Suit Seeks to Block Playa Vista Development

A coalition including the city of Santa Monica, the Surfrider Foundation, the Ballona Wetlands Trust and Gabrieleno-Tongva Native Americans has filed suit to block the second phase of the Playa Vista development.

The suit, filed last month in Los Angeles Superior Court, contends that an environmental impact report failed to consider adequately the disruption of Native American burial sites, traffic congestion and the treatment of wastewater generated by the project.

In July, a Superior Court judge denied a request by the Ballona Wetlands Trust to halt erosion-control work at the development, ruling that the environmental impact of the excavation had been adequately considered by city officials when they approved the project a decade ago.

In September, despite the protests of environmentalists, the Los Angeles City Council authorized the Playa Capital Co. to proceed with the second phase of the project.

The first phase, which includes about 3,200 residential units along Jefferson Boulevard, is about half completed. The second phase would include 2,600 residential units, 175,000 square feet of office space and 150,000 square feet of retail space, according to the litigants.

Anthony Morales, chairman of the Gabrieleno-Tongva Tribal Council of San Gabriel, said the expanded development would require the removal of almost 400 graves from a Native American burial ground.

“The desecration of our ancestors is an atrocity,” Morales said. “This development is being constructed on top of a village.”

The city of Santa Monica said traffic generated by the phase-two development would snarl traffic in the area.

“The EIR completely ignores traffic impacts on Santa Monica neighborhoods,” said Mayor Richard Bloom. “Adding thousands more cars to streets that already are congested is a huge step backwards.”

Joe Greever, a spokesman for the Surfrider Foundation, an organization that monitors surf conditions and water quality along the Southern California coast, said wastewater generated by the project would strain the capacity of the Hyperion treatment system.

“It’s time for the city [of Los Angeles] to show it’s worthy of the people’s trust by seriously reviewing every opportunity to clean up our urban creeks and ocean,” Greever said.