*UPDATED WITH RESPONSE FROM DEAN’S LOBBYIST, MIKE MURCHISON
A hazardous-materials cleanup team in protective pajamas departed the site of an oil spill on Los Cerritos Wetlands property owned by developer/oilman Tom Dean at mid-morning today, but a sickly-shiny layer of petroleum remained on the surface of rain-filled ponds used by migrating waterfowl. So did bright yellow floating booms used [...]

I’m more than a little late on this one—it’s about 15 hours since the Press-Telegram’s Karen Robes-Meeks posted it—but the developer of the proposed Sierra Suites hotel that was approved by the California Coastal Commission on Wednesday afternoon, decided a few hours later not to go through with the project.
Why, you’re asking? Ironically, because I was out partying [...]

Shortly after swearing in its newest member—Santa Monica City Councilmember Richard Bloom, just appointed to replace Long Beach City Councilmember Suja Lowenthal—the California Coastal Commission today approved construction of the Sierra Suites Hotel in downtown Long Beach’s Pike at Rainbow Harbor shopping center by an 11-1 vote.
However, because rooms in the new hotel will be unaffordable [...]

Sean Hitchcock will resume his Magically Forgiven Tour on Thursday, when the well-connected owner of 2H Construction asks the Long Beach Planning Commission to let him off the hook for illegally desecrating wetlands-area property last spring. The meeting begins at 5 p.m. in the city council chamber at City Hall.
 The process of pardoning Hitchcock began almost immediately [...]

2H Construction’s Sean Hitchcock: He reads me! He really reads me!

PHOTO by DANIEL DE BOOM
In an exclusive interview with Sean Hitchcock, the wealthy and well-connected construction company owner who last spring ravaged nine acres of protected wetlands-area habitat near Studebaker Rd. and Loynes Dr. without bothering to get a city permit, The District Weekly has [...]

Will the city forgive Sean Hitchcock for his wetlands razing?

PHOTO by DAVE WIELENGA
Long Beach officials intend to quietly let Sean Hitchcock off the hook this week, nearly seven months after the well-connected developer plowed a protected wetlands area—which also happened to be a reconfigured toxic landfill—during two days of unmitigated disregard for city law, endangered [...]

State Sen. Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) has been named a 2009 California Coastal Hero by Sunset magazine and the California Coastal Commission, the senator’s office announced via electronic press release Thursday.
Lowenthal was honored for being someone who can “effectively negotiate the legislative process without ever losing sight of coastal protection,” the release tells us.

About a month before 2H Construction workers illegally graded that 8.38-acre wetlands parcel at Loynes Drive and Studebaker Road, 2H head Sean Hitchcock met with Third District Councilman Gary DeLong and Director of Development Services Craig Beck, city officials said at Tuesday night’s Beer & Politics discussion.

A new piece has emerged in Tom Dean’s puzzling plans for the Los Cerritos Wetlands area. The District Weekly has learned that a representative of the multi-millionaire developer’s Studebaker LLC showed up at Long Beach City Hall on Monday with a binder of full-color plans and filled out a permit to build a massive home improvement shopping [...]

A lawsuit against the City of Long Beach over its approval of a Home Depot and retail complex on the edge of the Los Cerritos Wetlands is being heard today in Norwalk Superior Court.
The suit was filed jointly by the University Park Estates Homeowners Association and the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust. It charges that the [...]