In 2005, when BNSF Railway Co. started planning a rail yard a few miles north of the Port of Los Angeles, the railroad operator hoped the new facility would open by this year.
Today, the proposed rail yard site, where cargo from the ports would be loaded from trucks onto trains, is still home to port warehouses and a trucking operation, and the project remains in the environmental review process. The port last month released an updated version of last year’s draft environmental impact report to answer complaints from environmental and community groups.
Because BNSF, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, first applied to build the project in 2005, the original environmental report used that year as the baseline for traffic, air emissions and other environmental factors around the port. The new report uses 2010 as the baseline.
“Based on the comments we received, we realized some information was either outdated or needed to be reviewed in a different way,” said port spokesman Phillip Sanfield.
Along with new traffic and emissions numbers, the report includes a new promise from BNSF that the company will pay $3 million into a port fund that helps companies develop zero-emission cargo handling equipment. That’s a move aimed at addressing environmentalists’ demands that the new rail yard be a zero-emission facility – a goal BNSF spokeswoman Lena Kent said isn’t realistic in the short term.
“There aren’t any proven technologies currently available,” she said. “There are prototypes and people have different ideas, but there’s not anything proven.”
A new round of public comment on the updated environmental document ends in November, and the port has scheduled a public hearing on the project for 6 p.m. Thursday at Banning’s Landing Community Center in Wilmington.
Kent said the railroad hopes to start construction next year and open the yard in 2016. That’s the same time line she offered a year ago and environmental groups will likely continue to fight the project.
She said the yard will be better for the environment because it will allow truckers to make shorter trips. The new rail yard will be about four miles from the ports, while BNSF’s Hobart yard in Commerce is about 20 miles away.
But the Natural Resources Defense Council and local groups are pushing BNSF and competing railroad Union Pacific Corp. to clean up existing rail yards before expanding them or building new ones.
Waterfront Facelift
Eight developers said that they want to bring new restaurants and attractions to San Pedro’s aging waterfront.
The Port of Los Angeles this summer solicited requests for qualifications from companies interested in redeveloping Ports O’Call Village, a stretch of shops and restaurants along the port’s main channel. Responses were due Oct. 5.
Officials said they don’t plan to release the names of the eight developers that responded to the request, though Geraldine Knatz, the port’s executive director, said she was pleased with the number and quality of respondents.
“We received proposals from a variety of respected, experienced and well-financed firms that see great potential and possibility for this unique waterfront site,” Knatz said in a statement.
The port wants to replace Ports O’Call, a 150,000-square-foot New England-style shopping and dining complex built in the early ’60s, with a larger facility that will include updated attractions.
There are no specific plans for the area, but the port has approval from the California Coastal Commission for 300,000 square feet of visitor-oriented development – meaning no residences or big-box retail – on 30 acres of land. The port intends to lease the land to a developer for 50 years.
In coming months, a panel of port administrators and redevelopment experts will review developers’ qualifications. By the end of the year, the panel hopes to recommend one of the eight respondents to the Harbor Commission.
New Driver
Terri Toennies will take over next year as general manager of the LA Auto Show, one of the city’s biggest annual events. Toennies comes from Syracuse, N.Y., where she is the chief executive and general manager of that city’s convention and performing arts center. She’ll replace Andy Fuzesi, a part owner of ANSA Productions Inc., which owns the auto convention. Fuzesi will have served as the event’s general manager for 20 years.
Fuzesi will step down in January, less than a month after the 2012 edition wraps up. The show was first staged in 1907 at a skating rink; last year, it drew more than 900,000 attendees.
Staff reporter James Rufus Koren can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 225.
