Long Beach Presses Port Plan at Raucous Hearing

Faced with anti-Chinese demonstrators outside and catcalls and boos inside, Long Beach’s business establishment turned out in force Wednesday night to appeal for Navy support to demolish the closed Roosevelt Naval Base.

The issue is “jobs, jobs, jobs,” said Tom Bussa, chairman of the Long Beach Economic Development Commission, who spoke over a chorus of boos. He was joined at the Navy’s final public hearing on the future of the historic naval base by representatives of the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce and other business leaders. They urged support for a plan to bulldoze the base and turn the property over to the Port of Long Beach.

The business leaders were careful to avoid mentioning the China Ocean Shipping Co. (COSCO), the Chinese government-owned shipping line that at one point had signed a lease to occupy the naval base property. After the lease was signed, however, a series of court challenges forced the city back to the drawing board.

Passions are running so high over the naval base reuse that the hearing was moved from a 300-seat auditorium in City Hall to a 1,900-seat ballroom in the Long Beach Convention Center. However, the expected big turnout didn’t materialize. Only about 475 people attended the hearing.

The Navy is expected to make a decision on the Terminal Island complex in May.

Using an outside consultant, the Navy has narrowed the choices to converting the base into a container terminal, opening an automobile shipping terminal, or retaining the essential nature of the base by allowing government agencies to use it for administrative offices.

The second and third choices would avoid demolition of the buildings.

Anti-communists and veterans organizations joined historical preservationists and environmentalists at Wednesday night’s hearing in urging the Navy to reject the city’s position.

The biggest applause at the hearing went to Jim Sturm, a retired real estate agent and member of the Gray Panther Party of Long Beach, who said, “The suits are just here for the bucks.”

The hearing came against a backdrop of an expanding lawsuit pitting the port against Long Beach Heritage, a preservationist group, and other opponents.

On Wednesday, it was disclosed that 117 cities, Los Angeles County and the California Assn. of Counties had filed a court brief supporting Long Beach. The city has appealed a ruling by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert H. O’Brien, who found the COSCO lease improper because port officials had already made a commitment to develop a terminal for the Chinese government before an environmental review was completed.

At issue in the case, which is awaiting hearing before the state Court of Appeal, is the question of “pre-commitment,” or how far a government agency can go in preparing a project before the environmental review process is completed. Local governments contend that there is some sort of predisposition or bias in favor of just about every project they propose.

Cities and counties contend that O’Brien’s ruling, if it stands, would dramatically alter the California Environmental Quality Act by requiring them to overcome a new legal standard to get projects approved.

“If the trial court’s decision stands, it will slow the process and make it even more cumbersome than it is now,” said Torrance City Atty. John L. Fellows III, who prepared the brief for the cities and counties in support of Long Beach.

Jan Chatten-Brown, the lawyer for Long Beach Heritage, said she believes that the cities and counties are off base.

“We think the law is clear. It is unacceptable to have a pre-commitment,” she said. Nancy Latimer, head of Long Beach Heritage, said her group simply wanted a fresh and unbiased environmental review of the Navy property. She said she was ready to settle the suit after the city tore up the Cosco lease in the wake of the O’Brien ruling. But she said the city’s appeal made a settlement impossible.