Assembly Committee Approves Delay of Metro Rail Tunneling

Legislation that would delay Metro Rail tunneling in the San Fernando Valley for two years and ban light-rail construction in North Hollywood and Van Nuys for a decade was approved Tuesday by a key committee of the state Assembly.

The Metro Rail delay and the controversial light-rail ban, opposed by Los Angeles County transit officials and Warner Center business leaders, were sent to the Assembly floor without dissent by the Ways and Means Committee.

The Metro Rail delay has widespread support among homeowner groups and elected officials. But opponents of the 10-year ban on trolley construction in large parts of the East Valley complain that it imperils the Valley’s chances of getting a light-rail system.

Appeasing Opponents

Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys) and Assemblyman Tom Bane (D-Van Nuys), co-sponsors of the bill, said they introduced the legislation to satisfy concerns of North Hollywood light-rail opponents.

Both Robbins and Bane have been under pressure from the Eastern Sector Transit Coalition, a politically potent North Hollywood group fighting to stop the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission from routing the light-rail system through their neighborhoods.

At the coalition’s behest, up to 700 protesters have turned out at public hearings on the proposed east-west Valley light-rail line.

Rick Richmond, executive director of the County Transportation Commission, has prepared a report urging commissioners to fight the Robbins-Bane bill, commission spokeswoman Erica Goebel said. The report is scheduled to be discussed by the commission at its regular meeting today in Los Angeles.

Robbins predicted that the commission’s opposition will be muted because the bill “gives them one thing they want, the Metro Rail delay, and one thing they don’t want,” the light-rail ban.

The Robbins-Bane bill, if approved by the Assembly and Senate and signed by the governor, would halt consideration of two of five possible light-rail routes under study by the commission.

Dropping 2 Routes

Dropped from consideration would be a route following Chandler Boulevard and Oxnard Street west to the San Diego Freeway, then largely following Victory Boulevard to Warner Center, and another route following Victory the length of the Valley.

Left as possible routes would be the Ventura Freeway, the Los Angeles River and the Southern Pacific mainline, which runs diagonally across the Valley from Burbank Airport to Chatsworth.

Commission staff members, who favor the Chandler-Victory route, say they foresee serious engineering problems with the Los Angeles River and Ventura Freeway routes.

They also have questioned whether the Southern Pacific mainline route would generate enough riders to be economically feasible.

To settle the question, the commission late last year authorized a $1.6-million environmental study of the five routes. “Much of that money will be completely wasted if this bill passes,” said Roger Stanard, a Warner Center business leader and member of the commission’s Rail Transit Committee.

‘A Bit of Gloom’

He said that removal of the Chandler-Victory and Victory routes from consideration would “cast a bit of gloom” over Warner Center employers who look to the light-rail line to relieve Ventura Freeway congestion.

The two-year delay in Valley Metro Rail work has the support of all local transit officials, including members of the County Transportation Commission. Without the delay, the Southern California Rapid Transit District is required by a 1984 state law to begin tunneling in Studio City and North Hollywood by Sept. 29, the first anniversary of the start of subway tunneling in downtown Los Angeles.

In recent months, most local officials have come to favor postponing the start of tunneling on the Valley end of Metro Rail.

Proponents of delay say it could be a decade before federal funds are available to complete the subway from Universal City to the line’s northern terminus at Chandler and Lankershim boulevards in North Hollywood.

The 1984 law, which was sponsored by Robbins, also requires the RTD to spend on the Valley subway segment 15% of the non-federal funds spent on Metro Rail construction outside the Valley.

The Robbins-Bane bill would place that money in a trust fund until construction begins.