MasterPlanning!: Industry and the NFL
by Tony Chavira
Did you know that the City of Industry has been working on bringing an NFL team to Los Angeles? Yeah, they’re even pulling together the cash to build the stadium and clear out the surrounding area so that other investors and property owners can develop to their collective little heart’s content. When finding this out, I immediately thought, “This is a total win-win! The City of Industry is mostly zoned for commercial or industrial use (surprise, surprise) and the actual population is less than 1,000 people for about 12 square miles of land, so you won’t be bothering anyone. In fact, the extra sales tax cash can really help out the current statewide super-debt. Anyway, as long as it doesn’t overcrowd the Puente Hills Shopping Center, I’m all for this!”
The NFL seemed to be warming up to it too. When it was proposed this past April by Ed Ronski Jr.’s (co-owner of Staples Center and part-owner of the Lakers and Kings) development company, Majestic Realty Cos., the San Gabriel Valley Tribune quoted NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy: “Mr. Roski's site certainly seems to present an interesting possibility. The permitting and construction processes seem to be more defined than other sites we have seen.” But who’s surprised? Majestic Realty Cos. have a really strong track record, including projects like the massive developments at the Pico Rivera Business Center, the Airport Center at Ontario Airport, and the 125-acre Citrus Plaza in San Bernardino. And you know, it helps that they’re actually located in the City of Industry. But this is what they do: gigantic, zillion-acre developments. The NFL stadium project would be a new venture for them, but hey ... it’s all a matter of finding the right subcontractors, right?
Now, before you fire the gun upward and shout “Go!,” there are two sides to this story. My rabid fervor to drain the cash out of development-mania and heavily-spending (potentially Raiders?) fans aside, the City of Industry is bordered by a ton of very neighborhood-y (and in some cases NIMBY) cities. Residents in the Walnut (just northeast of Industry) are particularly irked by the fact that they’ll have to deal with an increase in local development, traffic (which we all know is already terrible), and (of course) thuggish football types. While Mt. San Antonio College’s football stadium sits quietly nestled in Walnut’s scenic hillscape, denizens from the far corners of Southern California will descend like vultures on Walnut to attend events at the proposed NFL stadium ... not just NFL games, but concerts, festivals, car shows, who knows?!?! When will the madness end?
Let me be clear, I’m not making fun of Walnut for trying to block, hinder or delay the development of the NFL stadium in the City of Industry. If you don’t (or do) want a stadium in your community, that should be totally up to you, and not the political and economic engine that we all secretly fear controls everything in Los Angeles County.
And for a moment there, it almost looked like that was exactly the case. Last April, Roski and the City of Industry directed a bill went to the state legislature which referred to the proposed NFL stadium as being in a “redevelopment” area. Luckily, the legislature was smart enough to call bullshit on the them ... there was no way that they were going to use taxpayers’ cash, meant to help dilapidated neighborhoods, to publicly subsidize the stadium. I mean, it’s cool if Majestic wants to foot the bill with the City of Industry, but imagine if money that voters had dedicated to redeveloping slums was all diverted to the stadium. I, for one, would be mighty pissed off.
Naturally, a day after the legislature shot down the proposal, the City of Industry and Majestic Realty announced the development of the stadium by 2011. Before they’ve even got the official thumbs up from the NFL!! Shameless? Oh, yes, it certainly is.
The City of Walnut has a point: traffic, overcrowding, overdevelopment. The City of Industry has a point: a ton of construction jobs, local economic boom after construction, and an immense amount of cash from taxes after the stadium’s built. For most of Southern California it’s a no-brainer ... “Hell, yes! I’ll drive up from Newport Beach, see the game, and split while the splitting’s good!” But think about putting this stadium in your neighborhood, right where two crowded freeways converge (in this case, the 57 and the 60). Think about the fact that the City if Industry is laying the stadium right at its edge, essentially closer to the quiet cities of Walnut and Diamond Bar than its own center.
Anyway, construction’s getting delayed a year, so there’s plenty of time to fight. The city is still conducting and analyzing the environmental impact report, so the first phases have yet to begin. Being a fan of interest-based negotiations, I think there’s got to be a way to work this out that appeases both parties/cities. Let’s run through all of the points one last time ...
- First and foremost, The stadium should be built with zero taxpayer money meant for redevelopment. Period.
- Stadium construction will provide an economic boost by creating jobs while it goes on, and afterward with new developments, tax money, and a boom to local businesses.
- The stadium will require a lot of accessibility that doesn’t further burden existing roads and freeways.
- Noise levels will have to be heavily monitored, or else the NIMBY axis of project destruction will never accept the terms for development.
- The cities of Diamond Bar and Walnut will need to figure out a way to carefully balance their development in order to profit from the stadium without overdeveloping into shantytowns in its shadow.
- Let’s be real: Good football teams usually don’t move. But crappy ones do in a heartbeat. So the developers shouldn’t expect a gigantic bandwagon to roll in mindless football drones to see the newly-relocated Lions or L.A. Stars or whatever the hell our team will be called.
Last but not least, ignore for a second all of the development around the stadium itself ... the actual stadium is a little unoriginal, don’t you think? If we’re going to have a brand-spanking-new stadium, why couldn’t it be wholly original? I mean, Beijing got the Bird’s Nest and there’s nothing like it in the world. Okay, that’s a little unfair, since Beijing got a ton of government cash. But we’re Los Angeles, dammit, a huge sports market ... is this all we get? And what about the other important questions on people’s minds: will it be sustainable? Will it be water-efficient? Or is it just going to be an ugly gigantic drain on an already-burdened Southern California energy grid?
What do you think, football fans?
www.racaia.com | tony@fourstory.org
Comments
i think this crazy. aside from all the traffic (80,000 or more projected seats)plus all the necessary staff to maintain the facility. all the pollution to the city, the increased crime that it would bring to an already strained infrastructure. it already takes me an hour to get home and I’m only driving 12 miles on the 10. they want to put this stadium in the center of walnut which houses about 30,000 residents and diamond bar which is home to about 60,000. The biggest developments in these towns are three strip malls and a target. it’s a shame. i think the NFL should seriously consider the impact that it would have on the citizens of these towns and to its image. there has to be a better location than right smack in the middle of suburbia.
2009-08-18 by concerned citizen
I think this is horrible! The parking lot to this Stadium will be literately in my back yard. Instead of my children observing wildlife on the hills they will see a parking lot! This is ludicrous!
2009-04-16 by Maritza Almeida