Key Robbins Backers Blast Plan to Stall Trolley Line

State Sen. Alan Robbins was pleased with himself five weeks ago when he unveiled legislation aimed at simultaneously solving two transportation-related political problems.

With more than a trace of triumph, the Van Nuys Democrat announced he would introduce a bill that would ban light-rail construction in North Hollywood and Van Nuys for a decade. The provision meets the demands of a bloc of clamorous North Hollywood constituents seeking to head off construction of a trolley line.

The same bill contains a provision that would permit Robbins to gracefully back away from his isolated position of demanding compliance with a 1984 state law that requires the start of Metro Rail tunneling in North Hollywood by Sept. 29. The bill would postpone the deadline two years.

Before his about-face, Robbins had declared he would never back down. He had promised he would be “in court Sept. 30 to force compliance with the law” even after other elected officials deserted him, having concluded that it would be wiser to delay subway tunneling until it is certain that federal money will be available to connect the San Fernando Valley segment with downtown Los Angeles.

Robbins said that because his new bill combined the controversial light-rail ban with the widely supported Metro Rail delay, “I expect that just about everyone will support this legislation.”

To oppose the bill, he said, “will be to, in effect, advocate immediate work on Metro Rail, and very few seem to want that at this time.”

But all has not worked out as Robbins had hoped.

Last week, as the bill, co-sponsored by Assemblyman Tom Bane (D-Tarzana), was approved by the Assembly Ways and Means Committee and sent to the Assembly floor, Robbins ran into an angry counterattack from Valley business leaders, usually among his most enthusiastic supporters.

They denounced the bill, which would eliminate two of five light-rail routes under study by the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, as a threat to the Valley’s chances of securing a trolley line.

Warner Center Link

They were particularly piqued because the routes marked for elimination provide the only direct link between Metro Rail’s northern terminus in North Hollywood and the fast-growing Warner Center in Woodland Hills.

Further, the commission itself, which is building a countywide network of light-rail lines, on Wednesday voted to fight the bill.

Although they have long supported the Metro Rail delay, commission members said they were more concerned about the light-rail ban.

Several commissioners said that abruptly removing two routes from a legally required environmental study could make it vulnerable to legal challenge and thereby jeopardize the Valley’s chance for a light-rail system.

Robbins, who is co-sponsoring legislation that would replace both the commission and the Southern California Rapid Transit District with a new transit super-agency, dismissed the commission’s opposition as “not very important.”

But he said that opposition from the business leaders “hurts a lot. These people have been my most reliable political and financial supporters for years, and it pains me to differ with them on this issue.”

Robbins, a moderate-to-conservative Democrat, has allied himself throughout his political career with the Valley business community.

David R. Miller, president of United Chambers of Commerce of the San Fernando Valley, which is leading the fight against the Robbins-Bane bill, said that Robbins was “as responsive as ever to the business community in returning our phone calls and talking to us about this situation, but he is intractable on the light-rail ban.”

With the combined weight of Robbins and Bane--also an influential veteran legislator--behind the bill, business leaders are not optimistic about halting the measure in the Legislature.

Instead, several local business groups, including the pro-trolley organization Fair Alignment is Right, have begun a letter-writing campaign to Gov. George Deukmejian urging him to veto the bill should it reach his desk.

But what has displeased the business community has pleased many of Robbins’ and Bane’s North Hollywood constituents.

The bill’s light-rail provision would ban trolley construction for a decade in an area bounded by the Hollywood Freeway, Vanowen Street, Hazeltine Avenue and Magnolia Boulevard.

Banned would be a route that follows Chandler Boulevard east of the San Diego Freeway and Victory Boulevard west of the freeway to Warner Center, and one that follows Victory across the Valley.

The Chandler-Victory route has the support of the commission staff and most business leaders. It also has generated the most opposition from constituents.

Left as possible routes would be the Ventura Freeway, the Los Angeles River and Southern Pacific railroad main line, which crosses the Valley diagonally from Burbank Airport to Chatsworth.

Commissioners say that they will use the results of the 18-month, $1.6-million environmental study as a basis for final route selection.

But Warner Center business leader Roger Stanard said the study could be a waste of money if the Robbins-Bane bill passes.

Since the study began six months ago, Robbins and Bane have been under pressure from the Eastern Sector Transit Coalition, which contends that a light-rail system through North Hollywood would bring noise, vibrations, congestion and visual blight to what is largely a residential community.

Tom Herman, a coalition founder, said that opposition to the bill from the commission and business leaders “proves what we have been saying all along, that the environmental study was a sham, that they already have decided on the (Chandler-Victory) route.”