State lawmakers introduced legislation last week that would expedite legal challenges to Farmers Field, the $1.2 billion proposed football stadium to be built in downtown Los Angeles by Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG).
“This bill has the support of legislators from both houses and both parties,” said State Sen. Alex Padilla Padilla [D-Los Angeles, 20th District]. “It would pave the way for the most environmentally friendly sports stadium in the country, in addition to putting thousands of people to work. The bill is a culmination of many weeks of discussions that will allow a thorough and expeditious judicial review of the Los Angeles Convention Center and events center project upon completion of a full [environmental impact review]. There are a number of reasons I am authoring the bill but three most important are jobs, jobs and jobs.”
The bill would allow legal challenges to the stadium’s environmental impact report to be heard immediately in the California Court of Appeal, which would then come to a decision within 175 days. The expedited process would bypass the Superior Court and avoid the protracted litigation about which AEG is concerned.
Earlier, AEG president and CEO Tim Leiweke said that progress on the stadium would come to a halt if lawmakers didn’t introduce special legislation to protect AEG from frivolous lawsuits under the California Environmental Quality Act.
“We’ve made it very clear that we will not move forward without this,” Leiweke said. “We cannot and will not move forward with this project with that uncertainty hanging over our head because the [National Football League] will not commit to Farmers Field with that uncertainty hanging over our head.”
A competing stadium proposal in the city of Industry has been “shovel-ready” for two years after developer Ed Roski secured an exemption to the California Environmental Quality Act in 2009. The ruling exempts the Industry project from state environmental laws and protects it from environmental lawsuits. Legislators were roundly criticized for passing the exemption, making it virtually impossible for AEG to secure a similar deal for their stadium proposal.
AEG pledged to build a carbon-neutral stadium with more public transit users than any other stadium in the country and have committed to making Farmers Field one of the only stadiums in the country to have a net-zero carbon footprint. Leiweke promised that AEG will complete the most extensive environmental review in the history of downtown Los Angeles. The project’s environmental impact report is expected to exceed 10,000 pages.
The bill could face opposition from lawmakers in San Diego, Oakland and San Francisco due to the perception that one of those cities’ teams may be the franchise to move to the Los Angeles area. The legislation has also been criticized by environmentalists, many of whom are uncertain of AEG’s claim that Farmers Field will have the lowest cars-per-ticket holder ratio of any pro football stadium in the country.
