Governor Vetoes Bill Requiring Rail Line to Be Underground

Saying it dealt with an issue that should be resolved locally, Gov. George Deukmejian on Tuesday vetoed a bill that would have required that any rail line built in residential neighborhoods of North Hollywood and Van Nuys be underground.

However, the bill’s author late Tuesday raised the possibility that he may be able to reintroduce the bill with the governor’s support.

The bill, approved overwhelmingly two weeks ago by the Legislature, was introduced in an effort to shore up homeowner support for the decision by Los Angeles County rail officials to extend the downtown-to-North Hollywood Metro Rail subway westward through the two East Valley communities. Homeowner representatives said Tuesday that even if the bill is not revived, support for the subway extension should remain strong.

State Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Tarzana), who authored the bill, admitted that the governor’s veto caught him by surprise. He said the veto resulted from “miscommunication with the governor’s office” and that he had secured a promise that the governor would reconsider the issue.

Robbins, conceding that a veto override is unlikely, said he hoped Deukmejian would support reintroducing the same legislation later this year.

Robert Gore, Deukmejian’s press secretary, acknowledged that the governor’s office had agreed to take a second look at the measure.

The decision to restudy the legislation was made because there “may be a fiscal consequence that was not outlined in the bill or in any of the senator’s communications,” Gore said.

According to Robbins, a little-noticed provision of the bill could save $39 million in construction costs. The provision would permit the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission to shift the location of the planned North Hollywood Metro Rail station half a mile west or south of the intersection of Chandler and Lankershim boulevards.

A 1984 law, also sponsored by Robbins, fixed the location at the boulevards’ crossing. If rail engineers cannot shift the station, it will cost extra because the line would have to veer north of Chandler before gradually turning west, Robbins said.

The station’s location was frozen by the 1984 law “so that the commission would have to go back to the Legislature if they decided to extend the subway,” Robbins said. “That way, Valley legislators would have a say in designing any extension.”

County Transportation Commission officials, who supported Robbins’ bill, were not available late Tuesday to comment on the senator’s cost estimate.

In March, the commission concluded years of studying San Fernando Valley rail options by selecting a 5.6-mile subway extension from North Hollywood to the San Diego Freeway over two rival east-west Valley rail plans.

The commission voted to begin construction in 1996, with completion scheduled for 2001, when the downtown Metro Rail line is scheduled to be opened to North Hollywood.

The extension, expected to cost $1.1 billion in 1989 dollars, is to be built along the Southern Pacific railroad’s Burbank Branch right of way, which traverses a large single-family neighborhood in North Hollywood and Van Nuys.

In his veto message, Deukmejian said, “When Los Angeles County voters approved Proposition A and its attendant half-cent sales tax increase, they gave authority to the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission to make design and location decisions.”

The state should not usurp that authority, he said.

Despite the veto, few involved in the long-running debate over Valley rail route options thought it would weaken the coalition of homeowner and business groups supporting the Metro Rail extension.

“I haven’t seen any weakening of the coalition thus far,” said Roger L. Stanard, a Warner Center attorney and spokesman for business groups, “and I don’t expect there will be any from this veto.

“I just hope this veto doesn’t unduly worry or antagonize people along the Burbank Branch.”

Some homeowner group leaders have expressed the fear that the commission, unbound by its 1990 decision to build a subway, would decide just before the start of construction to build the system at ground level to cut costs.

Kurt Hunter, president of the North Hollywood Homeowners Assn. and a staunch supporter of the Metro Rail extension, predicted the veto “would not put a strain on this coalition. I think just about everyone realizes this route politically could never be built except in a subway.”

In voting for the Metro Rail extension, the County Transportation Commission rejected two rival plans--an elevated monorail line along the Ventura Freeway from Universal City to Warner Center and a light-rail line in a shallow trench along the Southern Pacific right of way from North Hollywood to Warner Center.

However, the issue may have been reopened by the results of a June 5 advisory referendum in which 48% of Valley residents voted for the monorail option, with 21% favoring the light-rail line and only 10% voting for the Metro Rail extension.

Monorail advocates have hailed the results as a call to the commission to reconsider its March vote for the subway extension.