Part II
Re “Kuechle of Culver Crest Wings at West for Repeated ‘Deception’”
As West Los Angeles College today welcomed its third president in the last seven weeks, Culver Crest activist John Kuechle, an attorney, pondered a question about the thorny neighborly dispute with West that currently is trending strongly in the school’s direction.
Is there any meaningful legal relief for Culver City and for nearby residents?
“The environmental impact report (which the Community College District Board of Trustees approved last week) is legally deficient in a number of respects. A lawsuit is the only remedy for that.
“But a lawsuit is expensive. If you prevail, all that means is they have to go back and review it.
“EIRs are just supposed to point out impacts. But the District can always say, ‘We understand there is significant impact, but we don’t care. We think this project is important enough to go ahead anyway.’
“You can get into a problem in a case like this where the lead agency isn’t acting as a neutral judge — it is the proponent and the developer of the project.
“Instead of a typical situation where you have the developer and the public, then you have the agency or the city sitting there as a neutral judge. But here you have the developer and the judge being the same person.
“With one hand the college says, ‘I want to go through with the project.’ Then the college puts on its other hand as the judge and says, ‘Okay, I will let you go through with the project.’”
(To be continued)
