LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles City Council Wednesday will consider approving a resolution that would formalize their opposition to a proposed gondola project, connecting Union Station to Dodger Stadium that’s being spearheaded by former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt.
If approved, the resolution would be sent to LA Metro, which is the lead agency responsible for reviewing mass transit projects in Los Angeles County. Metro is accepting comments from individuals concerning the draft supplemental environmental impact report until 5 p.m. Thursday.
Council members Eunisses Hernandez, Ysabel Jurado and Hugo-Soto Martinez introduced the resolution Oct. 31. According to Hernandez, Metro is expected to consider the supplemental report, and vote whether to recertify the final environmental impact report for the project.
Metro previously approved the Final EIR in February 2024. However, the Los Angeles Park Alliance filed a lawsuit challenging the transit agency’s approval.
In May, the California State Court of Appeals sided with environmental advocates, concluding the transit agency “abused its discretion” in rejecting a mitigation measure to retrofit buildings to further reduce interior noise levels from construction, according to Metro documents. Additionally, the Final EIR did not adequately explain how well certain mitigation measures would help impacted stakeholders beyond what was already assumed in the project’s modeling.
Metro also did not engage in timely consultation with the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy as a trustee agency, according to the report.
The court ordered Metro to conduct additional review of the project. The agency released a 437-page supplemental environmental impact report at the end of September.
McCourt, who is also the current part-time owner of the Dodger Stadium’s parking lot, initiated the project in 2018, officially known as the Los Angeles Aerial Rapid Transit.
The $500 million gondola aims to connect Dodger Stadium to Union Station along a 1.2-mile route passing through Chinatown and the Los Angeles State Historic Park. Zero Emission Transit took over the project as they seek approvals from regulatory agencies.
The route would be located in Hernandez’s Council District One, encompassing areas such as Chinatown, Glassell Park, Highland Park, Mount Washington, Echo Park, Westlake, and Pico Union, among others.
Details of the project feature three stations — Alameda Station, Chinatown/State Park Station, and the Dodger Stadium Station — a non-passenger junction, and three cable-supporting towers.
“Council District 1 submitted a letter to Metro calling for a 45-day in-person public hearing, and the establishment of a dedicated toll-free line to ensure greater community access and participation and upon analyzing the SEIR and decertified FEIR, the unavoidable and un-mitigatable project impacts due to noise during construction, the impact on the natural environment in a park poor community, impacts to a disadvantaged community’s quality of life are not worth the project,” the resolution reads.
LA ART has its supporters and detractors.
Zero Emissions Transit and other proponents of the aerial tram say it will provide the first permanent mass transit connection, linking Dodger Stadium to the broader Los Angeles transit system.
Zero Emissions Transit says the gondola would operate with zero emissions and would be the first aerial gondola transit system to include a battery-electric backup system and that the project’s approved environmental study found that it could reduce emissions by over 150,000 metric tons of greenhouse gasses over its lifetime.
The gondola would be free to ride for anyone with a ticket to a Dodger game and will also provide local benefits to those who live and work in the area through the Community Access Program, which would allow residents and employees of businesses close to the project to ride the gondola and connect to Metro’s regional transit system at no additional cost.
Nearly 15,000 individuals and more than 400 businesses in Chinatown, El Pueblo and Lincoln Heights have signed up to support the project, which also has the backing of organized labor, business and environmental advocates, according to Zero Emissions Transit.
Meanwhile, some residents and business owners in the area argue the project would only serve to harm their community, and would take away land from the public park. They claim the project would exacerbate traffic during construction, increase noise, and violate their privacy.
