Freeway Project to Extend 405’s Carpool Lanes

Caltrans is embarking on a major widening project along the San Diego Freeway in West Los Angeles that will create uninterrupted carpool lanes from the Santa Monica Freeway south to Irvine -- and has left nearby residents with divided views over the undertaking.

The $167-million project will add one carpool lane in each direction along a four-mile portion of the 405 between the Marina and Santa Monica freeways, a stretch considered one of the busiest in California.

The effort, which began Nov. 3 and is expected to be completed by the winter of 2007, has generated complaints from some residents whose neighborhoods adjacent to the freeway are being transformed.

Caltrans has acquired 41 properties, mostly homes, and part of 34 others. Some residents complain that the demolition of half the homes on their street has ruined the close-knit neighborhood.

The project, financed with federal and state funds, is the latest step in Caltrans’ effort to create a continuous network of carpool lanes on most freeways in Southern California, which already has the largest system of carpool lanes in the nation.

Major portions of the San Diego Freeway, which runs from the San Fernando Valley to Irvine, already have carpool lanes. Caltrans also is building the lanes between the Century and Marina freeways, with completion expected in 2006.

Soon, transportation officials will start to consider widening the northbound section of the 405 between the Santa Monica and Ventura freeways, one of the last major sections without them, said Ron Kosinski, Caltrans deputy district director of environmental planning for Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

The proposed expansion would run through some of the city’s most affluent communities, such as Bel-Air and Brentwood. Kosinski said he would meet with residents there and try to minimize the acquisition of property for the freeway widening.

He said it is virtually impossible now to widen freeways without taking over private property.

“All the easy areas [to widen freeways into] are pretty much gone,” Kosinski said. “It’s not going to be as easy, that’s for sure.”

Residents living near the new San Diego Freeway widening project that runs through portions of Culver City and West Los Angeles initially resisted the idea of having their homes acquired through eminent domain. But some now say it was a financial boon.

Donna Thayer is one of them. In 2002, Caltrans offered her $379,000 for her three-bedroom, two-bath home on Purdue Avenue -- $19,000 more than she had expected. On top of that, Caltrans paid $50,000 so she could afford a comparable home in the area and also covered moving expenses, she said.

Now, she, her fiance and her 15-year-old daughter live in Culver City in a newly renovated house, where she is happier with city services and schools. And since she moved, her new home’s value has shot up from $429,000 to $680,000.

“They were very fair and appropriate,” she said. “Caltrans was very good.”

Donna’s brother and his wife, Bob and Felicia Thayer, say their experience was quite different.

They lost a slice of their backyard, up to 5 feet wide, and many of their eucalyptus trees. Now, they say, they dread the idea of waking up to nighttime construction noise.

But even worse, Felicia Thayer said, is the effect the demolition of the six houses at the end of their street has had on the neighborhood. In addition to those displaced, other neighbors -- wary of the construction -- have moved out, eliminating residents who once celebrated holidays with block parties, she said.

“Look at this neighborhood -- it’s gone downhill,” Thayer said, sighing at the dirt field surrounded by a crumbling sidewalk and scattered litter.

The field, just a few feet from the existing freeway sound wall, is surrounded by a chain-link fence with several gaping holes, allowing access to an area leading to the Thayers’ backyard.

She said she and her husband repeatedly have asked Caltrans to fix the fence. After a community meeting Nov. 30, she said, a Caltrans representative promised to send someone to her neighborhood. So far, no one has come to fix the fence. She blames the conditions for a recent burglary at her home and won’t let her daughters play on the street without someone watching them. “This is what we’re left with,” Thayer said.

She said she would have preferred that Caltrans buy their house and relocate them to a nearby neighborhood, as it did for her sister-in-law.

Nearly 40% of the residents who had to sell a part of their property to Caltrans are contesting their proposed compensation, whereas none of the homeowners who sold their houses did so, according to figures provided by Teresa Cota Arias, who supervises land acquisition for Caltrans projects in Southern California.

“If they take your property, you’re a winner,” said Roy Reel, who is contesting Caltrans’ proposed offer for a corner of his backyard, on which a 50-year-old Canary Island palm tree grows. “If they take a part of your property, you’re a loser.”

Culver City apartment complex owner Manfred Gerger said he would have preferred it if Caltrans had proceeded with its original plan to buy his building rather than acquire part of his driveway and lawn. Gerger said he worries how much his property might suffer in value and loss of tenants.

“They just took enough to make it inconvenient but not enough to relocate you,” said Raul Gonzales, 29, who lives with his wife and two children in Gerger’s building. “They do need to expand the 405, but I just wish they relocated the tenants to comparable housing.”

But Jack Gard, 83, found it a blessing that Caltrans agreed to spare his Culver City home. In 1964, Gard, a retired school psychologist, had an architect design his “ideal home” to accommodate two grand pianos in his living room. Caltrans ended up buying only a portion of his property.

Project manager Mabel Tran said Caltrans generally tries to design widenings to affect as few properties as possible.

Soaring property values have also increased Caltrans’ costs to buy land for freeway widening.

“We only take what we need,” Tran said.