After months of delays due to community and environmentalist opposition, the Port of Los Angeles is set to move forward with its first terminal expansion project since 2001.
City officials are expected to announce Thursday an agreement between the port and a coalition of environmentalists, health advocates and community groups that would allow construction to begin later this year at the terminal operated by TraPac Inc.
The project will expand the TraPac terminal to 243 acres from 176 and add on-dock rail facilities, tripling its annual cargo capacity and creating up to 6,000 new jobs.
The agreement is expected to include a $50 million “community benefits package,” which would set up a non-profit organization that will develop projects to reduce the environmental impacts of port construction projects.
“It’s a precedent-setting agreement in that the port has never really come to grips with its off-port impacts,” said David Pettit, a senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “We’re pleased with it. It’s a big step in the right direction.”
The NRDC, a national environmental group, had filed an appeal with the City Council to block the project, which it said would increase port-related emissions that contribute to a variety of health problems. As a result of the agreement, the group has decided to drop its appeal.
The move is welcome news for TraPac, which has lost five shipping line customers accounting for more than $100 million in annual business in the past year as the shipping lines abandoned the cramped and aging terminal.
The agreement was cheered by the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, which has long backed the TraPac project as an important job-creating and revenue-generating development.
“The advancement of the TraPac project at the Port of Los Angeles is an important step in the greening and growing of our ports,” said Gary Toebben, chief executive of the chamber. “The TraPac expansion will improve air quality, create good-paying jobs and strengthen our region’s largest economic engine.”
