Our long struggle is finally paying off. The following is a chronology of the grassroots efforts to Save All of Ballona. In bold print we have included totals of Playa Vista and Howard Hughes' campaign contributions, and have tried to document every sweetheart deal they got in exchange for their gifts to politicians. (The dollar amounts come from reports available from the State Fair Political Practices Commission and the L.A. City Ethics Commission.)

In the 1940's, Howard Hughes needed a place to build and fly his airplanes from. He bought around 1200 acres of land stretching from the foot of the Baldwin Hills all the way to the Pacific Ocean for a bargain price of $500,000. Included was the flood plain of Ballona and Centinela Creeks and the blufftops to the south. Hughes immediately set to work drying up the land on the east end so he could build an aircraft factory, diverting and concrete-channeling the creeks.

Over 40 years, unbeknownst to the thousands of residents who moved into the surrounding areas, Hughes used much of the factory site as a toxic dump, spilling solvents and gasoline in huge amounts and heavily polluting the ground water under the factory. At the same time, on the west end of his property which was a wetland underlain by earthquake faults, Hughes allowed the Southern California Gas Company to store billions of cubic feet of gas in natural caverns a mile underground.

1975-76: Hughes' campaign contributions to State and local politicians: $102,901

In the 1960's, Hughes used the profits from his aerospace factories to buy up a monopoly on the casinos in Las Vegas. In 1976 he died mysteriously after a decade of living in seclusion in his hotel in Las Vegas. His heirs soon launched plans to develop the approximately two square miles of land he owned in the Ballona Creek floodplain. They split it into three projects: Howard Hughes Center, the 69 acres next to the 405 freeway; the small Bluffs parcels; and the 957 acre floodplain, which they dubbed "Playa Vista".

While surrounded on all sides by the City of Los Angeles, the Playa Vista parcel was not in the City, so its future development plans were controlled by the County Board of Supervisors. The County was in the process of declaring 445 acres of Playa Vista, the Ballona Wetlands, as a "significant environmental area", due to it being a fragile wetlands and home to numerous rare and endangered plants and animals. This would have prevented any development on that area.

After much lobbying of State politicians by Hughes' company, a state coastal protection agency, the Coastal Commission, mysteriously dropped the Ballona Wetlands from its parkland purchase list. All other properties on that list are now parkland. The purchase price for the wetlands was $11 million for 350 acres. The push to drop Ballona from the list came from a northern California commissioner, Robert Mendelson, who at the same time had a large campaign debt forgiven by Cerrell and Associates, a public relations firm that also worked for Hughes.

1977-78: campaign contributions: $43,690
The State geologist decided that it is too expensive to study whether the Charnock Fault, which cuts thru the middle of Playa Vista, is active, because there is already too much development covering up a crack at the surface. The fault is then declared only potentially active, therefore allowing development on top of it.

1979: campaign contributions: $15,025
The Hughes corporation files first plan for development, and asks County Supervisors to cut the protected area at Ballona from 445 acres to 95 acres. They eventually settle on protecting 175 acres.

1980: campaign contributions: $55,502 to state politicians, plus $136,000
to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors from 1980 to '85.

1981-82: campaign contributions: $217,776
Curtis Rossiter, the chief deputy and campaign manager to Pat Russell, this area's city councilwoman, quits after a decade and goes to work as a lobbyist for Playa Vista and other mega-developments. He remains Russell's campaign manager.

1983: campaign contributions: $137,345

1984: campaign: $299,310
The Coastal Commission OK's cutting the protected area at Ballona to 175 acres. The County Board of Supervisors and Coastal Commission approve mega-development plans for Ballona, with only 209 acres to be left undeveloped. A lawsuit is filed by the Friends of Ballona Wetlands demanding that more acres be protected.

1985-86: campaign contributions: $431,329
Due to the growing friendship between the Hughes interests and Councilwoman Pat Russell, they agreed to annex most of their land into the City of L.A., instead of being controlled by the County Supervisors.

This entitled them to receive city water and sewers and power, plus new high-density zoning for the land. The L.A. City Council soon OK'd a developer-financed road widening plan for the communities surrounding Playa Vista to accommodate an additional 34,000 cars during each rush hour, and a total of 500,000 more cars in the area each day. In 1988 it was revealed that developers were charged much less than the traffic improvements would actually cost. The Council in 1985 also tripled the amount of development allowed at the Howard Hughes Center, a former wetlands near the 405 freeway, and prevented voters from overturning this sweetheart deal for 20 years.

