ELECTIONS : PROPOSITION A : Monorail Proposal Leads 2 Other Plans in First Results

A proposed futuristic monorail line along the Ventura Freeway across the San Fernando Valley was proving by far the most popular of three rail plans in an advisory referendum Tuesday, with about a third of the vote counted.

Results of the vote could bolster the thus-far largely unsuccessful drive to build support for a monorail system linking the East and West Valley.

Running second, with about half as many votes as the monorail plan, was a proposed light-rail line in a shallow trench along the Southern Pacific railroad’s Burbank Branch right of way from North Hollywood to Warner Center--a plan that consistently has drawn the wrath of homeowners living along the tracks.

In third place was the plan approved two months ago by the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission to extend the downtown-to-North Hollywood Metro Rail subway westward from North Hollywood to Van Nuys.

The Metro Rail extension, which also would utilize the railroad’s Burbank Branch right of way, has the support of elected officials, business leaders and homeowner group leaders.

A fourth option on the ballot--no rail line at all--was drawing substantial support, leading all alternatives but the monorail plan.

The referendum, the first time that voters have had a say in the seven-year debate over what kind of rail line, if any, to build in the Valley, was conducted in an area that includes the San Fernando Valley, Glendale, Agoura Hills, Calabasas and Westlake Village.

When they voted in March to endorse the Metro Rail extension and reject monorail and light rail, commissioners, who control all rail construction spending in the county, said they could not wait for the advisory vote to choose between the three plans.

Proposition A was placed on the ballot by county supervisors at the behest of Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who hoped that a strong vote for his slowly dying monorail plan would persuade the commission to substitute it for the Metro Rail extension.

In the two years since he unveiled the monorail proposal, Antonovich has had difficulty drumming up support for the idea.

Most officials say they are wary of introducing a third rail technology to the county--in addition to the Metro Rail and ground-level light-rail systems under construction--and that they still consider monorail to be experimental in this country, although several short lines operate in Japan.

Advocates of the cross-Valley Metro Rail extension have become alarmed in recent weeks at the possibility that a surge in support for a monorail system could threaten years of coalition building on behalf of their plan.

Until the warring parties came together on the Metro Rail plan, homeowner groups and business leaders had battled for years over what kind of rail system to build in the Valley.

Business leaders insisted that the only affordable system that would relieve the Valley’s traffic woes was a light-rail line in a shallow trench along the Southern Pacific railroad’s Burbank Branch, from the planned Metro Rail northern terminus in North Hollywood to Warner Center.

Homeowner groups vehemently opposed that plan, saying above-ground trains would disturb residents of the single-family homes that line almost half the right of way.

Business groups eventually abandoned their insistence that a line go all the way across the Valley, and agreed to back a line to the San Diego Freeway with the stipulation that travelers be able to transfer to express buses bound for the West Valley.

Even as late as Monday, proponents of the Metro Rail extension and monorail dueled over the question of cost.

Antonovich has maintained in recent weeks that a review by his office indicates that a 16.5-mile elevated monorail line from Universal City to Canoga Park could be built for less than $1.1 billion--or about $65 million per mile.

By contrast, the estimate for the 5.6-mile Metro Rail extension from North Hollywood to Van Nuys is $1.1 billion, or about $195 million per mile.

The third plan that was on Tuesday’s ballot, the 14.1-mile light-rail line from North Hollywood to Warner Center, would cost $1 billion, or about $70 million a mile, according to Antonovich.

But the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission staff, in a letter released late Monday, contradicted Antonovich’s claim.

Neil Peterson, executive director of the commission, said that even though the commission has reduced its cost estimates for monorail by $200 million, the futuristic system would still cost $1.6 billion--half a billion more than Antonovich has said.

The commission staff has not completed its study of cost-reduction proposals for monorail, Peterson said.

Still under evaluation are Antonovich’s proposals to eliminate from the commission design three subway segments, totaling 3 1/2 miles, at the freeway’s most congested points--between De Soto and Canoga avenues, at the intersection with the San Diego Freeway, and in Studio City.