REGION : Debate Over Cleanup May Block Racetrack

A proposed $200-million racetrack complex on the Long Beach-Signal Hill border may not get off the starting line because of a debate over who will pay to clean up contamination at the site, an oil field.

Long Beach and Signal Hill officials say they probably will insist that developers pick up the tab, estimated at $20 million to $40 million, to clean up the 200-acre site of the proposed racetrack, hotel and research center. “It’s pretty much a deal killer” without that stipulation, said Signal Hill Councilman Richard Ceccia.

Wayne Wedin, a consultant to Long Beach Grand Prix promoter Christopher Pook, who announced plans for the racetrack project in July, said he did not think the cities were insisting that the developers pay all cleanup costs. “They didn’t go so far as to say that,” he said.

But if city officials do demand that developers pay all of the cleanup costs, Wedin said, “I suspect that land will sit there for a long time before it’s developed.”

The demand that the developers bear the full cleanup cost is one of several being considered by Long Beach and Signal Hill officials, who are teaming up to review the proposal.