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1950 DEC 20 CC MIN - 537 1 1 E P 2( 21 22 23 24 25 26 DAVI11 CTTp r��u •.UURT KKPORT[R • MUTUAL 7789 70 1 the streets. 2 Trucks also will present a safety hazard to our 3 children and the residents in the area. 4 There also will be presented a safety hazard s from possible broken pipelines overflowing onto adjacent 6 property. 7 I believe that as the Proposed ordinance states, s that a $5000 faithful performance bond, which it suggests 9 -- I believe that to be entirely inadequate in the event 10 the Council does see fit to pass this. That could be paid 11 many times over and drillers for oil could still profit 12 greatly. 3 I don't believe it is necessary to play patrioti 4 in this. I have read a lot of statements in the newspapers fi lately, and I can't give any dates but I recall reading B a column of William Grieg ( ?) in the Los Angeles Daily t News, who writes a column there weekly called "Speaking of I Oil," wherein he quoted that the Standard Oil Company, for which company I work, by the way -- and in this statement he said that there is no shortage of oil; that we have plenty of oil; and he also made the statement, in regard to the importation from North Borneo, that it was for experimental purposes. I believe that the drilling of a well allowing this ordinance to go into effect will set a precedent which Will make our whole town, not just the west section of it, L 9 1 2 3 4 b 6 7 s 9 10 11 12 13 14 16 16 17 1s 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 71 a precedent which will lead to further restrictions of our residential areas. Much has been said about the goodwill of the - Pauley brothers. I believe their goodwill could be proven to some extent by the Pauleys clearing the present derrick and putting in modern electric pumps, as they propose to do under this ordinance. Even though the ordinance is not passed, they make no statement that they will do that. The ordinance has to be passed first. I was talking to a member of the E1 Segundo Schoo Board today. The E1 Segundo School Board is hunting for another site for an elementary school. The property on the west side of town is being considered. A School Board membe told me that in the event this ordinance becomes effective, they would abandon all thoughts of a school in that area. A school could greatly increase the value of property over there, much more so than the proposed drilling. I noted a statement by Mr. Jones, where he reiter ated several times that there was only going to be one well, and yet in the ordinance it calls for further drilling by setting up three districts. I refer the Council to Resolu- tion No. 87 which is already, I believe, an exhibit in this hearing. That is all I have to say, except that I want El Segundo to be a good residential town. It is where I have my home and I think this would be a great detriment to our s 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 community! (Enthusiastic applause.) MAYOR SELBY: Is there anybody else who wishes to speak on behalf of the opponents? MR. LEIGHTON H. TAYLOR: I live at 665 West Palm and I have been sworn. I would like to call special attention to Item No. 7 in Resolution No. 87, which says: "That it is to the interest of the City of E1 Segundo and the property within it to substitute certainty for uncertainty and to enjoy the material advantages of recovering oil if further explorations establish that it exists in practical quanti- ties." It seems to me, and to most of the people with whom I have talked -- and I have talked to several -- and I talked to those people with this in hand, and they all had the opportunity to read it, that we have certainty now. We have the certainty of a rapidly growing residential community, the finest asset we can have, and I think what it can do to those people who went into that part of town on the assumption that it was an R -1 zone and each individu- ally invested several thousand dollars -- I do not believe that the return they could get from oil rights could make up the difference in the real value of that property. I have several other thin -s I would like to say, but as I understand, we will have time for rebuttal, is that right? r. 72 ' community! (Enthusiastic applause.) MAYOR SELBY: Is there anybody else who wishes to speak on behalf of the opponents? MR. LEIGHTON H. TAYLOR: I live at 665 West Palm and I have been sworn. I would like to call special attention to Item No. 7 in Resolution No. 87, which says: "That it is to the interest of the City of E1 Segundo and the property within it to substitute certainty for uncertainty and to enjoy the material advantages of recovering oil if further explorations establish that it exists in practical quanti- ties." It seems to me, and to most of the people with whom I have talked -- and I have talked to several -- and I talked to those people with this in hand, and they all had the opportunity to read it, that we have certainty now. We have the certainty of a rapidly growing residential community, the finest asset we can have, and I think what it can do to those people who went into that part of town on the assumption that it was an R -1 zone and each individu- ally invested several thousand dollars -- I do not believe that the return they could get from oil rights could make up the difference in the real value of that property. I have several other thin -s I would like to say, but as I understand, we will have time for rebuttal, is that right? r. .i._1. 