In what was deemed a major victory for businesses and residents throughout Los Angeles, a judge this afternoon ordered the city of Los Angeles, Mayor Villaraigosa and City Councilman Jack Weiss not to proceed with their proposal to turn Pico and Olympic into virtual one-way streets until a true environmental impact study can be performed.
The preliminary injunction was requested by the Greater West Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, which has served as a spokesperson for its member businesses as well as numerous homeowners groups.
In its ruling, the court appeared to send a strong message to Mr. Villaraigosa and Mr. Weiss that they are not above the environmental laws of the state.
The Greater West L.A. Chamber has argued that the scheme, which calls for planned traffic increases on key streets such as Westwood and Sepulveda boulevards, as well as numerous north/south streets, will materially impact neighborhoods and businesses.
The Mayor and the Councilman have tried to force their plan onto residents, businesses, schools and religious institutions along Pico, Olympic and the cross streets that connect them, by bypassing the City Council and the traditional democratic process.
Mr. Villaraigosa’s actions to remove the project from the normal democratic process were not ignored by the judge.
In his tentative ruling, the judge stated “Here, the undisputed evidence is that the City Council Transportation Committee meetings on the proposed activity were abruptly suspended and the city’s Dept. of Transportation was instructed to implement ‘phase one’ of the plan by the Mayor.”
Aside from the environmental impacts, the Greater West L.A. Chamber was pleased that the ruling will prevent – for the time being – a plan that risks jobs at a time when, it said, jobs are too valuable to lose, risks real estate values at a time when values have stalled; and risks a decline in tax revenue to the city when it is in a budget crisis.
The Chamber also was satisfied that it had been able to forestall a “serious mistake” by Mr. Villaraigosa and Mr. Weiss that would have opened the city up to millions of dollars in mitigations and business impacts had their plan been allowed to move forward.
“We hope that today’s ruling will encourage the Mayor and Jack Weiss to start listening to and working with their constituents,” said Jay Handal, chair of the Greater West Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.
“The Chamber and the homeowners and businesses who brought the suit against the city stand ready to talk about real solutions for the traffic problems we all face.”
The group credits the position Councilman Bill Rosendahl took on behalf of his constituents as a major factor in the outcome of this issue.
More information about the issue, along with a list of chronological events, is available at www.fixthecity.org.
