COUNCIL APPROVALS `SET STAGE' FOR NFL.

Byline: RICK ORLOV Staff Writer

Nearly four years after launching an improbable quest to persuade the National Football League to return to Los Angeles, the City Council on Friday approved a series of final efforts designed to show team owners that the city is prepared to close a deal.

Without debate, the council voted 12-0 to approve an environmental impact report for the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, a development agreement, a sign-off on historical protections for the stadium, and a cooperative agreement that will set aside $25 million in future Community Redevelopment Agency funds for improvements around the area.

``I don't think anyone would have believed, when we started more than three and a half years ago, that we would have gone from nowhere to now being the main city on the agenda,'' Councilman Bernard Parks said after the speedy council vote.

The approvals cleared up all details in a city plan that Parks and a city delegation will tout in Denver next week as NFL owners are scheduled to meet to decide what they will do next about putting a team in the Los Angeles area.

``The council's action today was one more important step in our community's effort to bring back professional football,'' said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who has supported the plan since its inception and earlier this month traveled to Dallas with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to talk with a committee of owners about the area's desire to have an NFL team.

The council's approval Friday was the latest for the plans, which have sailed through several city and Coliseum Commission meetings with little opposition. Still, some have recently raised questions about whether the plans -- and the speed at which they have been approved -- are in the best interests of all concerned.

Some criticism of the use of CRA money also has emerged, but Parks insisted the city is standing by its pledge not to use tax dollars on the project.

``From Day One we had certain principles that we have not wavered from,'' Parks said. ``... we wanted professional football back in Los Angeles, that it should be at the Coliseum and that general fund tax dollars would not be used. We have stuck to those principles.''

The $25 million from the CRA will be spent only if the NFL agrees to rebuild the Coliseum and the money would come from tax revenues paid by the league to the redevelopment project area.

``It's very simple,'' Parks said. ``If there is no football stadium here, the money will not be spent.''

In addition to the Coliseum, a group from Anaheim is trying to win NFL approval.

If the owners decide on Los Angeles, the plans call for construction within the confines of the historic structure, preserving the peristyle entrance and the sightlines of the existing stadium.

Initial drawings call for a canopy above the Coliseum and creating a 67,000-seat facility with 200 luxury suites and 20,000 club seats. Seating could be expanded to 80,000 to accommodate USC games.

The NFL has agreed to pay the entire cost of rebuilding the stadium -- now estimated at $800 million.

``I think that what you will see is the owners will set aside several million dollars to look at our plans -- they want to make sure the $800 million they are looking to invest here is justified -- and then we can expect to see more visits by NFL officials to look at our site,'' said Pat Lynch, general manager of the Coliseum.

``What's important about today's action by the City Council is that it shows the NFL that the city did what it promised in setting the stage for them to make a decision.''

The NFL still has not decided on what team might play in a stadium, expected to be open in 2010, and whether it would be an existing franchise or an expansion team.

``That is not our decision,'' Parks said. ``From the start, we said we are not in the football business. That's up to the NFL. We are in the business of getting a stadium that could accommodate professional football.''

Councilwoman Jan Perry said she sees the effort to bring the NFL back to the Coliseum as an economic investment in South Los Angeles to further the boom that is taking place along the Figueroa Corridor.

``People keep asking me when are we coming to South Los Angeles,'' Perry said. ``They see all this building going on downtown and at the northern end and wonder when will those opportunities come to this area. This is one of the keys to that.''

Parks and Perry also said there are no plans to remove any of the homes in the area and the CRA plans call for 30 percent of all the money it gets to be spent on adding to the housing stock in the area.

Despite the council's quick action Friday, the vote almost never happened when not enough members were present.

Councilman Greig Smith, who had been scheduled to have the day off, came in to provide the needed 12th vote -- the number needed to approve ordinances connected with the football package.

Afterward, an enthusiastic Parks hugged and kissed Smith on the cheek.

rick.orlov(at)dailynews.com

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