Group Called Friends of MOVE Culver City Has Engaged Legal Team To Defend Project
The Culver City City Council meeting on April 24, 2023, will be discussing the future of the MOVE project, especially since the legal council for a group supporting the MOVE project has sent a letter to the Council as of Friday afternoon.
A letter dated April 21, 2023, which demanded that any additional lane of traffic added to the MOVE downtown transit project be subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) process was sent to the Culver City Council and City Attorney Heather Baker as reported by Culver City Crossroads. According to the letter, CEQA specifically prohibits adding additional lanes for auto traffic.
The law firm of Alston and Bird is representing the different organizations working who have banded together as Friends of MOVE Culver City. This group is trying to protect the multi-model transit model. The letter states, “On behalf of Friends of Move Culver City, I demand that the City Council fully comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (Cal. Public Resources Code Section 21000 et seq.) (“CEQA”) before taking any action to demolish and remove the protected bike lanes located in the Downtown Corridor to create additional space for a vehicle traffic lane on both sides of the street (the “Proposed Project”).”
This new development, along with the statements of concern and interest from the National Resources Defense Council, shows that the road is clear for litigation should the Council attempt to proceed without an Environmental Impact Report and subsequent CEQA process.
The letter states that if an additional lane of car traffic is added, the complete CEQA process must be followed. This can result in a considerable cost to the city, as there is nothing in CEQA that provides an exemption to removing pilot projects or adding car lanes to a project. The CEQA exemption for existing streets is limited to “alterations that do not create additional automobile lanes.”
Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky of CD5 has expressed support for the MOVE Culver City Project on Twitter stating, “Move Culver City has been a transformative project for street safety in LA county. Across the border in CD5, we’re working hard to bring similar safety interventions to Venice Blvd. I hope we can work with Culver City to create a truly connected network between our cities.”
Bike Culver City Tweeted that “County Supervisors @_HollyJMitchell and @LindseyPHorvath sent Culver City Council a public letter of support for Move Culver City saying “adding car lanes back to the project would severely hamper its efficacy and usability while worsening congestion”
Former Culver City Mayor Alex Fisch attended the meeting and Tweeted, “I’m not live-tweeting the #CulverCity #councilmeeting because I’ll probably wander in and out a lot. Suffice it to say that the oral staff report on #moveculvercity is showing that the data is good and the project is a wild success. Would be nice if that impacted the outcome!”