1987-88: campaign contributions: $316,950
The uproar over giveaways to the Hughes Corporation causes voters to throw out Pat Russell and to elect Ruth Galanter to City Council.

Galanter, a "professional" environmentalist, campaigns on a "slow-growth" platform, and is "adamantly opposed" to Playa Vista plans. What this really means will be learned later.

Instead of having to pay $85 million in estate taxes, the Hughes estate gave the State of California a 73-acre piece of Ballona near the Marina Freeway and Culver Blvd.

1989: campaign contributions: $58,300
Hughes brings in a new well-connected partner at Playa Vista to run the project. Maguire-Thomas Partners is headed by Nelson Rising, the former head of the State Democratic Party and campaign manager to Mayor Tom Bradley. The project is re-designed but not reduced in size, and a flashy public unveiling follows. Galanter acts supportive because of developer lip service to environmental issues. Maguire-Thomas immediately borrows $200 million from banks with the wetlands as collateral.

Meanwhile, Galanter pushes the City to OK housing developments on Hughes' bluffs properties, leaving undevelopable slopes below the housing tracts as "open space" to compensate for loss of wildlife habitat on the bluff tops. The slopes are then given to Playa Vista, which later double-counts them as part of their wildlife "mitigation" plans.

1990: campaign contributions: $7950
An opponent of wetlands development, Patricia McPherson organized a big event at Westchester Park called "Wetlands '90", attracting 10,000 people. The Friends of Ballona Wetlands, whose leaders are close to Galanter, settled their lawsuit. The settlement requires the State to swap the 73 acres near the Marina Freeway for $115 million in cash and 60 acres of wetlands owned by Maguire near Lincoln and Jefferson, giving Maguire 10 years to pay the cash. This increases the undeveloped areas in the plan to 270 acres. However, the land to be protected will be required to serve as a water pollution catch basin for the upstream development planned for east of Lincoln Blvd. This deal would still allow development of the other 2/3rds of the Ballona property. Maguire's new plan claims to offer large amounts of additional "open space": this includes a yacht harbor, the concrete Ballona Creek channel, and the existing parks on the bluffslopes.

The Friends' settlement deal also requires Maguire to hire a biologist and attorneys to "advise" the Friends, costing over $100,000 a year, and the Friends are not allowed to oppose the development plans. The Friends then argue that without the development, the wetlands and wildlife habitat will shrink or disappear. The Friends' developer-paid biologist, Michael Josselyn, then writes a study claiming that one area of wetlands has shrunk from 35 acres to only 9 acres. Later another Hughes biologist/attorney, Sharon Lockhart, claims erosion from the bluffs and a natural canyon are "damaging" the wetlands, so they'll have to be developed.

The developer begins arguing that the land is worth at least $1 billion and so it is too expensive to stop the development plans and turn it into a park and wildlife preserve.

1991: Campaign Contributions: $5650
Galanter runs for re-election with claim "she's fighting Playa Vista".

1992-93:
A New Playa Vista plan is unveiled with a 6-foot-tall stack of reports to whitewash the project's impacts. Galanter at first publicly claims to oppose the project. Behind the scenes, Galanter votes to raise the City's development appeal fee from $64 to $64,000, then repealed the fees soon after they had prevented adequate public review of the project. Galanter appoints a "community advisory" committee which meets in secret and endorses the project, after squeezing perks for themselves from the developer. Galanter and the City Council then OK the first 1/3rd of the
project. A lawsuit is filed to overturn the project by a group called "Save Ballona Wetlands", ironically named because this turned out to be a slogan once used but abandoned by the Friends of Ballona Wetlands.

The developer offers the city numerous well-publicized and expensive public benefits, such as road widenings, freeway ramps, shuttle buses, wetlands restoration, full on-site sewage and trash recycling facilities, a library and a school site, all to be paid for by the developer. Then, quietly, Galanter unravels most of these promises, and finds ways for the taxpayers or future residents of the development to pick up the bill. All the profits, however, will still go to the developers.

