Council Approves Impact Report on Sony Expansion

The Culver City Council on Monday unanimously approved the environmental impact report for the proposed expansion of Sony Pictures Studios, paving the way for Planning Commission hearings on the project early next year.

Sony Pictures Entertainment hopes to turn its 44.8-acre studio site in Culver City into a centralized campus for its far-flung media operations.

The 13-year expansion plan calls for adding eight office buildings, each six stories or higher, two sound stages, a heliport and a shopping arcade.

“There are a great many dangers here that we still have to deal with,” Councilman Steve Gourley said. “I still have a lot of questions of how-if-whether this project should go forward. But that is another evening.”

In the coming months, city officials will discuss which elements of the expansion plan to approve or modify based on the impacts outlined in the environmental report.

City staffers and council members will negotiate which mitigation measures should be taken by Sony to alleviate the impacts. They must devise a monitoring system to ensure that the mitigation measures are working.

The Redevelopment Agency committee that oversees the area where the studio is located plans informal community meetings to discuss Sony’s proposal beginning Oct. 15. The project will be put on hold over Thanksgiving and Christmas, except for internal meetings by the General Design Review Committee, which consists of two planning commissioners and two council members.

Public participation will resume in late January, when the Planning Commission is expected to hold hearings on the expansion plan. After the project receives Planning Commission approval, the City Council will begin its own public hearing and review process.

Notices for public hearings will be sent to everyone on the Sony project mailing list, which has grown to more than 3,500 names.

The top concerns during the environmental impact report review period were traffic congestion and helicopter noise. Discussion ranged from aesthetics to technical minutiae, such as which unit of measurement should be used to quantify helicopter noise.

The review process did not uncover project impacts that were not already addressed in the environmental report. But two new mitigation measures were added. One was to improve pedestrian and traffic safety by adding a crosswalk at the studio’s main entrance at Madison Avenue. The other recommended that Sony use the latest in noise abatement technology to combat helicopter noise.

“That way, if something is developed in the future, we can require them to use it,” said Colleen Egbert, the city official responsible for administering state environmental regulations.

The council also directed the staff to explore ways to encourage Sony to hire Culver City residents.

City Atty. Norman Herring said that requiring Sony to hire locally might invite a legal challenge. “But if we’re (legally) capable of doing that,” he said, “we’re going to pursue it.”