Group Pulls at Grass Roots in Struggle to Save Greenbelt

The greenbelt is what finally persuaded Kathleen and Pierre Forgette to move to Hermosa Beach.

They bought a condominium in the south end of Hermosa Beach in December, 1986--right next to the 20-acre strip of trees and open space that is the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway’s right of way.

So they were shocked when the city’s environmental impact report that sifted options for developing the former railroad line suggested putting a 96-unit motel right across the street from their new home.

Instead of complaining to the council, they went to OSPAC.

OSPAC, the Open Space People’s Action Committee, is part of a growing trend in local communities of citizens banding together to take issues into their own hands, demonstrating both a mistrust of elected officials and a desire to have more control of local affairs.

Ballot Measure

OSPAC pressured the City Council to put on the November ballot an initiative to have the city buy the right of way and maintain it as parkland. The measure passed with nearly 90% of the vote.

Hermosa Beach City Councilwoman June Williams thinks that groups like OSPAC are symptomatic of the times, but she’s not in sympathy with them.

People “don’t have any trust at all in local government,” she said. “Everyone on the council agrees about buying the land. (OSPAC) keeps pushing us into something we’re already heading toward. They don’t seem to understand the process we have to go through.”

Rosamond Fogg, founder of OSPAC, sees it another way.

“I’m not really trying to blame the City Council,” she said. “Regardless of what people’s intentions are, I’ve observed that people move a little faster when they’re being watched. We are governed by laws not by people’s intentions.”

The citizens’ campaign that lead to the successful initiative had its roots in 1982.

At that time, the railroad was shutting down the line that ran through the beach cities. When the railroad filed an application with the Interstate Commerce Commission to abandon the land, the city zoned it all open space, preventing development.

Railroad Sued City

Soon afterward, the railroad sued the city for $15 million in an attempt to gain development rights, only to drop that tactic three years later. At about the same time, citizens were backing a non-binding referendum calling for the city to buy the right of way, though later they would reject a bond issue to pay for it.

Meanwhile, the railroad asked the city to rezone the land for houses, apartments, condominiums and commercial development.

That rezoning request prompted the city to hire an outside consulting firm to prepare an environmental impact report. In May, 1986, at a public meeting to complete the report, Fogg said she learned of the proposed development and was shocked.

OSPAC was born.

“I telephoned neighbors and put flyers in mailboxes,” Fogg said. At first, 25 people joined and in two months there were 200, and now the membership is near 1,200, she said.

For Bob Fleck, another OSPAC member, mistrust of government came earlier on a separate issue. The way he saw it, council members promised one thing, then did another.

Fleck and his wife, Jane Allison, moved to Hermosa Beach from the Midwest in 1981. They bought a house on a cul-de-sac.

In 1984, Fleck discovered that a neighbor was subdividing a nearby lot and building two houses on it. Fleck and other neighbors complained to the City Council. They remember being told that this kind of thing should not be allowed to happen and the council placing a moratorium on the practice while it studied the issue.

To Fleck’s dismay, the moratorium later was repealed, and depending on the lot size, lot splitting was permitted in the city.

“I personally can’t trust the City Council,” Allison says today.

Even though none of the council members who were in office in 1984 are in office today, Allison thinks it would be foolish to believe what they say and that an organization such as OSPAC has to be there, breathing down their neck.

“The concern on our part was that this City Council might not want to prevent the development. That concern continues to this point,” Allison said.

This sort of skepticism prompts doubt in others, especially councilmen. They say the activities of a citizen’s group can interfere with the duly elected government.

For Williams, that’s already happened with OSPAC.

“The whole thing has gotten out of hand now because of OSPAC’s initiative,” she said. The council has always intended to do its best to obtain the right of way, Williams said, but OSPAC does not give the council credit for its efforts.

The council this week gave preliminary approval to a June initiative asking voters if an acre of city-owned beachfront property should be traded for the right of way or sold outright to raise money to buy the greenbelt. The council also said it would give voters the option to turn the beachfront site into a park.

OSPAC had advanced a similar sell-or-trade plan for the beachfront land.

Councilman Jim Rosenberger sees last fall’s initiative as a two-edged sword. He says it limits the city’s ability to negotiate price with Santa Fe because the railroad knows the city must buy the land.

Nevertheless, he believes the initiative is a sign of support for the council to proceed with purchasing the land and says he is in full agreement with that.

Mayor Etta Simpson, a resident of Hermosa Beach of 34 years, said she has been concerned about keeping the land as open space since 1982, when the dispute first arose. She said she does not believe that OSPAC is interfering.

“There is a voice there of what the community wants. It’s a clear mandate (from the people),” she said.

While the November initiative seemingly made the purchase of the Santa Fe right of way mandatory, there are those who feel the city could satisfy the requirements of the initiative and yet not wind up with the land.

One is Brian Weber, director of development for the Santa Fe Pacific Realty Co., which is advising the railroad in its negotiations with the city.

“As long as they make a good faith and reasonable effort . . . and then did not have the ability to buy it, they would have satisfied the terms of the initiative,” he said.

City Atty. Jim Lough agrees.

For Fogg, it’s not a matter of trust, but one of responsibility. She says the language is unequivocal.

In part it reads: “The people of Hermosa Beach direct the City of Hermosa Beach to acquire the railroad right of way for public use as parkland and open space. . . . The city shall take all measures necessary and appropriate to obtain funds needed for acquisition of the railroad right of way.”

In November, voters approved hiking the utility users tax to 10% from 6% after council members promised to use the additional money to purchase the right of way.

Allison says: “I don’t think there is anybody on the council who wants to see it developed, but they will follow the path of least resistance.”

OSPAC seems determined to be the path of most resistance on this issue, and they have attracted the attention of others. Fogg said that individuals from surrounding communities have contacted her about helping them with their concerns about development and traffic.

But they are going to have to wait.

“We have no plans right now beyond seeing that negotiations proceed between the city and Santa Fe. Later, perhaps, we might take an interest in what is happening in the South Bay as a whole,” she said.