One week before the County Regional Planning Commission is to decide whether to delay its recommendation vote on drilling in Baldwin Hills, the chief deputy for County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke told the newspaper this morning postponement is “unlikely.”
Responding to a community environment that is fraught with skepticism over gaining additional time to study complicated drilling documents, Mike Bohlke said that since it is likely the oil company will seek to resume drilling late next month, regulations need to be in place.
The drilling company, Plains, Exploration & Production, PXP, has not been heard from since last month. Steve Rusch, an executive vice president, has been on holiday, missing last week’s Planning Commission meeting. He was due back today, but was not responding to telephone calls.
The Planning Commission indicated at last Wednesday’s meeting that a potential postponement of its advisory vote to be forwarded to the Board of Supervisors could include a 60-day re-circulation of the Community Standards District, once revisions are completed.
No Need for Public Review
Mr. Bohlke said a re-circulation of the land use document among worried, protesting residents in the Culver Crest area was “unlikely because there are no grounds for doing so.”
He indicated that in Supervisor Brathwaite Burke’s view, it is strongly desirable that the present voting schedule — Planning Commission, Sept. 10, Board of Supervisors, Oct. 21 — remain untouched.
PXP’s voluntary moratorium on drilling expires in the third week of October, at which time it will file what is expected to be a worry-free application with the state agency in Sacramento handily known as DOGGR.
DOGGR does not require a California Environmental Quality Act review. Therefore, the CSD should be pushed through so that there is a land-use constitution in place when drilling resumes.
Meanwhile, over in Culver Crest some homeowners view the stance of the Supervisor’s office as “needlessly rigid and unfair to the public.”
Battling her cynicism, one resident told the newspaper today:
“I suspect that Supervisor Burke, and therefore the County staff that serves the Planning Commission, will join with PXP in vigorously opposing a postponement and re-circulation.
“To counter postponement, they will try to be exceptionally quick with revisions.
I predict it will become difficult to keep up with the moving target,” she said. “And the Planning Commissioners also will find that difficult.”