11 i] 1i 1� 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 DAVID ETTLESON_ Ownc... e-'. — e.e.,e -- ...._.._. �� 73 1 MAYOR SELBY: That is right. 2 MR. TAYLOR: Thank you. (Applause.) 3 MAYOR SELBY: Is there anyone else who wishes 4 to speak on behalf of the opponents? 5 MR. WILLIAM A. JOHNSON: I live at 808 Hillcrest B Street. I have been sworn. I Just represent myself and no T group, of course. I am sure that the people who are against Resolution 87, my neighbors that have spoken tonight, have I covered the subject very thoroughly. However.,. there are I three points that I felt were rather important and I felt that I had a little bit of argument for that. Number 1, of course, is money. Of course, that is number 1 with anybody, naturally. Number 2, would be the landscaping. Personally, I feel that the landscaping of that property down there should very definitely be the duty of our City Government. We have a competent system of civil government in this town and I feel that it very definitely can be handled in a proper manner through proper channels. Number 3: they spoke of national defense. I know in the particular area in which I live most all of the young fellows there are veterans of World War II, which is nothing to be especially bragging about, but it is something which actually happened. We have very many, many neighbors who are veterans of World War II and officers in the Reserve and also active in National Guard units. n 1 2 3 WIN 5 6 7 s 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 1s 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 DAVID ETTLESON. OFFICIAL COURT Rt►ORT[R - MUTUAL 7789 74 And in closing I would like very much to say that whatever they have to offer us as a group, this oil company, we can very definitely handle through proper channels through our own civic government. Thank you. (Applause.) MAYOR SELBY: Is there anybody else who wishes to speak in opposition to the variance? MR. S. V. TRAWEEK : I reside at 439 Valley Street. I have been sworn. I am definitely against Resolution No. 87. Although I am new in town, I feel like some of the other fellows expressed their opinion, that I have a definite interest here and I would like to respectfully request or suggest that the Council go through the necessary parliament. ary procedure to call this Republican vote! (Applause.) MAYOR SELBY: Is there anyone else in opposition to the variance? MR. CLIFFORD LEETCH: I reside at 712 Virginia Street and I have been sworn. I am up here speaking only for myself.. I own my property. I have lived here about eight and one -half years, and I have never heard of oil wells increasing the valle of property in a vicinity unless it was for the iaineral rights there, and that would affect the people, of course, there. Another thing I can't understand is how drilling 0 7 DAVID ETTLE5om orriciAL COURT RKPORT[R • ..uruw�•v ion' ---- -- 75 in Hyperion would improve my land in E1 Segundo. You are not under Hyperion and you can't, as a city, get under Hyperion. If the Government needs the oil, we have agencies set up that can take care of getting a well under that property, and I think the most direct route would be down through some land that Los Angeles owns at the Hyperion site. If we really need it, why, I think that the Govern- ment can enact legislation to get it. As far as the patriot duty goes, why, I can feel very patriotic about this oil deal if I am getting a cut out of it! Thank you. (Applause.) MAYOR SELBY: Is there anybody else who wishes to speak on behalf of the opponents? MRS. MARY ELIZABETH GIBB: I reside at 714 Hillcrest Street. I have been sworn. The reason that Edwin H. Gibb's name has appeared twice during this meeting is because his name was first on the list, and whether anybody thought that Edwin H. Gibb organized a group, I don't know, but we did not organize a group. His-name was first on the list, and that is all. And also, he carried the petition down because he was free on that particular morning and no one else in the neighbor- hood was. Now, the only thing that I have to say about this is that when we first came here three and one -half years ago or so, my husband was just out of the Service, we had c 1d i C . DAVID ETTLESON, OFFICIAL COURT R[PORTER - MUTUAL 7789 76 1 one child and another one was on the way, and the only town 2 in this area where we could build a house with the finances- 3 that we had available to us was in E1 Segundo, because they 4 would allow us to build on the last third of our lot, and 5 to build a house small enough that we would be able to 6 finance, which was the reason we came. 7 We have added, as everyone else has in the 8 neighborhood, to it. Several people in the neighborhood s have,built their own homes, as we have. We have all worked to hard and put all of our money into it, with the idea that 11 it was a growing residential community and that it was 12 zoned as an R -1 zone, and that this park was to go out in is front, and everything was going to be just lovely down 14 there. It was barren when we went down there and we love 15 it because our children could run and play. There was very is little traffic. There was very little hazard and it was 17 all in a wonderful place to bring up children. 