U.S. Judges Lift Ban on Filling Wetlands

Handing a victory to the developers of the Playa Vista project, a federal appeals court overturned a lower court ruling Monday that had halted for two years the filling of a portion of wetlands at the large Westside construction project.

The three-judge panel of U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit unanimously ruled that the federal authority that oversees sensitive wetlands was right to issue a permit to developers to fill in 16.1 acres of wetlands without an extensive review of the environmental impacts of the entire 1,087-acre planned complex of new housing and offices.

The panel Monday found that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ permit did not violate a federal environmental law.

However, the project’s proposed construction of 13,000 homes and up to 5 million square feet of commercial offices south of Marina del Rey still faces other legal and regulatory obstacles. Among them are questions about potentially dangerous levels of methane gas and seismic risks, which are now under study by Los Angeles officials who have control over crucial bond funding.

Monday’s decision reverses a 1998 ruling by U.S. District Judge Ronald S.W. Lew that the corps improperly limited its environmental analysis to the small portion of wetlands instead of the entire project.

As a result of the latest ruling, the Playa Vista development firm can now dredge and fill pockets of wetlands scattered through the site, including one eight-acre area, which will form a berm for a 26-acre freshwater wetland marsh just west of Lincoln Boulevard.

Supporters and opponents of the development disagreed on the significance of the latest ruling.

“Clearly we are pretty thrilled with this decision,” said Coby King, spokesman for the developers. “This is one of the few aspects of the project [opponents] have been able to stop.”

The projects’ opponents from the Wetlands Action Network said they would consider a review by the entire 9th Circuit or an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“It’s definitely a harsh blow for the wetlands,” said Marcia Hanscom, Wetlands Action Network’s executive director. “We are certainly going to continue to fight this development. This is only one of many of our legal challenges.”