More LA City Defeated Loserness: (PLAYA VISTA): Quit Breaking The Law And Quit Getting Bitch Slapped By Anyone And Everyone You Corrupt Criminals

HEY LOS ANGELES CITY COUNCIL...STOP -- BREAKING -- THE -- LAW!!! Are you capable of that?

CAN'T THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES GET ONE F-ING THING RIGHT? IS THERE ANYTHING THEY DO THAT CAN WITHSTAND A LEGAL CHALLENGE? FOLLOW THE LAW! MY PATIENCE IS RUNNING OUT! I'M NOT CUTTING YOU A-HOLES ANYMORE BREAKS. IT'S ABOUT TO GET REEAAAAAAAAAAAAL UNCOMFORTABLE FOR A FEW FOLKS ON THE THIRD AND FOURTH FLOOR. ZAPPERS...IT'S TIME. I SAY WE LAUNCH NOW!

APPEALS COURT WIPES OUT EXPANSION OF PLAYA VISTA DEVELOPMENT, LARGEST IN CITY OF LOS ANGELES

In Huge Loss, Developer Not Only Loses Their Building Permits, But Also Their Zoning Allowing Mega-Development There

California Court of Appeal Overturns L.A. City Council's Approval to Expand the Playa Vista Development [What a bunch of shady criminal investigation targets we have running the City.]

Court Rules L.A. City Violated State and Local Environmental Laws [As usual!] CLICK READ MORE FOR THE STORY


Ballona Southeast Safe for Now

LOS ANGELES –(September 13th, 2007) – The California Court of Appeal today overturned all approvals of the 111 acre Phase 2 of the massive Playa Vista development in West Los Angeles – essentially stopping the project – because the City of Los Angeles violated state and local environmental laws.

The court’s landmark ruling is a major victory for the citizens of Los Angeles, the environment, civil rights of Native Americans, and overall quality of life in Los Angeles. The ruling covers two consolidated cases involving groups as diverse as Ballona Wetlands Land Trust, the Tongva/Gabrieleno Tribal Council of San Gabriel, city of Santa Monica, Surfrider Foundation and Ballona Ecosystem Education Project.

The Court ruled: “We conclude that the [Environmental Impact Report on the project] was deficient in its analysis of land use impacts, mitigation of impacts on historical archaeological resources, and wastewater impacts.”

ALL WORK MUST BE HALTED ON THE 111 ACRE SITE:

In addition, the Court ordered all project activities cease immediately: “All construction activities on the project by any person are hereby ordered to be stayed effective immediately. The superior court is directed to issue an order enjoining all project activities that it finds would prejudice the City’s consideration or implementation of mitigation measures or alternatives and that could result in an adverse change to the physical environment, until the City fully complies with CEQA.”

The Court’s injunction is much tougher than those usually granted to land use lawsuits: “The relief can be limited to those portions of the determination, finding, or decision or to specific project activities that are not in compliance with CEQA, but only if the court finds that those portions or activities are severable, that severance will not prejudice full compliance with CEQA, and that the remainder of the project is not in noncompliance with CEQA…We conclude that the misleading analysis of land use impacts, failure to discuss preservation in place of historical archaeological resources, and failure to properly analyze wastewater impacts rendered the EIR as a whole deficient as an informational document, and that these matters collectively are not severable from the project as a whole.” (Page 113)

The full ruling may be read at the Court’s website:
http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/nonpub/B189630.DOC

The Court of Appeal directed that all City approvals be overturned and permits revoked. The City must now comply with the California Environmental Quality Act, write a new Environmental Impact Report (“EIR”) and hold new public hearings. They must respond to public comments and give the public and City Council an opportunity to reconsider the proposed project or some alternative to it.

HOW PLAYA VISTA LOST THEIR RIGHT TO BUILD A MEGA-PROJECT:
THE FALSE DOWNZONING (ISSUE IS IN BEEP’S CASE) :

Playa Vista’s 111-acre Phase 2 is the largest, undeveloped, privately-owned parcel of land in the City of Los Angeles. Until today’s ruling, the development was to include 2600 dwelling units, 175,000 square feet of office space, 150,000 square feet of retail space and 40,000 square feet of other uses adding 24,000 new daily car trips and paving over a portion of the historic Ballona Wetlands ecosystem, favorably known as “Ballona Southeast.”

The Appeals Court found that Playa Vista did not have the right to build this huge project, despite that they claimed otherwise.