18 Now, the majority of people living down there 19 have very small children, either pre - school children or 20 kindergarten children or those in the first or second 21 grades, and believe me, it is a great consolation to a 22 mother to be able to open a door for a two and a half year 23 old youngster and let him play in the neighborhood, because, 24 as I say, there is very little traffic, very few hazards, 25 and they can just have a wonderful time, with very few 26 worries. E a 4 22 23 24 25 26 J DAVID`ETTUs6W OFFICIAL COURT R[FORT[R MUTUAL 7789 77 I feel that to put in an oilfield down there, when they talk of fences, and all those sort of things, I can't imagine an oil company that would come in and before they would do another thing build a six- or seven -foot fence that would keep out our children, who have been used to playing in that area. As far as the trucking that would be going on down Imperial, as far as I am concerned, it would probably not affect me at all because we live at the other end. My children don't play that far up. But the children up there at that section of town would, and I just can't imagine that every automobile that would be going into this particu- lar oil lot would always go down Imperial Highway. Certain- ly, there would be other traffic that would be going down into the rest of the town as it is now. There are the residents there. They know these children are about. We have no sidewalks. Our children either play in our own yards or they play in the street. That is the only place for them to play down there. We have one sidewalk going down Palm. It goes down almost to the sandhills on one side of the street and stops at Hillcrest on the other side of the street. But it is quite steep and very dangerous for small children who, naturally, are riding bicycles and all the rest of the equipment that goes along with it. i i 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 So that I feel that for the safety angle alone we shouldn't allow any oilfield to go in there. Thank you. (Enthusiastic applause.) MAYOR SELBY: Is there anybody else who wishes to speak on behalf of the opponents? MR. CHARLES E. NEALE: I reside at 812 Hillcrest I have been sworn. Twenty years from now I will own the thing -- maybe. Nevertheless, in that twenty years I probably will have to raise my children at least through half of their childhood there. I don't want the excessive traffic that there will be. I don't want the attendant oilfield roustabouts that I have run across in the other oil towns. I don't want any part of the thing. Everybody else has said just about everything there was to be said about it, with the exception that I have seen the southwest portion of Los Angeles, better known as Venice -- I have seen it degenerate from a fairly nice town -- I was pretty small when the oil started in that country -- but I haven't seen any reason in the world to warrant any further exploration in El Segundo. If they haven't done it in forty years, it is time they stopped. That is all I have to say. Thank you. (Applause.) MAYOR SELBY: Is there anybody else who wishes to speak on behalf of the opponents? MR. J. G. BEERER: I live at 500 Virginia Street . J 1 1 1 1 V 11 15 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 20 26 DAVID ETTLESnN n.�. ... 79 1 and I have been sworn. 2 I live a distance of at least 2500 feet from this 3 oil well and I won't be able to see it, so I am rather 4 indirectly affected. But I have certainly made it my s 1 business to take an interest in community affairs since I 6 moved down here about three years ago. I appeared before 7 the Planning Commission and the City Council on several 8 occasions protesting actions which have affected me Indirect - 9 ly but I have felt would not be for the good of El Segundo. 0 1 Not long ago we had a case where it was a ques- t tion of permitting additional trailer camps in the town, z and I raised my voice in that matter. We had the case of this tenement house up here on Imperial about eight months I or so ago, and I raised my voice in that matter, though I am not directly affected. By a similar token, I am speak- ing on this subject. I was the one gentleman who appeared at the Planning Commission meeting to protest this variance. Apparently a lot of you don't read these legal notices in the E1 Segundo Herald. You will save yourselves a lot of trouble if you took the time to look onthe next to the last page of the Herald. You will find these legal notices there of these various meetings, and it would pay you all to take a look at those things once in a while. The word- ing is rather difficult to understand at times, but it will pay you to study them a little bit. 4 0