5-City Summit Puts Traffic at Top of Worry List

Elected officials from much of the Westside gathered at an unprecedented regional summit meeting Thursday and agreed on the obvious: Traffic is a problem on their chronically congested streets.

It was such a problem that Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo was late for the lunchtime session at the Beverly Hills City Hall.

“I was a little delayed getting here,” he said on arrival. “I know what I want to talk about.”

In fact, the elected representatives from Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Culver City, Santa Monica and Los Angeles all put traffic at the top of their worry lists.

As their first joint act, they decided to work for a ban on street repairs on major thoroughfares during peak traffic hours.

Other concerns included overdevelopment, homelessness, AIDS and solid-waste disposal, but they agreed that it would be easiest to start with traffic mitigation measures.

In addition to the ban on street repairs, which was inspired by a law already in effect in downtown Los Angeles, the representatives said they would like to improve the flow of traffic by coordinating signal lights.

They also agreed to invite a representative of Caltrans to their next meeting to talk about problems on Santa Monica Boulevard, which they have no control over because it is a state highway.

“It’s nice to know that where there was a first step, many more will follow,” said Beverly Hills Councilwoman Vicki Reynolds, who played host to the session along with Councilman Bernard J. Hecht.

Others in attendance were West Hollywood’s Mayor Abbe Land and Council Member John Heilman, Culver City Mayor Jozelle Smith, Santa Monica Mayor Pro Tem David Finkel and Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky.

Los Angeles City Council President John Ferraro was listed as a participant but could not attend because of another commitment, a spokesman for Ferraro said.

In Ferraro’s absence, Yaroslavsky virtually invited the cities of Beverly Hills and West Hollywood to sue Los Angeles over a proposal to install a regional shopping center at the Farmers Market, which lies in Ferraro’s district.

“It’s critical to understand that the biggest single project that could wreak havoc on all three of our communities is the project at 3rd and Fairfax,” said Yaroslavsky, who represents a nearby area.

Most of the 15 members of the Los Angeles City Council represent districts that are far from the Westside, but Beverly Hills and West Hollywood will be directly impacted by the 1.2 million-square-foot mall proposed for the Farmers Market, he said.

“I’m here to invite you to intervene if need be,” Yaroslavsky said. “You all have professional staff and legal resources. I invite you to use them, because any other project will pale compared to this one.”

There was no immediate response to his proposal, but Reynolds got a laugh when she commented: “Too bad John (Ferraro) isn’t here.”

Although Ferraro has spoken out against excessive development in the area, sources close to the project said they believe he will support some form of the proposed Farmers Market development, which is under review by Los Angeles planning officials.

The meeting, which was led by LeRoy Graymer, director of the Public Policy Program at UCLA Extension, recessed with an agreement to ask city staffers to work on the proposed ban on street work.

Instead of lunching first and then starting their deliberations, as they did on Thursday, the representatives said they would eat and meet at the same time when they gather again in May.

But there will be no free lunch, Hecht said later.

“I don’t want anyone to get a free ride off the city of Beverly Hills,” he said, promising that the representatives will share the cost of the deli spread, as well as Graymer’s fee for running future sessions.