Proposal to Place Valley Rail Money Into Trust Fund Picks Up Steam

A proposal to place money for San Fernando Valley rail projects in a trust fund instead of beginning Metro Rail subway tunneling in North Hollywood in September has been gathering support.

In the past week, the trust fund idea has become a rallying point for long-time Metro Rail subway opponents, for transit planners who want to substitute light rail for subway in the Valley, for cost-conscious city officials and for homeowner leaders concerned about construction noise and disruption.

The groundswell is occurring despite a 1984 state law that requires the Southern California Rapid Transit District to begin subway tunneling in North Hollywood by Sept. 29, the one-year anniversary of the start of Metro Rail work in downtown Los Angeles.

Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys), the law’s sponsor, has vowed to block any effort to change the law and said he will sue the RTD to force compliance.

Trust fund proponents concede that they probably will have to win the state senator over to implement their plan. Many hope that the groundswell will sway Robbins. However, the leader of at least one area homeowner group said he hopes Robbins will stick to his position on the tunneling, and most homeowner groups have yet to take a position on the trust fund alternative.

Another provision of the law requires that, for every dollar of non-federal funds spent on the subway project outside the Valley, the RTD must spend 15 cents north of the Universal City station.

To meet this provision, the RTD recently outlined a $74-million plan to tunnel north from Universal City to the Ventura Freeway, a distance of 4,500 feet, over the next seven years.

The California Transportation Commission has tentatively agreed to contribute $37 million to the tunneling.

RTD officials say that, if the City of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission promptly agree to each contribute $18.5 million to finance the work, they can meet the deadline.

But growing support for the trust fund instead of immediate tunneling reduces the likelihood that the deadline will be met.

The fund idea originated three months ago at a meeting of directors of the Studio City Residents Assn., a homeowner group.

Polly Ward, association president, said members are concerned that the tunneling will disrupt their neighborhoods for seven years without producing any usable tracks.

“We talked it over and concluded we would get noise and congestion while the tunneling was under way,” she said. “But it would be years and years before that tunnel would be used. So that’s what led us to support the trust fund idea.”

The RTD has been unable to say when the proposed 4,500-feet of tunnel north of Universal City will be extended the remaining 1.4 miles to the subway’s planned northern terminus at Lankershim and Chandler boulevards in North Hollywood.

Nor can they say with certainty that tunneling from the south will reach Universal City by 1994, the expected completion date for the Valley work.

Useful ‘Only for Growing Mushrooms’

One top state transit official said at a hearing in Sacramento two weeks ago that, since there will be no station along the 4,500 feet and there also is no assurance that tracks will be extended north from Hollywood, the proposed Valley segment will be useful “only for growing mushrooms.”

On the other hand, RTD officials say that, if the tracks from the south reach Universal City, the tunnel north of Universal City can then be used to store trains.

Tunneling the final distance north from the Ventura Freeway to North Hollywood would be included in Metro Rail’s third and final phase of construction, assuming the district is able to get funding, which is uncertain, subway planners say.

Metro Rail’s first phase, begun 10 months ago, includes tunneling from downtown to Wilshire Boulevard and Alvarado Street.

The second phase, to begin next year and to be completed in 1994, will include tunneling or elevated tracks north through Hollywood toward the Valley.

County and state transit planners say they doubt that there will be enough money to tunnel through the Hollywood Hills to reach Universal City.

Despite the uncertainty over what monies Congress will appropriate for the project in the coming years, RTD officials insist there will be sufficient funds to reach Universal City and build a station there. They say it should be open to commuters in 1994.

Decision on 2nd Phase Comes After Deadline

But, because of legal requirements for environmental review imposed by the state and federal governments, said Albert H. Perdon, RTD assistant general manager, the RTD board will not be able to formally approve the second phase of work until December, two months after the deadline imposed by state law for the start of Valley work.

Among the first to show interest in the Studio City group’s proposal was the County Transportation Commission, which is building a network of light-rail lines throughout the county using the extra half-cent sales tax approved by voters in 1980.

For nearly a year, the commission has championed a plan to substitute above-ground light rail, which is less expensive to build, for a subway on the 2.3-mile segment between Universal City and the subway’s northern terminus in North Hollywood.

An 18-month feasibility study is to be completed in about a year.

Because the substitution would save nearly $200 million “we have a responsibility to look into it,” said Jacki Bacharach of Rancho Palos Verdes, chairwoman of the commission’s Rapid Transit Committee.

She said switching the segment to a trolley line “would not represent a backing away from our commitment to the Valley to provide rapid transit, and in fact would bring transit to the Valley a lot earlier than would Metro Rail.”

She also predicted that Robbins will agree to amend his legislation to incorporate the trust fund “if enough of his constituents make their wishes known to him.”

Bacharach’s committee is to consider on Wednesday two staff recommendations, one of which is to place money in the proposed trust fund for use on either light rail or subway projects.

The alternative recommendation is to petition the RTD to reduce its plan by building only 1,000 feet of track north of Universal City, the maximum that could be used to store trains.

Others who have expressed support for the trust fund are Los Angeles City Councilmen Michael Woo and Zev Yaroslavsky, both of whom have balked at the RTD’s suggestion for $18.5 million from the city for Valley subway construction.

Woo, who represents Studio City, heads the council’s Transportation and Traffic Committee, and Yaroslavsky, whose district includes Sherman Oaks, chairs the council’s Finance and Revenue Committee.

Both committees will act on the RTD’s request for $18.5 million to finance the Valley tunneling.

The trust fund “seems to be a sensible way to proceed,” Woo said, “as opposed to inconveniencing a lot of Valley residents who might object to construction work on a system that might not be connected to anything else.”

Another trust fund proponent is Richard Close, president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. and a longtime critic of Metro Rail as too costly.

Close said he hopes to persuade other leaders of the association to endorse the trust-fund plan.

Opposed to the trust fund is Kurt Hunter, president of the North Hollywood Residents Assn., who said that “if the money is set aside, it may be spent on other things.”

Hunter predicted that his association will at its next meeting oppose the trust fund and the proposed substitution of light rail for subway in North Hollywood.

Robbins said he remains convinced the trust fund is an unwise plan because it would place the money “in the hands of people who don’t have the Valley’s best interests at heart.”

Along with other Valley elected officials, Robbins has predicted for years that the RTD will postpone Valley subway construction indefinitely unless forced by law to act.

Complicating the picture is state legislation to merge the RTD and the County Transportation Commission next March 1 into the Metropolitan Transit Authority.

Robbins, who had a leading hand in drafting the merger legislation, has praised the RTD in recent weeks for its seven-year tunneling plan and has condemned the County Transportation Commission for “trying to back away from the commitment to the Valley.”

The merger legislation has been approved by the Assembly and Senate in different forms. A two-house committee has tentatively agreed to a compromise version that is expected to be approved before the end of the month.