Residents’ Monorail Veto Bill Dies : Transportation: The proposal would have allowed people living along the Ventura Freeway line to block its construction.

A bill that would have given residents along the proposed route of a monorail over the Ventura Freeway the power to scrap the project apparently died Monday when it failed to win support in a key state Assembly committee.

The bill, co-authored by Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles) and Assemblyman Terry Friedman (D-Los Angeles), would have blocked construction of an above-ground rail line if more than 50% of the households within 1,000 feet of the route protested the project.

The legislation, supported by a coalition of homeowner groups along the Ventura Freeway, failed when no member of the Assembly Committee on Transportation was willing to second a motion to vote on the measure. That kills the legislation unless the entire Assembly votes to bypass the committee, something even proponents say is highly unlikely.

Supporters of the legislation said it is doubtful that the bill will be reintroduced during this legislative session, which ends in August.

Gerald A. Silver, president of the Coalition of Freeway Residents, said he is disappointed with the committee’s action. Silver, who was in Sacramento on Monday lobbying for the bill, said the law would have given residents along the freeway corridor more power to decide which type of rail line should be built in the Valley.

“I don’t see that we can pull this out of the fire,” he said of the legislation.

The Los Angeles County Transportation Commission is considering adopting one of two rival plans. The first is a monorail line along the Ventura Freeway’s southern shoulder from the planned Universal City Metro Rail subway station to Warner Center in Woodland Hills. The second route is an underground line through residential neighborhoods in North Hollywood and Van Nuys. That route would run parallel to Chandler and Victory boulevards.

The commission is expected to select a final route in the next few months.

A bill drafted by then-Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys) and signed by Gov. Pete Wilson in June requires that the Chandler-Victory route be built underground.

Silver said the Legislature has, in effect, discriminated against residents along the freeway route by adopting the Robbins bill on behalf of East Valley residents and failing to pass the Rosenthal bill for residents near the freeway.

“I’m distressed by this,” he said.

The apparent demise of the bill may have been sealed by a critical analysis of the bill by the committee’s staff.

The analysis said the legislation would set a bad precedent by establishing a “local protest process, allowing a majority of those residents which live within a narrowly defined corridor along the Ventura Freeway to ‘veto’ any decision by the LACTC.”

The analysis also pointed out that California environmental law already provides a process by which residents can protest negative impacts of such projects. “This bill would modify that process and thwart project selection by local elected officials,” the analysis said.

Rosenthal originally drafted the bill to closely resemble Robbins’ legislation by requiring underground construction of any rail line along the Ventura Freeway. But Rosenthal rewrote the bill in its present form in May after senators in the Senate Transportation Committee told him they were concerned that the law would force county transportation officials to choose an underground rail line even though an at-grade or above ground line is less expensive to build.

Rosenthal’s amended bill would require that if the county Transportation Commission decides to support the monorail plan, county officials must mail notices to all households within 1,000 feet of the route, advising residents about the decision.

If, within 90 days, the commission received written protest from 50% or more of the households that were notified, the commission would be required by the legislation to abandoned the monorail plan.

Rosenthal could not be reached for comment Monday.

But Friedman said he is at a loss to explain why the committee failed to support the legislation.

He agreed with Silver, saying the committee’s action is a slight to residents along the freeway route, considering the fact that the state Legislature adopted a law to keep a rail line underground in another area of the Valley.

“That is what this is about--equal treatment,” he said.

Silver estimates that between 11,000 and 94,000 households are located within 1,000 feet of the proposed monorail route.

* VALLEY LEGISLATION: Bill to slow mountain development shelved. B1