Articles Posted in City of LA

Ben Reznik
From Robert Stein, President Gambol Industries, Inc.

For more than three years, JMBM’s client, Gambol Industries, Inc. has been negotiating with the Port of Los Angeles to develop a ship repair and ship building facility in an unused portion of the port. Gambol proposes to invest approximately $75 million in private capital, which will create more than 1,000 direct and indirect jobs. The Port of Los Angeles however, continues to resist Gambol’s efforts, prompting the company’s president, Robert Stein, to circulate an open letter to members of the Los Angeles City Council. The following is an edited version of his letter:

We thought we had a good idea three years ago when we proposed re-opening the historical former Southwest Marine (SWM), site for use as a ship building and repair yard. The site has been a shipyard since the 1920s, but in recent years, has been unused and in decay. Believe it or not, neither the ports of Los Angeles nor Long Beach currently house such a facility. This necessitates those needing these services to sail down to San Diego or up to San Francisco. This is unacceptable for the nation’s largest port complex!

For reasons best known to its staff, the Port of Los Angeles continues to resist our efforts. Initially their reasoning related to the Main Channel Deepening Project (MCDP) which the port is undertaking with the assistance of the Army Corp of Engineers. They claim they need the Southwest Marine facility to store the dredged materials which they want to relocate behind a rock dike to be installed across the face of the SMW site. Once this process is undertaken it will preclude the ability to develop a world class ship building and repair facility in San Pedro Bay.
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Ben Reznik
In the City of Los Angeles we have seven Area Planning Commissions (known as “APCs”), each consisting of five volunteer members appointed by the Mayor and covering a distinct geographical part of the city. These APC commissioners need not and, in fact, do not possess any special training, knowledge or experience in land use matters, and certainly are not familiar with the body of land use and zoning laws applicable to many of their decisions. Pursuant to the city charter and zoning code, the APCs are empowered to decide many important cases. In many instances, the decision of the APC is final — meaning there is no further right of appeal to the City Council. The only remedy left is litigation and that, all too often, is too expensive for modest projects. The impact of a negative APC decision can be devastating to an applicant, as it can result in significant financial losses — sometimes millions of dollars. Yet, despite all this, the City of Los Angeles does not provide legal counsel to guide APCs during the hearing and in their deliberations on the merits of a case. Planning Department staff is present at the hearings, but no one from the City Attorney’s Office is present to make sure that the law is followed.
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