Galanter Calls for New Impact Study on Summa Project

Unable to persuade the Summa Corp. to scale down its proposed $1-billion Playa Vista project, Los Angeles Councilwoman Ruth Galanter has turned to the city’s vast environmental review powers to chip away at the development.

In a letter to the environmental review section of the city’s Planning Department, Galanter last week called for a new environmental impact report on the project, which would reopen the controversial development to extensive public scrutiny. In separate letters, two nearby homeowner organizations also called for a new report.

‘Flawed’ Report

Planning officials, in reviewing development plans submitted by Summa in May for a large chunk of the 887-acre project, recommended that the company provide a supplemental study--a document less comprehensive than a new report. The supplemental information would update an environmental impact report approved by the City Council in 1985, when about 800 acres of the project area were annexed by the city.

But in her letter, Galanter described the 1985 report as “flawed” and said it was based on “inadequate and inaccurate information.” Moreover, she said, several changes during the past three years “suggest that it is time for a thorough reassessment of the situation.”

Among the changes she cited:

Federal interest in designating portions of the project as wetlands.

Concerns that a deep underground water table could make portions of the project unsuitable for high-rise buildings.

New city limits on sewer hookups.

Stricter federal air quality requirements for the Los Angeles area.

Plans for several major commercial and residential projects near Playa Vista.

Dwindling landfill capacity.

Worsening traffic congestion on the Westside.

Galanter, who is on vacation in New York this week, could not be reached for comment. Jim Bickhart, her legislative deputy, said the letter followed nearly a year of negotiations with Summa about reducing the size of the massive project, which will include residential, office, hotel and retail areas south of Marina del Rey.

Pledge to Compromise

Galanter had pledged during her election campaign last year to sit down with Summa officials and work out a compromise to scale back the project, which had become a rallying point for opponents of then-Councilwoman Pat Russell, a strong supporter of the development.

Galanter had said she hoped to cut the project by about 40%, but Bickhart and Summa officials said this week that negotiations collapsed in May shortly before the company submitted subdivision plans to the city for two large portions of the project.

“This was the logical next step,” Bickhart said of Galanter’s letter. “When sitting down and trying to reason with them didn’t accomplish anything, then the next thing obviously was to deal with the regulatory process.”

Summa spokeswoman Christine Henry said the company decided to submit the subdivision plans--known as tentative tract maps--to give other city officials a chance to determine the development’s future. The two maps cover 3,500 residential units, 5 million square feet of commercial development and 600,000 square feet of retail space, she said.

“We have been talking with (Galanter) about a year now, and certainly we are always willing to sit down with her,” Henry said. “But (the talks) were not proceeding in any concrete direction, so we decided to have the city as a whole review the project.”

Biggest Concern

Henry said she was not surprised by Galanter’s request for a new environmental impact report, saying “this is along the lines of what she has been saying for a long time.” She said the company’s biggest concern is that whatever environmental document is required--a new report or a supplemental one--provide “the best and most comprehensive” environmental review necessary.

“The first EIR was challenged in court . . . and upheld,” Henry said. “Our primary interest is that whatever the city does in reviewing the environmental impacts of what we proposed complies with the law.”

Robert S. Heredia, project coordinator for the city’s Planning Department, said Galanter’s request will most likely be sent to the department’s Environmental Review Committee, which made the decision to require a supplemental study.