Newest to oldest, generally, in descending order:
August 7, 2009
Los Angeles City Council votes 12-0 to ratify Corporate Pointe at West Hills ordnance and resolution green-lighting developer Trammell Crow’s development without having an Environmental Impact Report done. Site rezoned which allows higher limits for radiological, chemical and heavy metals. EnviroReporter.com‘s “Eating Trammell Crow?” and “Your journalistic practices” covers news and reaction.
July 17, 2009
LA Planning and Land Use Management Committee meeting agenda that says “TIME LIMIT AND LAST DAY FOR COUNCIL ACTION: 9-8-09 Mitigated Negative Declaration, report from the Mayor, Director of Planning, City Planning Commission and Resolution and Ordinance relative to a proposed General Plan Amendment in the Chatsworth-Porter Ranch Community Plan from Minimum Density Residential to Limited Industrial; and concurrent Zone Change from A1-1 to [T][Q]M1-1 for the proposed project consisting of a change of use and new construction of approximately 466,000 square feet.”
June 19, 2009
City of Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa signs off on plan.
June 15
In a “Q-9” report posted by the City of Los Angeles, on page 22 of the 231-page PDF, it says:
“The applicant shall comply with recommendations of the State of California Department of Toxic Substances Control, outlined in the letter dated August 5, 2008. (Hazards andHazardous Materials)”
June 15, 2009
Planning Department’s 42-page “Proposed General Plan Amendment to the Chatsworth-Porter Ranch Community Plan”
June 3, 2009:
231-page Los Angeles Planning and Land Use Management Committee report on Corporate Pointe at West Hills relaxed restrictions zone change and no need for an Environmental Impact Report.
On page 22 of 231, called “Q-9” it says “The applicant shall comply with recommendations of the State of California Department of Toxic Substances Control, outlined in the letter dated August 5, 2008. (Hazards and Hazardous Materials)”
Page 34: “On the basis of the whole of the record before the lead agency including any comments received, the lead agency finds that, with imposition of the mitigation measures described in the MND, there is no substantial evidence that the proposed project could have a significant effect on the environment.”
March 12, 2009:
Morning Review Thursday with Eisha Mason, with guests Bonnie Klea and Michael Collins discussing “San Fernando Valley’s Galaxy of Chemical Goo” article in the LA Weekly that was published March 5. The three discussed the proposed Corporate Pointe at West Hills development and environmental contamination concerns unearthed by Klea. Click here to listen to the show.
March 5, 2009:
LA Weekly newspaper breaks the story of environmental problems at Corporate Pointe at West Hills with the news article “San Fernando Valley’s Galaxy of Goo – City planners make a slick zone change for easier building on troubled land” by Michael Collins.
February 27, 2009:
“Los Angeles City Planning Commission voted 5-0 to approve the proposed enhancements to the Corporate Pointe at West Hills campus,” reads a Trammell Crow press release. “The adoption of the Mitigated Negative Declaration noting that the California Environmental Quality Act issues were fully mitigated.”
February 26, 2009:
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s “LA Business Team” support of zoning change at planning commission meeting. “Speaking on his behalf, I urge you to approve the zone change being requested by Trammell Crow Company, on behalf of MEPT,” read a statement prepared by the Mayor’s Office for Marcella Ayala, East Valley Representative & Interim West Valley Representative. “It is our understanding that in order to create these jobs for our city the zone change must be approved.”
“I did NOT use those talking points,” Ayala wrote to EnviroReporter.com and the business team representative she was filling in for at the meeting, Gilbert. V. Gonzalez. Inexplicably, what Ayala stated to the planning commissioners wasn’t much different from the prepared remarks, albeit in a shorter, less detailed version.
February 26, 2009:
Los Angeles Department of City Planning Recommendation Report for the Corporate Pointe project passed by planning commissioners and sent on to LA City Council for final approval.
February 23, 2009:
Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board issues Raytheon a Conditional Approval of Corrective Action Plan for “additional enhanced in situ bioremediation and in situ chemical reduction activities” targeting groundwater contamination.
February 19, 2009:
Department of Toxic Substances Control project manager for Corporate Pointe, Rodney Collins, sends LA Weekly link to Land Use Covenant Agreements that Collins says are “standard practice.” Collins also references and links to U.S. EPA Preliminary Remediation Goals – Screening Levels for Chemical Contaminants which shows the differences in goals for various scenarios such as the one at Corporate Pointe where a change from an agricultural to limited manufacturing scenario reduces toxic standards by up to thousands of times.
February 11, 2009:
DTSC’s Rodney Collins, writes to LA city planning with Status of DTSC Investigation and Remediation.
February 10, 2009:
Los Angeles Department of City Planning Notice of Public Hearing.
January 9, 2009:
CleanUpRocketdyne’s Christina Walsh and ACME-LA’s William Preston Bowling additional letter to LA Planner Tom Glick that further explores the zoning change and the need for an Environmental Impact Report for the construction project.
January 2009:
Release of 2008 DTSC California Hazardous Waste and Substances Law Code Excerpts.
