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Anschutz Entertainment Group isn't the only big winner from a bill Governor Jerry Brown signed on Tuesday. The bill fast-tracks lawsuits against the proposed downtown stadium, but supporters of the slow-going subway to the Westside believe these bills could help them out, too, according to The Daily News.
The law speeds up any lawsuits filed under the state's landmark California Environmental Quality Act against projects that cost $100 million. These legal challenges have to be fast-tracked and heard in the Court of Appeals within 175 days. The deep-pocketed AEG lobbied heavily for the bill, saying that environmental lawsuits could bog down their proposed stadium project.
"It's time for big ideas and big projects like this," Brown said, as he signed the bill. He said he was backing the law because the state "has too many damn regulations." He also said the bill could spur job growth.
A law against too many lawsuits getting in the way of a big idea? This bill has local politicians salivating.
Sen. Alex Padilla, the bill's author said the proposed Purple Line subway that goes from mid-Wilshire to Westwood would easily fall within the purview of the law.
"The subway is a natural from a job-creation standpoint, from an investment standpoint, from an emission reduction and air quality standpoint," Padilla told The Daily News.
Of course, the Beverly Hills School District is not too happy about this, according to Streetsblog Los Angeles. The district has been preparing for a legal challenge against the Purple Line's environmental documents, because it is worried about a route that may run underneath Beverly Hills High School.
Undoubtedly, there are huge projects all over the state getting a second look. Padilla himself mentioned that it could help out another development in his neck of the woods: NBCUniversal expansion, a sprawling office and residential project that developer Thomas Properties has proposed for Universal City.
