Environmental Study of Monorail Proposal OKd

A county panel on Wednesday unanimously approved an environmental study of a proposed monorail over the Ventura Freeway, setting the stage for a decision later this year on which of two competing rail projects should be built in the San Fernando Valley.

The Los Angeles County Transportation Commission’s vote, after a long and acrimonious session attended by more than 100 people, is not an endorsement of building a monorail. Rather, it means only that the commission determined that the study had adequately addressed the environmental effects of a $2.6-billion rail line along the freeway median from Universal City to Woodland Hills.

Rather than discussing the study’s conclusions, supporters and opponents turned the three-hour hearing into a forum for noisily airing the relative merits and drawbacks of the monorail proposal. Most of the speakers urged the commission to approve the study to hurry along a decision on which of the two long-debated projects should be built.

The Transportation Commission has already approved an environmental study for a rival project--a $3-billion rail line that would run mostly underground from North Hollywood to Warner Center in Woodland Hills. The route is called the Burbank-Chandler line because it would run parallel to Burbank and Chandler boulevards.

Two weeks ago a commission committee assigned its staff to evaluate the alternatives and to recommend which should be built. The commission is expected to meet in November or December to choose one of the two alternatives.

The projects have split homeowner groups in the Valley into warring factions. Each side opposes the rail project that would most affect its neighborhood while supporting the rival line.

Residents along the freeway route who oppose the monorail said the project would be a visual blight, create noise and vibrations and generate traffic congestion around the stops.

Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude said the Transportation Commission already has purchased the right-of-way for the Burbank-Chandler line from Southern Pacific Railroad for $115 million and should stop spending money on the monorail.

Monorail advocates, including County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who chairs the Transportation Commission, have noted that 48% of the voters in a 1990 advisory referendum supported a monorail line, compared to only 10% who indicated they backed a subway.

The environmental report for the monorail line said construction of the project would have four significant and unavoidable adverse effects:

* The project would displace 11 residences and 98 businesses.

* Construction on the median would disrupt traffic on the Ventura Freeway, one of the busiest in the nation.

* Nearly half of the monorail’s elevated track would run along residential neighborhoods, and riders would be able to peer into residences and yards from the trains.

* Nearly 19 acres of parkland in the Sepulveda Basin would be turned into parking lots and stations for the monorail.