The Land Use impact analysis that the court found so troubling was that the project was claimed as a huge downzoning, and therefore a huge down-sizing of impacts to the surrounding communities compared to a project Playa Vista claimed they were legally entitled to build. Playa Vista claimed they had the right to build a project including over 2.5 million square feet of office and retail space that would dump 36,000 cars a day onto local streets. In contrast, Playa Vista touted their proposed condominium and office/retail project as dumping only 24,000 cars a day onto local streets, and that this was a huge concession based on what they were legally allowed. The Court agreed with BEEP that Playa Vista was not allowed to build this threatened project, but only 108,000 square feet of office space on the 111 acre site. The actual zoning of the site allowed a development that would dump 1568 cars a day onto local streets, or a difference between what Playa Vista claimed they were entitled to and the true zoning of 15 to 1. So what Playa Vista and the City claimed was a huge downsizing of their project was in fact a huge increase in Playa Vista’s development rights. The public had a right to know the true project that was being considered by the City Council. The court repeatedly called the City and developer’s statements “untrue”, describing the project’s environmental analysis as “illusory” and “materially misleading”.

The reason Playa Vista claimed they were entitled to such a huge project was based on proposals they had made in the 1990’s. However, the Court agreed with BEEP that Playa Vista had used up those development rights in their 300-plus acre First Phase project approved in 1993 and 1995, , which was marked by controversies over wetlands, endangered species, traffic and a huge taxpayer-subsidized benefit package granted by then-Governor Pete Wilson and then-Mayor Richard Riordan.

Because Playa Vista and the City claimed that the zoning of the land allowed such a huge amount of development, it tainted the review of the legally mandated alternatives to the project, such as a regional park or wetlands restoration, by making them all “infeasible” due to the cost of buying the land.

The Court’s action returns the zoning on the land back to the 108,000 square foot office building that was the true zoning at the beginning of the EIR process.

Rex Frankel, Director of the Ballona Ecosystem Education Project stated, “If Playa Vista wants to build more than that, they will have to honestly admit to the public what they want and why they should be granted such a huge upzoning gift by the City Council, and why they deserve even more corporate welfare than they got in their first phase project. This victory for the people of Los Angeles is a victory for telling the truth on development decisions. The Court didn’t accept the developer’s masquerade about benefits to the public that didn’t actually exist. Playa Vista and the City threatened the public with a monster development that they could never build as a club to beat us into submission and accept a slightly smaller, but still enormous, project. In fact, the Court agreed with us that Playa Vista never had the right to build this monster project.”

Tax deductible donations to BEEP’s legal fund can be mailed to BEEP at P.O. Box 451153, Los Angles, CA 90045

IMPACTS ON SANTA MONICA BAY AND SACRED ARCHEOLOGICAL SITES (ISSUES ARE IN SANTA MONICA/BALLONA WETLANDS LANDS TRUST/SURFRIDER/TONGVA TRIBE CASE) :

Tom Francis of the Ballona Wetlands Land Trust stated, “The Court has given the City Council another chance to get it right. The Council can save taxpayers millions of dollars, clean up Santa Monica Bay, and avoid increased traffic congestion by approving the alternative to more development at Ballona: a natural treatment wetland with parks. We trust Councilman Bill Rosendahl and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will say “no” to more developer-driven land use planning, and lead the way to greening Los Angeles by supporting alternatives such as this one.”

Surfrider Foundation’s California Policy Coordinator, Joe Geever, responded: “We are ecstatic that this issue is finally seeing the light of day. Our major concern was that the City was approving more pressure on out-dated sewage treatment capacity and unabated urban runoff without fully understanding the additional adverse impacts on coastal and ocean water quality and human health risks.”

The Court ruled that the City of Los Angeles, in its environmental review of the project, failed to discuss methods or options of requiring Playa Vista to preserve in place archaeological sites, including Native American gravesites, impacted by the massive development. By omitting this discussion, the City “effectively precluded both meaningful public participation and informed decisionmaking with respect to the decision on mitigation measures.” The Court required the City to return the drawing board on the project, noting that the City had the discretion under CEQA to consider restoring archaeological resources to their prior resting places if already disturbed by Playa’s development.

In dealing with sewage, the EIR admitted that Playa Vista would cause the City’s Hyperion treatment plant to overflow, and therefore require expansion. But the EIR contained no evaluation of the impacts on Santa Monica Bay from the Hyperion expansion that was necessitated by the Playa Vista project.

Numerous health and safety issues to residents and the environment have plagued Playa Vista since its inception. Media investigations have exposed a series of methane dangers at Playa Vista including methane gas leaking through the so-called impermeable membranes placed under buildings at Playa Vista Phase 1.

[You shady dumbasses.]