Yaroslavsky Plan : L.A. Panel Proposed to Do Rail Study

Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky introduced a motion Friday to create a 24-member committee to determine what light-rail route, if any, should be adopted for the San Fernando Valley.

The motion, co-sponsored by five other Valley council members, gives Yaroslavsky, a probable mayoral candidate in 1989, a leadership role in the light-rail debate at the expense of Mayor Tom Bradley, a candidate for reelection, and state legislators.

Bradley is chairman of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, which last month halted its study of Valley light rail in the face of strong opposition to all five routes under consideration.

At the commission’s direction, Bradley has been drafting a letter to state and federal legislators representing the Valley and the Valley’s eight council members urging them to form a group to determine if a consensus can be reached on a cross-Valley route. The commission has offered staff assistance to the group named by the legislators and council members.

Yaroslavsky’s motion, scheduled to be voted on Friday, makes no mention of state and federal legislators. It specifies that the city’s transportation and planning departments provide staff assistance to the council-created committee, which would be independent of the commission.

Also, that committee, made up of three members appointed by each of the Valley’s council members, is directed to consider, as alternatives to light rail, expansion of bus service and car-pooling and roadway improvements. The committee is to complete its work by September.

Mayor Criticized

In an interview, Yaroslavsky criticized the mayor and the commission for “not knowing what they wanted to do, except to drop back and punt. As a result, we on the council must take a leadership role.”

He said the commission, which is building a countywide network of trolley lines, “pretty much abdicated its responsibility to make decisions on these matters” by abruptly halting a $1.6-million environmental study of the five routes Nov. 18.

A Bradley spokesman had no comment on Yaroslavsky’s motion.

Routes under study were along the Ventura Freeway, the Los Angeles River, the Southern Pacific Railroad main line, Victory Boulevard and a circuitous path that connects North Hollywood with Warner Center by way of Chandler Boulevard and Oxnard Street east of the San Diego Freeway and Victory and Topham Street west of the freeway.

While each route drew some opposition, the Chandler-Victory and Victory routes, both of which traverse long-established single-family neighborhoods, drew the most wrath.

A bill introduced last year by state Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys) and Assemblyman Tom Bane (D-Tarzana) would have effectively banned both routes. After passing the Assembly, the bill was held up in the Senate just before the Legislature adjourned in September.

Robbins, who said he plans to revive the bill in January, said Friday he was opposed to Yaroslavsky’s proposed study committee “unless they want to create another committee of 24 appointed by state legislators, and then the two groups can work together.”

Co-sponsoring the Yaroslavsky motion were council members Hal Bernson, Joel Wachs, Michael Woo, John Ferraro and Ernani Bernardi.