Grand experiment in traffic

The Times' Cara Mia DiMassa reports that the City Council (and likely later today the Board of Supervisors) has given final approval to the sprawling Grand Avenue project. As Cara notes, the mini-city at top Bunker Hill would be a grand experiment in a certain type of land use/traffic planning:

Grand Avenue has emerged as perhaps L.A.'s most ambitious effort at creating dense high-rise developments that attempt to place housing next to rail lines, jobs, cultural attractions and shopping. While some consider it a model for "smart growth" aimed at encouraging people to walk and take mass transit rather than drive, others see it as a tax giveaway that is not in the interests of local government. They also question whether the project would be the regional magnet its backers hope.

The EIR for Grand Avenue found the project would worsen downtown traffic.

LA Times editorial board likes Grand Avenue. A certain supervisor doesn't.

Comments

[Nick Santangelo]

The need for the Regional Connector is critical- the Grand Avenue Project should not be built without it. The Red, Purple, Blue, Gold lines will ALL benefit from easy connections not only downtown, but to the final destinations of these rail lines.

It would be criminal not to dovetail construction of the Grand Avenue Project in with the Connector. Let's not let this opportunity slip away.

[Aaron]

This is probably a great project, even with the tax benefits; it'll be good to see more development downtown. But with the massive incline between the Metro Red line and Bunker Hill, this project will heighten the need for a Metro Regional Connector downtown to provide metro rail stations on top of Bunker Hill; getting Angel's Flight back is nice, but real transit would be better.