Svorinich Offers Compromise on Hiuka

In one of his first actions as a Los Angeles city councilman, Harbor area representative Rudy Svorinich Jr. is tackling one of San Pedro’s older land-use conflicts by moving to temporarily protect the operating permit of a controversial scrap yard.

On Tuesday, Svorinich is expected to ask colleagues to give Hiuka America Corp. the right to continue operating its North Gaffey Street site for up to two years while a new scrap facility is built in Long Beach.

But Svorinich’s measure would allow the company to stay open only if it formally agrees to make now-voluntarily operating conditions binding.

If approved, Svorinich’s move would represent a new chapter in a controversy that has dogged Hiuka since it opened the 20-acre San Pedro yard in 1986. That controversy reached a fever pitch two years ago when area residents persuaded Svorinich’s predecessor, Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, to take the extraordinary step of initiating proceedings to declare Hiuka’s site a public nuisance because of noise, dust and debris.

On Friday, however, Svorinich moved the debate in a new direction. Noting that Hiuka has voluntarily put into effect the conditions previously recommended by the city, he said those steps have turned the company around. Now, he said, the scrap facility must be allowed to remain in business until its new site is available.

“I know (Hiuka’s operation) has been an ongoing problem,” Svorinich said. “However . . . looking at what has to be done in order for them to get out of the site and the . . . amount of work that needs to be done to relocate, I think it (the agreement) is fair.”

Specifically, Svorinich said, he will propose that Hiuka’s San Pedro yard be allowed to stay open if it formally commits itself to comply with the 17 conditions and restrictions on operations that the company now abides by voluntarily.

The conditions include limiting work hours from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays, and closing the facility on Sunday. Other restrictions apply to the size of scrap piles and the frequency of street sweeping paid for by Hiuka.

Originally, Svorinich hoped to have the Hiuka reprieve settled by last week. At Friday’s City Council meeting, in fact, he was prepared to ask his colleagues to grant Hiuka’s appeal of a zoning decision that would have revoked its operating permit.

But after several procedural miscues by the new councilman, the council will refer the matter back to Svorinich’s office. He intends to return the item to council Tuesday.

Word of Svorinich’s actions drew mixed reviews among the San Pedro residents who were at the forefront of the fight to clamp down on Hiuka’s operations.

Jerry Gaines, recent past president of the San Pedro and Peninsula Homeowners Coalition, said he did not anticipate an outcry over allowing Hiuka to stay in business--as long as it continued to be responsive to citizens’ complaints and city restrictions.

“At this point, the problems that caused (controversy) all have been mitigated a lot--families can sleep at night, tires are not being blown apart on the street by debris. And the phone calls from (nearby) residents have not come to my attention,” Gaines said.

“That does not mean we may love them there, but it is at least tolerable,” he added.

But the coalition’s vice president, Noah Modisett, said he was disturbed by Svorinich’s surprise decision to assist Hiuka. And noting the history of conflict between the company and local residents, Modisett said he expects others in the area also to be troubled.

“I am certainly surprised and certainly disappointed . . . it is almost as if there was an element of stealth involved in moving this,” Modisett said, adding, “I wouldn’t be surprised if people--particularly those in earshot or eyeshot of the site--will be in council” on Tuesday.