During a ceremony Tuesday at the Los Angeles Convention Center, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill designed to fast-track a proposed pro football stadium in downtown L.A. The signing took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center. There's still no football team attached to the potential stadium.
During a ceremony Tuesday at the Los Angeles Convention Center, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill designed to fast-track a proposed pro football stadium in downtown L.A. The signing took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center. There's still no football team attached to the potential stadium.
Senate Bill 292 streamlines the environmental review process for AEG’s Farmers Field stadium proposal and requires it to meet high environmental standards. The law allows stadium developers to address environmental legal challenges in a quicker, more streamlined way.
"We’re doing what California knows how to do," Brown said, "protect the wonderful quality of life, our beautiful environment, but utilize the power and strength of our workers and our entrepreneurs and the capital that we have. So this is a great day. Big ideas, big projects. Let’s cut the barriers, let’s move ahead."
"Environmental standards are enhanced, the project is expedited and jobs are created at a time when they are desperately needed," Democratic State Senator Alex Padilla said in a press release. Padilla co-authored the law.
Brown also signed Assembly Bill 900. It expedites the environmental review process for other big construction projects throughout California.
The stadium legislation was lobbied for by Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG). Environmentalists and other critics said it's wrong to give special exceptions to well-financed developers, but the Legislature approved the bills despite those objections.
AEG plans to invest $1.3 billion in the stadium project. The city projected that it will generate $410 million in new tax revenues over 30 years.
Proponents of the stadium say that it will create 12,000 jobs during the construction phase and 11,000 jobs after the stadium is completed.
AEG plans to tear down and rebuild the West Hall of the convention center and build the stadium next to Staples Center if everything is approved.
KPCC's Mike Roe and Shirley Jahad contributed to this story.