Concrete Plant Wins OK Despite Lennox’s Protests

Despite impassioned protests from Lennox residents and educators, the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners on Wednesday approved a plan to construct a concrete plant next to the community on airport-owned land.

Commissioners unanimously voted to allow Torrance-based Greene’s Ready Mixed Concrete Co. to build the plant on 111th Street, west of La Cienega Boulevard. The company’s agreement with the airport calls for it to lease the 2.3-acre site for 20 years.

“We have asked them to do everything in the book,” board President Sam Greenberg said, referring to the operation guidelines the company agreed to abide by. “This is going to be a model plant in the United States.”

The commission’s vote came after several years of negotiations between the company and airport planners. In 1987, the airport signed a preliminary agreement with the company to construct the plant on the west side of La Cienega Boulevard, near Lennox Boulevard.

However, the airport scrapped that plan early last year and announced it would seek permission from commissioners to build the plant on 111th Street. The new site, a remote parking lot used by travelers, was deemed superior to the previous one because it was farther away from the flight paths leading to Los Angeles International Airport’s southern runways.

Lennox community groups, including the Lennox School District, have fought against the plant being built anywhere near the small, unincorporated area. The groups have asserted that a concrete plant would add to the area’s already high air pollution levels.

For example, Lennox typically records the second-highest carbon monoxide readings in the South Bay each year, according to figures compiled by the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

In a letter to the airport, Kenneth Moffett, superintendent for the school district, complained harshly that the 111th Street site was closer to the community--and three schools--than the first site.

“It is inconceivable to me . . . that a cement plant would even be considered for this congested area, in addition to all the air pollution from the airplanes, automobiles and major freeways surrounding this entire area,” Moffett wrote.

“I can’t help but wonder, if Lennox were a white, middle-class community, if this same site proposal would be made,” he added.

But airport and company officials maintained that the plant, unlike many concrete plants, would not be a significant source of air pollution. “We believe we have proposed an environmentally sensitive project that will have no adverse impacts on the community,” Doug Ring, the attorney for Greene’s, said before Wednesday’s meeting.

Taller Building

Maurice Laham, who heads LAX’s environmental management office, said that, by shifting the plant site farther from the flight paths, Greene’s will be able to build a taller building. The higher building, in turn, will allow the company to install the equipment necessary to mix concrete ingredients with water before loading the product onto trucks. Hence, the amount of pollutants released into the air will be reduced dramatically, he said.

Laham said the plant will be fully enclosed to ensure that concrete dust and other pollutants do not escape into the air or nearby streets. Also, trucks using the facility will be washed as they enter and leave, and the water used for washing the trucks will be recycled and used in the cement-making process.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Julia Gonzalez, a Lennox resident for 22 years, told commissioners the proposed plant would add to problems already experienced by Lennox due to excessive development.

“Don’t take our community away from us piece by piece, please,” Gonzalez asked the commissioners.