A lawsuit that asks the city to halt all new development while it analyzes the potential impacts on LA's infrastructure has come back around, following a legal loss last year. About a dozen community groups have appealed a ruling that the city is not required to provide a "comprehensive annual infrastructure report," according to LA Weekly. The suit stems from the always contentious and crazy La Brea Gateway development: "In 2008, unable to locate the infrastructure report for a proposed retail-residential development at La Brea Avenue and Willoughby Street, near where she lives, [Lucille] Saunders sued on behalf of the La Brea–Willoughby Coalition" (that project shrunk last year but is still facing strong opposition). The community groups' lawsuit claims that the city charter requires the planning department to generate an annual and comprehensive accounting of the city's infrastructure, "a single go-to report on the state of the city's water pipes, sewage lines, power grid and roadways."
The department stopped creating that report in 2000, under planning head Con Howe, and between then and now there's been something of a building boom around town, which the plaintiffs say has put way too much stress on our infrastructure. They also argue that the lack of a report violates the California Environmental Quality Act. The city attorney argues that the planning department doesn't have the money to create the report and that a city charter clause calling the report "contingent on the availability of adequate funding" is all the out they need. LAW argues that the department should be able to find the money, since the last three reports were all written by just one guy (his supervisor edited it).
The appeal "calls for a moratorium on all new development until the planning department resumes the public infrastructure reports" and a decision is expected sometime this year.
· Residents Sue Over Crumbling L.A. [LAW]
· La Brea Gateway Project Brings on the Lawsuits [Curbed LA]
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