ROSE BOWL IS READY TO ROLL REDESIGN PLAN TO START REVIEW PROCESS FOR BID.

Byline: Billy Witz Staff Writer

Rose Bowl officials plan to make their latest redesign efforts public next Saturday, kicking off the start of an environmental review process that is key to their hopes of landing an NFL team.

The unveiling, anticipated by preservationists and community activists, could cap one of the busiest weeks for the Rose Bowl, the Coliseum and the city of Carson in the NFL's now 16-month exploration for a stadium deal.

Coliseum officials hope to present their response to the NFL's term sheet proposal, tendered in May, to NFL officials when they are scheduled to visit Los Angeles this week.

Also, Carson officials plan to put out to bid this week proposals for conducting an environmental impact report (EIR) for a new stadium the NFL is considering building on a 157-acre former dump site. Doing so would enable the city to begin the EIR process near the end of the month, an official said.

The activity comes as the NFL's first in a series of deadlines looms. The league, which hopes to make a decision on which site (if any) it pursues by May 2005, has told the three sites it wants the EIR process begun by Wednesday.

That the Rose Bowl and Carson would take days or weeks, respectively, would not cripple their prospects, a league source has said. The Coliseum completed its EIR late last year.

``We are on target. We're not worried about a calendar,'' said Baltimore investment banker John Moag, who is heading the Rose Bowl effort.

Moag, who was in Pasadena last week to speak to Friends of the Rose Bowl - a group of 140 supporters of the project - will meet Monday in New York with NFL officials.

Moag remains the Rose Bowl's front man despite his two-year contract with the Rose Bowl Operating Company expiring Aug. 1. He is working essentially under the terms of his $5 million contingency deal that will pay him only if the Rose Bowl lands a team.

Rose Bowl officials released their original renovation plans in April 2003, but the NFL thought the plan - which required extensive excavation - was too costly. The NFL is being asked to fund the roughly $500 million project. The plans were re-drawn by the Rose Bowl's architect, HOK + Sport, but it took six months during which various parties haggled over how to add 80,000 square feet of usable space and who would pay for the new drawings.

One of Pasadena's leading preservationists is skeptical that the latest design will be acceptable.

``We're extremely concerned and not at all encouraged about the re-design,'' said Sue Mossman, executive director of Pasadena Heritage, who has not seen the new plans. ``The effort a year ago was an honest attempt to put in all the things the NFL needed without disrupting the character defining features. It was a very respectful design that tried to put a lot of the new stuff underground. The newest plan moves away from that.''

However, Carol Stogsdill, a member of Friends of the Rose Bowl who has seen the new plans, says this model won't look much different than the previous one.

``If you saw them side by side, you'd struggle to see the difference,'' she said.

There could also be some fallout with the Coliseum once it delivers its term-sheet response to the NFL. One point of contention in recent weeks was Coliseum Commission member Zev Yaroslavsky's insistence that the NFL contribute $2 million to the Exposition Park's Museum of National History to mitigate lost attendance.

Billy Witz, [phone]

billy.witz(at)dailynews.com