New Coalition to Battle Freeway Rail Line Plan : Transportation: A disorderly shouting match erupts when supporters of the proposal invade the opponents’ news conference.

Homeowner groups, business organizations and elected officials on Wednesday announced formation of a coalition to fight a proposed rail line over the Ventura Freeway, leading to a disorderly shouting match with freeway line supporters who invaded the coalition’s news conference.

Supporters of the freeway project waved signs in front of cameras and angrily interrupted speakers at the news conference in Sherman Oaks. Several times the two sides appeared to be on the verge of a physical scuffle.

“I thought the Valley was a quiet place,” quipped an apparently surprised state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles), making one of his first visits since he was recently elected to represent the area.

The coalition--called the Valley-Wide Transportation Council--was formed to fight a decision last week by the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission to build an elevated rail line above the freeway, commonly referred to as the monorail alternative though the specific type of rail system has not been determined.

In voting 6 to 3 for the project, the commission rejected a rival, mostly underground line parallel to Burbank and Chandler boulevards, saying the freeway line would be $440 million to $1 billion cheaper to build.

That vote appeared to end a bitter, three-year debate between proponents of the two routes. But members of the new coalition vowed to derail the freeway project by convincing the commission that the Burbank-Chandler line would have fewer environmental impacts on adjacent neighborhoods and would be more efficient because it could carry more passengers.

The commission has agreed to reconsider its decision on Jan. 27 if a staff study concludes that the freeway line’s operating costs would make it more expensive than the subway alternative.

Freeway route opponents said they will present a unified voice at the Jan. 27 commission meeting. But if the group fails to sway the commission, some elected officials said they may consider drafting legislation to block the freeway project. As a final resort, homeowner groups would sue the commission on the ground that the project is not environmentally sound, coalition spokesmen said Wednesday.

Several elected officials who spoke against the freeway line were cut off in mid-sentence by protesters during the news conference, held in front of a firehouse on Sepulveda Boulevard that would be relocated to make way for a rail storage yard for the freeway line.

City Councilman Joel Wachs said cars driving to stations along the freeway would create traffic problems that would destroy adjacent neighborhoods. “This city has got to do more to save its neighborhoods,” he said.

“You are a filibusterer,” shouted a woman holding a sign that read: “I’m a Monorail Fan.”

“You are not an elected official; you are a dictator. You’ll never get in again.”

Several of the protesters cited a 1990 referendum in which 48% of Valley residents who voted supported the elevated rail plan, while only 10% backed a subway.

Later in the news conference, county Supervisor Edmund D. Edelman, a Transportation Commission member who voted against the freeway line, tried to quiet the protesters, suggesting that they voice their grievances after the coalition completed its announcement.

“You can have your press conference and we will not interrupt you,” he told a woman who had tried to shout down several speakers. “You are being obnoxious.”

Hayden, who was recently elected to a district that includes the Valley, said he has not thoroughly studied the Burbank-Chandler alternative but has concerns about the freeway-line proposal.

Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Panorama City), who chairs the Assembly Transportation Committee, said after the news conference that he has talked with Edelman and state Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys) about the possibility of drafting legislation to block construction of the freeway line. But, he added: “legislation is a long-term alternative. We need something now.”

Supervisor Mike Antonovich, chairman of the Transportation Commission and a longtime advocate of an elevated rail over the freeway, said in a telephone interview that the coalition does not represent the majority of Valley residents.

“For a group of big spenders to gather together and try to torpedo a transportation system that will begin to serve the needs of the San Fernando Valley in the next few years is pathetic,” he said.

Antonovich warned that if the pro-subway coalition continues to delay the freeway proposal, the money set aside for a Valley passenger rail line could go to a project elsewhere in the county.

“We have gone through the democratic process,” he said. “If the obstructioning continues . . . the San Fernando Valley could lose out on a San Fernando Valley system.”

The freeway line would cost $2.59 billion, according to county transportation estimates, and extend 16 miles from Warner Center in Woodland Hills to Universal City, where it would connect with the Metro Red Line subway to downtown Los Angeles.

But in non-binding bids submitted last month, two private construction consortiums offered to build the project for as little as $1.8 billion as part of a longer, high-speed rail line connecting Los Angeles International Airport and Palmdale.

The rival Burbank-Chandler line would cost an estimated $3.03 billion and extend 14 miles from Warner Center to North Hollywood, where it would also connect with the Red Line.

The coalition supporting the Burbank-Chandler line includes seven homeowner groups along the freeway route, the United Chambers of Commerce of the San Fernando Valley, the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn. and the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency.

Other elected officials who have joined the group, according to coalition organizers, include Congressman Anthony Beilenson (D-Los Angeles), Assemblymen Terry Friedman (D-Encino) and Burt Margolin (D-Los Angeles), state Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles), and Los Angeles City Council members Nate Holden, Joy Picus, Michael Woo, Zev Yaroslavsky and Marvin Braude.