Judge Orders Halt to Playa Vista Wetlands Work

A federal judge Friday ordered a halt to the filling of wetlands at the Playa Vista project until the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conducts a more thorough review of environmental hazards there.

U.S. District Judge Ronald S.W. Lew said the corps was wrong to grant a permit to the developers based on piecemeal environmental studies at the 1,087-acre site adjoining Marina del Rey.

In doing so, he said, the corps failed to consider the total impact of the project, which calls for the construction of as many as 13,000 townhouses and apartments and up to 5 million square feet of commercial offices--including, potentially, the DreamWorks SKG studio.

Even if it could be argued that the corps’ piecemeal approach is acceptable, Lew said, the agency violated the law by relying on environmental reviews that were less detailed than required.

He called the corps’ action arbitrary and capricious.

“The permit is therefore rescinded and all construction activities on the permitted area shall cease unless and until the corps complies with its National Environmental Policy Act obligations,” Lew wrote in a 53-page opinion.

His order granted summary judgment in favor of three nonprofit organizations that sued the Corps of Engineers in 1996: the Wetlands Action Network, the Ballona Wetlands Land Trust and the California Public Interest Research Group.

Those three groups had previously sued the developer in state court, but a Los Angeles Superior Court judge threw out their case, concluding that the developer had complied with state environmental law.

The permit rescinded by the judge was required under federal laws that give the Army Corps of Engineers jurisdiction over the environmentally sensitive wetlands. The permit allowed developer Maguire Thomas Partners and Playa Capital Co. to dredge and fill pockets of wetlands scattered throughout the site.

Opposing sides disagreed sharply Friday over whether the ruling constituted a serious setback for the project.

Marcia Hanscom, executive director of the Wetlands Action Network, called it a major defeat for the developers.

But Peter B. Denniston, the president of Playa Capital, said he understood the ruling to mean that developers are only precluded from continuing work on the wetlands themselves.

“This ruling does not, I repeat, does not stop our phase one infrastructure work or our reuse/recycle of the former Hughes Aircraft site,” Denniston said.

He said that upon learning of the ruling Friday, he halted work so that crews could mark the area surrounding the federally delineated wetlands in order to avoid tampering with that site. Construction on the rest of the project will continue Monday, he said.

Grading began only recently on the first phase of the multibillion-dollar project. By the spring of 2000, Playa planners hope to have built 600 to 800 of their projected townhouses and apartments.

However, the biggest question about the future of the development is whether it can attract DreamWorks, the fledgling entertainment empire that once looked like a sure part of the project. Both sides say negotiations are continuing.