Officials Mull Warehouse Limits at Northrop Site

Public hearings on a zoning ordinance that could dictate the future of Northrop Grumman Corp.’s 200-acre property in Pico Rivera have been postponed while city officials consider allowing more warehousing on the site.

The aerospace company has requested that the city allow future developers of the Washington Boulevard property to dedicate as much as 40 acres of the site to warehouses. Company representatives say that such a designation would speed the facility’s redevelopment after Northrop’s scheduled departure in 1999.

But in an ordinance that had been scheduled for a first reading Monday, city staff members proposed more severe limits on warehousing space at the property.

“What we’re concerned about is having this important piece of property littered with warehousing and distribution, which doesn’t produce jobs,” City Manager Dennis Courtemarche said Tuesday. He added that 83% of the city’s industrial land--excluding the Northrop site--is already used for warehousing.

The City Council is scheduled to take up the ordinance again Sept. 2, when it will likely be referred to the Planning Commission, Courtemarche said. The ordinance currently allows developing the property into either a manufacturing center, a mega-mall, mixed-use industrial and retail, or a theme park.