No Settlement in Mattel Project Suit
The Hawthorne City Council this week rejected a proposed settlement of a lawsuit that was filed by the city of Lawndale to block a redevelopment project in Hawthorne.
The suit filed in August by Lawndale officials claimed that the 36-acre Mattel project will create traffic problems on nearby Lawndale streets. The suit accuses Hawthorne officials of approving the project without adequately addressing environmental effects on Lawndale, which is four blocks away from the site. The Mattel project will be east of the San Diego Freeway at Rosecrans Avenue.
Assistant Redevelopment Director Bud Cormier said the Hawthorne council unanimously rejected the suit because “the more they thought about it, the more they thought they didn’t do anything to deserve a lawsuit.”
Lawndale Assistant City Atty. Robert Owen said the settlement would have required Hawthorne to spend almost $500,000 for new traffic signals and to widen lanes on streets in the northwest corner of Lawndale near Rosecrans, Inglewood and Marine avenues, and on Hawthorne Boulevard.
Owen said the council’s decision makes it likely that the case will go to trial May 15 in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
The Mattel project, approved in July, will include a 450,000-square-foot office center with 232,700 square feet of retail space, two restaurants and a 154-room hotel.
It will create an additional 17,570 daily vehicle trips in the area, according to an environmental impact report.
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