Fox Backs Off Bill to Protect Studio Expansion

Bowing to political pressure, Fox Studio on Thursday backed away from special legislation crafted to protect its planned $200-million expansion from future lawsuits.

But studio officials said they may renew their push for the legislation next year if opponents go to court to block the project.

“We’re not withdrawing our efforts; we’ve merely asked that the bill be held until next year in the event it is needed,” Fox Vice President David Handelman said.

Its co-sponsor, Assemblyman Stan Statham, a Republican from Northern California who is a member of the state Film Commission, described the measure as “on standby, red alert, ready to begin moving through the Legislature if necessary.”

He and Fox officials said the proposed law dramatized the hurdles the studio has faced to proceed with a project that purports to create up to 1,600 new jobs. After 3 1/2 turbulent years, the Los Angeles City Council approved the expansion last month.

The legislation would have prevented further lawsuits aimed at blocking the 771,000-square-foot expansion by declaring that it complies with all local zoning and planning requirements. It also would have exempted the project from further review under the California Environmental Quality Act.

The measure was hastily approved by the Government Operations Committee on July 13 before the project’s opponents learned of it. Critics, led by state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), complained that it would exempt the Fox expansion from further scrutiny even if the project were changed in the future, and that it would set a disastrous precedent of state intervention in local affairs.

“Fox has been taking a beating on this bill,” said Los Angeles Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky. “I see it as a way for them to defer, if not gracefully withdraw from, a process that has caused a lot of unnecessary grief to a lot of people.”

Val Cole, who heads a neighborhood group opposed to the expansion, offered a different view. “They’re telling us that if we sue, they’re not going to meet us in court, that they’re going to run back to the Legislature for special treatment,” she said. “What kind of fair play is that?”