EIR Likely to Favor MCA Expansion
MCA’s proposal to more than double the development at its Universal City property will enter a critical phase today, with the release of Los Angeles County’s draft environmental impact report along with the media giant’s specific plan for the project.
As previously announced, MCA over the next 25 years hopes to build $3 billion worth of offices, hotels, shops, restaurants, themed attractions and production facilities.
The company says the development will create 13,000 new jobs, add $1.6 billion annually to the local economy, and generate $25 million a year in new city and county tax revenues.
The county’s draft EIR is expected to be mostly favorable to MCA’s plan, and to endorse the company’s proposals for mitigating any negative impact to the area.
“The EIR represents a major milestone in the public review process,” said Helen McCann, vice president of master plan for MCA.
“We believe that we have proposed a plan that works. The environmental review will show that it works.”
But the project, which would add 5.9 million square feet of new building space to the existing 5.4 million square feet, is expected to face intense opposition from some homeowners in surrounding neighborhoods. Critics say that MCA’s existing movie and television production, Universal Studios tour, and CityWalk retail and entertainment development already create too much traffic, noise and potential for crime.
They fear the additional development will turn nearby roadways into a congested morass, reducing the quality of life and possibly lowering their property values.
MCA says it will address these issues, and has launched a public relations campaign to try to generate goodwill for the project. The company has been meeting with neighborhood groups, and last week mailed out a brochure to local residents and businesses that stresses the economic benefits of the plan.
The media concern has also sought to calm fears with proposals to create landscaped buffer zones around the perimeter of its property, and to manage increased traffic levels.
Nonetheless, some local homeowners are gearing up for a long, hotly contested fight.
“The theme-park resort expansion is incompatible with the surrounding homes so close to MCA’s property. There is no buffer zone,” said Joan Luchs, a real estate agent and homeowner in the Cahuenga Pass area south of Universal City.
“What is built, to a large degree, depends on how much pressure we put on elected officials who are accountable,” Luchs said.
