Inglewood’s dream for a $2.2 billion elevated people mover to shuttle visitors to SoFi Stadium and the Intuit Dome is officially dead, says the project’s chief visionary, Mayor James T. Butts Jr.
The plan, designed to alleviate the traffic plaguing the city’s sporting venues, will no longer move forward, at least in its current form, after the South Bay Cities Council of Governments, a joint powers authority made up of 16 cities, rejected a request Thursday, Oct. 24, for $493 million in funding, Butts said. Those funds were critical for securing another $1 billion in federal grants needed to begin construction.
“This is by no means the end of improving mobility and the environment in Inglewood,” Butts said in an interview. “It is the end of that project as conceived, that being an elevated people mover.”
Inglewood’s latest request was on top of the $368 million the SBCCOG’s members had already pledged to the automated transit system. In a press release, Inglewood describes the decision as a loss for “17,000 potential workers” and the “residents of Inglewood and the Southbay cities.”
Butts described it as a “hiccup” in Inglewood’s otherwise successful track record. Since 2011, the city has reopened The Kia Forum and gained the $5.5 billion SoFi Stadium, the YouTube Theater, headquarters for the NFL Network and the Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles, and the $2 billion Intuit Dome.
“This is the first time we’ve hit a hiccup and that’s all it is: a hiccup,” he said.
Waters lobbies against project
Inglewood needed the additional local monies to secure a Federal Transit Administration grant that would have covered half of the project’s total cost. That federal funding, however, was already in jeopardy as well after U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters pushed to have the first installment excised from the House’s version of this year’s federal budget. It remained to be seen whether it would be added back once the House and the Senate reconciled their budgets later this year.
Waters reiterated her concerns to the SBCCOG before its decision was reached. The project was slated to uproot dozens of local businesses along its 1.6-mile route.
“I am adamantly opposed to this very expensive project,” Waters said. “It is proposed to be something to help the people of Inglewood, but it really does not. This is a boondongle.”
Several cities opposed
Ultimately, officials for the cities in opposition — including Torrance, Manhattan Beach and El Segundo — weren’t willing to dedicate more taxpayer-funded transit dollars to Inglewood out of concern that it was too costly and would potentially leave less in the pot for projects elsewhere in the region.
Executive Director Jacki Bacharach, while presenting staff criticisms, said Inglewood had received a third of the Measure M and Measure R funding earmarked by the agency and, if approved, the new request would have increased that amount to 53.48% of the funds controlled by the cities. Measures R and M are half-cent sales tax increases passed by L.A. County voters in 2008 and 2016, respectively.
SBCCOG also would have needed to carve out exemptions to a policy capping the total amount a single project could receive and a requirement that the city match a percentage of the total.
“There will be an impact on our ability to award future projects,” Bacharach warned. Representatives from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, including county Supervisor Janice Hahn, attempted to reassure the cities that enough money would be available, but their efforts were unsuccessful.
Venue owners: Bad for business
Perhaps the most surprising of the project’s detractors were the very venues it was designed to help. Gerald Mccallum II, the project manager for Hollywood Park, the Kia Forum and the Intuit Dome, told the South Bay cities group that while Inglewood’s thriving sports and entertainment district wouldn’t have been built without Butts’ support, the Inglewood Transit Connector was simply bad for their businesses.
It would potentially cut a lane of traffic on Prairie Avenue and lead to years of construction during a time period when the venues will host the Olympics, the World Cup, an NBA All-Star game and a second Super Bowl, he said. Delays made it unlikely the ITC would be operation in time for the Summer Olympics in 2028 as originally planned.
Even once completed, it would only serve visitors heading to and from the north, Mccallum said.
The project also would have cut 30 feet into Hollywood Park’s property and “threatens the future development” at the home of SoFi Stadium. The city would need to take the land through eminent domain, and be ready to pay up, he said.
“This is not an emotional decision,” Mccallum said. “This is a business decision.”
Butts denied a lane would close and said in an interview that the land needed could not be otherwise be developed.
Hollywood Park’s R. Otto Maly, on behalf of the Kroenke Group, and Steve Ballmer, owner of the Clippers, expressed similar opposition in letters earlier this year. The ITC risked disrupting the mega-events planned in the coming years and raised the possibility “the governing bodies of those events will rescind the awards, resulting in a tremendous loss to the City and the community,” they wrote.
“Together we have built world-class venues, committed to a direct community benefits package worth more than $100 million, and created the most sustainable sports facility in the Country,” Ballmer wrote in his Aug. 27 letter. “This private investment has resulted in millions of dollars of new taxes benefiting the City of Inglewood each year.
“We would like to take this opportunity to reiterate that we will not take on any financial responsibility for long-term operations or maintenance of the ITC, nor do we believe fans not utilizing the ITC should be subject to additional fees to cover these costs.”
Both Ballmer and Maly said shuttle services have been successful and should continue instead as a means of reducing traffic congestion.
Related links
Inglewood’s $2 billion people mover loses funding in U.S. House budget
Inglewood Transit Connector could uproot businesses to make way for trains to SoFi Stadium
$1 billion secured for Inglewood people mover to SoFi Stadium, Clippers arena
People movers to LAX, Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium face new delays
The mixed bag of Inglewood’s renaissance: ‘stories of success, stories of despair’
‘We move on’
Butts said he did not fault the venue owners for opposing the project for “whatever business reasons they had.” Inglewood will continue working with them on alternatives, he said.
“The venues have been our partners and will continue to be our partners in the future,” he said.
Butts and the city’s press release stressed that the end of the ITC will not be the end of the city’s pledge to deliver “critical connections to our activity centers and meeting the mobility needs of our city and region.” Inglewood is committed to “finding an alternative transit improving solution,” Butts said.
“This is disappointing, but we move on,” he said.