NFL in the Rose Bowl Lawsuit Setback >>
posted January 25, 2014 Opinion: What Happened to the NFL?
Part 1* >> Part 2 >> by Nina Chomsky, LVAA President *reprinted with permission from the WPRA Newsletter (Spring 2013) Are We Ready for "Some" NFL Football in the Rose Bowl?LVAA, joined by our community-based partners -- the San Rafael Neighborhoods Association (SRNA) and East Arroyo Neighborhood Preservation Committee (EANPC) -- is fighting to protect our neighborhoods again!
We believe our neighborhoods and our quality of life will be adversely affected by recent City decisions and actions to facilitate use and occupancy of the Rose Bowl for five continuous years by the National Football League (NFL), including amendment of the Arroyo Seco Public Lands Ordinance to more than double the number of major events in the Rose Bowl, up to twenty-five per year specifically for the NFL! Our efforts also are strongly supported by the West Pasadena Residents’ Association (WPRA). As a result, in January 2013, the Coalition for Preservation of the Arroyo, a newly-formed public interest group, joined by LVAA and its partners SRNA and EANPC, filed a lawsuit against the City of Pasadena to challenge this issue on environmental grounds. The suit asserts that Pasadena illegally amended its Municipal Code to allow expanded use of the Rose Bowl for a possible NFL team; violated local and state laws to enable an NFL team to use the Rose Bowl for up to five years; and illegally certified the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for these actions. Why is the possibility of an NFL team at the Rose Bowl a threat to our quality of life, our neighborhood, all West Pasadena and East Arroyo neighborhoods, and the Central Arroyo itself, which is an irreplaceable open space and parkland recreational area? Here are some of the reasons:
While in the Fall of 2011, the LVAA Board of Directors voted unanimously to oppose any occupancy of the Rose Bowl Stadium by the NFL, significantly, our principal concern with the NFL EIR is that the EIR, as required by applicable law, fails to identify, and the City failed to adopt, performance-based, enforceable mitigations for a specific NFL Rose Bowl lease proposal, and, thus, fails adequately to protect our neighborhood, as well as all other impacted neighborhoods and the Central Arroyo. Correspondence and background information regarding opposition by neighborhood groups against the occupancy of the Rose Bowl Stadium by the NFL pursuant to the EIR, including lawsuit documentation, can be found toward the bottom of this page. Join us in challenging the NFL in the Rose Bowl Environmental Impact Report (EIR)! We need your help! Please support and contribute to this important effort to preserve our neighborhood and our quality of life! |
CEQA Lawsuit:
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Linda Vista~Annandale Association |
Comment Letters from
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