Playa Vista Work to Continue Despite Methane Concerns, Panel Rules

Construction will continue at the controversial Playa Vista project, despite lingering, unanswered questions about potentially dangerous levels of methane gas at the 1,000-acre site, the city’s Building and Safety Commission ruled unanimously Tuesday.

After six hours of testimony, commissioners denied an appeal filed by 10 environmental groups to revoke all the building and grading permits issued to developers for the sprawling commercial and residential complex in Playa del Rey.

Instead, commission President Mabel Chang ordered the city’s staff to take “immediate action” to draft a tougher methane ordinance that would better protect residents from toxic levels of the gas.

Chang ordered the proposed measure at the recommendation of the city’s independent methane expert, Dr. Victor Jones, who told developers at the hearing that the Playa Vista site “can be made safe,” but that it won’t be easy or inexpensive.

Jones said remedies will not be developed until the full scope of the problem has been determined. But he said the measures that need to be taken at Playa Vista “will set new standards.”

“Nobody’s ever built a building on a fault like this,” he said.

Although further study is needed to determine the scope of the problem, developers stand firm in their assertion that the property is safe.

Playa Capital Co. spokesman David Herbst said the ruling proves that “sound science won out over our opponents’ scare tactics.”

Environmentalists downplayed their loss by saying that developers now realize the herculean task they face to correct the methane problem at Playa Vista.

Marcia Hanscom, executive director of the Wetlands Action Network, said the commission would offer no occupancy permits until residents’ health and safety are ensured.

“They can’t start selling these places until they know they’re safe,” she said. “And right now, they don’t know that they’re safe.”

Dozens of building permits have been approved since last year for the first 3,246 houses planned for 169 acres of the site.

Those permits were issued before city staff members learned that dangerously high levels of methane gas and a geological fault existed under the property.

At the hearing Tuesday, Playa Capital Co. Vice President David Nelson reminded the commission that several city-approved projects, including the Park La Brea housing complex, the Fairfax Farmers Market and the Los Angeles Central Library, sit on underground pockets of methane gas.

Meanwhile, a four-month study ordered by the City Council begins this month on the health and safety risks posed by the fault and pockets of methane gas.

The City Council will use the results to decide whether to authorize the sale of $135 million in municipal bonds for the project on the Ballona Wetlands between Marina del Rey and the Westchester bluffs.

An April report by Exploration Technologies Inc. showed that the site had high levels of methane gas, which is combustible and is associated with a variety of toxic emissions.

The report also identified a geological fault near Lincoln Boulevard that could trigger the release of gas from the Gas Co.’s Playa del Rey storage facility, near the Playa Vista property.