Stadium Talk Returns to City Hall
Gensler / AEG
Rendering of AEG's proposed Farmers Field, the stadium and events center that would be built on the site of the Convention Center's West Hall.
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — City Council's three-and-a-half-hour Friday discussion of AEG's stadium proposal did not bring any immediate action, but a Wednesday night meeting of the council's ad-hoc committee studying the topic could result in a vote being taken place.
“We have had a very productive and lively discussion about the draft agreement and I feel confident that we will be able to vote on the matter at the next Ad Hoc Committee meeting,” said Councilwoman Jan Perry, the committee chair, in a release advertising the body's third session.
In preparation for the evening meeting, the Chief Legislative Analyst, City Administrative Officer and the Convention Center put together a joint response to questions raised during last week's meetings. In it, they defend the economic projections put together for the project and acknowledge that work still needs to be done on transportation plans and the attraction of more hotels.
The stadium's biggest selling point has been the revitalization of the Convention Center, which has long struggled to attract major out-of-town events. While a rebuilt West Hall would raise the facility to the top five in terms of floor space, it would still need thousands more hotel rooms to really prosper.
According to the report, there would need to be more than 7,000 hotel rooms within a half-mile of the Convention Center to provide the 5,000 peak room nights that the city's convention and visitors bureau says would be needed to book the largest events. Currently, there are only 1,700.
While one new hotel deal has already been announced, the report says that a citywide hotel incentive program may be needed to encourage the development of large headquarters hotels rather than just boutiques.
Traffic has been one of the biggest points of criticism for the deal, which would allow AEG to construct a 72,000 seat NFL stadium and events center on the current site of the Convention Center's West Hall. The report notes that Caltrans is currently doing work to smooth travel on the 110, and that expansion of the Pico / Chick Hearn rail station at Pico and Flower will be part of the project's environmental analysis, which kicked off back in March.
Wednesday night's ad-hoc committee meeting will take place at 5pm inside City Hall's Council chambers.
Joshua Levi on August 03, 2011, at 11:05AM – #1
Is this meeting public?
Marino Pascal on August 03, 2011, at 01:17PM – #2
We don't need another stadium and certainly not in the middle of downtown. We are not some mid-western city that has nothing else going for itself.Downtown is doing fine and can support itself with its year round residents and work force. These people need more supermarkets. Not hotel rooms nor hooligans during sports season.
David McBane on August 03, 2011, at 02:56PM – #3
@Marino - There is more than enough room to fit a stadium, more hotels, more residents, more supermarkets, etc. Downtown won't be built out in our lifetimes.
DenOfLosAngeles on August 04, 2011, at 05:06AM – #4
Bring the Los Angeles Chargers back home to Los Angeles. Fifty years is a long time to be away from home.
Zuckerkhan on August 06, 2011, at 03:27PM – #5
Agree with David McBane, as DTLA has plenty of room for all kinds of development. This actually has very little to do with the NFL. The real money for AEG, City of LA, and local Businesses is the Conventions. If the NFL is the nice car we get to drive once a month to show off, then the new and expanded convention center is the Mansion We all live in. This will bring us from number 15 to number 5. Great. Please remember we just hosted Microsoft and 15K visitors for 4 days. They spent 38-40 Million in our entire City.
We don't get Target and re-development at 7th and Fig without LA Live/Staples Center/(and now Farmers Field). Wilshire Grand re-development doesn't happen either.
We need smart development of all kinds and Yes, more retail is on its way (developers are waiting to see how AEG plans work out. Google it). Also, more park space is coming on board too. And, the new Expo Line will all take us to the great Downtown Culver City and by 2015 to the beach in Santa Monica.
Hope they work out the DTLA StreetCar.
William Crandell on August 07, 2011, at 01:28PM – #6
"This will bring us from number 15 to number 5. Great."
What, in the amount of square footage or the amount of income? And not so quick at that.
Would the mayor shove a haphazard replacement for West Hall down the throats of L.A. Inc. - formerly the city visitors and convention bureau? How will the replacement hall integrate with the indoor football facility? How will the two facilities combined integrate with the Figueroa Corridor?
Yes, the multi-use nature of the facility will require that there be a permanent roof. Sorry folks, no stadium. A bad Santa Ana Wind, a mini tornado or an earthquake could easily damage a retractable roof. And consider what three feet of hail would do, like what happened a few miles south in the fall of 2003. Yes, three feet deep....
A haphazard integration and second rate architecture (keeping the present main entry pavilion facing Fig, as one example) due to a bare bones budget will not get us into the top five. No way. AEG, L.A. Inc., and civic officials should be paying attention to the question of what sort of a solution will guarantee a munificent payback, a solution that would directly elevate downtown L.A. into the top five. The combination of planning, architecture and urban design is the only avenue to transforming the southwest corner of Downtown into an inordinate accomplishment.
This matter ought to be seen as a fantastic opportunity and the NFL would certainly pay heed to a greater result, much more so than puff mongering over the result of a bare bones budget or that middling solution for a chaparral hillside way out there east of South El Monte.