{"id":233571,"date":"2025-09-17T10:13:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T10:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/233571\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T10:13:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T10:13:14","slug":"citing-budget-fears-l-a-council-committee-rejects-2-7-billion-convention-center-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/233571\/","title":{"rendered":"Citing budget fears, L.A. council committee rejects $2.7-billion Convention Center plan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A $2.7-billion plan to expand the Los Angeles Convention Center<\/a> is in jeopardy after a narrowly divided City Council committee opted on Tuesday to recommend a much smaller package of repairs instead.<\/p>\n

Amid mounting concerns that the expansion could siphon money away from basic city services, the Budget and Finance Committee voted 3 to 2 to begin work on a less expensive package of upgrades that would be completed in time for the 2028 Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky said the expansion proposal \u2014 which would add an estimated 325,000 square feet to the facility, spanning both sides of Pico Boulevard \u2014 is too risky for the city, both in terms of the tight construction timeline and the overall cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe risks to the city\u2019s finances are too great \u2014 and risks us having to cut our city workforce to offset the costs of this project for years to come,\u201d said Yaroslavsky, who heads the committee.<\/p>\n

Yaroslavsky proposed the less expensive alternative plan, drawing \u201cyes\u201d votes from Councilmembers Bob Blumenfield and Eunisses Hernandez. Councilmembers Tim McOsker and Heather Hutt voted against the proposal, saying it was a sudden and huge departure from the original expansion plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not comfortable voting on these recommendations today,\u201d Hutt said. \u201cThe substantive changes have not been circulated to the committee members, staff and public \u2014 and the public hasn\u2019t been able to give public comment on these last-minute changes that are very significant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both proposals \u2014 the expansion and the less expensive package of repairs and upgrades \u2014 are set to go before the full City Council<\/a> on Friday.<\/p>\n

Council members have spent the last year trying to find a way to expand the size of the Convention Center, doubling the amount of contiguous meeting space, without also creating an excessive burden on an already stretched city budget<\/a>. They have received increasingly dire warnings<\/a> as Friday\u2019s deadline for making a decision approaches.<\/p>\n

Chief Legislative Analyst Sharon Tso, who advises the council on policy matters, told the committee Wednesday that she fears the project\u2019s first phase won\u2019t be done in time for the 2028 Games, when the Convention Center will host several competitions, including judo, wrestling and fencing.<\/p>\n

Tso also warned that the ongoing cost of the project would make it much more difficult for the city to hire more firefighters, recruit more police officers and pay for such basic services as street repairs. Four months ago, the council approved a budget that closed a $1-billion financial gap, requiring cuts to city personnel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just completed a budget process that was very brutal,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you\u2019re happy with the level of service that we have today, then this is the project for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

At City Hall, the Convention Center is widely viewed as a facility in need of serious repair, including new elevators and escalators, up-to-date restrooms and overall cosmetic upgrades. Expanding the Convention Center would allow the city to attract much larger national conferences, exhibitions and meetings.<\/p>\n

The project, if approved, would connect the Convention Center\u2019s South Hall \u2014 whose curving green exterior faces the 10 and 110 freeway interchange \u2014 with the West Hall, which is a faded blue.<\/p>\n

The council has already pushed for several cost-cutting measures, including the removal of a plaza planned on Figueroa Street. Mayor Karen Bass and the council also have hoped to generate new revenue by installing digital billboards \u2014 two of them within view of drivers on the 10 and 110 freeways.<\/p>\n

Even with the freeway-facing digital signs, the cost of expanding and operating the Convention Center could reach $160 million in 2031, according to City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo, a high-level budget analyst.<\/p>\n

The cost to taxpayers is expected to average about $100 million per year over three decades, according to updated figures prepared by Szabo. <\/p>\n

The Convention Center expansion<\/a> has become a top priority for business groups, labor leaders and community organizations who say that downtown L.A. desperately needs an economic catalyst \u2014 one that will creates thousands of construction jobs and spark new business activity.<\/p>\n

After the pandemic, office workers never fully returned to downtown, and dozens of stores and restaurants shut their doors. Homelessness and drug addiction also continue to plague portions of downtown.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to see downtown recover. We want it to be a place Angelenos can be proud of, and this is the solution,\u201d Cassy Horton, co-founder of the DTLA Residents Assn., said at the committee hearing.<\/p>\n

Labor and business leaders told the council members that the city has a long track record of developing plans for upgrading the Convention Center, only to shelve them once it\u2019s time for a decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor more than a decade, we\u2019ve studied this project, we\u2019ve debated it, we\u2019ve delayed it,\u201d said Nella McOsker, president and chief executive of the Central City Assn., a downtown-based business group. \u201cWe\u2019ve been deciding whether or not we are a city that can maintain and invest in this essential asset, and every time we make that delay, the cost increases.\u201d<\/p>\n

McOsker is the daughter of Councilmember Tim McOsker, who voted \u201cno\u201d on the repair proposal. An outspoken supporter of the expansion, he argued that the city took on a similar financial burden 30 years ago when it financed the construction of the Convention Center\u2019s South Hall. <\/p>\n

Yaroslavsky, in turn, said she was concerned not just about the project\u2019s cost but the potential for it to pull resources away from the Department of Water and Power. <\/p>\n

Dave Hanson, senior assistant general manager for the DWP\u2019s power system, told the committee that deploying his workers at the Convention Center could result in delays on utility work elsewhere, including a San Fernando Valley light rail project and the installation of underground power lines in the fire-devastated Pacific Palisades.<\/p>\n

\u201cDWP may \u2014 we don\u2019t know for sure yet, because they don\u2019t know for sure yet \u2014 may have to sideline other critically important projects, including reconstructing the Palisades and all these other projects,\u201d said Yaroslavsky, who represents part of the Westside.<\/p>\n

Yaroslavsky\u2019s alternative proposal calls for the city to regroup in four months on strategies for requesting new proposals for expanding the Convention Center, as well as other strategies to \u201cmaximize the site\u2019s positive economic impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hernandez, whose district includes part of the Eastside, said council members remain open to the idea of the Convention Center expansion as the project heads to a final vote. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s not that we\u2019ve ruled out any options,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve added more options to the conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A $2.7-billion plan to expand the Los Angeles Convention Center is in jeopardy after a narrowly divided City…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":233572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[125684,1582,276,2451,102314,125683,13332,21059,7236,15980,2961,224,5337,8744,6514,17251,125685,6620,6511,1628],"class_list":{"0":"post-233571","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-budget-fear","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-city","12":"tag-committee","13":"tag-convention-center-plan","14":"tag-cost","15":"tag-council-member","16":"tag-downtown","17":"tag-expansion","18":"tag-la","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-losangeles","21":"tag-project","22":"tag-proposal","23":"tag-repair","24":"tag-south-hall","25":"tag-time","26":"tag-yaroslavsky","27":"tag-year"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115219110723057836","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}