A development application has been submitted for the decommissioned Phillips 66 refinery site in Carson. The century-old refinery was closed at the end of last year, but the speculation over what will replace the industrial behemoth has been happening since the closure announcement in October 2024.
And now, the much-anticipated plans have been revealed for Carson, though the actual project likely remains a ways off. Following the demolition at the site, six industrial buildings will be construc
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A development application has been submitted for the decommissioned Phillips 66 refinery site in Carson. The century-old refinery was closed at the end of last year, but the speculation over what will replace the industrial behemoth has been happening since the closure announcement in October 2024.
And now, the much-anticipated plans have been revealed for Carson, though the actual project likely remains a ways off. Following the demolition at the site, six industrial buildings will be constructed for "general warehousing, high-cube fulfillment, and/or transload land uses," according to the development application from Catellus-Deca, LLC on behalf of Phillips 66.
The project, dubbed the Diamond Gateway, will span about 223 acres with 3.91 million square feet of building floor area. In addition to the industrial buildings, there will also be two on-site parking lots for truck or trailer parking and electric vehicle charging. Additional site improvements will include internal circulation drive aisles, truck loading areas, parking for employees, vendors and visitors; as well as landscaping, signage and utility infrastructure.
This is only part of the entire Phillips 66 Los Angeles Refinery site, however. The defunct refinery spans 659 acres across two facilities, one in Carson and the other in Wilmington, connected by a five-mile pipeline. But when it comes to redevelopment, the planning is split by jurisdiction. This is largely because Carson decided it wanted to have a say.
After the closure announcement in 2024, Carson quickly placed a moratorium on project proposals and passed a general plan amendment that gives City Council final approval of redevelopment plans.
Since that moratorium went into place, Mayor Lula Davis-Holmes said, Carson has required the site to have a specific plan that keeps land-use discretion with the City Council, has hired environmental consultants to assess the site and another consultant to monitor the decommissioning process to ensure Phillips 66 follows all state and federal laws.
There will also be a development agreement with the city that will "propose community benefits (such as financial contributions toward city initiatives and projects that support infrastructure throughout the city)," according to the MOU.
This agreement has not yet been reached.
Phillips 66, for its part, has said it will work with Carson and all regulatory agencies to complete the level of remediation deemed necessary and achievable, a company spokesperson said. "This oversight will continue during and after future redevelopment work," the spokesperson said in a statement, "which is in the very early stages of processing."
While the development plan for the Carson portion of the site is just being announced, the plans for the Wilmington portion of the site (which is in the city of Los Angeles) have been in the works for months.
L.A. has largely taken a back seat, letting Phillips 66 dictate redevelopment as long as it complies with state environmental, development and zoning regulations.
L.A. Councilmember Tim McOsker, whose 15th District includes Wilmington, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. But when the refinery's closure was first announced, in 2024, McOsker said L.A. will work "closely with Phillips 66, their employees and our community to make sure that we're supporting all who are impacted."
The proposed plan is a massive mixed-use project, called Five Points Union, which would feature retail, outdoor space, indoor sports complexes and much more.
"The proposed redevelopment of these properties transforms industrial properties that have been inaccessible to the public for nearly a century into a publicly accessible Town Center with restaurants, playgrounds, outdoor gathering spaces and sports facilities," the Phillips 66 spokesperson said. "In addition, a Commerce Center will provide new jobs to fuel economic prosperity.
"Redevelopment maximizes the value of the land for both shareholders and the community," the spokesperson added, "(and) creates potential synergy with their proximity to the Port of Los Angeles and reduces emissions."
But no matter what is built on the decommissioned sites, hefty environmental remediation will be needed, according to environmental attorney Ann Alexander.
"The reality is that is never possible," Alexander said in a Wednesday interview about restoring the land to a pre-refinery state. "It's not possible with most industrial sites and certainly not with something like a refinery."
For more than a century, the refinery has been polluting the surrounding groundwater and air in areas that are now residential.
And with the refinery producing toxic chemicals such as gasoline, diesel, aviation fluid, petroleum coke, propane, butane, elemental sulfur and food-grade carbon dioxide, those living in the area have reported increased health issues like asthma and even cancer.
The Phillips 66 Carson refinery, in fact, has contributed to about 64% of the excess cancer risk in the area, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Wilmington site is even worse -- with almost 87% of excess cancer risk being traced back to the refinery.