1994-95:
While the lawsuit was in court, project opponents set up the Ballona Wetlands Land Trust, to negotiate a sale of the property. A judge rules against the Save Ballona Wetlands lawsuit, but the group vows to continue the fight. When second phase development plans are unveiled in June of 1995, opponents pack the public hearing. Soon after, the Friends Of Ballona's developer-paid attorneys file a lawsuit against Save Ballona Wetlands, claiming illegal use of their old slogan and seeking $50,000 in damages. The resulting confusing David vs. Goliath publicity sparked project opponents to form a coalition called "Citizens United to Save ALL of Ballona", which soon grew to over 100 groups.

In September, Dreamworks, the new movie company founded by director Steven Spielberg decides to locate at Playa Vista. Galanter finds new ways to get taxpayers to subsidize this private development, and pushes thru the second phase of development with over 1 million square feet of office space. Governor Pete Wilson and Mayor Richard Riordan practically trip over themselves to offer tax dollars to the project. Wilson announced "I would have sold my family for a deal like this." At the same time, from 1993-95, Dreamworks' 3 owners' political contributions total over $700,000 to federal, state and local politicians.

In November, an article by Bill Gibson in the L.A. Weekly, "Subdividing Paradise" exposes the web of phony claims used to justify the project.

1996:
Several Coalition groups file a lawsuit challenging Dreamworks project. They include Earthways Foundation, Shoshone Gabrieleno Nation, Spirit of the Sage Council, Friends of Sunset Park and Ballona Wetlands Land Trust.
Ignoring the suit, Maguire sends bulldozers to work in the wetlands.

Citizens begin engaging in civil disobedience to halt bulldozing of the wetlands.

Another group, the renamed Save Ballona Wetlands, now called Ballona Ecosystem Education Project, begins holding a demonstration at Lincoln and Jefferson every Friday for the next five years. Ultimately, the Dreamworks lawsuit does not halt the project, but Maguire's costs to defend against the suit push him near bankruptcy. In July, the Coalition sponsors full page ads in major newspapers to shame Dreamworks for their involvement in wildlife destruction. In November, a Save Ballona event draws hundreds to Del Rey Lagoon Park. In December, 3 groups file a lawsuit in federal court alleging illegal destruction of wetlands and violations of other federal laws. The groups include Wetlands Action Network, Ballona Wetlands Land Trust and the California Public Interest Research Group.

1997: in March, Maguire fails to make payments on his bank loans. The bank, Chase-Manhattan, accepts a loss of $100 million on the deal and sells the mortgage notes to big Wall Street investors Morgan Stanley Co. and Goldman Sachs for a little over $100 million. The County Tax Assessor begins a re-appraisal of the value of the land and comes up with $445 million.

In July, BEEP opens the Ballona Environmental Center in a shopping center located a block from the wetlands. In August, groups file a "sixty day notice" of an Endangered Species Act lawsuit. An endangered Southwestern Willow Flycatcher is seen on the property by a developer biologist. Then a few days before the 60 days expires, the Wall Street firms take over the project from Maguire, and bulldoze wetlands west of Lincoln Blvd., wiping out homes of the endangered birds mentioned in the planned lawsuit, and destroying the evidence.

1998: In January, BEEP and Save All of Ballona adopt Lincoln Blvd., leading monthly cleanups and carrying off many truckloads of trash. A federal court judge, Ronald Lew, decides that the rules were broken when the pollution basin was approved on top of existing wetlands. The Wall Street firms begin buying expensive full- page ads in local
newspapers to convince the public that only through their development scheme can the wetlands be saved, and to congratulate themselves for giving money to charity. The ads talk about a few jobs they've given to "at-risk" youth and money given to the L.A. School District ($60,000 a year); of course, this is a tiny fraction of the money which taxpayers have given to the project.

The Ballona Wetlands Land Trust collects postcards signed by over 10,000 local residents who support 100% preservation of the property. In October, the first of a series of hugely attended Town Hall meetings are sponsored by Coalition groups, featuring expert speakers and a film by Bruce Robertson, of the Ballona Valley Preservation League.

1999: A one hour documentary on Ballona is shown on PBS produced by Sheila Laffey which is hosted by actor Ed Asner and features Martin Sheen.

In April: Galanter runs for re-election to her final term allowed by the City term limits law. This time, she receives $20,000 from employees, lawyers and consultants for Playa Vista and other Hughes projects, and outspends her opponents by 20 times.

