Battle of Lawsuits Teeters on War as Cities Try to Stop Developments

A simmering feud between Culver City and Los Angeles over massive developments in the Lincoln Boulevard corridor has escalated into a full-scale border war with each side threatening to hold the other’s project hostage.

The latest clash occurred at a Los Angeles City Council committee hearing this week, when Culver City representatives laid the groundwork for an expected lawsuit against the $400-million Channel Gateway project near Marina del Rey.

Culver City contends that the environmental impact report on the residential and office complex is inadequate and that Los Angeles has failed to follow proper procedures in considering the development.

But beyond the legal posturing lies another apparent motive: retaliation for Los Angeles suing to stop the $160-million Marina Place regional shopping mall in Culver City. The shopping center would be built on Washington Boulevard, three blocks from the Channel Gateway site in Los Angeles.

A heated competition between the two cities over traffic capacity in the heavily congested Lincoln corridor threatens to create a kind of legal gridlock that could tie up major developments in the area for years.

The proposed Channel Gateway project and its luxury condominiums, clustered apartments and office building are caught in the fight between neighboring communities.

“I’m troubled that this project has become a hostage in our ongoing border war,” Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter told her city’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee.

To address some of the legal issues raised by Culver City, Galanter suggested a number of changes to the Channel Gateway proposal, unanimously approved by the Los Angeles Planning Commission, and a public hearing on coastal issues was extended until July 10.

The 16-acre project still must receive approval from the City Council and state Coastal Commission, and Galanter said she saw no end to the legal brinkmanship, declaring that Los Angeles has no intention of dropping the lawsuit against Marina Place unless the project is dramatically altered.