Developers Continue Legal Battle

LOS ANGELES, CA-Kilroy Realty Corp. and a group called Citizens Against Gridlock in El Segundo (CAGES) have filed an appeal of a Los Angeles County Superior Court ruling in July that denied their petition to halt a proposed Thomas Properties development in El Segundo.The appeal, filed in the California Court of Appeals, is the latest development in a long-running battle between the two developers over the Thomas proposal for a project called El Segundo Corporate Campus that would include up to 2 million sf of office space and 500,000 sf of retail, restaurants, industrial and hotel space on 46 acres owed by Federal Express.

Earlier this year, the two companies each campaigned for citizen support on two measures that were on the ballot in June. The ballot measures asked voters to decide whether the Thomas group should be permitted to build its project, which was approved by the El Segundo City Council in January.

The city’s voters approved the project, but Kilroy and CAGES filed a lawsuit under the California Environmental Quality Act alleging that the city did not follow the appropriate procedures under state law when it approved the Corporate Campus project. The L.A. Superior Court ruling in July dismissed that suit, but the latest filing by Kilroy and CAGES is an appeal of that dismissal.