The City Council’s overzealous approval in 2006 of a backassward environmental impact report (EIR) for a proposed Home Depot design center on the edge of the Los Cerritos Wetlands–a document that was ultimately rejected for its many inadequacies by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge in February of this year–may have saved Long Beach from another retail development fiasco.

Home Depot, Inc., announced early this month that it will close 15 existing stores and will reduce the number of planned new stores for the next three years. The home-improvement chain is being battered by the slumping housing market.

Had the City Council demanded a proper EIR from the developers of the proposed Home Depot design center, that project might have gone through–and in light of recent developments, fallen through. That would have left Long Beach with another spanking-new waterfront retail ghost town–something like a smaller, eastside version of the 369,000-square-foot downtown echo chamber known as The Pike at Rainbow Harbor.

Thank goodness, then, that the City Council rushed to approve the Home Depot project promoted by developer Tom Dean on Oct 3, 2006. The councilmembers were blinded by their eagerness to reap the $500,000 in annual sales-tax revenue that the shopping center was estimated to generate for Long Beach’s cash-strapped coffers…and maybe also the campaign contributions from the Dean, who is sometimes generous that way.

Councilwoman Bonnie Lowenthal–currently running for the state assembly–made the motion to approve the Home Depot, and Councilman Val Lerch quickly seconded it. They were joined by councilmembers Tonia Reyes Uranga–currently running against Lowenthal for that state assembly seat–Gary DeLong, Laura Richardson and Suja Lowenthal. Dissenters were Rae Gabelich, Patrick O’Donnell and Gerrie Schipske.

“As someone who has always worshiped at the altar of good planning and development, it pains me greatly,” Suja Lowenthal said that night. “But I am balancing what I know about land use in a perfect world with the realities of municipal financing. While this is in no way optimal, it is a reality left by Prop. 13.” 

However, the ultimate reality was that the EIR was so in-no-way-optimal that Judge John A. Torribio tore the thing to shreds in his preliminary ruling in December of 2007, then again when he finalized that decision in February of 2008. Torribio asserted the EIR “precludes informed decision making and informed public participation.”

And again, thank God for that, because the best-informed opinion about Home Depot–or the home-improvement superstore business in general–isn’t very good these days. Financial experts almost universally cheered Home Depot’s decision to close those 15 stores and curtail the opening of others. 

“We applaud these moves, given an industry we believe is nearing saturation, with a scarcity of attractive new locations,” Standard & Poor’s Equity analyst Michael Souers said in a research note.

“Demand will remain somewhat depressed for the next several years, especially in the U.S.,” said Zahid Siddique, a building products analyst with Gabelli & Co. “I don’t think there’s really any incremental benefit from opening these new stores.”

In a related development, a spokesman for Dean and the Home Depot project indicates that they are going to take run at re-doing that EIR. So the council will have another shot at screwing it up again–and if Long Beach’s luck holds, it’ll do just that. 

Tags: Add new tag, bonnie lowenthal, home depot, Los Cerritos Wetlands, patrick o'donnell, rae gabelich, suja lowenthal, The Pike at Rainbow Harbor, Tom Dean, Tonia Reyes Uranga, val lerch