While some Culver City residents have been highly critical of PXP, homeowners in Baldwin Hills and members of the conservancy are tacking a different route. These environmentally conscious citizens are looking toward the future, as well as the present, in order to realize their goal of creating an area of vast parkland, open space and a wildlife habitat. And while they pledge to remain vigilant of the activity of oil drilling that surrounds them, they are seeking to sponsor an environment of cooperation and trust, as well as green space and lush landscape.

Last year, Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke authored a temporary county ordinance that limited the oil and gas company’s operations in the Inglewood oil field after an incident with an odorous but non-toxic gas attributed to oil drilling. That order served as the prelude to a more extensive environmental review that the county has planned. "We are currently in the process of environmental review and are moving forward with it," the supervisor announced in an interview with the News last month.

Several of the members of the Culver Crest Homeowners Association who were awaked by the odors from the oil well are still wary of the motives of PXP. They were one of a handful of groups that were not informed when PXP applied for 24 oil wells last year. The Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources, the state agency that initiates environmental review on the wells and handles the notification to all pertinent parties of the applications, issued a negative declaration for the wells that has been contested by the hillside residents.

"The Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources, which among other responsibilities inspects wells to protect public safety and the environment, far exceeded the requirements of [the California Environmental Quality Act] in notifying the public about the consideration of 24 oil well applications last December," wrote Don Drysdale of DOOGR’s media relations department in an e-mail in response to a News inquiry regarding the negative declaration.

"Initially, this included more than 30 parties, including state and local government entities and citizen groups," Drysdale continued. "Several entities that were not listed but have expressed interest in the project have since been added to the contact list."

Unlike members of the Culver Crest Homeowners board, David McNeill, the conservancy’s executive director, does not feel that the oil company has been dishonest in its dealings with the parties that will be involved in the activities on the hillside. "We’re in a good paradigm shift from prior years, when there was no mention of an EIR or interim ordinance," McNeill said via phone from his Baldwin Hills office. In recent years, the conservancy’s director says, PXP has made a concerted effort to work cooperatively with its hillside neighbors, including the conservancy.

"We are trying to reach out to the conservancy in any way that we can," Steven Rusch, vice president of Environmental, Health, Safety and Governmental Affairs for PXP, said on Tuesday. The oil firm will be working in conjunction with the conservancy’s board on items such as landscaping and beautification projects in the Baldwin Hills.

That is an area of importance which Mary Anne Greene takes very seriously. "We do engage [PXP] in discussions and they have attended many of our meetings," Greene, a long-time Blair Hills civic and environmental activist, said. "We have both been working on things that can be done nominally that can help us continue our vision [of the park]."

The conservancy board is looking forward to the complete environmental examination, and believes that the interim order that restricts PXP in their drilling operations is sufficient until an EIR is performed. "Right now, we are educating the public, and ourselves, on what the ordinance means," McNeill explained. "I believe that the ordinance is often misunderstood, and PXP has pretty much complied with those stipulations that are in the interim ordinance."

The ordinance temporarily restricts "the drilling of new wells and deepening of existing wells, and initiates a zoning study that to consider potential permanent regulations of these historic oil and gas producing operations in that area, including a determination of the appropriate environmental review required." It went into effect on June 22 last year, and is due to expire after a year. The edict can be renewed for an additional 12 months in June.

Culver City, the homeowners on the crest, the Southern California Air Quality Management District and the Los Angeles Water Quality Control Board all have issued substantial comments on the state environmental document that DOGGR disseminated. The City Project, a Los Angeles-based organization that works with various communities on matters involving the environment and public policy, also weighed in on the negative declaration, and its representatives disagree that the temporary order restricting oil production and the negative declaration on the latest oil wells is satisfactory. "A negative declaration does not provide enough information about the oil wells," asserts Robert García, the group’s executive director. "The community has not had an adequate opportunity to be heard on this." Referring to the organizations that were not notified about the new applications, García accused the oil company of trying to "slide the negative declaration past the community."

"There is no basis to suggest that the temporary ordinance can take the place of an EIR," City Project’s director continued. He accused PXP of "piecemealing more wells without environmental review."

Rusch denies any ulterior motives or subterfuge by the oil and gas company. In a letter sent to the homeowners who live in Culver Crest, he attempted to explain what had transpired after DOGGR failed to alert them to the latest well permits. "On behalf of Plains Exploration and Production Company, I reiterate my apology for the Culver Crest Homeowners Association not being placed on the Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources notification list and for personally failing to notify CCHA of the DOGGR notice of our application to drill 24 wells in Los Angeles County," Rusch wrote to the president of the association, Mark Salkin, in January. "It was truly an oversight on my part and was not premeditated, no matter how it might appear."

The City Project, formerly known as the Center for Law in the Public Interest, has a bonafide history of activism in Baldwin Hills. In 2001, the group joined residents of Blair Hills and Baldwin Hills to stop a proposed power plant that would have been built where many homeowners reside. "That was a huge victory for us," said García. Two years later, it joined concerned homeowners like Greene and others to beat back an attempt to build what was euphemistically described as a solid waste transportation center, and what García and other called "a garbage dump."

Last year, when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger suggested eliminating several of the state’s conservancies, including Baldwin Hills, García’s group again united with the hillside neighbors in protesting the closures. Schwarzenegger eventually backed away from closing the conservancies.

"We are still waiting to hear the response from DOGGR," said McNeill. "It is an educational process with DOGGR and other agencies like the county water board."

McNeill believes that the oil company and each public agency involved should be allowed to realize its proper legal course of action; that way, the process and the transition to complete environmental examination will proceed much smoother. "Everyone has a role to fill, and they should be allowed to do so," the executive director reasoned.

Greene, who is a member of the conservancy board, welcomes anyone who will assist in turning the dream of an urban park into a reality. "I will work with everyone who wants to see [the park] go forward," she said. Recognizing the need for all parties on the hillside to coexist, Greene acknowledged that the oil company, which has been operating in Baldwin Hills for more than 80 years, has a right to drill for oil. "But they also have the special responsibility to take into account the heath and safety of everyone in Baldwin Hills, and to be good neighbors," she added.

García applauds the decision to begin the process of the EIR, but would like to see it conducted on the 24 new well applications as well. "Why not make [the new wells] part of the EIR?" he asked. "The fact that the negative declaration is not adequate heightens the need for more thorough environmental review."

PXP is in the process of completing its application for a Community Standards District, which will trigger the EIR. A community standards district is "a specific overlay zone that is tailored to the needs of a specific community," explained Maria Masis, principal planning assistant of the Los Angeles Regional Planning Office. "When PXP submits its application, we can begin the EIR process."

The conservancy is taking nothing for granted with PXP, including assuring themselves of an active role in participating in the EIR and monitoring the new oil wells. But McNeill and the board stressed that they prefer to look forward, not behind. "If PXP does not continue to take into account the safety and health of the public, that could be its Achilles heel," he noted. "But in the last four months, they have created a new relationship with the conservancy.

"There’s new paradigm, a good paradigm now," the conservancy director repeated. "We’ll have to see how everything evolves."