VENTURA FREEWAY : More Funds Backed for Monorail Study

Despite opposition by homeowners, a committee of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission voted Wednesday to increase by $63,900 the amount of money spent on an environmental report for plans to build a monorail over the Ventura Freeway.

The vote of the Planning and Mobility Improvement Committee would increase to $270,900 the total amount to study a proposed rail line that would run along the freeway’s southern shoulder from the planned Universal City Metro Rail subway station to Warner Center in Woodland Hills.

The increase must still be approved by the entire commission.

The increased funding was needed to study several concerns that were raised during a 90-day public comment period for the environmental study.

Those concerns include whether the project would displace a fire station and block left turns on a section of Canoga Avenue near Warner Center.

The vote to spend the additional funds comes a day after the state Senate Transportation Committee approved a measure by Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles) to require that any rail line along the freeway in the San Fernando Valley be built underground.

Gerald A. Silver, president of the Coalition of Freeway Residents, a group opposed to the rail line, urged the committee to stop spending public money on the project, which he said would increase noise, traffic and visual blight in the area.