INGLEWOOD (2UG) – The Inglewood City Council unanimously approved pledging nearly $7.6 million annually towards the ongoing maintenance and operation costs of the Inglewood Transit Connector during the May 23 regular city council meeting.
The construction costs of the 1.6 mile automated transit connector is scheduled to cost nearly $1.8 billion with the City already accumulating $800 million towards those costs. City consultants are expecting to receive the remaining $1 billion from the federal government by years end.
Consultants peg the annual maintenance and operation costs at $30 million and expects to generate revenue from a combination of fares, advertising, concessions, and grants.
Funding shortages would be covered by Inglewood taxpayers should the City not come to agreements with the owners of the venues in the Sports and Entertainment District (Kia Forum, SoFi Stadium, and Intuit Dome) to contribute towards the costs. The primary use of the transit connector would be to move people to these venues for the 2028 Olympics.
Before the vote Inglewood Mayor James Butts Jr. told the council their decision to not vote on the funding would not “end their political careers”, however, they joined him voting affirmatively.
“Inglewood is all in on the ITC,” said Mayor James T. Butts after the vote. “The ITC is a crucial component of the Inglewood Renaissance – we are growing our economic base exponentially, but we are also managing that growth responsibly. Today we’ve shown that we are not just asking other stakeholders and government agencies to support transportation in Inglewood, but rather to join with us.”
In November 2021, the city held a special election aimed to convince Inglewood voters to approve an increase to Real Estate Transfer taxes which were expected to bring in an additional $4.5 million annually that would go towards the ITC project. The tax would have been in place for perpetuity, however, voters rejected the city’s proposal.
Prior to that, in 2020, city consultants submitted, then halted, an application submitted to the Los Angeles Local Agency Formation Commission which sought to create a special district, which would have encompassed the city of Inglewood, to generate revenue for the ITC.
The new development in the City was consistently marketed to residents as being of no cost to them and would be funding entirely by private dollars.
In December 2021, the city held a public hearing creating Transportation Impact Fees (TIF) which would be paid by developers to go towards transportation-related projects, however, the fees bypassed the largest developments in the city when the council approved it.
When the public asked why the TIF fees wouldn’t be applicable to SoFi Stadium or the Intuit Dome Mayor Butts wasn’t happy about it.
“It’s typical of these same two people and their comment was: is the TIF going to be applied retroactively to SoFi Stadium and the Intuit Dome,” said Butts. “No, it’s not. It’s not going to be applied retroactively to the Forum from 1967 or Hollywood Race Track for 70 years.”
“In this country you can’t pass ex post facto laws,” said Butts. “These people do this to generate animus to entities that have invested billions of dollars to be here.”
The city is now working with Murphy’s Bowl, the development entity for the Los Angeles Clippers, to repurpose portions of the Inglewood Basketball and Entertainment Center transportation mitigation funding program, which includes a robust shuttle program, to support the operation and maintenance costs for the ITC, consistent with the Development Agreement.
