Council OKs Key Playa Vista Report

Amid both applause and unhappy murmurs from a divided audience, the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a city-sponsored report declaring that environmental questions can be solved at the massive Playa Vista project on the Westside.

The council’s approval brought the proposed development of housing, offices, stores and parkland near Marina del Rey one step closer to acquiring $135 million in city-issued bonds. Those funds would aid, among other things, in the construction of roadways and storm water runoffs and wetlands restoration.

The council’s Budget and Finance Committee is scheduled to make a recommendation today on those bonds, which are important to Playa Vista financing.

The environmental report, compiled by the council’s chief legislative analyst with other city agencies and outside consultants, said that any on-site hazards--including methane gas from old underground storage facilities--could be satisfactorily addressed with methods such as ventilation.

Although disappointed with Tuesday’s vote, Patricia McPherson, a leader of the Grassroots Coalition, a group opposed to Playa Vista, said: “It ain’t over till it’s over.”

At the council meeting, geologists, developers, community members and environmentalists made passionate arguments for and against the 1,087-acre project.

Among the environmentalists’ main concerns were the uncertain health effects from methane, whose risk they alleged was not properly assessed. The state Department of Toxic Substances Control also recently requested that more study be done on such risks.

Councilman Mike Feuer questioned the chief legislative analyst’s office on three main issues--whether an earthquake fault exists below Lincoln Boulevard in the midst of the project, the possible effects of escaping methane and the presence of toxic gases.

Spokesman Gerry Miller, insisting that the report was objective, stressed that the study found no evidence of the fault and cited ways to safely deal with any gas problems.

Feuer then joined in the unanimous vote. Included in the motion was a requirement that any measures taken to deal with the methane be monitored.

Playa Vista project spokesman Neal Sacharow, pleased with the vote, said, “I think it affirms that the . . . report was inclusive, with extensive public comment, comprehensive and independent.”