Coastal Panel Staff Opposes Road Widening

California Coastal Commission planners have come out against a proposal to widen a stretch of Lincoln Boulevard, the main north-south artery into the Playa Vista development near Marina del Rey, in a decision environmentalists said would enhance their vision for a Ballona Wetlands state park.

However, it is unclear whether the Coastal Commission, which has gone against similar staff recommendations in the past, will take the advice of its planners when it considers the road-widening proposal next month. Both representatives of Playa Vista and environmental groups opposed to the project said Monday that they did not believe that the decision would affect the proposed second phase of the hotly disputed development.

The California Department of Transportation has proposed widening Lincoln Boulevard, part of California 1, between Jefferson Boulevard and Fiji Way, and building a four-lane bridge next to an existing bridge crossing Ballona Creek.

But the Coastal Commission staff concluded in its report that the project was “designed for a level of growth that may not occur,” given recent changes at Playa Vista and the surrounding area.

First proposed by Caltrans in the mid-1990s, the road widening was initially supposed to support a larger load of traffic from the more ambitious initial plans for Playa Vista and from a sizable proposed expansion of Los Angeles International Airport.

But the airport plans have since been downscaled, and the developers of Playa Vista are proposing to build 5,846 housing units, far fewer than the 13,000 originally planned, as well as about 70% less retail space and 33% less office space. The first phase of the development, which is underway, includes 3,246 residential units.

Much of the reduction is expected because Playa Vista is trying to sell property west of Lincoln Boulevard, thereby staving off development on 193 acres, which would instead become a nature preserve. The land is part of the Ballona Wetlands ecosystem.

The proposed Lincoln Boulevard bridge, the Coastal Commission planners stated in their report, would require the building of piers that would harm the wetlands and sensitive birds, including the endangered brown pelican.

Steve Sugerman, a Playa Vista spokesman, downplayed the significance of the planners’ recommendation, noting that the development now being proposed is much smaller than called for when the road improvements were first suggested.

“This does not affect the current development plans at all,” he said.

Rex Frankel, president of the Ballona Ecosystem Education Project, said that although he remains concerned about the second phase of Playa Vista, he too does not believe that scrapping the road-widening plan would affect the development.

“Basically, the entire Playa Vista project is about half of what it was,” he said. “There is absolutely no need anymore. The existing road is sufficient to handle what traffic is expected now.”

However, stopping the expansion, especially the bridge plan, would benefit the increasingly likely future state park, Frankel said. It would create an opportunity to instead build a more environmentally sound crossing for pedestrians and cyclists that is favored by local activists.

“It would mean the Ballona state park would be much better off,” he said.

Tomas Carranza, a city transportation engineer, said it was difficult to determine the impact that stopping the road project would have, because the latest Playa Vista plans still need to be reviewed for traffic and environmental impact.

“Until we see how much traffic their new project will generate on Lincoln, we will not be able to say” whether a road widening is still needed, he said.

The Coastal Commission, which has land-use authority over projects near the ocean, previously approved expansions of other segments of Lincoln Boulevard between Marina del Rey and Westchester.

It also approved a proposal to widen a stretch of nearby Culver Boulevard against the recommendations of its staff planners.