Wetlands Swap Should End

Dave Wielenga of The District Weekly called me earlier this week to ask if I knew that the owners of the "wetlands" being considered for swapping for valuable city property -- the public service yard in the First Council District -- were selling the oil and mineral rights underneath the property?

(see article: http://thedistrictweekly.com/2009/daily/writing-shotgun/exclusive-tom-dean-sellling-mineral-rights-to-los-cerritos-wetlands/?dsq=13113743#comment-13113743)

No.

Unreal. I originally brought this issue up earlier in the process of why the oil and mineral rights were not being included in any deal, especially since we know that the property will have to be cleaned up because of oil contamination. Was told the owner didn't want to sell them.

I guess that was before the Wall Street Journal just ran a story that crude oil will drop to $20 a barrel by the fall because of a glut and it must seem like the right time to bail out of the oil business.

Ok. Then that should put the city in a great position to get these rights. Afterall, we can use the monthly income which is at @$400,000 both for increased revenue and for paying to clean up the site.

Better yet. Stop this madness. We don't have any money. We just declared a fiscal crisis. The State doesn't have any money to buy the land from us.

The "wetlands" aren't going anywhere. The only value of the property is what is underneath and that's about to be sold to someone else.