Playa Vista Safe for Building, City Says

Developers of the massive, highly controversial Playa Vista project on Los Angeles’ Westside got good news Thursday with the release of a city review of potential environmental hazards on the site.

The report, compiled by the City Council’s chief legislative analyst with a group of city agencies and outside consultants, concluded that various potential hazards--including underground methane gas--all can be satisfactorily addressed.

The report is expected to make it easier for project supporters to press the city to issue $135 million in bonds to help finance roads and a storm water runoff system at Playa Vista.

Opponents of the project, which would be the largest single development in city history, denounced the report as biased and vowed to continue their fight. When fully built, the project would cover more than 1,000 acres, including much of the Ballona Wetlands.

“This is shocking, an outrage and a complete conflict of interest,” said Marcia Hanscom of the Wetlands Action Network, one of the leading groups battling the development.

Hanscom said the seven consultants listed near the front of the report all had some financial connection to Playa Vista developers.

Project spokesman Neal Sacharow said the report findings are “very significant and positive” and “clearly prove that this is an environment that is safe to build on, as well as to live and work in.”

He acknowledged that outside consultants for the report had done work for Playa Vista, but stressed that they had joined city and state agencies in the new study at the city’s invitation. “To say they’re not objective is really off base,” Sacharow said.

The report will be available for public study for 30 days and then will go to the City Council, which is expected to hold at least two public hearings on it.

The State Lands Commission is conducting its own review of some of the potential hazards on the site, where developers want to build stores and homes for as many as 30,000 people.

Environmentalists, homeowners and others fighting Playa Vista had sought the city report and managed to delay the project, which they said would not only destroy the last large chunk of wetland in the city but increase traffic and pollution and pose risks to people and businesses in the area.

They cited the presence of methane gas, chemical contamination and a possible earthquake fault.

The report considered several primary areas of concern, including whether an adjacent Southern California Gas Co. storage facility was leaking. Reviewers concluded that it was not leaking and did not present a danger to workers or future residents.

The report also concluded that a methane mitigation system will be required to “prevent, detect and monitor” the gas on the site and that those measures will be adequate. Furthermore, it found no significant sinking of land because of the gas.

In addition, the study said that more research will be done on potential earthquake dangers but that there appears to be no risk of large amounts of gas escaping from the storage facility during an earthquake. The report also found that soil and ground water contamination from the chemicals can be adequately addressed.