In Sacramento, track and field has fallen into its last place, working to fill the little league stadium they call home. That doesn’t mean our state capitol lacks some serious hard balls.
California lawmaker, meet our old friend Frank McCourt.
Former Dodgers boss McCourt first launched a gondola from Union Station to Dodger Stadium in 2018. The latest development started in May: the Court of Appeal ordered a redraw of the Environmental Impact Report and cited two flaws that need to be remedied.
At the time, a project spokesperson classified the defects as “secondary, technical matters” and said they could be “quickly resolved.”
If another lawsuit challenges the environmental justifications of the gondola project, McCourt and his team want to ensure that any such lawsuit will be resolved soon.
On Monday, state lawmakers planned to consider a bill that aims in part to limit 12 months of restrictions on court litigation related to environmental challenges related to certain transportation projects. The current challenge for the gondola project is 16 months old and is counting.
The bill does not cite any specific items in all legislative prose. However, the state Senate analysis called the Gundora proposal “a beneficial project.”
Senator Scott Wiener (D-san Francisco), the author of the bill, said he did not meet with any lobbyists for the registered McCourt entity. Wiener said he included language related to Gondora in the bill at the request of lawmakers in the Los Angeles area.
“For me, it’s easy,” Wiener told me.
The rendering of the proposed gondola will transfer fans from Union Station to Dodger Stadium.
(LA antenna rapid transportation)
The bigger purpose of the bill is: cut the traditional tape festival for buses, bikes, trains, ferries and any other way of transit that may get you out of your car. He said if the gondola could do that.
“We need more sustainable transit options in California,” he said. “We need to make it easier for people to move around without having to drive.
“When you leave the car, it benefits people who don’t have to drive, but it also benefits drivers because it means fewer drivers on the road.”
The Senate analysis listed 52 organizations in support of the Vienna bill without opposition. Weiner told me that he had not received any opposition people.
This is related to Jon Christensen of the Los Angeles Parks Alliance, one of two groups that filed a long-term environmental lawsuit against the Gundora project.
Christensen, who recently joined the league to hire his own Sacramento lobbyist, said he has no problem with speeding up the legal process. His problem, he said, was a bill that “picked out a billionaire’s preferred project.”
Nathan Click, a spokesman for Zero Emission Transport (ZET), is charged with building and operating a gondola nonprofit. The bill simply expands the provisions of previous legislation.
“The vast majority of Angelenos want and should have zero emission transit solutions to reduce traffic and reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions,” Click said.
Click declined to say why project supporters feel compelled to be forced into the legislation if environmental challenges have been reduced to what he called “secondary, technical matters” two months ago. Project opponents are probably too optimistic to maintain the cable car ride.
Finally, what happened in Sacramento may not matter.
The gondola project still requires approval from the City Council, California Trans, Metro and State Parks Bureau. The latest goal for the grand opening – in 2028, timely participation in the Olympic Baseball Championship at Dodger Stadium – may need to start construction next spring. A project that costs an estimated $385 million to $500 million has not yet been announced to announce a financing commitment, and that estimate has undoubtedly risen for two years since its public sharing.
Lobbyists advocate that there is nothing wrong or unusual about the interests of large businesses, but it is not cheap. According to state records, McCourt’s cable car company has spent more than $500,000 to do that over the past five years.
