1950 DEC 20 CC MIN - 55go
I very seriously considered.
2 Actually on the variance, I would like to read
s a couple of sections of it. Section 13 of the variance,
4 the first part of "J" reads: "To permit modifications of
5 the conditions under which the civic uses are allowed in
6 certain zones."
7 And the second section reads: "Provided that in
s no case shall any of the above variances be permitted where
9 they become detrimental of existing future conditions
10 in an area or neighborhood."
11 It is my belief that it will be a detriment to
12 the area and the neighborhood.
18 Further in the variance -- this comes under
14 Section (c) -- I think possibly the whole thing should be
15 read -- "Before any variance may be granted, it shall be
16 shown first that there are exceptional or extraordinary
17 circumstances or conditions applicable to the property
is involved or to the intended use of the property that do not
19 apply generally to the property or class of use in the same
20 vicinity or zone." Now, these people will probably try to
21 make a point of that.
22 (Reading) "That such variance is necessary for
23 the preservation and enjoyment of substantial property right
24 of the applicant possessed by other property owners in the
25 same vicinity or zone." That they will try to make a point
26 of.
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DAVID ETTLESON, OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER - MUTUAL 7789
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But the substantial property rights of these
people will not be affected and they will not lose those
rights if this company is strong enough to get a permit from -
the City of Los Angeles, because these people who own this
land will still draw their oil rights, and any time there is
a well drilled from under there, from wherever it is drilled.
It does not have to be drilled straight down on their
property.
And the next section reads: "That the granting of
such variance will not be materially detrimental to the
public welfare or injurious to the property or improvements
in such vicinity and zone in which the property is located;
"Section 4: That the granting of such variance
will not adversely affect the comprehensive general plan."
I contend that if they grant this, it will adverse-
ly affect the general plan of zoning in the City of Los
Angeles.
Thank you. (Applause.)
... A brief recess was taken ...
MAYOR SELBY: The meeting will again please come
to order. The Clerk will call the roll.
... Roll call by the City Clerk ...
MR. BEALL: I would like to correct an error in
my last statement. I referred to the City of Los Angeles
and the words should have been E1 Segundo, My purpose is
to get it correct on the record.
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1 MAYOR SELBY: Is there anybody else now who
2 wants to speak in opposition to the planning of this
3 variance?
4 Again I repeat: Is there anybody else who cares
6 to speak in opposition to the granting of the variance?
6 MR. STEPHEN B. DOSS: I live at 853 Penn Street,
7 El Segundo, and I have been sworn. I am asking the City
s Council here and now that this question be placed on the
9 ballot! (Applause.)
10 MAYOR SELBY: Thank you, Mr. Doss.
11 Is there anybody else who cares to speak in
12 opposition to the granting of the variance?
13 MR. H. J. JACOBS: I live at 525 Hillcrest Street
14 and I have been sworn.
15 1 also wish to ask the City Council to place
16 this to a vote so that the people of the City can decide
17 just what to do in an issue like this.
18 Now, we have the privilege of granting it to the
is Pauley interests, something that in very important to them,
20 upon which they can earn a good many millions perhaps, and
21 we should be careful about giving away that privilege.
22 Thank you. (Applause.)
23 MAYOR SELBY: Anybody else?
24 MR. J. C. PARKER: I reside at 630 West Palm and
25 1 have been sworn.
26 1, too, am a newcomer here and the reason I came
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1 here was because I considered E1 Segundo a very nice commun-
e ity, and one of the reasons, too, was that I had a small boy
s and I liked the school system.
4 We have lived in Venice and the hole that this
5 gentleman talked about I will vouch for. All you have to do
s is to drive along the road down to Venice, along the Coast
7 Road, and I am definitely opposed to it, and I would be very
s disappointed if it went through;
9 Thank you. (Applause.)
to MAYOR SELBY: Is there anybody else who wants to
11 speak against the proposal? If not, we will now allow the
12 applicants and those who support the applicants a reasonable
13 opportunity for rebuttal.
