Westside community groups remain concerned about plans to redevelop the Federal Building in Westwood, despite word last week that the project may be scaled back.
“If it can be shown that the end result is a total reduction of car trips to that site, than it’s probably OK,” said David Heldman, a board member of the Brentwood Glen Association who attended the briefing. “The traffic on Wilshire keeps getting worse but we’re allowing more housing and businesses around the area.”
The General Services Administration notified residents in May 2004 that it was studying the impact of constructing a pair of buildings on the 28-acre site that together would be nearly twice the size of the existing 500,000-square-foot, 17-story structure that houses the local headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The announcement raised howls from neighborhood groups, who said that adding much more office space to an already congested area would create a traffic nightmare.
In an apparent early victory for those groups, representatives of the FBI and GSA told a meeting last week that the bureau was leaning toward a new plan that would actually reduce traffic by relocating all other government agencies from the complex. The news was first reported on the Business Journal website, labusinessjournal.com.
The revised plan calls for either the demolition of the existing building where the FBI occupies floors nine through 17 in favor of two new buildings, or adding one building next to the existing structure.
Either plan would involve relocation of the offices of the Department of Veterans Affairs, passport and postal distribution offices and would decrease the number of vehicles coming in and out of the campus by hundreds per day.
“If your job moves, you move with it,” said Matt McLaughlin, an FBI special agent and the L.A. office’s supervisor in charge of special projects.
The FBI would not disclose how many agents and support staff work in the Federal Building. But the GSA said it houses between 1,100 and 1,200 total employees.
With the building at or over capacity for years, 200 to 300 FBI employees have to work in 10 satellite offices scattered within a 15-mile radius of the headquarters.
“They have so many balls up in the air that it’s like a shell game,” said Laura Lake, co-president of Save Westwood Village, a business-community alliance. “We are trying to figure out what are they are proposing. Nothing was making sense.”
An environmental impact study looking at a variety of development options for the site is scheduled to be released in late July, with a decision on which construction plan to pursue to follow two months later.
“We need to look at all the alternatives and evaluate them equally against the FBI requirements,” said Mary Filippini, spokeswoman for GSA’s Western region. “We are not at a point of saying what will work and what won’t work.”
Because the site belongs to the federal government, it is not subject to local zoning requirements and building or environmental codes.
Groundbreaking would commence four years after the GSA chooses which plan to follow, with a projected completion date four years later. If a second new building is approved, construction would begin upon completion of the first one.
The existing building, which opened in 1970, does not meet the FBI’s needs. “The building was a bit outdated when we moved in (in 1970),” said McLaughlin. “There was bullpen-style seating and one phone for every two agents.”
The decision on whether to renovate or tear down the existing building will largely be determined by which is more cost efficient, GSA and FBI representatives said.
The existing building is in the midst of a retrofit of its plumbing system. It contains asbestos and the water is tainted with lead, forcing workers to drink bottled water. Seismic retrofitting and modern electrical systems are also needed.
With all those issues, McLaughlin said he would be surprised if studies show demolition was not the most viable option. “If the cost of renovating the existing tower is even in the ballpark of building a new tower, then I think as good custodians of the taxpayers dollars, (the federal government) will probably opt to just build new,” he said.
A new complex would also have upgraded security. The FBI has said it is interested in a 12- to 15-foot-high concrete wall with blast-resistant gates around the perimeter of the campus, a plan that is causing concern among Westwood residents.
“That would be unacceptable in the community,” said Lake. “We are most concerned about airborne terrorists and the inability for the FBI to deploy for an emergency because of gridlock in Westwood. We’re not afraid of trucks bringing bombs into Westwood because they can’t get there.”
