Jobs -- Or NFL-Sized Cow Pasture?
Posted April 5, 2010 in Environmental Justice
In 2009, the California legislature gave billionaire Ed Roski an exemption from the California Environmental Quality Act (commonly known as “CEQA”) to construct a new football stadium in the City of Industry. That meant that a judge could never rule on whether the environmental review for this huge project complied with California law. I blogged about what a bad idea this was here.
The argument that carried the day was that the CEQA exemption was needed to create jobs. Majestic Realty Co., of which Roski is CEO, estimated that the stadium project would create over 12,000 construction jobs and 6,735 permanent jobs. The website for the stadium, which apparently hasn’t been updated recently, claims that “If approved by the City, construction may begin as early as Fourth Quarter 2008.”
I wanted to see for myself how this construction project was going, so the other day I drove to the site to take a look. Here is what I saw:
Where are the 12,000 construction jobs? As far as I could tell, nary a shovel has been turned on the site. The only use appears to be as a dumping ground for dirt. Where is the stadium? Where are the 6,735 permanent jobs? Where are the 75,000 fans? The only spectator I could see was this one:
I think that what this shows is that the notion that environmental review is a job-killer is bogus. Realistically, nothing is going to be built on that site until the NFL gives Los Angeles a team. The California legislature fell for the fumblerooski in thinking that giving Roski a free pass from CEQA would make a difference.
What's worse, Roski's success has emboldened others to run to the Legislature to cut special deals exempting projects from CEQA. NRDC and our allies will fight those efforts because the notion that environmental review is a job-killer is as empty as Roski's stadium site.
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Comments
Shelli — Apr 6 2010 02:01 PM
Thank you for following up on this. Hopefully the legislature will take note.
Terri — Apr 6 2010 02:49 PM
This is very interesting to read about. I'm a graduate student doing some research on the NYC environmental review process (CEQR), and while they may be lengthy and costly, skipping it altogether doesn't seem to be the way to go about it (especially when there are zero benefits).
jerry — Apr 6 2010 07:49 PM
I can't wait for construction to begin. The local economy is nearly dead. But I know the exemption must come first, the decision of NFL team second, and the construction will follow. We can't be all environmental concerned and live without jobs. It will happen and save lots of us.
lou — Apr 7 2010 12:12 AM
you cant complain about the exemption and then complain at the same time there is no construction yet. you were upset that he got the go ahead and now you are upset he hasn't begun yet? you just want to complain about the project no matter the status. and as far as why no construction has begun yet - no one with half a brain expected any construction to begin until an NFL team commits to moving to the site. the exemption allows a team to commit without the worry of the project later being held up by ridiculous lawsuits.
rus — Apr 7 2010 01:13 AM
The previous comments may have some merit - no construction until NFL grants a team - but that misses the point or purpose of the CEQA exemption. The claim is, "we need to void CEQA so we can move the project forward quickly and create jobs." Only 1 in 350+ projects in CA are impacted by a CEQA lawsuit - and there are no stats showing if that is a good impact or bad. So yeah, no-one wants to build when it doesn't make sense but CEQA seems the least, or the last, of the problems. You want construction? Today? Tell the legislature to fund the existing, approved, certified and ready to go projects that are sitting on the shelf. I hear one more argument that jobs starting in 2012 are going to help us now...well, you get the idea.
Francis — Apr 8 2010 02:02 PM
You do realize that the only people who will work on the job is just illegal immigrants right?
Chris — Apr 11 2010 12:45 AM
No where is anyone addressing the problems of having a stadium within 4 blocks of an elementary school, with the parking lot literally adjacent to the backyards of middleclass homes in Diamond Bar. The stadium itself, being within blocks of homes, condos and mobile home park along with another elementary school within a mile of it. This stadium is not in downtown LA with large business districts around it, it is right in the middle of two rural type communities. The stadium will bring large amounts of traffic into two sleepy communities going right through walking and horse trails and bike lanes. Grand Ave. is the only north / south road that goes through Walnut, there are several different housing developments that their only way in and out of the development is via Grand Ave. The CEQA laws would protect our children and our health, well being and way of life.
As for the number of jobs, after seeing three different presentations of prior to their sidestepping the lawsuit, their numbers went from 4,800 to 5,200, to 5,800 when asked about the last set of numbers they said that 1,800 would be construction and the other they would not answer the question when asked “how many of the remaining 4,000 jobs are going to be full time, since your presentation said that you are only going to have 32-35 events?” They promptly changed the subject and moved on; don’t believe anything they say, since if it doesn’t get the response they want they change it for the next presentation.