An insider whistle-blower at Playa Vista gives BEEP internal memos which detail the financial state of the project, plus surveillance photos taken of opponents, and a three-page enemies list. Also included was the political strategy of the Wall Street firms, which is to "accelerate the entitlement process without jeopardizing the viability and defensibility of the outcome". BEEP immediately published the memos, which showed several important facts:

1. the land is worth only $100 million, not $1 billion as the developers have claimed;

2. the Friends of Ballona Wetlands' settlement gives them over $100,000 a year for their biologist and lawyers who harass our side.

3. Playa Vista's legal and public relations costs in 1997 and '98 totalled over $1.5 million.

4. The developers have gotten so much in sweetheart deals from Ruth Galanter and the government that they can afford to reduce the size of the final phase of the project.

Also in April: The last hitch in the Dreamworks deal undermines their plans. The State Regional Water Quality Control Board refuses to give them a legal waiver of liability for the toxic waste which was spilled into the local ground water supply years before by Hughes Aircraft. Even
though Dreamworks did not spill the chemicals, under the law, if Hughes' estate were to go bankrupt, Dreamworks could be stuck with millions in costs to clean up the water pollution.

In June: After a very critical article by New Times writer Jill Stewart called "Dreamjerks" causes a furor at Playa Vista corporate headquarters, Dreamworks backs out of the whole project. Huge parties are held by wetlands lovers.

At the same time, it is quietly revealed that explosive methane gas and poisonous hydrogen sulfide is bubbling out of the ground in the middle of the first phases of the project. Despite Playa Vista's efforts to keep this quiet, activists Patricia McPherson of the Grassroots Coalition and Kathy Knight of the Spirit of the Sage Council convince the City to halt building permits while a safety study is performed. For their trouble, Playa Vista threatens to sue McPherson and Knight and other critics of the project.

In April, the State Appeals Court decides that destruction of coastal wetlands in California is illegal. This means that development west of Lincoln Blvd. is highly unlikely. Then in August, Galanter announces that she supports stopping any development west of Lincoln Blvd.

A park bond is placed on the March 2000 state ballot by the legislature that provides $25 million to buy land at Ballona. Voters approve it by a wide margin.

YEAR 2000: DEEP TROUBLE
Playa Vista is rocked by the April release of a City report by an independent expert, Dr. Victor Jones. Jones reveals that the project is highly contaminated with explosive and poisonous gases, either leaking through a newly discovered Lincoln Blvd. fault from the Gas Company storage field, or from oil and gas deposits elsewhere under the land. A lawsuit is filed by Grassroots Coalition, Spirit of the Sage Council and Earthways to halt the project. A judge later says the California Environmental Quality Act is not strong enough to stop the project.

July and August Methane Hearings: The City holds public hearings to get input on the methane study, and the desperate Playa Vista corporation bused in ex-gang members who have been offered construction jobs at Playa Vista, as part of their PV Jobs program. The ex-gangsters call their group "No-Guns", but it's hard to believe they are advocates of peace, judging from their leaders' comments to the crowd.

"Everybody that's against this project is directly involved with having something to do with a lot of the bloodshed on the streets of Los Angeles," said Bo Taylor to the audience. Dr. James Moore, said "Methane doesn't kill people; gangs kill people; lack of jobs kills people."

The use of the phrase "at-risk youth" took on a surreal irony as PV Jobs coordinator Richard Acosta said working on top of explosive gas is OK: "For years we have been putting youth at risk at this project" . Was this a freudian slip, or what?

Some of the most interesting evidence was presented by Patricia McPherson of the Grassroots Coalition: field notes from the methane investigation performed by the City's expert. When drilling into the ground to get soil samples to take to the lab, in 4 places the drilling rig suddenly hit a huge pocket of methane gas and was blown out of the hole, while a geyser of methane and mud shot out of the hole. Playa Vista's experts have gone into overdrive to deny that there were any "geysers", but there, all over the handwritten notes from the drilling company superviser was "GEYSER" repeated numerous times.

In the end, it was unrefuted that the City's expert, Victor Jones, believes that "the safest approach is to avoid building in this area." He said, however, that if the backers won't stop the project, then buildings could be made safe at an extremely high cost. He estimated that explosive gas recovery systems could cost ten times as much as the developer currently wants to spend. Who will pay for this if it fails? That answer was provided by David Herbst, propagandist for Playa Vista: the condo associations, homeowner associations, the residents of this project. Gee. What a surprise.

