Robbins Shifts Gears, to Push for Subway Line

Unable to generate homeowner support, the chief sponsor of legislation to ban construction of a ground-level or elevated light-rail system in several San Fernando Valley residential neighborhoods said Friday that he is dropping the plan.

State Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys) said that instead of pushing the legislation, he is asking business leaders to pledge to work for an extension of the downtown-to-North Hollywood Metro Rail subway westward to Warner Center.

Business leaders, who hitherto have been among the leading proponents of light rail, “are going to stop butting heads with the homeowners,” Robbins said. “With this pledge, they are going to work with them for a subway across the Valley.”

Chilly Reception

But the request got a chilly reception Friday from leaders of several homeowner groups that have been fighting light rail.

“To be meaningful, this would have to be set in legislative concrete,” said Tom Paterson, president of the North Hollywood-based Valley Village Homeowners Assn.

A high-capacity subway “could be growth-inducing, and we must have protection against that,” said Gerald A. Silver, an Encino homeowner leader who heads a coalition opposed to a light-rail line along the Ventura Freeway.

But, he added: “A subway line might be acceptable. On the other hand, we are not going to negotiate under the gun. We want to see ridership and cost studies.”

Metro Rail Connection

As originally proposed by Los Angeles County transit planners, a ground-level or elevated light-rail line would cross the Valley, connecting to the high-speed, high-capacity Metro Rail line at either Universal City or its northern terminus at Chandler and Lankershim boulevards in North Hollywood.

But every suggested cross-Valley route has run into heated opposition from homeowners, who contend that a surface or elevated trolley would bring noise, visual blight and congestion to their single-family neighborhoods.

Despite the well-organized opposition, the Los Angeles City Council-created Citizens Advisory Panel on Transportation Solutions recommended three weeks ago that detailed studies be done on two light-rail routes--the one along the Ventura Freeway and the other along a Southern Pacific railroad right of way that crosses the Valley parallel to Chandler and Victory boulevards and Oxnard and Topham streets.

In response to the advisory committee’s report, Robbins and Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo on Aug. 10 announced state legislation that would ban construction of an above-ground rail line in portions of North Hollywood and Reseda.

The bill also would require the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, which controls all local transit projects, to place 15% of its rail budget each year into a trust fund for a Valley rail line to connect to Metro Rail.

‘Bunch of Weasel Words’

Homeowner leaders quickly found fault with the bill, saying it did not prevent construction of a line on the Ventura Freeway and did not rule out the possibility of a rail line in a deep trench, which some rail experts say would be feasible along the Chandler-Victory route.

Paterson dismissed the bill as “just a bunch of weasel words.”

In contrast, the pledge being circulated Friday by Robbins specifies that signatories will “work together to seek . . . a deep-bore subway transit line for the San Fernando Valley as an extension of Metro Rail.”

Despite homeowners’ opposition to wording of the original Robbins-Woo plan, the proposal for a cross-Valley Metro Rail extension has quickly gathered support.

On Wednesday, when the advisory panel’s report was considered by the council’s Transportation and Traffic Committee, five of the council’s 15 members supported simultaneously studying the two proposed light-rail routes and the possibility of substituting Metro Rail for light rail.

However, one of the five--committee Chairman Nate Holden, who represents the Crenshaw district--also insisted that a study be conducted of a third light-rail line, running parallel to San Fernando Road from downtown to Sylmar.

The advisory committee report is to be voted on by the full council Friday.

Also giving impetus to the proposed Metro Rail extension for the Valley was the release last week of a financing plan that county and city transit officials say will permit completion of Metro Rail from downtown to North Hollywood by 1997.

Until that plan was unveiled, many had expected that the subway would not be built past Hollywood or Universal City until after the turn of the century.

Woo said he and Robbins elected not to amend their plan to specify a subway tunnel in all residential areas, as demanded by homeowner leaders, because “it has become clear there is opposition in Sacramento to legislating something that should be worked out locally.”

He expressed confidence that most residential opposition can be overcome but also said “placing the line in a deep trench, something that is not visible, should answer most complaints.”

Robbins said late Friday that the pledge had been signed by representatives of the United Chambers of Commerce of the San Fernando Valley, the Universal City-North Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the Granada Hills Chamber of Commerce.

None could be reached for comment.

Robbins said that by signing, groups were not promising to drop all support for light rail, but that a Metro Rail extension “would become for them the locally preferred alternative.”