Inglewood’s $2 billion people mover loses funding in U.S. House budget

Rep. Maxine Waters has suddenly lobbied against the project, planned for six years to connect a Metro station to sports and entertainment venues.

The U.S. House of Representatives has removed $200 million earmarked for the Inglewood Transit Connector, a $2 billion automated people mover connecting the Metro K line to SoFi Stadium and the Intuit Dome, from its version of the Department of Transportation budget, potentially putting the future of the project in jeopardy.

The shift came just days after local Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, wrote to U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and ranking members of the House Appropriations Committee to express her strong opposition to the project and to ask Buttigieg to reject its funding.

The 1.6-mile automated system running from Market Street and Florence Avenue to Prairie Avenue and Hardy Street will cost “$1.261 billion per mile of transit built and more than $672 million for each of the three stations,” Waters wrote in her July 8 letter.

The project “is not designed to benefit the local community and it will not provide convenient connectivity to employment or public services for residents,” she wrote.

“Instead, the ITC is designed primarily to allow public transit users to connect the extra 1.6 miles from Metro’s K Line to sports and entertainment venues,” Waters said. “Shuttle buses could most likely accomplish the same goal at a fraction of the cost, but have not been seriously considered as an alternative.”

Waters did not respond to requests for an interview, though her office did provide a copy of her letter. She recently told the Los Angeles Times she intends to do anything she can to stop the project, calling it “totally unnecessary and totally much too costly.”

Inglewood wants to begin construction on the automated people mover next year and is aiming for a 2028 opening to coincide with the Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Inglewood is hosting the opening ceremonies and swimming at SoFi Stadium, as well as basketball at the Intuit Dome, which will be the new home of the Los Angeles Clippers.

But that timeline is contingent on the ITC receiving the $200 million from the federal government as the first installment of a $1 billion grant backed by the Biden administration.

The Department of Transportation’s fiscal year 2025 funding recommendations included funding for the ITC in March. The same amount appeared as well in earlier versions of the House Appropriations Committee’s bill.

But two days after Waters’ letter went out, Rep. Steve Womack, R-Arkansas, chair of the subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, brought forward an amendment that excised the earmark for Inglewood. The $200 million set aside for the City of Champions was seemingly moved to a pool of funds for small transit projects “that may become ready” next year, according to a comparison of the changes.

Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts Jr., who has fought to assemble financing for the project for more than six years, expressed frustration with Waters’ sudden opposition, but was not concerned about the project’s future, saying the House’s allocation does not “mean a damn thing.”

“Any reduction in the $2 billion we’ve assembled for the project, between state, federal and local money, would be the death of the project, but the reality is this: the budget has to be reconciled with the Senate,” Butts said. “Our state’s senators are 100% in favor of this project.”

The Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to meet July 25 to discuss the Department of Transportation budget. The two legislative bodies then will have to negotiate on the differences between their respective markups before a final budget is approved. Butts is confident Inglewood will make it through in the end.

“For the first time in history, a 9-square-mile city in the United States of America has been awarded about $2 billion for a transportation project that has been vetted at the county, state and federal level,” he said. “It will reduce the traffic congestion for the residents of Inglewood. It will reduce vehicle miles traveled in the region. It will reduce greenhouse gases and it will bring 17,000 jobs and $868 million in wages.”

Butts said Waters has not spoken to him about her opposition. He noted she previously supported the project five years ago and even helped to secure $20 million in funding.

In her letter, Waters said her opinion changed as she now has a “more complete understanding of both the cost of the project and the implications for the people of my congressional district.”

The ITC would “exacerbate” cycles of poverty, debt and homelessness by “displacing long-time residents and small and minority-owned businesses and diverting resources away from some of the most urgent needs of the local communities in my district.” At least $500 million will come from California at a time when the state is experiencing a deficit and is making cuts to its housing budget, she wrote.

“For all of the above reasons, I have come to the conclusion that the ITC will not provide sufficient benefits to the people of Inglewood to justify its construction,” Waters wrote. “The federal, state and local funds that have been proposed for the ITC would be better spent on programs that improve access to affordable housing and other essential community services for the people of Inglewood and the surrounding communities.”

If the money isn’t spent in Inglewood, it would go elsewhere, Butts said.

“It’s unfortunate that our representative looks to destroy a project that will provide 17,000 jobs for the constituents in her district,” he said. Approximately 35% of those jobs are required to go to Inglewood residents, he added.

Those middle-class jobs are the “best gateway for permanent housing,” said Butts, who denied the project will displace a “single long-term resident.”

It will, however, affect 41 businesses and 305 workers along the transit system’s route. The city is working with business owners, who will have to move to make way for transit stations and other supporting structures, find new locations and will cover the costs. Some of those affected expressed worry about finding comparable rents and losing customers.

Butts scoffed at the idea of using shuttles instead, saying it would still cost $1 billion over time and have no logical pickup points.

Inglewood first proposed the Inglewood Transit Connector back in 2018 as an elevated automatic people mover that would ferry visitors from downtown Inglewood to SoFi Stadium, the Kia Forum and the then-rumored Clippers arena, now known as the Intuit Dome. The FTA estimates the project would cost about $33.44 million to operate each year and would receive about 2,200 to 4,300 daily trips.

The ITC was initially estimated at $600 million, but has since ballooned as a result of the pandemic and rising construction costs. The current price tag of $2.018 billion was set by the Federal Transit Administration, not the city, Butts said.

So far, Inglewood has secured $1.97 billion in funding promises from local, state and federal sources, including $1 billion from the FTA. The city has secured land, relocated a water system and is in the process of finding new locations for businesses that will be displaced.

“This project has been in progress and the reality is that we believe we will have everything secured by the time of this first award, which would be $200 million,” Butts said. “We have every belief that it will remain in the Senate’s markup.”

U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors have all supported the project in the past.