After years of ignoring the opposition to Playa Vista. the L.A. Times finally begins reporting problems at the project. Columnists Robert Scheer and Patt Morrison write many revealing articles.

Meanwhile, Playa Vista tries to again rip off the taxpayers, pleading poverty to the property tax collector, while bragging of financial riches when asking to borrow money from future residents of the project to pay for roads, parks, street lights, sewers and methane barriers.

Playa Vista owners tell the tax collector the land is only worth $135 million, not $445 million as the County's appraisers had claimed. The County then agrees with Playa Vista. This saves Playa Vista $3.5 million a year in taxes. Meanwhile, the City's financial experts warn that to be given $135 million in start-up costs, the developer's land would have to be worth at least $540 million for this to be a safe loan for the City.

As it turns out, a $135 million appraisal given by Playa Vista to the City actually counts the loans and other taxpayer gifts as part of the value of the land. So the actual value is much lower. Due to the methane problem, the City Council postpones a decision on this giveaway for a year while the issue is studied.

In August, the Coastal Commission approves a housing development for the last of the Ballona Bluffs west of Lincoln Blvd. BEEP files a lawsuit to halt the project along with the Sierra Club and Spirit of the Sage Council.

Playa Vista's financial precariousness becomes public when, with their 10-year deal to buy the State's parcel about to expire, they beg the state legislature to swap the undevelopable wetlands west of Lincoln for the State parcel. When no help comes from politicians except Galanter, they default on the 10-year deal. The State's Controller, Kathleen Connell, refuses to extend the deal, telling Playa Vista to pay up or give up. They give up.

In January 2001: Kathleen Connell holds a public hearing to ask what should be done with the State owned parcel. 500 residents pack the hearing, demanding that it be preserved as parks and wetlands. Galanter first asks the L.A. City Council to support buying all land west of Lincoln Blvd., by swapping the State owned parcel to the developer. Finally listening to the people, she backs out on this swap and the Council unanimously votes to support public acquisition of the West of Lincoln parcels with no strings attached on February 13th.

In March, the community and Connell take down the no trespassing signs and reclaim the State's parcel, cleaning up several tons of trash that day.

During the election for Mayor of L.A., 2 of the top candidates, Connell and Antonio Villaraigosa support full preservation of 3 out of 4 parcels in the development. Also the author of the park bond, Villaraigosa makes it into the runoff, but is beaten by the pro-Playa Vista Jim Hahn. A Playa Vista attorney, Lisa Specht, serves as Hahn's fundraising chair.

With the election over, in June, the City Council votes to now ignore the methane problems, accepting Playa Vista's promises to fix them, and approves the $135 million for Playa Vista's infrastructure. Numerous residents are denied their right to speak at the hearing, and so sue the city. Also, Santa Monica Baykeeper sues the City over the latest giveaway, forcing a temporary halt to it.

In August, the weight of 25 years of community organizing finally paid off. Playa Vista caved in. They agreed to sell all their properties west of Lincoln Blvd., giving the State and the non-profit group Trust for Public Land 2 years to come up with the money. They claim the land is worth $200 million, in contrast to what they tell the County tax collector. Our side says the land is worth $6 million, due to the methane hazards and un-buildable wetlands on the land, and comparable prices paid for wetlands in Malibu and Orange County. Meanwhile, former owner Robert Maguire tried to buy back the project, but his co-partner, TrizecHahn Corp. calls off the deal as too financially risky.

SEPTEMBER 2003: THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA'S WILDLIFE CONSERVATION BOARD APPROVED SPENDING $140 MILLION TO BUY AND PRESERVE 193 ACRES OF THE BALLONA WETLANDS. AS PART OF THE DEAL, PLAYA VISTA DONATED THE REST OF THE WETLANDS, WHICH THEY HAD PREVIOUSLY AGREED COULD NOT BE DEVELOPED, TO THE STATE'S DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND GAME. THIS MEANS THAT OVER 600 ACRES OUT OF THE 957-ACRE PROJECT IS NOW PRESERVED FOREVER!

Hopefully, it won't take another 25 years to save the REST of Ballona!