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Purchaser From Dean / New Owner Of Loynes-South Parcel (b/w Los Cerritos Channel & Mobile Home Estates) Tells LBReport.com...


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  • (March 21, 2009) -- LBReport.com spoke briefly by telephone this morning (March 21) with Sean Hitchock, who confirmed that he purchased from Tom Dean a parcel of land south of Loynes Drive between the Los Cerritos Channel and the Mobile Home Estates. Mr. Hitchcock returned our calls left for him yesterday.

    Material below is paraphrase (not transcript) from our rapidly typed notes. It reflects what Mr. Hitchcock told us on while he was on a cellphone at about 9:30 a.m. today in transit:

    Q: Are you the buyer?

    A: Yes.

    Q: Is it you or some other entity?

    A: It's me.

    Q: When and why did you buy it?

    A: It was purchased recently, I think it's been a couple of weeks now. When I purchased it, one of the things Tom Dean told me is that he had a fire department notice to clear and weed the site for hazard. I don't have a copy of it but I'm asking for it now. Basically, that's all I was doing was just clearing the site of the weeds. The only reason there was big equipment is because it's a ten acre site, you don't do it with a rake and a hoe, it takes big equipment. I'm not doing any grading. I'm not doing any development. I guess it's just a whole perception issue that's blowing everything out of proportion.

    The biggest misperception is that it's wetlands. It's landfill. So basically I'm a private owner of a landfill property which is the exact same property that the mobile home park is on. It's classified exactly the same. It's zoned exactly the same.

    I'm not intending or trying to do anything different than what the property is zoned for and intended for. It's zoned for commercial open space.

    I'm not doing anything with the land now. I've already met with the City before about plans of some kind of venture with them to do open park space, which is what the city seems to want. I've already told them I'm in tune with doing what they want to do.

    All I was doing was making the site a little more manageable. It was completely overgrown and was hazard and I believed it was a hazard and needed to be cleared. All I was doing was weeding the site.

    There's no grading that happened. All I did was clear the site of all the overgrown weeds and vegetation, and my plan is just to weed it and then put grass in it, make it green and more manageable until the city and I come up with a plan of how to turn it into park space.

    It's not going to be a Big Box, tilt-up building. It's not going to be homes. It's just going to be park space. It's for the better of everybody in the community. I'm trying to do a good thing here. I was completely shocked by what happened.

    Q: What do you have in mind for it? You're going to make it a park?

    A: I'm trying to make it open park space. In the meantime for right now, I'm just trying to manage the site better. It's not a manageable site when it's all overgrown with weeds and trash, and people go to hide out in there and that sort of thing. I'm trying to clear all the debris and weeds, and I'm going to put grass on it so it's just kind of a nice open space and then I'm going to work with the City to make it a park to have open space, to have fields for kids to play on and so forth and whatever they want to do. Right now there's no utilities on the site. I don't know if they want to have utilities or not. I'm open to however they want to work it. This is all coming from trying to do something good for the community, and I'm [laughs] getting really beat up over it for now.

    Q: Did you have some conversations with the City before you went ahead and began clearing this?

    A: Yes, I had conversations with the City about the intent of what we're going to do and how we're going to do it and they were all on board...Next thing I know, the City Manager was going down there, whom I had not met with before.

    And another thing: the gravel that's on the site is the City's gravel. It's their stuff they gave to me to help me with what I'm doing there. I saw a report, which is kind of upsetting and I'm going to talk to Pat about, how he said that I bought it and it was private thing. I didn't buy it. It was given to me by them. It's their rock...

    Where this all started was I was trying to find any location in the City of Long Beach to be able to make park space because we don't have enough park space in the city, and I met with several people in the City about it, and then this property came about, and I met with them and said 'this would work' and they said 'that would be great.'

    They did say that to make it a formal official park we're going to have to go through a permiting process and it'll probably take a year or two years and I said 'that's fine,and in the meantime I'm going to clear it and make it manageable' and then we'll go through the process.

    Q: Whom did you meet with in the City?

    A: I don't want to put them on the spot that it was an official go-ahead. I'm meeting with them again at the beginning of next week [March 23] so before I put names out, I think I'll withhold that information for now because I don't want somebody being upset...but I did meet with several people in the city and went over the plan and they can say 'well we didn't know you were going to bring out bulldozers' and [about] the bulldozer picture: it's a 10 acre site. How else are you going to clear the weeds off the site?

    Q: So how'd you come to get the gravel?

    A: They gave it to me. When they do city streets and scrape and re-do streets, they have excess gravel that they'll use for stockpiling, for base or whatever. They had no use for it and it was just piled at the City yard. And I wanted to bring in some earth fill because there are some voids in the land fill that I wanted to fill in, and to bring in clean dirt for, to let the trucks get in and out...It looks like a big huge pile but it's not very much gravel. The whole purpose of the gravel was just to put it down at the entrance of the gate so when trucks drive in and out they're not bringing mud onto the streets...Honestly, if you spread that gravel down and put it out, it's just for a very small area to let trucks drive in and out of the entrance.

    Q: And the gravel is from a City yard?

    A: Yes, I think it's around DeForest...I'm trying to do a good thing...a Long Beach citizen trying to improve the area with park space.

    Q: [About purchasing the property] Was it a straight [ordinary] purchase? Do you have a deed to the property?

    A: Yes.

    Q: How much did you pay for it?

    A: I would rather not say.

    Q: Can you give us a round number?

    A: I'd rather not.

    Q: Have you taken a look at the website of the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust? They call it wetlands.

    A: But it's not, even on their own wetlands map. That was the first thing I checked.

    Q: Which map did you check?

    A: I only know of one wetlands map. The wetlands start south of the [Los Cerritos] Channel. Have you looked at it?

    [LBReport.com]: We put up the SEADIP map [on LBReport.com] and it shows wetlands to the south and City Manager West told us the underlying zoning [of your parcel] is commercial...Where did you find that it's commercial?

    A: That is my understanding.

    Q: Is it on some map that you're relying on?

    A: I believe so. I have so many stacks of documents, I'm just don't recall the specifics of it.

    Q: Did you speak with Councilman DeLong about some of this?

    A: Again, [laughs] I'm not going to say whom I spoke with yet. I'll tell you more after our meeting [early in week of March 23]...

    I'm staying open and inviting to everyone, including the environmentalists and activists. In the beginning, I even said 'is there someone I should meet with?' and I'll meet with them and I still will. I'll meet with them to find out. I want to be friendly with the City and I don't want the City turning their back on me though [laughs]...

    Further to follow on LBReport.com


    Previous LBReport.com coverage:

  • Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust Website Displays Digitally What Took Place South of Loynes b/w Channel & Mobile Home Estates

  • First on LBReport.com: Further Info On Area Graded South of Loynes b/w Channel & Mobile Home Park: (1) Area Isn't Within Wetlands Area Previously Proposed For City Acquisition From Dean (See SEADIP Map & Text); (2) Prior Owner (Dean) Received Weed-Clearing Fire-Abatement Notice, Which He Conveyed To New Owner, Says Dean Spokesman

  • Area South of Loynes b/w Channel & Mobile Estates Flattened/Graded; City Mgr. Visits Site Personally; Work Has Stopped For Now, City Mgr. West Tells LBReport.com...


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