14 May I state this: that in the rebuttal, let's not
15 repeat ourselves. We are going to have an awful long
is document to go through here anyway, and unless we have
17 something to really dispose of, let's stick to the facts on
18 the question.
19 Does anybody care to speak in rebuttal for the
20 applicants?
21 MR. CRAMP: This new roadway that is going in,
22 this new Freeway that goes in, that willcut this oilfield in
23 half. between Hillcrest and the sand dunes, and that land
24 that lies west of that Freeway won't, have any value. There
25 is no eress or ingress, you can't get in and you can't get
26 out. There won't be any place for residential purposes by
El
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DAVID ETTLESON, OFFICIAL COURT RKPORT[R - MUTUAL 7789
any means.
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All the houses that might be there happen to be
on the west side of that Freeway. I understand that that
Freeway has been pushed ahead. Instead of something in the
far future, it is possible within the next ten years or five
years even, so when you make a decision on this, you have
got to take into consideration that Freeway that goes thr.ougl
there. I am just bringing it to the attention of the audi-
ence and the Council that that seems a possibility, and
that you take it into consideration when you make your
decision.
MAYOR SELBY: Thank you, Mr. Cramp.
Does anybody else care to speak in rebuttal in
favor of the applicants?
MR. HUTCHINS: Mr. Mayor, and gentlemen of the
Council: I will be very, very brief. I must remind you
again that we have made all arrangements to do all of our
hauling on Imperial Boulevard. I know that it is a busy
street, we don't want to clutter it up any more. But there
won't be any cluttering; up, I can assure you, and no hauling
on those other streets.
The permit itself, by its own.terms, limits us
to the time during the day when hauling can be done. I hoped
that we could do something about cleaning up that tin can duri
down there. I know the danger of such a condition. I am
a father myself, I have two youngsters, they are pretty well
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DAVID ETTLESON. OFFICIAL '-OU-T
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grown now, and they were unfortunately run over by automo-
biles when I lived in Santa Monica. We are willing to take
the precautions of keeping the youngsters out of there down
in the gully and there are no cans or anything else that is
a dangerous hazard at the present time.
I am sorry that the remark was made that we were
trying to ram this thing down the throats of the Commission
and counsel. In my opening remarks the first thing I said
was that I would like the record to show that I had not
spoken a word to any of the Councilmen. I met with the
Commission once and there was no opposition that particular
night, and thereafter one of my associates took over. I
want the record to show that we feel that there has been no
ramroding and this is the reason probably for the long delay
5 instead of getting the permit quickly.
6 This lease of the Pauleys does not expire in
7 thirteen days. The time within which to commence drilling
8 of the next well does. The Pauleys will still be entitled
s to additional notice under the terms of the lease to go.-ahead
.o and get started. We are continuously negotiating with the
�i City, as I have told you, for the right to drill straight
22 down on Hyperion. There are a lot of technical problems
23 and it would take a lot of time, a couple of hours, perhaps,
24 to go into them and explain them to you.
25 The reason we are not going north of Imperial
26 Boulevard is because the oil rights and the rights to drill
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1 from that property are owned by somebody else, commonly
2 referred to as the six companies, six of the seven large,
s major oil companies. They have the right any time they
4 want to, as a result of the deal they made with the City
of Los Angeles to drill any time they want to -- they are
too big for us to tackle to try to get a lease from.
As for drilling these alternate oil wells
In E1 Segundo, we will live up to our obligations that will
be imposed by the leases and will drill to the same depth
as the offset wells are producing. We won't drill to five
hundred feet and then stop.
