Aerial tramway to Dodger Stadium up for pivotal vote at LA Metro board

A key vote on an aerial tramway that would take baseball fans to and from L.A.’s Union Station and Dodger Stadium in Disney-like gondolas goes before the LA Metro board on Thursday, Feb. 22.

Metro staff recommends the 13-member board approve the Final Environmental Impact Report for the proposed 1.2-mile gondola project, which would allow the project developers to move forward. Next steps include purchase of properties for the 13-story towers that would hold up the gondola buckets, and permits from the city of Los Angeles and Caltrans.

But approval of the EIR includes 31 conditions, which include setting aside 25% of stadium parking lots considered for development, as affordable housing. It’s not clear how the conditions would affect the fate of the controversial project, should the Metro board certify the EIR.

The Los Angeles Aerial Rapid Transit (LAART) project was submitted to LA Metro by L.A. Dodgers’ former owner Frank McCourt in 2018. McCourt owns 50% of the parking lots at Dodger Stadium which court records show he plans for development, including residential and retail uses.

Aerial Rapid Transit Technologies (ARTT), a limited partnership that McCourt formed, was bankrolling the environmental review and preliminary design process for the gondola project, with LA Metro as the lead agency. Last year, McCourt Global gifted the project to a new entity, Zero Emission Technologies. ZET is the nonprofit owner responsible for building, financing and operating the gondola project.

“We are reviewing them (conditions),” said Nathan Click, a spokesperson for ZET on Wednesday, who declined further comment.

Metro has included a Community Benefits Agreement with a list of conditions that must be satisfied before LAART can begin construction, according to staff reports. These include: a plan to expand the existing Dodger Stadium Express which shuttles passengers to the stadium entrance while converting to zero-emission electric buses. A similar condition asks for a study of alternatives to the gondola project that would lessen traffic congestion during the 82 Dodger home games, including a new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) on Sunset Boulevard.

The conditions for approval and the benefits agreement were authored by LA Metro Board members Hilda Solis, Karen Bass, Jackie Dupont-Walker, Lindsey Horvath and Tim Sandoval. Other conditions to be placed on ZET include: forming an anti-displacement fund for keeping and adding affordable and senior housing; when acquiring properties or air rights, ZET must offer fair market value compensation; provide free rides to local residents.

Phyllis Ling, who formed Stop The Gondola, a group of Chinatown and Solano Canyon residents and 29 member organizations, including Chinatown Community for Equitable Development, said some of the conditions echo the concerns expressed by the group.

Residents who would have gondolas gliding above their homes and backyards oppose the project, saying it would invade their privacy. They also believe that cars going to LAART stations to park would add to traffic woes in the neighborhood. The project would have three stations: on Alameda Street across from Union Station, at the Los Angeles State Historic Park and atop Chavez Ravine at Dodger Stadium.

“These conditions don’t change the project,” Ling said on Wednesday. “The project still doesn’t make sense for transit to Dodger Stadium.”

Doug Carstens, special counsel for The California Endowment, which is located in the path of the project, said the conditions are an attempt to prop up a flawed EIR and may not have any legal bearing.

“These conditions are not enforceable. They are just hopes and dreams,” Carstens said on Wednesday. “It is empty promises and snake oil.” TCE opposes the project and will speak against it at Thursday’s hearing, he said.

The project would have a maximum capacity of about 5,000 people per hour per direction and the trip from Union Station to Dodger Stadium would take seven minutes, according to Metro. The cost to build the project is between $385 million and $500 million, up from the original estimate of $125 million.

The Metro board meeting begins at 10 a.m. Thursday and meets at Metro headquarters, One Gateway Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90012, 3rd Floor, in the Metro Board Room. Meeting are livestreamed at boardagendas.metro.net.