3 Big Victories: Playa Vista Sinks
By John
Davis
Multi-national corporations and
their local lackeys have been trying to build the largest development ever
foisted on the City of Angels in the Ballona Wetlands. We have laws here. There
are smart people here. The communities are galvanized to stop it, and now it is
over.
The developers, led by a failed mayoral
candidate, have met their match in the California Appellate Court. Apparently,
this Court sees justice and cannot be bullied or bribed and has leveled two
fatal decisions, bringing the project to its
knees.
The most recent good news is
that a band of environmental groups including Ballona Ecological Project (BEEP),
Ballona Land Trust, Surf Rider, Gabrielino Tongva Native Peoples, and the City
of Santa Monica proceeded to kick the living daylights out of Phase Two of the
mammoth super-sized project. The Appeals Court shut Phase Two down flat.
Any sane person would prefer to have
open space, clean sea air, roads that are not clogged, clean surface water and
groundwater for the droughts ahead than to be at the mercy such a tyrannical
development
First, here is a brief
description of the two lawsuits that are drowning Playa Vista. The most recent
suit filed by those mentioned above has had a whopping effect. The Court ordered
Phase Two of the project to be stopped and the Environmental Impact Report
tossed out. It said the City must start all over again on Phase Two based on
fraudulent up-zoning, improper evaluation of native remains, and failure to
prove the City Sewer System can handle all of the groundwater the Playa Vista
residents have to pump out of their basements. To make things worse for the
developers the water they have to discharge may be contaminated from a number of
former industrial uses.
Permits to
discharge waters to the surface or into the sewers and ultimately into waters of
the United States require permits to comply with the U.S. Clean Water Act, and
important State Environmental Acts that protect the public’s
water.
We cannot flush toxic waste down
our toilets into the sewer and neither can Playa Vista (legally), nor can they
pour toxics down into the street drains or Ballona
Creek.
Ground water is a big problem
for the developers. How to get rid of it, especially the polluted water, is the
primary Achilles heel of Playa
Vista.
Well, the multi-nationals and
their local lap dogs cheated and are now
caught.
In the first lawsuit ground
water was also the problem. The developers could not account for the effects of
groundwater discharges on the environment or on the methane mitigation systems
designed to keep people living at the project
safe.
Since the Court of Appeals
ordered the vacating of the methane approvals, the case has gone back down to
the Superior Court for Enforcement. The city and developers were ordered to
determine if a Subsequent or Supplemental Environmental Report was necessary and
to proceed under the California Environmental Quality
Act.
The city and developers are
currently claiming that the Appeals Court created a third implied option which
the court did not state, define or imply which would allow the city to not
conduct an SEIR and not to proceed under CEQA. The city’s stance is, of
course, absurd.
This case is winding
its way back to the Court of Appeals which will no doubt rule against the city
for not complying with its order. Currently those filing this suit, including
myself, have claimed to the local enforcing court that the City Attorney could
not advise the City Council and the City Council could not approve their recent
actions because of violations of the State Political Reform Act of 1972. (See
Beachhead Article: “On The Take, LA City Council and Attorney Accused of
Taking Playa Vista Bribes” May 2007)
If the environmentalists win at this
point in the lower court the city must start all over again on Phase One of the
Project and properly vacate the methane mitigations under which Phase One is and
can be occupied. Otherwise it is most likely that the Court of Appeals will shut
Phase One down for good in regard to safety reasons when the case reaches their
bench once again.
The Court of Appeals
does not seem like it will go easy on the developers if the most recent shutdown
is any indication. It would require the disapproval of the Certificates of
Occupancy if and until it is safe. This will cause a mass evacuation of Playa
Vista Phase One. And I feel sympathy for the people who have been duped into
spending their money on a home that the seller knew had not been proven safe to
live in under California law and was clouded by ongoing
litigation.
The city has allowed
thousands of people to live and work there now even though it has not complied
with the court order. If anyone dies as a result of a methane explosion the City
Council will have real blood on its hands, not only the blood of the exhumed
ancestors.
My read is that is will be a
short matter of time before real crimes will be revealed in this Chinatown
(movie) like real life drama.
I predict
this not only because of apparent intentional violations of the California Fair
Political Reform Act of 1972 but also because the Controller of the city of Los
Angeles recently conducted an audit of the project ending with conclusions that
were not supported by her findings. The conclusions were favorable to the
multi-nationals.
First Controller Laura
Chic went on KNBC TV 4 news to describe the Playa Vista audit.
Then she went on again to explain that
the President of the Playa Vista, Steven Soboroff, may have intimidated her and
her staff in a strong arm attempt to put a favorable spin on the audit. I
recommend readers view this footage on the KNBC website to draw their own
independent conclusion of this extraordinary history making footage. Go to
KNBC.com, type in Playa Vista and then push the search site button. Here are
some of the more disturbing quotes. The entire exchange is also in text
format.
Posted: Mon - October 1, 2007 at 08:18 PM