I want to wind up my remarks, ladies and
gentlemen and members of the Council, by telling you that
we seem to have a difference of opinion as to whether the
things we are talking about can be done. We did not come
in here with any desire or any idea of depreciating your
property values. I have lived in oil well drilling dis-
tricts myself. I don't love them particularly, but I don't
know when the property values have been depreciated when
the plan of operation that we have laid down for ourselves
to follow is used. That is the reason we took and brought
these pictures in here to you, to show that 'there are some
very highly developed residential areas where it has worked
without any depreciation of property values at all.
In closing, I want to say that it is a
healthy thing and I want to congratulate you in having for
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your citizens such constituents as these young fellows
of the last World War. It is a healthy thing to see and
hear both sides of a problem. But I don't think that if
this plan of ours is followed there is going to be any
depreciation of property values. That is the reason I thin]
the Commission recommended the issuance of one permit right
now to find out how this is going to go. As to the rest
of the property in Exhibit No. 4 that we are speaking
about, in which drilling may take place, that doesn't mean
a thing until your body decides, if they do, that as a
result of the first well it has not created any undue hard-
ships, then we can go on from there.
Thank you again.
MAYOR SELBY: Is there anybody else who cares
to speak in rebuttal on behalf of the applicants?
Again I repeat: Is there anybody else
who cares to speak on behalf of the applicants?
MR. JONES: Mr. Mayor, errors of opinion in this
rebuttal, in my estimation, have no purpose. The facts
have been given for the record and I understand that you
i gentlemen will consider it from those facts and reasons
z that have been brought forth. So I would only add these
s few things which would possibly clarify the record, and
4 that is that Mr. Fauley did start approximately six months
5 ago to entertain this process of drilling.
6 I want to rectify the situation that the
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DAVID ETTLESON, Or /ICIAL COURT R[rORTFA • MUTUAL 7789
School Board at one time -- I understand this is only
hearsay -- contemplated the use of the site on the corner
of Hillcrest and Walnut and since then I have been told by
three different members of the Board that that proposition
had been disregarded or turned down, not for the reason of
oil derricks or anything else, but on account of the reason
of the Freeway and other sites being more preferable.
Just to clear it up again, we are not
asking for all those variances, because the resolution has
been referred to so many times as such. The resolution
that we are concerned about is the issuing of one permit.
Pauley could not drill in the Hyperion area because only
the subsurface rights and not the surface rights therein
are to be developed, and he could not ask for this. And
I understand -- there seems to have been some misinterpreta-
tion -- although he did not apply to the City of Los
Angeles for any permits and was turned down in Hyperion,
he could not apply for it because he did not have the sur-
face rights in which to drill from.
Pauley does not have, I am sure, any leases
on the Seven Companies Lease. Therefore, that would be an
impossibility for this company although it would be a
possibility for other companies to do that.
MAYOR SELBY: Thank you.
Is there anybody else who cares to speak
in rebuttal on behalf of the applicants?
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nn CTTI rcnAl OFFICIAL COURT RcrowT[R - MUTUAL 7789
VM�
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Again I repeat: Is there anyone else who
cares to speak in favor of the applicants?
If not, we will now allow those who
opposed the application, and who oppose the granting of the
variance, a reasonable opportunity for rebuttal.
DIR. TAYLOR: There have been quite a few brilliant
speeches made here tonight. From my point of view they have
been good. This won't be one of them; it will be a bit
disjointed. It is going to consist mostly of a few notes
I have taken down.
I would like to refer to one point that
Des. Jones just made, namely, that you gentlemen consider
the facts. I believe that we have only one fact before
us, and that is the resolution itself. All the other
things we have are opinions. We have no facts before us,
s I believe, not one. I think that is a pretty important
7 point that we should consider.
8 I would like to once and for all remove
9 from two points of view this thing of oil being a national
o problem. If it is a national problem, it is subject to
1 State and National control. It is not our problem now.
2 And if oil recovery is so important, there are people,
3 as has been shown, who do have the right to drill from
4 north of Imperial under the control of Los Angeles. It
5 was stated that there would be no control, but it would be
6 under the control. of Los Angeles, and unfortunately those