Panel Is Asked to Keep Chandler Blvd. in the Running for a Light-Rail Route

Several San Fernando Valley business and community groups Wednesday night urged a county transportation panel to keep Chandler Boulevard under consideration as a light-rail transit route, despite objections from the neighborhood’s Orthodox Jewish community.

But at a public hearing in Van Nuys, representatives of Los Angeles County Supervisor Ed Edelman and Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs joined members of the Orthodox community in arguing that a Chandler route would disrupt the community’s religious and social life.

The hearing at Birmingham High School attracted more than 125 people and was sponsored by the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission’s Rail Transit Committee. The panel is expected to decide this spring which potential light-rail routes should undergo detailed engineering and cost studies.

The proposed transit line, to extend 14.3 miles from Canoga Park to North Hollywood, would mostly use the existing Southern Pacific railroad right of way. But opposition to the use of that right of way on Chandler has prompted the commission to consider Victory and Burbank boulevards for the eastern leg of the line.

Detailed Study Sought

Several speakers urged the committee to order detailed studies of all three routes, saying that an objective examination would probably establish Chandler Boulevard as the best route. A Chandler route would be the most economical of the three and would disrupt the fewest businesses and residences, they argued.

Fred Bower, president of the Universal City-North Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, said that to exclude any of the routes from study “at this early point in the process would cast a pall upon the credibility of the whole decision-making process.”

Bower said that curbside parking would be eliminated if Burbank Boulevard were used and that Victory Boulevard would have to be widened if it were chosen as the route. He said further study would probably show there is “no option but to use the existing right of way along Chandler Boulevard.”

Several members of the Orthodox Jewish community, which includes several hundred families, said the rail service would pose a hazard to them as they walked to religious services and would disrupt classes at several religious academies in the area.

Representatives of two business groups, the Valley Industry & Commerce Assn. and the Warner Center Assn., called on the committee to consider extending the rail line north from Canoga Park to the Simi Valley Freeway and east from North Hollywood into Burbank.

Officials say the Valley system could be operational by 1993, with start-up more likely about 1995. They say it would cost $300 million to $800 million.