Babbitt signs on with Hyundai to fight against enviro-extremist Patterson to allow Hyundai to build test track in desert.
Babbit, who was instrumental as the secretary of the interior for the Clinton administration has aparrently changed side on enviromental issues.
Valley Press Article

Hyundai-Kia test track goes up on disputed land
This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press on Monday, March 22, 2004.
By ALLISON GATLIN
Valley Press Staff Writer



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CALIFORNIA CITY - After clearing numerous hurdles, the long-awaited Hyundai-Kia test track is under way in California City.
Construction crews are working two shifts a day, six days a week at the site, Mayor Larry Adams said.

However, legal issues still haunt the project.

The Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, alleging the service did not properly consider the project's impacts on the threatened desert tortoise and Mohave ground squirrel.

"The Bush administration is jeopardizing endangered species by unwisely rushing construction permits before securing conservation lands," said Daniel R. Patterson, Center for Biological Diversity desert ecologist, in a statement announcing the lawsuit.

"They couldn't have picked a worse spot environmentally" to build the track, he said. In addition to the desert tortoise and Mohave ground squirrel, the site also includes a Joshua tree woodland.

"From an environmental habitat perspective, this is a really rich site."

Although the organizations do not have specific acceptable measures in mind, "we are going to be aggressively pursuing this litigation; we're going to be trying every option we have," Patterson said. "The government is like a runaway train that should never have gotten started."

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials could not be reached for comment regarding the lawsuit.

"We've done everything we're supposed to do," Cal City's Adams said. "We didn't start work until we had permission."

The environmental assessment of the site found 19 desert tortoises, Adams said. Those will be relocated to the 4,400 acres Hyundai is providing as a preserve. The company also is providing a $1.5 million endowment for tortoise protection.

"They've done about all they can do," Adams said. "Those tortoises now have more money than I do."

A second lawsuit has been filed against the city by four landowners, whose land was claimed for the project through eminent domain.

A federal judge has rejected the landowners' request for an injunction to stop Hyundai from building on the disputed land, which totals 60 acres.

Jim Swain said he's sure Hyundai eventually will get the 10 acres he and his sister own.

"I think they've already won," said Swain, a retired Disney film editor living in Burbank. "We know that they're going to get our property. It's just whether we're going to get any money for it."

The facility site, at the southern edge of the city along Highway 58, was annexed by the city in July 2003 in an exchange with Kern County for land at the city's northern boundaries.

Approximately 80% of the land was owned by a railroad firm and purchased by the automaker in 2002.

The rest of the land consists of 211 lots, approximately half of which were purchased in early 2003.

An appraiser hired by the city's redevelopment agency estimated the land's value at about $1,000 an acre. Many of the landowners sold to the agency, some after negotiating the price up to $1,400 an acre, said Todd Amspoker, an attorney for the city.

A judge awarded possession of the disputed land, held by 100 or so property owners including Swain and his sister, to the redevelopment agency, which then gave it to Hyundai. The agency will have to pay the fair market value for the land, which will be decided by a jury, Amspoker said. The automaker is reimbursing the agency for its costs.

The project's backers say the land meets the state's definition of "urbanized and blighted," even if it doesn't look that way to the naked eye.

Amspoker said California Health and Safety Codes grant government agencies permission under eminent domain to take land made of "subdivided lots of irregular form and shape and inadequate size for proper usefulness and development that are in multiple ownership." Critics say the legal language was intended to describe slums and abandoned buildings, not open space.

"The whole redevelopment scam makes a mockery of the English language," said Chris Norby of Orange County, a critic of such redevelopment actions and statewide director of Municipal Officials for Redevelopment Reform. "Blight would be slums that breed crime and juvenile delinquency. Blight would be overcrowded apartments and leaky plumbing. Blight would be places like the South Bronx or areas of Detroit. Blight would not be the Mojave Desert in California." Construction is under way at the track, although environmentalists also hope to halt it.

Hyundai said it is protecting and relocating the species and hired Bruce Babbitt, former President Bill Clinton's former secretary of the Interior Department, to win permits for the project.

Some in the city say the landowners should take what the agency is offering. Real estate agent Katy Gagnon said she recently sold 102 acres in a better location for $1,000 an acre.

The legal actions have not impeded work on the track, City Manager Jack Stewart said.

"So far, the suits and actions are going in favor of the project, and we're continuing on," he said.

The furious pace of construction is in order to make up for delays in the permitting process. The facility is still on track to open in July, Adams said.

The major contractor in charge of the test track, grading, roads, water lines and other infrastructure is Sukut Construction of Santa Ana. Condex Construction of Los Angeles will erect the buildings.

Hyundai-Kia intends to use the test track facility to test vehicles from its newest plant in Alabama.

The facility will be used by the company to test prototype vehicles in a variety of situations and will employ about 50 skilled workers and administrative staff full time. Another 50 will be seasonal or part-time employees. Engineers and consultants from Hyundai America Technical Center will also be visiting the facility. The facility will include a 6.4-mile oval track, a vehicle dynamics area, a vehicle-handling course, a paved hill road and several special surface roads. A 30,000-square-foot office complex will be built on the site.

Besides jobs and income for local businesses, Stewart said the city will net between $200,000 and $300,000 a year in taxes

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

agatlin@avpress.com

Sounds to me like Hyundai will be hiring test drivers soon.

Those are some rich ass torti.

They probably used the same "science" they did to count the turtles as they did the PMV. Assholes! Too bad Patterson wasn't hangin' out with BS in the tree house when the fire came through.

It's interesting to me that CBD and Patterson got to this project, way late in the process, when just east of here they were successful in getting BLM to close most of the Rand Mountain/Fremont Valley area to motorized recreation as part of the latest settlement of the Desert lawsuit.

Oh, Patterson et.al. will make some waves on this, but too much water has crossed under the bridge at this point for any chance at stopping this project at this time. Construction (and thus habitat disturbance) has already begun. I can’t see what success in their legal efforts will accomplish for them as it may apply to this project.

Instead, I believe that they are going through the motions to set up another challenge in the future for complete closure of the Rand area to our recreation.

What about the use of eminent domain to take property from one party and give it to another? How is forcing people to sell their property a good thing?