When the Minnesota Vikings moved forward with an expensive new stadium in 2014, Audubon Minnesota raised several concerns about how a giant facility covered with glass would effect local birds. Millions of birds die every year in collisions with buildings, and advocates saw this stadium in the middle of a migratory pathway as particularly threatening. In the end, the city of Minnesota and the Vikings ownership declined to take measures to protect birds.

The new Vikings Stadium has been a long time in the planning. What are advocates to do when a stadium plan just appears pre-approved?

That is sort of what's happened in Los Angeles in recent weeks with a plan to house both the newly-relocated Rams and Chargers at a $2.6 billion stadium and development at the site of a former racetrack in Inglewood. The facility and accomplanying development will feature a massive transparent canopy and all the lights that normally come with a football stadium.

While this is exactly the kind of building that would orginarily need some kind of review under the California Environmental Quality Act, that's not going to happen here. That's because the developers, with the cooperation of the city, figured out a way to avoid that process altogether. Under California law, any development that is approved by voter initiative does not have to comply with CEQA. Last year, an ownership group including the team owner of the Rams hastily collected enough signatures to place their project on the ballot. By law, the Inglewood City Council had the option of placing the matter before voters or simply approving it outright, which is exactly what it did. And thus, CEQA was circumnavigated.

At this point, no one has done a study of the Hollywood Park site in Inglewood to determine what, if any, birds will be affected by the new construction of the new stadium. Such a study would have been required under CEQA.

We'll be following this issue and updating as we get more information.