Just What L.A. Needs--Gridlock

If you’ve got nothing else to do on Tuesday and high blood pressure is not a problem, you might consider fighting your way through traffic to attend the Los Angeles City Council meeting.

Acting on a conviction that we just haven’t had enough development yet in Southern California, the council is expected to rubber-stamp $168 million in tax-exempt bonds to help finance the first phase of a private project.

And not just any project.

This will be gargantuan--the largest residential and commercial venture in Los Angeles history.

We’re talking about erecting from scratch a city of 30,000 people and 5 million square feet of commercial space on the last significant plot of undeveloped land in Los Angeles.

Where? you ask.

On one of the most miserably congested thoroughfares I’ve ever had the pleasure of negotiating. That’s where. Lincoln Boulevard, to be precise.

I’m talking, of course, about the Playa Vista project south of Marina del Rey.

Now don’t get me wrong. I do not enter the fray in the interest of saving what’s left of the Ballona wetlands or turning the whole site into a bird-watching park. Not once did I drive past that bleak expanse, where natural gas is stored in underground oil reservoirs, and remind myself to bring a picnic basket next time.

And I’m not here to vent--a rather apropos verb--about potential horrors caused by methane gas.

People who seem reasonably sane by L.A. standards insist that just about anywhere around here, there’s horrible stuff underground. No need to lose sleep, they say, if the right precautions are taken.

The Playa developers will install an elaborate system that includes venting and a protective membrane. It’ll be like living atop a giant condom. If that doesn’t put your mind at ease, there’ll be a lovely methane gas detection device in each unit.

But honestly, it’s not the gas problem that bothers me. And in fact, if I thought we needed to create a new city of 30,000 people just for the heck of it, this one is an atypically smart project.

I like the condensed, anti-sprawl nature of it. I like the self-contained mix of residential and commercial, and the range of prices on the 13,000 homes--$200,000 to $1 million.

But there is a but, and it is bigger than all outdoors.

For two years, I lived near Lincoln and Rose on the Venice/Santa Monica border and regularly commuted to LAX. I’d like to suggest that there is no byway more militantly unattractive or agonizingly congested than the stretch of Lincoln between Jefferson and I-10.

Some days, sitting through two or three lights at an intersection, I would have welcomed a gas explosion. Finally, I’d break through the bottleneck heading for LAX and come upon a terrifying sight.

A phalanx of bulldozers, moving like dinosaurs across the last open space on the planet. Signs everywhere, announcing the erection of this gargantuan starship called Playa Vista.

I wondered then, as I do now, if I might pose a simple and direct question to a City Council whose action on Tuesday is probably a foregone conclusion.

Are you out of your minds?

Our lives are ruled by gridlock. It’s the one thing, other than sunshine, that Southern Californians share. And yet something possesses public officials--could it be the hundreds of thousands of dollars Playa spent on lobbying?--to roll over like poodles when developers come calling.

Just north of Playa Vista, Marina del Rey is anticipating a colossal new development. Just to the south, LAX expects an additional 21 million more passengers annually by the year 2015.

Why not just forget about preserving those few acres of Playa wetlands and build a football stadium?

“It’s up to the private citizen to protect this city from its own folly,” cries Durnford King, a Playa opponent who produced a video called “Greed, Gridlock and Gas: The Playa Vista Story.”

He proposes renaming the 405 the Dick Riordan/Ruth Galanter Memorial Parking Lot, in honor of two Playa champions.

Councilwoman Galanter argues that there’s been a long history of demands on developers. More open space, more traffic improvements, etc. Playa puts houses and jobs closer together, she told me, which means there’s potential for shorter commutes.

She wasn’t the only one who tried explaining the magic of how the hugest development in city history is a good thing for traffic flow.

Never have I heard more paper shuffling and stammering than when I asked Playa flack Neal Sacharow and planning director Steve Ross about the impact on Lincoln and the 405.

Ross finally said Phase 1, which represents less than half the overall development, will bring a 6% increase to Lincoln and 3% to 4% on the 405. He couldn’t seem to locate numbers on the full development.

But he did tell me about road-improvement projects to be paid for by Playa--and by taxpayers. And then, lest anyone should think he wasn’t earning his salary, he said:

“The regional mobility picture on the Westside, 10 years out, is better with Playa Vista than without Playa Vista.”

These guys are good.

For their next project, Playa will turn Belmont High, vacant because of toxic fears, into luxury time-share condos. The City Council will go nuts for it, and don’t worry about traffic.

The regional mobility picture looks terrific.

When he’s not stuck in traffic, you can reach the columnist at [email protected].