Near Marina del Rey : Russell Suggests Yet Another Bus Yard Site

Responding to years of complaints from residents, Los Angeles City Council President Pat Russell has introduced a plan to move the Southern California Rapid Transit District’s three-acre bus maintenance yard out of Venice.

Russell’s plan, introduced Tuesday, calls for the yard to be relocated to a 6.3-acre site on Jefferson Boulevard east of Lincoln Boulevard near Marina del Rey, at a cost of $9.5 million.

The move would place the yard within an industrial zone where the daily bus traffic--now about 75 vehicles per day, according to RTD officials--would have little or no effect on homeowners, Russell said.

The site, chosen by RTD officials late last year, is not one of the six locations that the city and the RTD have been studying for much of the past two years, Russell aide Yvette McFrazier said.

Those sites, including properties in Santa Monica, Marina del Rey and other areas west of the San Diego Freeway, have been opposed by residents.

No Opposition Expected

The chosen site is not expected to generate such opposition, McFrazier said.

Russell said the plan would be financed by grants of $3 million from the city, $1.2 million from Los Angeles County and $3 million from the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, a regional planning agency of representatives from the county and local cities.

Additional funds would include a $1.8-million loan from the transportation commission and a $500,000 grant from the RTD.

In an interview Wednesday, Russell said she expects the City Council to approve the plan next week. The city’s share of the money would come mostly from Proposition A transportation funds held in reserve, she said.

Other participating agencies are expected to approve the plan within the next few weeks, Russell said, adding that officials for those agencies have been negotiating the financial arrangements.

May Take Two Years

Russell predicted that the relocation would require at least two years because garages and refueling facilities will have to be built at the new site, requiring additional expenditures by the public agencies, she said.

Russell said Venice residents “have been united and very effective in working on this issue, and I’m glad to see them win a victory.”

Residents, who have complained about noise and traffic from the yard, erected protest banners in the neighborhood early last year when the RTD was considering plans to expand it.

The proposed expansion caused many residents to fear that they would lose their homes along Sunset Avenue, Paloma Avenue and Thornton Place, which border the yard about a block from the ocean.

Residents said Wednesday that they were delighted by the Russell proposal.

‘Wonderful! When?’

“My first reaction is, ‘Oh, they’re leaving? Wonderful! When?” said Boyd Clopton, an artist who has lived across the street from the yard for eight years.

“It means we can sleep at night, unless something equally noisy goes in over there. We can smell the ocean instead of diesel fumes--which is why most of us moved to the beach to begin with.”

Patricia Coleman, a travel agent who also has lived in the neighborhood for eight years, said the busy yard has been a nuisance because of bus traffic, late-night engine noise and fumes that apparently leave a greasy film on her television screen.

“They do a lot of revving of their engines,” she said. “It makes a terrible racket.

“We’ll be delighted if they move, of course. It’s about time, isn’t it?”