County Panel OKs Underground Metro Rail Link : Transit: The route to link up with Metro Rail would run along the Southern Pacific right-of-way. Several above-ground options were rejected.

The Los Angeles County Transportation Commission on Wednesday ended nearly four years of often bitter debate over a proposed San Fernando Valley rail line that would connect to Metro Rail from downtown by selecting a route that is underground in residential areas of North Hollywood and Van Nuys.

The commission’s 8-3 vote for a route along the Southern Pacific railroad right of way, crossing the Valley from the Metro Rail terminus in North Hollywood to Warner Center, doesn’t ensure that the line will be built. Two other areas of the county are competing for funds available for the next rail project.

The commission is scheduled on March 28 to choose which of the three will get the money.

Wednesday’s vote pleased the coalition of political, civic, business and homeowner leaders who have been pushing for a 5.6-mile westward extension of the downtown-to-North Hollywood Metro Rail subway to the San Diego Freeway.

They opposed rival proposals for a surface rail line along the same route, and a monorail along the Ventura Freeway.

“I’m happy. We got what we wanted,” said state Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Tarzana), who led efforts to form the coalition from previously antagonistic groups. Robbins, though not a commission member, lobbied on behalf of the subway plan right up to the vote.

A second vote on Valley rail options was much closer.

By a vote of 5 to 6, commissioners decided against authorizing further study of County Supervisor Mike Antonovich’s plan to build an elevated monorail or magnetic levitation system on the south shoulder of the Ventura Freeway from Universal City to Warner Center.

Although clearly reluctant to offend Antonovich, who also has lobbied intensely in recent days for his plan, the commission majority indicated it felt that the 90 days of additional study required for the monorail plan would take the Valley out of contention for the next rail project.

The two other rail projects under consideration are a light-rail line from downtown to Pasadena and a northward extension of the Century Freeway light-rail line, from El Segundo to Marina del Rey.

The commission says it has only enough money to build one more line before the turn of the century because most of its rail money is committed to three lines already under construction: Metro Rail and two light-rail lines, the Century Freeway and Long Beach-Los Angeles routes.

Several commissioners have acknowledged privately that the Valley has the political clout to take the funding for the next line, provided that the consensus on the Metro Rail extension remains firm.

In a demonstration of that clout, the Los Angeles City Council earlier Wednesday voted 11 to 0 to endorse the Valley Metro Rail extension plan.

Although the county transportation commissioners committed themselves to building any Valley rail line underground along the Southern Pacific freight line, which roughly parallels Chandler and Victory boulevards, they left open the possibility of using light rail or even monorail or magnetic levitation technology on the line.

However, staff members speculated that the technology question was left open only as an effort to mollify Antonovich, who did not attend the meeting but has left no doubt that he strongly advocates a futuristic elevated line.

Although the Metro Rail extension drew widespread support, about 60 people indicated they opposed the plan at Wednesday’s two-hour public hearing.

More than 300 people turned out in 1987 to fight a ground-level light-rail line along the Chandler-Victory route, which traverses a four-mile stretch of quiet single-family neighborhoods.

Most of those who spoke out against the new line Wednesday live along the railroad right of way, which carries only one freight train a week.

They said they view the subway proposal as a conspiracy to neutralize what had been well-organized opposition. Once the route is designated, “the trains will magically levitate and we will have our worst fear, a surface system,” said attorney Robert Silver.

Rabbi Marvin Sugarman, speaking for six Orthodox Jewish synagogues and community centers clustered along Chandler Boulevard in North Hollywood, opposed the Metro Rail extension, but indicated that opposition might be dropped if the commission supports legislation in Sacramento that would make construction of a subway through North Hollywood and Van Nuys mandatory.

A bill sponsored by Robbins that would require a subway in those areas was fought by the commission and vetoed last year by Gov. George Deukmejian.

“Without protective legislation,” said Sugarman, “we will be at the whim and mercy of the LACTC.”

A 5.6-mile Metro Rail extension to the San Diego Freeway--as proposed by Robbins and the other Valley leaders--would include nearly four miles of tunnel, cost $1.1 billion and draw 41,000 daily passengers, according to a commission study.

To meet the requirements of state environmental law, commissioners designated as the Valley route the full right of way from North Hollywood to Warner Center. However, they made it clear there would be only enough money to build the line as far as the San Diego Freeway.

Antonovich’s proposed elevated rail system would be 16.5 miles long and cost $1.8 billion. Its ridership is estimated at 48,000.

BACKGROUND For nearly four years, there has been debate over what kind of mass transit line to build in the San Fernando Valley and where it should be located. Business leaders and most homeowner activists agreed that an east-west line is needed to keep the Valley from being bogged down in congestion as the Ventura Freeway and other cross-Valley arteries stagger under increasing traffic. But homeowner leaders have insisted that no rail line should be allowed to disturb the Valley’s many single-family neighborhoods. They argued for a subway, which business leaders initially said would be too expensive. Recently, the two sides came together on a modified subway plan. In November, the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission released a study of 10 alternatives for mass transit in the Valley.