Action Urged on Freeway Interchange : Caltrans: The council wants the controversial project to be finished quickly, but homeowners are suing for an environmental review.

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday urged Caltrans to move quickly to build a controversial freeway interchange at Valley Circle Boulevard and the Ventura Freeway because state highway officials have expressed doubts about the $35-million project.

Spurred on by Councilwoman Joy Picus, lawmakers reaffirmed the city’s longstanding support for the Caltrans project, which is now under legal attack by local homeowner groups.

“Over my dead body will this be dropped,” Picus said during an interview after the council voted 13 to 0 to reaffirm its support for the project and urge the California Department of Transportation to move “as expeditiously as possible” to complete it.

Picus said the existing Woodland Hills interchange, designed to handle traffic in the 1950s, has produced “terrible bottlenecks” on adjoining surface streets.

Jack Hallin, Caltrans deputy director for Los Angeles, said the state has misgivings about the project because of the opposition. Homeowner groups, including the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization, have sued Caltrans in state and federal courts to force a full environmental review of the project. The groups also have proposed an alternative to the solution the state agency has proposed.

“We haven’t backed away from the project yet, but we are evaluating what to do,” Hallin said. “We’re asking ourselves if it’s going to be cost-effective.” If the agency is forced to conduct an environmental review, he said, “We may back away from the job.”

Final say over the project rests with the California Transportation Commission. But the commission can be influenced by the recommendations of Caltrans staff members.

Picus said the city backs Caltrans’ interchange design. She said she is neutral on the issue of whether a full-blown environmental impact report is needed. “It doesn’t seem like a good idea to me for Caltrans to fight doing an EIR if there’s a 50-50 chance of having to do one anyway,” she said. “I’d rather they just do the EIR and get on with it.”

Robert Gross, president of the Woodland Hills group suing Caltrans, said the concern is that the project will direct more traffic into the area and “probably spur additional growth.” A full environmental study is needed to determine the effect of the project on traffic and to propose ways to ease those effects if the project goes forward, Gross said.