L. A. Panel Rejects Price for Railroad’s Right of Way : Transportation: Chatsworth-to-Warner Center plan is in doubt.

Los Angeles city lawmakers cast a cloud over plans to buy a three-mile-long rail line between Warner Center and Chatsworth when they balked Wednesday at the $23-million price tag for the railroad right of way.

The Los Angeles City Council’s Transportation Committee voted to have the city spend only $5.75 million as its share for the property, an action that, in effect, rejected a previous Los Angeles County Transportation Commission plan for the city and commission to split the $23-million cost.

But Councilman Nate Holden, chairman of the committee, said the city was unable to pay $11.5 million because it is facing shortfalls in its mass-transit monies due to the recession.

“Basically, we want LACTC to go back and negotiate a lower price,” said Maria Biessels, a city budget analyst who prepared a report recommending the cap on the city’s participation in the deal.

Francine Oschin, transportation aide to Councilman Hal Bernson, testified that the councilman, who represents the area, was advising that the cost-sharing package be rejected.

The committee’s action is likely to be ratified by the full council next week.

Pat McLaughlin, director of the commission’s San Fernando Valley operations, said the city action could force the reopening of talks between the commission and Southern Pacific Transportation Co. over the sales price.

“Money’s tight everywhere,” McLaughlin said, indicating that the regional transit agency was unlikely to agree to pick up any financial slack left by the city placing a cap on its contribution.

Acquisition of the line is viewed as important by mass-transit planners. City transit officials said in May that the failure to buy the property would prove to be a “grievous error over the long term.”

“This corridor is the key north-south link between Warner Center, a regional commercial center, and areas of continued growth in Simi Valley and the northwest San Fernando Valley,” McLaughlin said.

Interest in the property has intensified in recent months.

Developers see its use as a mass-transit corridor that would mitigate the effects of traffic resulting from their plans to double the size of Warner Center. In fact, McLaughlin said one possible alternative financing scenario might entail private developers helping to foot the bill for buying the line.

And a Japanese consortium, HSST Corp., has recently proposed to use the line for a $120-million project to demonstrate the feasibility of using exotic magnetic-levitation technology to power high-speed commuter trains.