Posted: July 30th, 2008

The Baldwin Hills Park alongside active oil fields in the historic heart of African-American Los Angeles will be a two-square mile park, the nation’s largest natural urban park in over 100 years. The Park will provide the diverse and park-poor region with much needed green space for recreation and health, conservation, education, and economic vitality.

The Greater Baldwin Hills Alliance is ensuring that the Baldwin Hills are clean and green for all for generations to come by engaging, educating, and empowering the community to regulate the oil fields.

There have been active oil wells in the Baldwin Hills for 84 years without any studies of the impact of the oil drilling on human health and the environment. Now, the oil field operator, Plains Exploration and Production Company (PXP), proposes to expand operations and drill up to 1,000 new wells in the next twenty years – a new well every week.

The Regional Planning Commission will hold the first of four scheduled public hearings on regulating the oil field on August 2, 2008, at 12 noon, West Los Angeles College, Room FA 100, 9000 Overland Avenue, Culver City, CA.

Come to the hearing, write to elected officials, support the Alliance, and ask for enough time to submit public comments on the draft environmental impact report (DEIR). The public comments are currently due August 19, 2008 — before the County releases its proposed Community Standards District (zoning regulations)! State Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas has called for an extension of time to study the DEIR and proposed regulations. According to Senator Ridley-Thomas, “It seems reasonable to me that if the County’s own Planning Commission needed an additional nine months to produce the DEIR, the community deserves at least an additional 30 days to review it.”

• Urge elected officials to extend the time for the public to be heard:

• Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Burke through Mike Bohlke, MBohlke@bos.lacounty.gov,

• Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas through Eric Boyd, Eric.Boyd@sen.ca.gov and (213) 745-6656,

• Speaker Karen Bass through Sylvia Castillo, (323) 937-4747

• Councilman Bernard Parks through Dennis Rodriguez, dennis.rodriguez@lacity.org

The Alliance’s draft Community Standards District and the DEIR are available at www.greaterbaldwinhillsalliance.org and www.baldwinhillsoil.org, along with upcoming hearings, important dates, and more.