Carson council to vote on NFL stadium plan after signatures verified

The Carson City Council will vote Tuesday on a plan to build a $1.7-billion professional football stadium, according to City Clerk Jim Dear.

The project backed by the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders continued to race forward as the Los Angeles County registrar’s office certified Wednesday that enough signatures had been gathered to qualify the initiative supporting the stadium for the ballot.

Organizers bankrolled in part by the Chargers and Raiders submitted more than 15,000 signatures of registered voters in Carson last month — 8,059 were needed to move forward with the initiative.

“I know that we have the best location by far for any NFL stadium,” said Dear, who recently took over as clerk after 11 years as the city’s mayor.

The privately financed concept is following a similar path to approval as the rival stadium project in Inglewood backed by St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke.

After certification of the signatures, the city can schedule a public vote or, as Inglewood did in February, the City Council can bypass the public vote and adopt the initiative.

The ballot initiative process allows developers to skirt lengthy environmental reviews in the competition to return the NFL to the L.A. area, in which time is of the essence.

The proposed Carson stadium, announced in February, would occupy the 168-acre site of a former landfill next to the 405 Freeway.

City officials hired consultants last month to conduct shorter environmental and economic studies of the project. They are due by Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

Representatives from the Carson and Inglewood projects will update the NFL’s Committee on Los Angeles Opportunities on the proposals next week in New York.

No team has filed to relocate to L.A. The Chargers and Raiders continue to discuss stadium possibilities in their current cities, as well.

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