D-DAY NEAR FOR PLAYA VISTA YEARS-OLD DEBATE COMING TO A CLOSE.

Byline: Dominic Berbeo Staff Writer

Capping years of bitter debate over environmental issues and public financing, the massive Playa Vista project faces a series of final tests in the next few days as the City Council considers approving about $168 million in low- and no-interest bonds.

Opponents say the 1,087-acre development south of Marina del Rey would consume the county's last natural wetlands, add traffic and expose 50,000 people expected to live and work there to high levels of methane gas recently identified under the site.

Supporters say the project would create jobs and desperately needed housing, but can be built only if the city approves about $168 million in low- and interest-free state bonds for the first phase. Developers and future land owners have taken out insurance to guarantee they would repay the Mello-Roos and California Debt Allocation Limit Committee bonds.

San Fernando Valley civic leaders and others question whether the city should help subsidize a project that has so many drawbacks.

``The city went to great lengths to spur the Playa project on,'' said David Fleming, a city commissioner and chairman of the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley.

``We need to see that kind of effort on projects like the Northeast Valley redevelopment or North Hollywood. Unfortunately, the downtown power structure always gives us second choice.''

Former Assemblyman Richard Katz said the Valley could use the city's support.

``We're talking about millions of dollars that could have been used to spark some significant development in the San Fernando Valley, where we have the same needs and less impact on a delicate ecosystem like the Ballona Wetlands,'' Katz said.

David Herbst, vice president of developer Playa Capital, defended the project, claiming it will protect or restore 300 acres of the Ballona Wetlands, create thousands of new jobs and housing units, and pump billions of dollars annually into the local economy.

``There has been so much scrutiny,'' Herbst said, ``that this will end up being one of the safest projects in city history.''

The City Council's Budget and Finance Committee and Housing and Community Redevelopment Committee are scheduled to recommend whether to allocate the bonds today, with a final vote taken by the full council Friday.

Some environmentalists, including Marcia Hanscom of the Sierra Club, believe the project would ruin a local resource.

``What is at risk in Ballona is a delicate wetlands that depends on its surrounding environment to offer an important stopover for migrant birds along the Pacific Coast,'' said Hanscom, who heads the multigroup opposition group Wetlands Action Network.

In all, the project includes 5 million square feet of commercial space and 13,000 housing units for 30,000 residents, with roughly 25 percent earmarked for low-income residents. Sound studios and high-tech facilities for use by the entertainment industry are also planned.

While developers are spending millions to solve traffic problems, the project would still significantly increase traffic along the 405 Freeway and Lincoln Boulevard corridor, opponents say.

Deputy Mayor Rocky Delgadillo, who heads the city's economic development team, defended the project as an environmentally friendly link between housing and jobs.

``We believe methane mitigation with state review is satisfactory,'' he said. ``This is a model for smart growth. The idea is to allow people to live closer to where they work, while creating new jobs.''

A city-commissioned study of underground gases found methane in ``very high'' concentrations directly under planned construction areas.

Opponents compare the amount of methane with what was found at the half-completed Belmont Learning Center school.

``The amount of methane here is much higher than that found at Belmont, and there is no precedent for mitigation at a project this size,'' said Bernard Endres, a gas mitigation expert opposing the project.

The latest legal action, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on April 25 against the developers by opponent Grassroots Coalition and others, seeks to stop construction until a new environmental impact report is performed.

The last EIR, conducted in 1993, did not report the presence of high concentrations of methane, and the plaintiffs argue an extensive study of gases should have been conducted before the city signed off on the project.

Methane, the study found, likely would seep to the surface through the north-south Lincoln Boulevard and Charnock faults, beneath site areas where construction is planned.

A quake with an epicenter close to the site ``could potentially cause a rapid flux of very large volumes of (explosive) thermogenic methane gas to the surface along the Lincoln Boulevard Fault plane,'' the study found.

The report calls for stiffer city building codes regulating methane mitigation, saying they are not stringent enough.

Developers say they are exceeding the city codes, and intend to base mitigation plans on the report's recommendations and state safety codes.

CAPTION(S):

chart

Chart: METHANE GAS AT PLAYA VISTA

A recent independent study identified areas with "very high" concentrations of methane gas in the Playa Vista development area. Some scattered pockets within these areas reach nearly 100 percent concentration.

SOURCE: Exploration Technologies Inc.

Reuben J. Stern/Staff Artist