El Segundo, UPS Battle Over Proposed Facility : Traffic: City retracts approval of new site after study predicts greater- than-expected congestion.

In a dispute clouded by possible litigation, El Segundo and United Parcel Service are at odds over how much new traffic a proposed UPS facility will bring to an already-congested industrial and office park east of Sepulveda Boulevard.

After Chevron USA Inc. subdivided undeveloped property in the park three years ago, UPS bought 23.7 acres for a $35-million facility to serve its growing South Bay and Westside business. The purchase for an undisclosed price was made after the El Segundo Planning Commission concluded that the already-busy area could handle 2,604 daily vehicle trips in or out of the UPS center.

But after a later environmental impact report on the facility postulated daily traffic at the 5,310-trip level, the commission balked. Last January, it denied the UPS project, despite a UPS offer to institute such traffic reduction measures as employee ride-sharing.

“The traffic volume was unacceptable,” said Kendra Morries, city planning manager.

In a sometimes-testy appeals hearing before the City Council last month, UPS offered a legal guarantee to keep its traffic below the 2,604 daily trip level or pay fines for the excess. Arguing that the project meets all laws and conditions controlling the Chevron subdivision, UPS attorney Maura O’Connor said city approval is required. If it is not, she said, UPS “has to pursue legal remedies.”

Although the matter remains unsettled pending completion of new traffic studies by both sides, Councilman Scot Dannen said negotiation is difficult under what he termed a “give-it-to-us-or-else” legal threat.

Dannen termed the UPS legal posture “a cheap act of terrorism.”

Jim Passolt, UPS regional real estate manager, characterized the flap with the city as a “misunderstanding and miscommunication” that the company is working to reconcile without litigation.

However, City Atty. Leland Dolley said he has received a preliminary document from UPS attorneys challenging the city’s ability to reject the project. UPS officials refused to comment on the document.

The traffic dispute focuses not only on the widely varying average daily traffic projections, but also on the impact of the UPS center on streets and major intersections during peak morning and evening driving time.

UPS presented its traffic guarantee based on a 24-hour period, but the council has labeled this meaningless without knowing when the greatest amount of traffic will occur and what that volume will be.

Councilman Alan West said he can visualize hundreds of brown UPS vans on the road. “If it happens at 2 a.m., OK, but if it all happens at 7 a.m., we’re in trouble,” he said.

Councilman J. B. Wise said he is concerned about not only peak-hour traffic, but also about the size of the UPS vehicles. In addition to its familiar large brown vans, the company uses tractor-trailers for major customers.

The city traffic engineer and UPS are surveying selected UPS facilities comparable to the proposed El Segundo center to determine when--and to what extent--most traffic occurs. Another council session on the UPS issue is scheduled for July 17, when the study results are expected.

According to the city and UPS, the proposed El Segundo facility--which would be next to the long-established golf driving range on Sepulveda--will have 749 employees, along with 300 vans and 20 tractor-trailers for delivery of parcels and documents.

David Shockley, UPS real estate representative, said vans and trucks will leave in staggered fashion between 8:30 and 9:15 a.m., returning between 5:30 and 7 p.m. He said average daily traffic--including vans and trucks, employees and customers--is not expected to exceed 2,529 trips. Most would occur between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. (A trip is defined as a movement in or out of the facility; the movement of a tractor-trailer counts for two trips.)

To lessen the traffic impact, he said, UPS vehicles will avoid congested intersections and will operate a satellite customer facility during the holiday package rush.

UPS officials have criticized the environmental impact report that projected the center would generate 5,310 daily traffic trips as greatly exaggerated.

The projection was based on operations at the company’s Anaheim office, which was included in a list of facilities comparable to the proposed El Segundo center that UPS gave to the city. But Passolt, the UPS regional real estate manager, said that in doing the report, the city failed to take into account that Anaheim is a district facility with a larger customer counter and more employees.

City Manager Ron Cano said UPS did not challenge the environmental report when city officials certified it. But Shockley said UPS sent a letter protesting the count, which was attached to the report.

UPS said that with its business growth, the El Segundo center is needed to reduce trip lengths and augment overcrowded Gardena and West Los Angeles facilities that serve the area.