Redondo Beach City Council approves Harbor Village plan

REDONDO BEACH – The Redondo Beach City Council approved a resolution that will rid the waterfront of the AES power plant for the construction of restaurants, offices and single family homes. By passing the resolution 3-2 for the AES backed Harbor Village initiative, the company will remove its application from the California Public Utilities Commission to build a new power plant on its current site. A move that motivated several councilmembers to endorse the resolution. “This is, in my opinion, after dealing with this for so many years, a guaranteed way to get rid of the power plant,” Mayor Steve Apsel said. AES officials will have until November to gather the required signatures in support of the plan in order to place the initiative on the March 2015 ballot. The national energy company must gather signatures from at least 15 percent of voters. “We have developed what we think is a tremendous win-win solution that turns that preference of most people into a reality,” said Eric Pendergraft, AES Southland vice president of business development, “and that is the Harbor Village Plan to voluntarily plan not to pursue a power plant facility on the Redondo waterfront.” The initiative calls for the 50-acre site to be rezoned...