HUNTINGTON BEACH : City OKs Terms for Toxic Cleanup, Units

The City Council has approved terms of an agreement that will allow the NESI Development Group to build about 500 homes on the former Ascon Landfill site once the land is cleaned of toxic waste.

The 40-acre property was once a dump for toxic oil wastes beginning in the late 1930s when the city’s oil operations were in full swing.

Despite protests by residents in the neighborhood, council members Monday night unanimously approved new zoning and an agreement with NESI that will allow the company to build the project at Hamilton Avenue and Magnolia Street near Edison High School.

Residents told the council that the developer should be forced to commence cleanup operations before getting rezoning for the property. Cost estimates for the cleanup range from $10 million to $60 million.

Some residents feared that the unearthing of hazardous waste during the cleanup would endanger families.

Others complained about the density of the proposed development. Initially, 295 condominiums were planned on 5.9 acres of the site. NESI officials Monday night agreed to reduce the number of condominiums from 50 to 35 per acre for a total of 206 condominiums. The height of the condo buildings was also reduced, from 60 feet to 50 feet.

The NESI plan also calls for construction of 296 detached, single-family houses along the perimeter of the site.

Huntington Beach City School District officials said the new development, before the number of units was slashed, would have added 160 pupils to their overcrowded schools. They asked the city to urge NESI to pay its fair share of the cost for school facilities--about $2.3 million--that the new scaled-down project would create.

The City Council directed NESI to meet with school district officials in an attempt to come to terms over costs to the district.

The agreement requires NESI to remove the hazardous materials and make the land clean and habitable before the company can begin to build. The cleanup is expected to last three years.

The landfill site, containing such toxic chemicals as sulfuric acid and styrene from the dumping of oil sludge, poses a long-term health hazard to the entire city, Councilman Don MacAllister said. He warned that if the city failed to take advantage of the agreement, people “can look for it (the dump) being here for generations and still costing millions of dollars to clean up.”