Key Transit Panel Backs Plan for Rail Trust Fund

A proposal to place money for San Fernando Valley rail projects in a trust fund instead of beginning state-mandated Metro Rail subway tunneling in North Hollywood in September was endorsed Wednesday by a key Los Angeles County transit committee.

Members of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission’s Rapid Transit Committee said that, because it might be a decade or more before the Metro Rail subway is extended to its northern terminus in North Hollywood, tunneling in the East Valley at this time would needlessly disrupt the area.

Instead, the five-member committee endorsed a proposal by the Studio City Residents Assn. to create an account for Valley rail construction from which money would be released once it was certain that funds are available to build the full North Hollywood-to-downtown system.

The committee vote puts a majority of the commission on record in favor of the trust fund.

Conflicts With Law

The committee approved the plan despite a state law that requires the start of subway construction in the Valley by Sept. 29, the one-year anniversary of the start of Metro Rail work in downtown Los Angeles.

Several commissioners expressed confidence that Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys), who authored the state legislation, can be persuaded to change the law if enough Valley constituents petition him.

However, a Robbins spokeswoman said by telephone from Sacramento on Wednesday that the Van Nuys Democrat would block any effort to change the law.

“The senator has said before and still feels that a trust fund puts Valley subway money just one vote away from being switched to something else,” said Teri Burns, Robbins’ legislative aide.

Robbins has predicted for years that subway planners would indefinitely postpone Valley Metro Rail construction unless forced by law to act.

Officials Endorse Fund

Besides the Studio City group, the trust fund plan has been endorsed by the Universal City-North Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and City Councilmen Michael Woo and Zev Yaroslavsky, who represent Studio City and Sherman Oaks respectively. Woo also is a member of the County Transportation Commission.

However, Kurt Hunter, president of the North Hollywood Residents Assn., has opposed the plan and predicted that his group will soon go on record in favor of starting tunneling in September. Hunter said he too fears that the money might be diverted.

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

To comply with the law, the RTD has outlined a $74-million plan to tunnel 4,500 feet north from Universal City to the Ventura Freeway over the next seven years, provided that the county Transportation Commission and the City of Los Angeles each contribute $18.5 million to the project. State transportation officials already have agreed to contribute $37 million to the work.

Approval Expected

The full commission is to vote on the trust fund plan Wednesday.

However, with Woo’s endorsement of the trust fund last week and the five-member Rapid Transit Committee’s vote Wednesday, a majority of the 11-member commission is on record in favor of a trust fund.

To sweeten the trust-fund plan, the Rapid Transit Committee said Wednesday it would be willing to contribute the full $74 million to the project.

On the other hand, the committee also voted to specify that the trust fund money could be used for either subway or light-rail construction.

The commission has for more than a year promoted substituting above-ground light rail for costlier subway construction on the 2.3-mile segment between Universal City and the terminus at Lankershim and Chandler boulevards in North Hollywood.

A feasibility study of the substitution, which could save $200 million, is expected to be completed in about one year.

The RTD plan has come under fire because the tunnel would be used solely to store trains until funds are available to extend the line the final 1.4 miles to the northernmost station at Lankershim and Chandler boulevards in North Hollywood.

RTD officials acknowledge that that is not likely to occur before 1998.

Also, some county and city transit officials have expressed doubt that the RTD has enough money for its planned extension of the subway line north to Universal City in Metro Rail’s next construction phase, which is to begin in 1988 and to be completed in 1994.

Jacki Bacharach, a Rancho Palos Verdes councilwoman and the Rapid Transit Committee’s chairwoman, said the trust fund would “keep our commitment to the Valley while not needlessly disrupting residents at this early date.”

She also noted that, if tunneling begins now, the work will not be eligible for federal matching funds, which transit planners say would probably cover 50% of the cost, or $37 million.

“I would not like to be an elected official in the Valley who left $37 million on the table and tore up the streets for years for no purpose,” Bacharach said.