Environmental Group Breaks From Pack to Fight Playa’s Phase II

By DANNY KING

Staff Reporter

There’s radical and then there’s radical.

When Playa Vista developer Playa Capital LLC transferred 623 acres of wetlands near Ballona Creek to the state’s Trust for Public Land in December for $139 million, nearly every environmental group opposing the project saw the deal as a victory of sorts.

Not the Ballona Wetlands Land Trust.

“It was basically a stick-up,” said Tom Francis, executive director of the group, who estimated the unentitled land value at $25 million. “We were very supportive of the acquisition but not in support of paying a price that was more than three times what other developers would’ve paid for the property.”

The Wetlands Land Trust has fired off a 57-page response to the draft environmental impact report for the project’s second phase. Dubbed the Village at Playa Vista, Phase II envisions 2,600 housing units, 150,000 square feet of retail, 175,000 square feet of offices and 40,000 square feet of community space on 163 acres east of Phase I.

The group’s written response includes claims that an earthquake fault is within a mile of the project, that ground methane levels in some areas are high enough to light a match, and that Playa Vista underestimates the second phase’s effect on area traffic.

“It’s certainly one of the longest responses” received by the city, said Kevin Keller, chief planning deputy with Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, who said about 300 letters were received during the 60-day comment period ended Dec. 22. He would not comment on the letter’s contents.

Steve Sugerman, spokesman for Playa Vista, dismissed the organization as a one of a few “fringe environmental groups that have made it a business to oppose Playa Vista.”

Details about the group itself are not clear. Francis described himself as a small business owner from Santa Monica, though declined to disclose the business. He also declined to disclose the group’s annual budget.

Francis is in favor of a plan to have the state buy some or all of Playa Vista’s remaining 350 acres, though he hasn’t put a value on the property.