In the latest chapter of an ongoing saga, a developer intent on bringing an NFL franchise to the San Gabriel Valley area cleared another hurdle recently.
On Sept. 24, The Walnut City Council dropped its legal challenge of a proposed stadium in Industry.
Walnut had filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court in March opposing an Environmental Impact Report previously approved by City of Industry.
The lawsuit was an effort to delay creation of the $800-million stadium proposed by Billionaire Ed Roski Jr. of Majestic Realty Co. as part of an entertainment complex near the 57 and 60 freeways.
The basis of the city’s lawsuit was environmental violations, but according to the settlement report made public by the city, Walnut agreed to drop the lawsuit in exchange for $9 million for traffic improvements and measures to control traffic and noise.
Industry also agreed to pay for all improvements on Valley Boulevard near Fairway Drive and pay a portion of three other traffic projects.
The settlement outlines specific terms for traffic mitigation, transportation management for accessing areas for traffic crated by the stadium and noise impacts.
In addition, the parties agreed to work to secure approval from Metro Link to provide weekend train service to NFL stadium events.
According to a San Gabriel Valley Tribune article, in recent weeks, Roski and Majestic Realty attempted to circumvent litigation by lobbying the California Legislature for an exemption of the California Environmental Quality Act which governs the project.
One more roadblock stands in the way of Roski’s team: A group of eight Walnut residents filed a separate lawsuit against the project and have yet to reach an agreement with the developers.
Recent settlement talks were mandated by State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg after a Senate vote that would have favored majestic was postponed on Sept. 11 in hopes both sides would settle their differences on their own.
However, the vote on the bill dubbed AB 3X81, could occur as early as today if settlement talks break down.
“We hope to have a resolution soon. We can’t talk about the negotiations while they are still going on, but there will be a resolution soon either through a settlement or through the Senate vote,” said Majestic Realty Vice President John Semcken .
Semcken said if the vote is approved, Majestic will wait until after this year’s Super Bowl to buy a team and they hope to have a team by the 2011 season.
The country’s largest media market has been without a professional football team since the Rams and Raiders left Los Angeles in 1995.
Walnut officials said that since the Senate promised to consider the bill in a special session if negotiations failed, they had little choice but to accept the settlement.
Walnut Councilman and former Mayor Joaquin Lim is a vocal opponent of the project and said he met with Steinberg last week to discuss the city’s settlement.
“I believe this is a fine example of pay to play politics at its best,” said Lim, adding he was disappointed with the developer’s actions which he perceived pressured the city into dropping its lawsuit.
“We were supposed to go to court in November, but the developer circumvented the whole process,” said Lim.
“It’s very disgusting to me that this happened, that the developer hijacked the judicial system and tried to lobby the Legislature. It’s very shameful in my opinion.”
Lim also questions Majestic’s claim that the stadium development will create 18,000 permanent jobs, 12,000 constructions jobs and also generate $323 annually in salaries.
Lim said an earlier project reviewed by Industry in 2004 would have created more meaningful jobs.
“I don’t see what kind of permanent jobs a football stadium would generate, as to the impacts to Cal Poly and the area, they will be disastrous to say the least, the damages to the environment and to our quality of life will be irreversible,” he said.
Cal Poly’s Career Center Director Tom Munnerlyn said even though construction jobs would be too specialized for most Cal Poly students, a proposed retail component to the complex if the stadium gets built could bring in much needed jobs into the area.
“If it all goes well, it could be a real win-win for the area and a real boost to the economy,” he said.
Parking Services failed to return a call regarding possible traffic impacts to the university, but student reaction to the proposed stadium is mixed.
“I think it would be cool because Southern California will have another football team and it would be cool to have representation this side of town. It will also bring more revenue to California,” said first-year business major Jackie Onopa.
Orange County resident Ryan Mak, a second-year civil engineering student said, “People who live in Walnut are going to have a lot of traffic problems, since it’s such a small city. It’s not going to be nice for them on game day,” but he said the revenue generated by the stadium could benefit everybody.
Reach Ariel Carmona at: news@thepolypost.com
Be the first to comment on this article!