Residents Prevail in Forcing Freeport McMoRan Oil and Gas to Toe the Line
- Details
- Category: Community News
- Published on Friday, 13 June 2014 16:06
- Written by D.V. Lawrence
On Wednesday, June 4th, the South Los Angeles Planning Commission was scheduled to hear two appeals and public comment about the L.A. City Planning Dept., approval that allows the oil company, Freeport McMoRan Oil & Gas (FMOG), to expand its operations of the Murphy oil site (Adams and Gramercy) by placing a Clean Emission Burner (CEB) into the enclosed "park" at 27th and St. Andrews south of the controlled drill site. The appeals noted that the approval was provided without appropriate and adequate review, lacked transparency and accountability, and ensured that there would be no public input.
L.A. City Council President Herb Wesson announced at the hearing that he had brokered an agreement between the appellants (Michael Salman and Steven Peckman), the applicant (FMOG), and the Planning Department (Linn Wyatt, Chief Zoning Administrator):
1. FMOG will submit a Plan Approval application to Planning by around mid-June for placement of a CEB in the "park" land noted above.
2. FMOG agrees that the application will receive a full Zoning Administration review inclusive of a pubic hearing.
The agreement brokered by Council President Wesson and accepted by the South L.A. Planning Commission accomplishes the principal goals of the appeals and the appeals were withdrawn.
We should expect the assignment of the new FMOG application to a Zoning Administrator with experience and expertise in oil related quasi-judicial conditional use cases who will perform a complete review of the file and the application, ensure a site inspection, and conduct a public hearing in which public comment will be presented.
Information about the appeals as well as a timeline of events that led to the hearing today can be found at the Jefferson Park United website: http://jeffersonparkunited.org/category/site-topics/murphy-oil-site
Please stay tuned for more information about the Plan Approval application and the Zoning Administration public hearing.