The Weekly Newspaper of El Segundo
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Torrance, Manhattan Beach, Hawthorne, Lawndale, & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 107, No. 1 - January 4, 2018
Inside
This Issue
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.....................10
Classifieds............................8
Crossword/Sudoku.............8
Entertainment......................3
Legals.............................. 8,11
Letters...................................2
Obituaries.............................2
Police Reports...................11
Real Estate..................5-7,12
Sports.............................. 9,10
Weekend
Forecast
Mayor, Council Members Testing
Out the New Waters at City Hall
Thanks to a grant award spearheaded by West Basin Municipal Water District, El Segundo’s City Hall has a new water filling station. Trying out the fountain at a kick-off ceremony from left to right: Mayor Pro
Tem Drew Boyles, Councilmember Don Brann, West Basin District IV Director Scott Houston, Mayor Suzanne Fuentes, Councilmember Mike Dugan and Councilmember Carol Pirsztuk. Photo: City of El Segundo. •
The Year in Review Part II: From
TopGolf to Aquatics and More…
By Brian Simon
The year 2017 was certainly a busy one for
the City of El Segundo, which celebrated a
centennial while also having many additional
items on its plate. This week continues the
review of the major highlights of the previous
12 months. With much still to be decided in
the near future and a pending election in April
to boot, no doubt there will be plenty to talk
about in 2018 as well.
Arguably the most controversial issue of 2017
(as well as the past several years, for that matter)
in El Segundo was the proposed TopGolf
project. After more than five and a half years
of deliberation, multiple delays and seemingly
endless discussion, the Council majority (Mayor
Suzanne Fuentes and members Mike Dugan
and Don Brann) finally voted down the project
in early October. The agreement to lease the
driving range portion of The Lakes at El Segundo
and provide renovations to the nine-hole course
seemed close to resolution in previous months,
but hang-ups still lingered on items ranging from
the number of hitting bays for youth groups, to
paying current golf pros to hopefully keep them
in the fold during the time the facility would
be closed for construction. Then in September,
the Council learned that TopGolf negotiated a
ground lease with Burlingame, California for
$1 million more annually than El Segundo’s
$525,000 yearly deal—although the other city’s
package did not include capital contributions
(e.g. new clubhouse, golf course redesign, night
lighting) and concessions on resident/youth
pricing that were built into the due diligence
agreement here. Last-ditch efforts to tweak the
numbers upward did not sway the Council.
A couple of months after the TopGolf vote,
the Council provided direction for the newly
formed The Lakes Task Force as the latter begins
work on drafting a Request For Proposal
on future opportunities for the golf course/
driving range site. While he voted against the
project as a “bad fit” next to the golf course,
Brann told his colleagues last month that he
would still like to see TopGolf come to El
Segundo—just at another location.
After some relatively quiet years as a major
news topic in El Segundo, LAX rose to the
forefront again in 2017 with the announcement
in December that the City had agreed on a legal
settlement not to contest the pending Landside
Access Modernization Program (LAMP). In
exchange, Los Angeles will fund long-sought
road improvements on Imperial Highway (costing
about $2 million) and conduct a $50,000
parking study aimed at resolving the increasing
problem of airport employees leaving their cars
in El Segundo and using ride services to get
in and out of LAX. In its earlier criticism of
LAMP, the City had expressed concerns about
potential negative noise, traffic and pollution
impacts on El Segundo from the $5.5 billion
project (which will provide passenger pick-up
options east of the airport to decrease vehicle
trips to LAX).
The subject of impacts—negative or
otherwise--on the community was a
common thread throughout 2017 as the City
Council also looked at a series of quality of
life issues within town. In November, the group
extended the moratorium on permit issuances
for marijuana-related land uses for another
year in order to monitor data and consult with
other agencies. The Council earlier in the year
adopted a new R-1 residential building code,
doing away with complicated modulation requirements
and instead establishing a set floor
area ratio (FAR) to control structure size (0.60
total, with 0.25 max for the top floor). The
members also passed a new oversized vehicle
ordinance to prohibit RV parking between 2
and 6 a.m. and setting additional restrictions,
while also providing a permit system for local
residents to keep their vehicles on the streets
up to 96 days a year and for as long as four
consecutive days.
Complying with a state mandate to allow
accessory dwelling units (ADUs) that in the
past were not permitted in El Segundo, the
Council opted to allow them in the future to
be stand-alone (as opposed to only attached to
an existing structure such as a garage) and up
to 1,200 square feet in size on a given property
provided it satisfies FAR requirements. Also
in the fall, City staff recommended a permit
system to regulate short-term rentals such as
Airbnb in El Segundo through restrictions on
property ownership, types of residences allowed,
maximum number of guests/rental days,
trash and signage. The proposal also looks at
parking requirements and transient occupancy
tax collection. The Council will next discuss
the item on January 16. The topic of drone
regulation also came up in the fall and will
be on a future agenda.
On the subject of housing and real estate in
general, property values continued their precipitous
rise in El Segundo during 2017 and the
community reported the highest year-over-year
See Year in Review, page 4
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