Redondo Beach City Council approves next steps to develop AES Power Plant land

REDONDO BEACH—Redondo Beach’s AES power plant site has been a source of frustration for the last few years. What would the community do with it and what’s going to happen to the site in the future? However, it appears that Redondo Beach City Council has at long last signed off on that decision. Council members, at a May 7 Redondo Beach City Council meeting, voted on the consent calendar item to establish an Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District (EIFD) to finance construction to revert the power plant’s land into a wetlands sanctuary and parklands. In the staff report, it stated: “The city has a unique opportunity to create a coastal park, including wetlands restoration, on a portion of 50-acre Redondo AES power plant site. Portions of the site were acquired by a private party buyer in October 2018 with the balance of the site estimated to close by June 2019.” Within the Resolution of Intent, outlining how the city will accomplish its goals to form an EIFD, the staff report says the purpose of the project would be to enable the improvement of the property to include: open spaces, coastal access, a wetlands remediation and park lands among other environmental benefits to the area. Under...