Environmental Review for Proposed Stadium Will Key In On Smart Growth and Walkability
Gensler
Rendering of AEG's proposed NFL stadium and events center next to Staples Center and L.A. Live
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Calling for "smart measures" that "move mitigation into the 21st Century," AEG kicked off environmental review for Farmers Field on Monday by asking the city's planning department to issue a "Notice of Preparation" for the company's proposed stadium and events center project.
The two-page letter prepared by entitlement lawyer William Delvac of Armbruster Goldsmith & Delvac LLP rates high in the buzzwords of modern urban planning, laying out as goals adherence to the city's "Walkability Checklist" and "smart growth" through "environmentally sustainable design."
"For a project like this, they're not buzzwords," said Delvac this afternoon, calling out walkability and connections to transit as key principles. "We know that people are not all going to park on-site. We don't intend them to—there aren't the spaces.
AEG hopes that the city will issue the notice mid-month, allowing the project's first scoping meeting to take place at the end of the month. At that meeting, the city and project staff will take notes on subjects that the community feels the environmental study should address.
This is a neighborhood that the consultants the company has brought on-board for the project know well, having done the environmental work for Staples Center and L.A. Live.
"The studies are all going to be original and new because the issues are different," Delvac said, but "clearly in terms of the background and the expertise, we have that."
In the letter, AEG notes its desire to circulate the full draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) by the end of the year, a span of just nine months. While that may sound agressive to those familiar with the voluminous documents, the L.A. Sports and Entertainment District EIR that covers L.A. Live went from Notice of Preparation to draft EIR in just four months.
"It will take the time it will take," Delvac explained. "What we know is that we were able to get L.A. Live done quickly because we gave the City the work products they were looking for and the analysis was thorough."
The preparation of that work product is already underway. Over the weekend, traffic counters were deployed to gather baseline data for the study.
That data will show L.A. Live operating at full capacity. On Saturday, the Kings played in front of 18,000 at 1pm, while the Clippers hosted 19,000 for an evening game and Julieta Venegas performed across the street at Nokia Theatre.
While those numbers are far lower than the 60,000 to 80,000 who would gather for an event in the stadium, but Delvac believes that technology and smart planning can play a key role in helping to bring people in and out of the area.
"We do want to direct people to transit, we do want to direct them where to park," he noted. "There was a time when we didn't have these tools available, but now that we're in the information age we want to use them."
Dion on March 07, 2011, at 03:26PM – #1
As a downtown resident, i dont care about the traffic, as long as they improve the public transit options. If AEG redoes the Pico Station by expanding the platforms and creating a better connection to the area, as well as significantly contributing to the Streetcar and My Figueroa Projects, we are golden.
Twirly Burly on March 07, 2011, at 07:57PM – #2
Imagine the brown haze of smog the stadium is going to create if we build it downtown - because fans are going to drive regardless, and they will be sitting in the traffic jam idling their cars. It doesn't matter what the idealists claim, people are not going to suddenly abandon their cars and all take the train. Football fans who grill barbeques before the game at the tailgate party are not known for being "green" and they will not leave their cars behind. The stadium would be a nightmare for downtown.
Oscar on March 07, 2011, at 11:21PM – #3
yuck!!! take it out of downtown please!!! we already have enough of you people with the staples and nokia... how bout Satan Monica or Beerverly Hills???!
haha even better, the valley!!!! it will fit RIGHT IN!!!
Dion on March 07, 2011, at 11:36PM – #4
Twirly Burly, you do realize that the Colosseum seats 90,000 and nothing of the sort happens when USC plays there right? And who says people wont take the train? check out the train stations during a Kings, Clippers or Lakers game. thousands of people use em.
Don Garza on March 08, 2011, at 02:21AM – #5
I will be weighing in soon.. I am not upset that they want to build this thing ,but have some questions that should plague us all.
