A group of private investors led by Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) is putting up $1.5 billion for a new National Football League stadium to be built on City Convention Center property in downtown Los Angeles. Finally, in the stark reality of California’s economic collapse, the Democrat-dominated state legislature has thrown the litigious green establishment for a loss by teaming with union labor to expedite environmental approvals.
Los Angeles has not had an NFL team since 1995. AEG has been working for several years to get land use permits for the new stadium – running the tedious gauntlet of environmental reviews under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). New Senate Bill 292, sponsored by former L.A. City Councilman and M.I.T. mechanical engineer Sen. Alex Padilla, along with its companion Assembly Bill 900 will limit the CEQA reviews and gratuitous green law suits to 175-day challenges, and move court challenges directly to the State Court of Appeals for all projects of $100 million or more. This “accelerated judicial review” legislation has also been supported by Democrat-dominated union labor to enable the over 10,000 new jobs of the NFL stadium. The novel legislation, predictably opposed by radical eco-groups, will end run pernicious environmental law suits.
The new NFL stadium will still be held to the mitigation measures in a “certified environmental impact report” under CEQA, but would be less subject to local CEQA court challenges where eco-groups litigate for media attention and fundraising. In addition, the proposed stadium would operate with no net new greenhouse gas emissions, and would generate fewer traffic impacts than average NFL stadiums.
Green-obsessed bureaucrats and militant eco-groups have become an “axis of antagonism” that we can no longer afford. L.A.’s winning NFL stadium legislation is but one small positive step toward holding the radical green agenda to further losses.
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