RTD to Disregard Sept. 29 Deadline on Subway Leg

The Southern California Rapid Transit District plans to disregard a state law that requires work to begin on the San Fernando Valley leg of Metro Rail within two weeks, a transit agency spokesman said Monday.

The decision was endorsed by state Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys), who authored the 1984 law that governs Valley Metro Rail construction.

Until a month ago, Robbins had threatened to go to court to force the RTD to begin work in North Hollywood and Studio City by the Sept. 29 deadline.

But in August, he introduced a bill in the Legislature to delay the start of Metro Rail work for two years and ban light-rail construction in North Hollywood and Van Nuys for 10 years.

After passing the Assembly, the controversial bill was unexpectedly shelved late Friday by the state Senate hours before the Legislature adjourned until January.

Robbins said late Monday that RTD General Manager John A. Dyer had pledged to spend $1.6 million in the next four months to complete design work on the Valley subway segment in return for Robbins’ pledge not to demand immediate compliance with the 1984 law.

Existence of the agreement could not be confirmed late Monday. But RTD spokesman Rick Jager said: “I can tell you we have no plans for a ground breaking in the Valley.”

‘Changed Mind’

He said the RTD interpreted Robbins’ introduction of the two-year delay as “an indication that the author has changed his mind with regard to the need to start Metro Rail work in the Valley now.”

Robbins said completion of design work would “pave the way for a ground breaking in February or in September, 1989, depending on how things go in the Legislature in January.”

He predicted that his bill will ultimately be approved by the Legislature and sent to Gov. George Deukmejian for his signature. Robbins declined to predict whether the governor would sign or veto the measure, and acknowledged that he probably could not get the votes needed to override a veto.

Virtually all of the controversy in Sacramento stemmed from the bill’s light-rail provision, which would eliminate two of five light-rail routes under consideration by the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission.

One of the routes that would be dropped follows Chandler and Victory boulevards from North Hollywood to the Warner Center commercial area in Woodland Hills, and the other follows Victory the length of the Valley.

The Chandler-Victory route, favored by the commission’s staff, has aroused intense passion.

Robbins and Assemblyman Tom Bane (D-Tarzana), who co-authored the bill, said they introduced the legislation in response to a request for help from a well-organized group of North Hollywood residents, who contend that a trolley would bring noise, congestion and visual blight to their largely residential community.

However, business interests favor the route as the least costly method of connecting fast-growing Warner Center with Metro Rail’s northern terminus at Chandler and Lankershim boulevards in North Hollywood.

Other Routes

Other trolley routes under consideration are the Ventura Freeway, the Los Angeles River and the Southern Pacific railroad main line, which crosses the Valley from Burbank to Chatsworth.

In contrast to the light-rail provision, the Metro Rail delay in the Robbins-Bane legislation was virtually without controversy.

Elected Valley officials and homeowner leaders agree that work on the 2.4-mile subway segment between Universal City and North Hollywood should be delayed until it is certain that federal money will be available to connect the segment with downtown.