San Pedro Zone Change May Push Scrap Yard Out : Land use: The changes address North Gaffey Street neighbors’ problems with a scrap metal yard. But nearby oil tank farms apparently will stay.

The Los Angeles City Council has approved rezoning of about 150 acres along North Gaffey Street in San Pedro to limit or phase out heavy industry, an action that officials believe will lead to the relocation of a disputed scrap metal storage yard that abuts the Harbor Freeway.

The unanimous vote Tuesday brings to an end a five-year struggle by San Pedro homeowner groups and Los Angeles Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores to restrict operations at the Hiuka America Corp. scrap yard, which ships about 500,000 tons of scrap through the Port of Los Angeles each year.

Under the new zoning, the 14-acre scrap yard will be allowed to remain open but will be declared a “nonconforming use,” meaning it will be barred from expanding.

The new designation will also make it easier for city officials to declare the operation a public nuisance, based on noise or health and safety complaints. The city would then have the authority to shut the scrap yard after holding a hearing.

“It is very much a victory for the community,” Flores said. “In the very worst scenario, if the scrap yard stays there for a long time, they know they are going to have to be very diligent about being concerned for the community. If they aren’t, they’ll be slapped with the nuisance” declaration.

After objecting to the rezoning effort for years, Hiuka officials in the end did not fight it. No one from Hiuka addressed the council Tuesday, and the rezoning passed without discussion. The zoning will take effect in about two months, when the council is expected to approve several ordinances needed to enact the changes.

Hiuka president David Creigh could not be reached for comment. But several city officials said Hiuka has decided simply to relocate, rather than contest the zoning change. A spokesman for the Port of Los Angeles said Hiuka wants to move the scrap yard to a new location within the port, possibly Terminal Island.

“The search for alternative sites is active and ongoing,” said spokesman Chuck Ellis. “Some sites have already been identified as having potential.”

Flores said Hiuka officials came to realize that “this is not the best spot for that kind of operation.” She said her office has encouraged the company to find a location away from residential areas. “My aim never was to put them out of business,” Flores said.

Noah Modisett, president of the San Pedro Peninsula Homeowners Coalition, said residents as far away as Western Avenue have been bothered by noise from the Hiuka operation. Over the years, residents have also complained that the scrap yard is an eyesore, although Hiuka attempted to address those concerns by erecting a berm and redwood fence along the freeway.

“This has not just been a local neighborhood thing,” said Modisett, whose coalition of 20 homeowner groups called for Hiuka’s ouster in 1987.

He added: “This has been long and hard work. We are really happy to see progress made.”

An attorney for West Oil Terminals and West Basin Co., which own the scrap yard property and lease it to Hiuka, said the two companies did not object to the council action because Hiuka “is hoping to move the scrap yard anyway.”

Although apparently resolving the scrap yard problem, the new zoning does little to address community concerns about fuel tanks in the area. Property west of Gaffey will be zoned for light industry, which prohibits fuel tanks, but the existing tank farms will not be affected because they are exempted from zoning laws, city officials said.

In addition, the new zoning places only minor restrictions on two fuel tank farms east of Gaffey, which residents had hoped to eliminate. The zoning bars the tank farms from growing “substantially,” but allows the property to be upgraded and additional tanks to be built.

Unlike the scrap yard, which opened in 1985 because of a loophole in a zoning ordinance, city planning officials said the tank farms have been in existence since the 1920s, predating residential development in the North Gaffey area.

Planning officials sided with West Oil Terminals and West Basin Co., which also own the tank farms east of Gaffey, in deciding it would be unfair to severely restrict use of the property. Lawyers for the owners argued at a hearing early this year that to target the whole area in order to close the scrap yard would be to take a “meat-cleaver approach” to a problem that requires a scalpel.

Flores said she agreed to less stringent restrictions on the tank farms as part of a compromise with the Planning Commission, which at one point was opposed to rezoning the scrap yard or the tank farms.

“The planning commission felt (the tank farms) had some proprietary rights, because they were there first,” Flores said. “While we would prefer they be someplace else, the timing wasn’t right to do it this time.”

Modisett, the homeowner coalition leader, said residents were more concerned about the scrap yard than the tank farms. He also expressed confidence that development trends eventually will resolve resident concerns over the tank farms.

“The whole thing in San Pedro is a move away from heavy industry and toward clean industries,” Modisett said. “The time will come when it just won’t be economically feasible to keep the tanks there any more.”