December 30, 2008:
DTSC geologist Phil Chandler writing as a private citizen to head of DTSC about project. Chandler cost of remediation and assurances that Raytheon will guarantee all expenses. Asks why no Corrective Action Order at the site even though DTSC in charge of overseeing remediation for 15 years. Chandler had written in 1997 warning of problems with the site and suggesting such an order.
December 22, 2008:
CleanUpRocketdyne’s Christina Walsh and ACME-LA’s William Preston Bowling zoning letter to LA Planner Tom Glick about the Corporate Pointe at West Hills property
November 25, 2008:
California Environmental Quality Control Act (CEQA) Toolbox – Purpose of CEQA, which describes the objectives and procedures of this act.
November 25, 2008:
California Environmental Quality Control Act (CEQA) Toolbox – Decision to Prepare an Environmental Impact Report, which describes what mandates an EIR and the important role of public participation.
November 14, 2008:
West Hills Neighborhood Council votes overwhelmingly to require Corporate Pointe’s property to be governed by the strictest radiation and chemical standards and have an Environmental Impact Report.
November 8, 2008:
LA Department of City Planning signs off on no substantial revision to Proposed Mitigated Negative Declaration which guarantees that no Environmental Impact Report will be done for the property. “All documentation, comment letters and responses, have been added to the project’s case file and are available for public review. Through examining received public comments and prepared responses, informed by the independent research of DCP staff and coordination with other state and local agencies, the DCP Environmental Staff Advisory Committee determines that no new, previously unrecognized or unmitigated, potentially significant impacts will occur due to the project’s implementation. The previously published Proposed MND will be sufficient to mitigate potentially significant impacts in all CEQA [California Environmental Quality Act] impact categories to less than significant level.”
September 13, 2008:
CleanUpRocketdyne’s Christina Walsh and ACME-LA’s William Preston Bowling comments on the project’s Mitigated Negative Declaration which is loaded with pertinent information including a key June 5, 1997 memo from a DTSC Supervising Hazardous Substances Engineering Geologist. “This memorandum indicates that the submitted [Mitigated Negative Declaration] material was entirely inadequate as it did not properly address the source points of the known contamination at the time.”
August 5, 2008:
This letter from the DTSC to a Los Angeles city planning eventually formed the guidance the department gave to the city and builder that forms the two entities’ understanding today.
May 19, 2008:
Raytheon Missile Systems’ DTSC “Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Facility Assessment Questionnaire” has extensive documentation of the radiological and chemical contamination at the West Hills facility including historic data.
February 4, 2008:
DTSC Envirostor Raytheon Systems, Co. Hazardous Waste Facility Report. This site has comprehensive information dating back to 1980.
January 30, 2008:
DTSC’s Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Facility Assessment – Hughes Missile Systems Company, Canoga Park Facility (RAYTHEON)
November 2, 2007:
A group calling itself “EPA,” Los Angeles-based Environmental Planning Associates did environmental assessments at the site “working in conjunction with the Mayor’s Business Development Team.” The group says of the individuals parcels that make up the property that it “Each use required its own discrete environmental review…”
January 2005:
Use of California Human Health Screening Levels (CHHSLs) in Evaluation of Contaminated Properties. 67 pages – 761kb.
August 4, 2004:
Radionuclide Toxicity and Preliminary Remediation Goals for Superfund: 17 pages – 120kb.
January 2000:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Toxics Web Site on Vinylidene Chloride (1,1-Dichloroethylene) which is one of the most prevalent and dangerous toxins found at the site.
Wikipedia’s 1,1-Dichloroethene page contains vital information about this toxin found in a Corporate Pointe West Hills well in the middle of the proposed project that is 3,333 times the Maximum Contaminant Level used by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board.
June 20, 1997:
Technical report on “An investigation on the Cesium-137 content of soil collected from the Boeing North America, Inc., Employees’ Recreational and Fitness Center in Canoga Park (CA).”
June 5, 1997:
DTSC Senior Hazardous Substances Engineering Geologist Phil Chandler’s internal department memorandum that comprehensively outlines environmental contamination at what was then the Hughes Missile Systems Group, Canoga Park Facility.
Aerospace Cancer Museum of Education, Los Angeles
This museum and community center is a valuable source of environmental information on Corporate Pointe West Hills which includes over twenty in-depth reports on the property and rare photographs.
Corporate Pointe at West Hills
Trammell Crow created this comprehensive website that has voluminous data addressing the issues of radioactive and chemical contamination at the site [2015 – ALL LINKS DEAD AND NO CURRENT WEBSITE INFORMATION] including environmental FAQs, environmental facts, current environmental status, groundwater status, and an August 7, 2008 letter to the Santa Susana Mountain Area Committee answering environmental questions raised at a West Hills Neighborhood Council meeting on July 30. On November 14, 2008, the council voted overwhelmingly to recommend to the Los Angeles Department of City Planning that the project have an Environmental Impact Report and unanimously to “to require mitigation of contaminants to the lowest possible levels.”
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