Alex Brideau III on March 08, 2011, at 02:39AM – #6
Will everyone ride the train to a football game? Of course not, but much better building a stadium near a Metro station than in places like Industry or Beverly Hills (?) that are years away from being accessible by rail. South Park's Pico Station, on the other hand, has the potential to be expanded to accommodate the many folks who will indeed ride from Hollywood, Pasadena, Long Beach, East LA, and soon Culver City. $6 Metro Day Pass vs. $40 parking. You be the judge.
oScott Mercer on March 08, 2011, at 08:40AM – #7
What this needs is its own subway stop, directly adjacent to the entrance to the stadium.
This could be a shuttle service connected only to 7th/Metro station, operated only on game days, and be owned and operated by AEG. Because it is a shuttle service, you would only need a minimum number of trainsets/equipment.
Or, you could take the Expo Line over a couple blocks, run it underground at the stadium, then reconnect it to the Regional Connector north of 7th/Metro Center and have it be an intergrated part of Metro Rail.
rob on March 09, 2011, at 09:48AM – #8
How are people going to a football game on a sunday going to be much different from the hundreds of those of people that come into downtown la during the week for work? Or as Dion pointed out above, the 90,000 that go to USC on saturdays for games. It would be great if the pico station stopped immediately in the middle of the LA/ Convention center. but its a little to late to change the station. I just hope a that the nimbys and naysayers dont try to tie this up to stall the project.
Ankur on March 09, 2011, at 10:20AM – #9
@Oscar.
NIMBY much?
c j on March 09, 2011, at 06:05PM – #10
i agree that it'll be difficult to get people out of their cars, no matter how optimistic we'd like to be about it. and if public transit improvements aren't made, then cars it will be. this is where AEG needs to pitch in more. there was also a good point made about the 90,000 being no different than the daytime weekday working population that comes into downtown (according to LA Times/SCAG it's ~150,000 more than the resident population), but we have to be careful in making that comparison. that daytime population didn't explode into 150K all at once; it grew into what it is today and the available parking grew with it. also, virtually none of that weekday population is concentrated in South Park. hopefully the EIR will determine whether the area will be able to handle the additional traffic or if mitigation is required.
Joel Covarrubias on March 10, 2011, at 11:02AM – #11
Pico station nees to have its platform significantly widened. Not sure how this would work though, given the fact that the tunnel begins immediately north of the station.
Bert Green (@bgfa) on March 10, 2011, at 11:17AM – #12
The daytime working population of downtown is about 450,000, not 150,000. Currently there are Blue and Red Line stations within a short walk of the proposed Stadium, with a downtown connector scheduled to be added this decade. There are tens of thousands of parking spots all over downtown that are usually empty on weekend s and evenings. If that's not enough capacity for both cars and transit for a stadium then nothing is.
There is no other site anywhere in SoCal that is as ideal as this one for this project.
Eric Richardson (@blogdowntown) on March 10, 2011, at 11:34AM – #13
Joel: What you would do is switch the station to a two-platform design, with the rails in-between. That's a potential mitigation that Jamie De La Vega, the Mayor's transportation deputy, brought up at Tuesday's blue ribbon panel hearing, along with pedestrian enhancements between the station and the stadium.
William Crandell on March 10, 2011, at 05:37PM – #14
You gotta wonder what all is or is not going on behind the scenes with AEG's proposal, design-wise. Have the three teams been instructed or are voluntarily refining/adjusting their entries? If AEG has perhaps instructed one of the teams to proceed and further refine it's design, word would prolly have leaked out.
If Liewiecke really wanted to seal the deal within ninety days all he had had to do was give instructions to one or all of the teams to come up with an irresistible solution, a solution to knock everyone's socks off, turn the city council into puppy dogs and the citizens be so excited that they'd be willing to help finance the affair. Like Hawthorne has said, this most essentially is a question of urbanity, of urban design. A new stadium and an updated convention center along with their appurtenances are ancillary.
Via URBAN DESIGN, Liewiecke could yet win the day. But unfortunate it is to have to say that that is not how things get done in L.A.