Firms Asked to Back Light-Rail Service

San Fernando Valley business owners who have voiced support for a cross-Valley light-rail service are being asked to put their money where their mouth is.

Members of four major business groups are being assessed sums of up to $2,000 each to finance a lobbying campaign to persuade the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission to approve Valley trolley service.

The four organizations--the Woodland Hills Chamber of Commerce, the Universal City-North Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, the Warner Center Assn. and the Valley Industry & Commerce Assn.--have a combined membership of 1,990 companies.

Leaders of the four groups say money has begun pouring in from businesses ranging from mom-and-pop shops to corporations with more than 2,700 employees, even though payment of the assessments is strictly voluntary.

Members of the four organizations had previously endorsed light rail as a way of helping relieve the Valley’s growing traffic problem. Supporters have also stressed that development of an east-west trolley line would assure that the Valley gets a share of the Proposition A half-cent sales tax levied in Los Angeles County.

Supports of light rail say the new lobbying campaign is necessary to counteract homeowner groups that have protested the trolley idea. In November, the Transportation Commission, at least temporarily, suspended consideration of a Valley light-rail route after homeowners complained that potential routes would disrupt neighborhoods.

The quick response to the assessments “shows that the transportation problem has become a very primary concern of a lot of people,” said Glenn Bevilacqua, president of the 850-member Woodland Hills Chamber of Commerce.

Bevilacqua’s group has established an assessment schedule that calls for payments ranging from $35 for companies with up to nine employees to $300 for firms with 500 or more workers.

Evia Phillips, executive director of the Woodland Hills chamber, said $2,600 had been received as of this week.

At the Universal City-North Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, light-rail assessments totaling $4,800 have been paid so far, spokeswoman Virginia Erekson said.

Erekson’s group lists more than 900 members. They have been urged to take an “aggressive, pro-active stand” in favor of light rail and donate a flat $25 to the lobbying fund, “plus whatever else they want to give,” she said.

The 210 corporate members of the Valley Industry & Commerce Assn. have been asked to ante up “a mirror image of their dues” to the organization, said Bonny Matheson, executive director.

Those dues range from $250 to $2,000, depending upon the size of the company, she said. The association’s member firms employ a total of 67,000 workers, Matheson said.

A spokesman for the Warner Center Assn. said the 20 members of that Woodland Hills group have been asked to contribute $1,000 each to the light-rail fund.

Roger Stanard, a Woodland Hills lawyer who is co-chairman of a group called the Campaign for Valley Rail Transit, said the lobbying campaign was triggered by the failure of elected officials to pick a cross-Valley route.