Land Project Could Yield Stadium

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday laid the groundwork for a massive redevelopment district with the potential to generate billions of dollars in tax revenue--some of which could be used to help clear the land for a downtown football stadium advocates say is needed to bring the NFL back to Los Angeles.

The proposed 879-acre redevelopment zone, called City Center, would engulf a large swath of downtown L.A., its uneven boundaries jutting roughly north to 2nd Street, west to the Harbor Freeway, south to just short of the Santa Monica Freeway and east to Spring Street.

It would allow for a football stadium in the South Park area, although that project was not mentioned at the hearing. The zone also would accommodate different businesses and housing.

The plan, which has been fast-tracked, would give Mayor James Hahn the tools to achieve his stated goal, bringing the NFL back to L.A. The council will vote on the proposal next week.

The district is backed by a coalition of power brokers who want to build a state-of-the-art NFL stadium adjacent to Staples Center, led by Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz. However, it is not considered essential to stadium plans.

The proposal would create a powerful Community Redevelopment Authority that could help with land acquisition through the power of condemnation, and would create a mechanism to capture tax-increment revenues from the newly drawn district.

It would also effectively help recreate the public-private partnership that led to the construction of Staples Center, which would be well received by the NFL.

City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas acknowledged it could help bring the NFL back to Los Angeles: “But it’s not a sure bet ... there are other potential uses for the land that will get priority consideration. Namely, housing.”

Casey Wasserman and Tim Leiweke, partners in the Anschutz coalition, will meet with NFL executives in New York next week to discuss the details of bringing an NFL team to L.A. for the first time since the Raiders and Rams left in 1995. The group also includes supermarket magnate Ron Burkle and developer Ed Roski, the architect of the Staples deal.