Residents Say They Oppose RTD Yard by Their Homes

Residents in five Westside communities say they are prepared to fight the Southern California Rapid Transit District if it tries to move a bus yard into their neighborhoods.

The RTD announced earlier this year that it will abandon its 3.2-acre yard at 100 Sunset Ave. in Venice, after residents complained about noise and pollution. The transit district has announced six potential new locations for the yard, which will operate 24 hours a day.

But in the last month, neighbors of at least seven homeowner groups--three in Santa Monica, three in Mar Vista and one in West Los Angeles--have circulated petitions and written the RTD to protest the proposed relocation of the lot, which would service up to 125 buses daily.

And the Santa Monica City Council voted 7 to 0 last week to oppose the use of two of the sites in Santa Monica, which are both zoned for light industrial or commercial uses.

‘Discriminatory’ Idea

“We see no reason why such a bus maintenance yard should be in Santa Monica,” City Councilman Herb Katz said, noting that the city already has a yard for its own Big Blue Bus line. “To ask our city to have two (bus yards) is highly discriminatory in my estimation.”

RTD official Albert Perdon said it is too early to tell which of the six sites will ultimately be chosen.

Perdon said environmental impact reports being done on the six sites will take six to nine months to complete. Public hearings will be conducted after they are done. A final recommendation should be made to the RTD board of directors by July, 1986, he said.

Ground-breaking for the new location is three to five years away, Perdon said.

The proposed locations are:

- A 4.7-acre site at the southwest corner of Olympic Boulevard and Centinela Avenue in Santa Monica.

- A 6.8-acre site on the northeast corner of Stewart Street and Olympic Boulevard in Santa Monica.

- An 8-acre site bounded by Exposition Way, Sawtelle, Pico and Sepulveda boulevards in West Los Angeles.

- A 4.4-acre site on the northwest corner of Glencoe and Maxella avenues east of Marina del Rey.

- A 4.8-acre site at 4935 McConnell Ave. south of Culver Boulevard and east of Marina del Rey.

- An 11-acre lot at 5353 Grosvenor Blvd. in Los Angeles near Hughes Airport. Because this site is in an industrial park, away from residential neighborhoods, none of the homeowners groups are opposed to it. But the other five have drawn fire.

“The people are up in arms about this,” said Ellen Hays, a member of the Casa de Marina Homeowners Assn. who lives near Glencoe and Maxella. “I can’t think of a worse idea in a worse location. The last thing we want here is the . . . RTD bus maintenance yard.

“We don’t want the noise and the air pollution. It should not be placed in a beautiful cluster of homes. The last thing we want is exhaust and buses rolling by.”

The Westside Home Owners Alliance, a coalition of six homeowners groups in West Los Angeles, has collected 600 signatures from residents against having the bus yard, she said.

Mid-City Neighbors, a group representing 48,000 households in Santa Monica, voted unanimously at its membership convention earlier this month to oppose moving the yard to Santa Monica, according to Michael Tarbet, executive director.

‘Strange’ Management

Santa Monica’s Virginia/Delaware/Stewart Neighbors, representing about 250 households, has contacted city officials to protest the yard, member Donna Alvarez said.

Sara E. Berman of the Westside Home Owners Alliance said it would be a “strange” management decision for RTD to go ahead with plans to place the yard near a residential area in light of the district’s long-running battle with Venice residents.

The Pico Neighborhood Assn. of Santa Monica is talking with RTD officials but has not decided what action to take, a spokesman said.

The Little Venice Committee, made up of renters and homeowners near the existing yard at Main Street and Thornton Place, has been lobbying since 1981 for the RTD to move the bus yard, member Boyd Clopton said.

“I would not be in favor of dropping our problems and dumping it on some other residential area,” Clopton said, “I don’t think that’s right.”