction of consumption or any other mitigating measures would eliminate the need for the distribution station, so our only task was to find a location that the taskforce could recommend.

Gil Dembo asked if they had considered the PPCC’s proposed resolution asking for funds to underwrite an analyst to evaluate the data.  Nichols said they had no intention of doing so.  Joyce Brunelle asked why, given the millions of dollars at stake in this project the DWP couldn’t spend 10 to 20 thousand dollars for an analyst.  Nichol’s response was that any study costing 10 to 20 thousand wouldn’t be worth the paper it is written on, that half a million would hardly scratch the surface of the necessary analysis.

Nichols said repeatedly that he considered the Taskforce to be additional staff in the evaluation of the alternatives and recommendation of the location.

It was made clear that the DWP has considered several sites (not just the two contested sites) and that we will be able to see the evaluation of each of those sites.

The facilitator went over the process that the Taskforce will follow:

    Present Site Selection Criteria

        Proximity to load center
       
        Size and configuration

        Needed improvements

        Accessibility

    Identify existing and new sites

    Evaluate Sites

    Public Workshops to gather public input

    Site recommendations

    Board of Water and Power Commissioners make the final decision (which is not binding on Taskforce recommendation)

    The DWP gave the Taskforce a brief overview of the major components in the power distribution system, from generator to the home and where the distribution station fits in that network.

    The showed all of the local distribution stations that provide service to the local area

    The agenda for the next meeting, to be held on October 3 at 7:00 (the same time as the first Presidential debate) will be to:

    Review the need for the Distribution Station

    Review all of the sites that have been considered by the DWP to date.

The handouts for this meeting can be downloaded from the following link:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BwkQFPaAN4zwM1BBZE5FdHlpd28