Judge Rejects Bid to Stop Bulldozing of Playa Vista Parcel

A U.S. district judge Monday denied a request by environmentalists to stop developers from bulldozing 16.1 acres of wetlands as part of the massive and controversial Playa Vista project south of Marina del Rey.

In August, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that the federal permit to work on that tract did not violate environmental law. Groups opposed to the Playa Vista development Monday sought an injunction that would have forbidden bulldozing while they petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case.

However, U.S. District Judge Ronald S.W. Lew said in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom that he lacked jurisdiction to block the Court of Appeals’ decision.

That decision overturned a previous decision by Lew, which had halted work on the 16.1 acres for two years.

Neal Sacharow, spokesman for the 1,087-acre Playa Vista project, which is to include housing, offices, shops and parkland, was happy with Monday’s decision.

“It’s a victory. It means we can continue with work that’s underway,” Sacharow said.

He said the plans call for restoring 340 acres of wetlands and other natural habitat to be kept as open space. The 16.1 acres at the heart of Monday’s hearing are “scattered, degraded and isolated wetlands,” he said, and some are included in the 340 acres to be restored.

Environmentalists, however, say those 16 acres are ecologically important and contend that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did not properly evaluate the land when it issued the construction permit.

Members of Wetlands Action Network, Ballona Wetlands Land Trust and California Public Interest Research Group were disappointed with the court’s refusal to grant their request, but said they took it in stride.

“It’s a small setback,” said Wendy Wendlandt, associate director of the California Public Interest Research Group in Los Angeles. “We’re used to that.”

The plaintiffs’ attorney, Bruce Terris of the firm Terris, Pravlik & Millian of Washington, D.C., said the groups will petition the U.S. Supreme Court in the next few weeks to hear the case.

“The [judge’s] main point was that he wasn’t free to decide because of the Court of Appeals’ decision, and I can understand his reluctance. But in this case the Court of Appeals was flat-out wrong,” Terris said.

Fights over the Playa Vista project date back to at least 1985 when neighbors expressed worry over the traffic, pollution and noise that would result from the construction.