2:50pm | The Long Beach City Council tonight will consider a recommendation to amend the proposed land swap to acquire a large amount of east Long Beach wetlands property in exchange for a public service yard on the westside.

The amendment will remove a four-acre parcel of the wetlands property from the deal because of difficulties and resistance in its acquisition. In return, City staff are proposing to remove 2.7 acres from the public service yard offering to maintain a 3:1 ratio in the deal. The original swap called for 37.77 acres of wetlands and 13.4 acres of public service yard.

When first proposed more than one year ago, the deal appeared to be a win-win as local developer Tom Dean offered his undeveloped wetlands property to the City for an unused service yard, allowing the City to restore and preserve what is left of the once expansive Los Cerritos Wetlands.

Since then, though, controversy had swirled around the deal as no one is quite sure whether or not there are contaminants in the wetlands soil that has essentially tainted them, greatly affecting their monetary worth. For this reason, some believe that Dean is receiving a sweetened deal in that the City-owned public service yard may actually be worth far more than the wetlands he is giving up.

Dean, as is his right, is refusing to allow the kind of investigation that would bring those findings into the open. He also retains lucrative rights to oil drawn from the property.

In August 2009, Dean told the staging-live.lbpost.com that the proposed swap had to be approved by the City Council that night or he would pull the deal from the table. (It was narrowly approved hours later, 5-4.) In December 2009, Dean told the Press-Telegram that the deal had to enter escrow by the end of the year. (It didn’t, but the deal wasn’t pulled.)

Many local environmental groups were once in favor of the swap and have since turned due to the perceived financial imbalance, although the City Council agenda item includes a letter of support from coastal ecologist, part-time CSULB faculty and Long Beach resident Eric Zahn which reads, in part:

After 220 years the rights to this land can be owned again by the people through the City of Long Beach and eventually through the Los Cerritos Wetlands Authority, a public entity that will restore the land to a wildlife sanctuary with endless beneficial uses.

The agenda item recommends speedy approval, in the interest of proceeding “with the exchange in a timely manner.” The report, authored by Director of Public Works Mike Conway, indicates that both parties have entered escrow on the property and expect to close by the end of the month.