Neighbors Oppose Plans for Transportation Center : Van Nuys: RTD officials say the facility will reduce pollution, but residents say it will increase traffic.

Transit officials are proposing a regional transportation facility in Van Nuys, possibly combining a park-and-ride lot and a bus station with retail stores and senior citizen housing.

But residents living near the site, northwest of the intersection of Van Nuys Boulevard and Sherman Way, said the center would sound a death knell for surrounding single-family neighborhoods.

If the Southern California Rapid Transit District develops a 5.64-acre vacant lot, “it would be the latest nail in the coffin . . . as residents will attempt in vain to drive into and out of their neighborhoods during peak traffic hours,” said Don Schultz, president of the Van Nuys Homeowners Assn.

Schultz was one of about 50 people who attended a meeting Wednesday night to discuss the RTD proposal with transportation officials.

The agency has applied for a $120,000 grant from the federal Urban Mass Transit Administration to plan the project, which it said would reduce air pollution and traffic in the San Fernando Valley by encouraging use of public transportation and ride-sharing.

But angry residents protested Wednesday that additional traffic generated in the vicinity of the transit center would overwhelm their single-family neighborhoods to the north and west.

They sometimes shouted insults at the speakers, such as “You ought to run for Congress” or “Read your own report.”

“Whoever contemplated this didn’t spend any time looking at the existing traffic density,” said Bernard Mintz, who owns property on Sherman Way next to the proposed facility.

“We’ve lived on Wyandotte Street for 30 years and we want to know where the hell the traffic is going to go,” Bob Hoy said. “You’re leading us down the garden path.”

Nikolas Patsaouras, president of the RTD’s board of directors, said the agency could sell property to a developer who could build apartment houses.

“Conceivably it would generate more traffic,” Patsaouras warned.

“We don’t want to shove this down anyone’s throat, but we have a responsibility to the San Fernando Valley” to improve transportation, he said. “There may be an inconvenience in the immediate area, but if the whole city is served, maybe it’s about time there was a change in attitude.”

But Mintz said he doubted that the city would approve a high-density apartment project in the already-congested area.

Transit officials agreed to hold a series of workshops on the proposal to gather public reaction.

As described in the grant application, the transit center would be built in three phases.

The first phase, to be completed in April, 1991, would entail leasing a 250-space parking lot for commuters in the southern portion of the triangle-shaped lot to a private company.

Motorists would enter the lot from Sherman Way.

Gary Spivack, RTD’s assistant manager of planning, said commuters who park in the lot would not add to traffic congestion in the area because they would arrive over a three-hour period, not all at once.

An environmental impact report is unnecessary because parking lots are excluded from the requirement under state law, he said.

A second, more controversial phase would involve developing a plan for the rest of the site.

The transportation agency has proposed working with a private developer on a plan that could include a larger parking lot, a small park, a day-care center and retail shops.

A list of possible uses for the site, prepared by a nonprofit transportation company, said that building housing for the elderly, with private guards, could deter vandalism.

The grant proposal mentions that the RTD eventually may apply for more federal funds to purchase adjacent lots.

The agency needs the additional space to build more entrances for the facility off Van Nuys Boulevard.

Environmental impact studies would be necessary before the third phase of the project--construction--could begin.

Spivack said the traffic impact of the center could be reduced by such measures as adding traffic lights on Sherman Way and Van Nuys Boulevard, and by providing approach lanes for buses.

“Nothing will happen if the community is not in favor of it,” Spivack promised.