Rainbow Yeung, a spokesperson with the South Coast Air Quality Management District, has said that air pollution in the area surrounding the refinery is not only higher than other parts of the South Coast Air Basin, but also has some of the highest pollution burdens in the entire nation.
"These areas have nicknames," said K Sanchez, a research and organizing assistant with the Asian Pacific Environmental Network. "There's the asthma boulevard; there's the cancer corridor."
And in 2024, a federal grand jury returned an indictment against Phillips 66 for illegally dumping close to 800,000 gallons of toxic wastewater from the Carson facility into the L.A. County sewer system.
The L.A. Water Board, meanwhile, has had its eye on the Carson refinery since 1994, when a troubling discovery was made beneath the facility -- a 13-foot deep "lake of oil." Since then, Phillips 66 has been ordered to pump out the toxic waste and treat the contaminated water.
But the refinery, Alexander has said, is nowhere near finished cleaning up what was discovered in 1994, which itself may pale in comparison to what is discovered once all equipment is removed.
"The contamination that they describe, in particular at the Carson site, is pretty catastrophically bad," Alexander said. "They've been looking at the water quality and finding that there is some pretty heavy contamination there that's going to have to be dealt with."
The Phillips 66 spokesperson said the company has complied with all regulations imposed by the L.A. Water Board, EPA and AQMD.
"Phillips 66 has leveraged various resources and continuously worked with regulators to address environmental impacts over the years," the spokesperson said in a written statement. "It's also important to note that Phillips 66 has systems in place to confine, control and recover groundwater."
Toxic levels of dangerous chemicals, however, have been found in both groundwater and soil, creating a large plume spanning the majority of the property and producing benzene, a known carcinogen, in addition to gasoline chemicals.
Ensuring the site is cleaned up is a top priority for those who live near the refinery.
"Most of all, what they want is remediation," Sanchez said. "They want to be able to know that they're not just being left with a lake of oil; they're not just being left with a cloud of smog."
The development application does not yet outline specific remediation methods, likely because it is unknown until the equipment is removed and because remediating contamination of this magnitude is largely unprecedented.
The Shell Carson refinery, for example, operated as a refinery for almost 70 years before converting to a distribution terminal in 1992 and cleanup efforts are still ongoing.
About 1 million pounds of petroleum hydrocarbons, 205,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil, 989,000 gallons of oil, and more than 900 million gallons of contaminated water and other liquids have been removed from the Shell site since 1992, said L.A. Water Board spokesperson Ailene Voisin.
But there is still no estimated date, Voisin said, for when the cleanup will be done.
That is why Davis-Holmes directed Carson staff in October to create a task force of environmental experts, city officials and community members to get ahead of the process. The task force, though, has not been created yet because "the city is currently discussing its structure internally," according to Nathan Freeman, director of Community & Economic Development for Carson.
"The project is currently under active review, including evaluation of the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and supporting technical studies," Freeman said in a statement. "At this stage, it would be premature to express the City's position or speculate on potential outcomes before the full record has been evaluated. Staff's role is to conduct an objective review of the project, including environmental analysis, public input, and potential impacts, so decision makers have complete information when the matter comes forward for consideration."
Sanchez, however, said that APEN has been disappointed in the city's outreach efforts. A public meeting, for example, took place two weeks ago to discuss the Diamond Gateway project, but the only community members present were those that APEN solicited.
"We were a little blindsided," Sanchez said. "The whole point of that task force being made would be for the community to have a say from day one on what the process was going to be and what the site was going to look like."
There will be no more public scoping meetings, Freeman said, but the community can submit any comments, concerns or questions on the project until June 11. After that, there will be a formal environmental impact review process and a review by city staff.
"We are trying to say that no matter where you are in the process, no matter what the process is and no matter what level of technological knowledge a resident has or not, they deserve to be there," Sanchez said. "They deserve to have their concerns heard and really, genuinely engaged with because they are the ones who are going to have to live with the demolition and they are the ones who are going to have to live with the development."
Public comments on the proposed development can be submitted to McKina Alexander, Carson's planning manager, by emailing malexander@carsonca.gov and planning@carsonca.gov, or calling 310-952-1761, ext. 1326. Comments can also be mailed to City Hall, 701 E. Carson St.