The U.S. General Service Administration’s proposal to
expand the FBI’s Field Office Headquarters at the Wilshire
Federal Building continues to meet resistance from residents, local
organizations and politicians, as a local coalition has begun to
solicit letters from community members.
The Federal Building Coalition has been asking concerned
residents to send letters of protest to various elected
representatives ““ including federal, state and city officials
““ in order to protest the proposed expansion.
The public response period concerning the expansion ends April
24.
In 2004 the General Services Administration, which helps manage
the facilities of federal agencies, proposed two options for
expansion of the Federal Building after deciding the current FBI
facilities lack the space and technology necessary for the
expanding bureau in a society after Sept. 11, 2001.
The FBI currently uses nine floors in the Federal Building,
located at 11000 Wilshire Blvd., and leases space in 11 other
nearby locations.
Under the proposed changes, all 12 sites would be consolidated
into one new location, according to the General Services
Administration Draft’s Environment Impact Study.
“I’ve never seen anything like it, and I’ve
been active in this community for 20 years,” said Laura Lake,
co-chairwoman of the Federal Building Coalition.
The Federal Building Coalition is the largest coalition in the
history of the Westside, with nearly a quarter of a million people
involved, Lake said.
Members of the coalition include 24 local home and property
owners associations and community representatives, including Rep.
Henry Waxman, and city Councilmen Jack Weiss and Bill Rosendahl,
according to the coalition’s Web site.
According to a General Services Administration press release,
the expanded Federal Building would be the ideal location because
“it is centrally located within the most active area for FBI
investigations in the Los Angeles field office service
area.”
The expansion, the first phase of which would be completed by
2010, would create 937,000 gross square feet of office, storage and
maintenance space. The entire project would be completed in
2017.
Lake said the expansion could only be detrimental to Westwood
and its surrounding areas because of projected increases in traffic
and safety risks.
The General Services Administration’s Draft Environmental
Impact Study, released Feb. 24, was also inadequate because it did
not address the issue of security, and a larger FBI facility could
be a target for more bomb threats and therefore be dangerous to the
surrounding community, Lake said.
“The entire experience has been an experience in futility
with them,” Lake said. “They believe that in the name
of homeland security, they can destroy our community.”
General Services Administration spokeswoman Mary Filippini said
many of the coalition’s concerns are addressed in the
environmental impact study. She said though one of the proposed
options for expansion could have a negative impact on the
area’s traffic, the other would have no effect, as indicated
by the study.
But Lake said the second option was not properly analyzed, and a
coalition community fact sheet also said the option preferred by
the General Services Administration had not been evaluated, calling
it a “sham.”
Filippini also said because the FBI already operates out of the
Federal Building, the community would not be at an increased
security risk.
The FBI declined to comment on the matter because it is under
the jurisdiction of the General Services Administration.
As a result of increasing concern, the coalition has been asking
community members since March to submit letters of protest to
community representatives, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Sen.
Barbara Boxer and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, as well as to the
coalition itself.
The letters include a request for a Federal Land Use Master Plan
to determine how the Federal Building site, as well as other
locations delegated to veterans, could be of best use to those
veterans.
Though several of the letters’ recipients already oppose
the General Services Administration proposal, the coalition wanted
it to be apparent to the government that the officials were
representing the community with those opinions, Lake said.
“It’s not (just the representative’s) personal
wish. It’s thousands of people contacting his office,”
she said.
Waxman, who began voicing his concerns about the project in June
2004, felt the General Services Administration has not been through
enough in its evaluation of the proposal’s impact on the
community, said Lisa Pinto, Waxman’s district director.
Though he does not have a specific alternate location in mind,
Waxman believes choosing another site could be beneficial to both
the FBI and the community ““ the congested intersections of
Wilshire and Westwood boulevards and Wilshire Boulevard and Veteran
Avenue could prevent the FBI from deploying agents easily from that
location, Pinto said.
While the coalition understands and supports the FBI’s
need to expand, Lake said other sites would be more appropriate,
and the coalition has come up with several locations that meet most
of the FBI’s criteria.
“We believe there are other viable alternatives. This is
not the only game in town,” Lake said.
The General Services Administration’s Web site said 35
other possible sites were considered, “none of which
satisfied requirements set forth by the FBI.”
A final environmental impact study will be released later in the
year, and the government will give its recommendations in the fall,
Filippini said.