RAIL TRANSIT : Elevated Line Appears Headed for Long Haul in Permit Process : Transit: Officials say approval could take years. Opposition of residents is another roadblock to constructing the state’s first railroad above an existing interstate.

A county transportation panel’s recent vote to build an elevated rail line over the Ventura Freeway brought San Fernando Valley residents one step closer to getting a transit system that could speed them from Woodland Hills to downtown Los Angeles in less than an hour.

But don’t throw away your car keys just yet. There are a slew of potential hitches, any of which could derail the project indefinitely.

Because the project approved by the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission is a unique design for an unprecedented route--no other advanced light-rail line in the state has been installed above an existing freeway--it must be approved by an array of city, state and federal agencies.

County transportation officials predict that obtaining the required permits and approvals could take four to six years--about the same amount of time it is expected to take to build the first section of the project. Construction is not expected to begin until 1997. The first leg would reach the Sepulveda Basin by 2001 and extend to Woodland Hills in 2018, when some of today’s college students may be grandparents.

Another potential roadblock is the continued opposition to the project by several homeowner groups, business organizations and elected officials from the Valley who have formed a coalition to fight the freeway project. Refusing to accept defeat after a three-year debate that appeared to be over when the commission voted, they continue to support a mostly underground rival line that would parallel Burbank and Chandler boulevards.

Mikie Maloney, a representative of seven homeowner groups along the freeway route, said neighborhoods adjacent to the line will be affected by traffic generated around the stations. “We feel the monorail will decimate all the neighborhoods in the south Valley,” she said.

Some county transportation officials predict that the continued opposition will prompt the Transportation Commission to delay construction of a Valley line and give funding priority to another project, which under present funding cycles would mean that the Valley might not get a passenger rail line for more than 30 years.

La Habra Heights City Councilwoman Judith Hathaway-Francis, a commission member who voted for the freeway line, said there are eight other rail projects in the county vying for funding. If the Valley route continues to be surrounded by local bickering, she said, a rail proposal elsewhere may replace it.

“The Valley has had a hard time over the years . . . arriving at a consensus,” she said.

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Nikolas Patsaouras of Tarzana, a director of the Southern California Rapid Transit District and alternate on the Transportation Commission for Supervisor Mike Antonovich, agreed. “We can’t afford to give the image that the Valley is still split,” he said.

Indeed, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joy Picus, a supporter of the Burbank-Chandler alternative, said she is already convinced that there is a plot--by who, she doesn’t know--to shortchange the Valley.

“We’ll never agree to an elevated line over the freeway,” she said. “Nothing will be built. They will say, ‘You had your chance, Valley. We are taking your money.’ I am convinced that is the scenario.”

The elevated freeway line would extend 16 miles from Warner Center in Woodland Hills to Universal City, where it would connect with the Metro Red Line to downtown Los Angeles. Although no decision has been made yet on what type of elevated line to build, participants in the debate often refer to it as a monorail because some supporters back a high-speed, low-noise monorail similar to the line at Disneyland.

The line would cost $2.59 billion, according to county transportation estimates. The rival proposal paralleling Burbank and Chandler boulevards would cost $3.03 billion.

Members of the Transportation Commission who voted for the freeway line said the $440-million cost difference was the deciding factor. The projected cost savings are even greater in proposals by two private construction consortiums that have offered to build the project for as little as $1.86 billion as part of a longer high-speed line connecting Los Angeles International Airport and Palmdale.

When transportation commissioners voted for the freeway line Dec. 16, however, they said they could reconsider their decision in 30 days if a staff study concludes that operating costs would make the freeway route more expensive in the end than the Burbank-Chandler alternative.

But there is more to building a transportation system than just writing a check.

The elevated freeway line must be reviewed by several local, state and federal agencies. The most critical is a design approval from the state Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration, which have final say on construction on the freeways. The Ventura Freeway--U. S. 101 for much of its length--is part of the federal highway system.

“Those two will be the most difficult,” county transportation project manager David L. Mieger said.

In a report to the Transportation Commission, Mieger warned that “new design issues could be discovered during the course of obtaining these approvals that could extend the time or add to the cost of the project.”

The four- to six-foot-wide support columns for the elevated line would fit on the six- to eight-foot-wide median of the freeway, but Mieger and other transportation officials worry that this may not leave enough space between the columns and traffic in the fast lane.

“If it is determined by either Caltrans or the Federal Highway Administration to be unacceptable during the design review period, widening of the freeway . . . would be the only way to provide additional room,” Mieger said in the report to the commission.

Another possible snag would be objections by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, which must approve a plan to build two of the line’s 15 stations in the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area. The recreation area is federal land, administered as a flood control basin by the Army, and any construction there requires environmental clearance under the National Environmental Protection Act. The stations would take up 18 acres of parkland.

Still another issue is getting approval from the California Public Utilities Commission, which oversees rail safety issues. Since a rail line above the middle of an existing freeway has never been built before in California, the PUC must first approve a new set of safety guidelines for the project before determining whether the plans meet them.

Kyle DeVine, a spokeswoman for the PUC, said she won’t know how long it will take to approve guidelines for the freeway project until her agency sees the design proposals. But she said staff members of the state agency and the county Transportation Commission have already met to discuss the project and two state staff members are preparing to review the plans as soon as they are submitted.

“We know it’s coming soon,” she said.

But how soon the Valley will get a rail transit system remains a matter of getting the project to clear a series of hurdles, all of which loom as potentially major roadblocks.

ELEVATED RAIL ABOVE THE VENTURA FWY. The Plan: An elevated rail line from Universal City to Woodland Hills; backed by the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission. Although the type of elevated line has not been chosen, supporters back installation of a monorail similar to the one at Disneyland. An artist’s rendering is shown here. Funding: Paid for by a combination of state and local funds, including money from Propositions A and C, two sales tax increases of a half-cent each approved by voters. Additional money will come from a state bond measure adopted in 1990. Installation: A temporary construction zone will be created in the median strip, with movable barriers extending the zone at night from 18 to 40 feet wide. Timetable: Begin in 1997, reach the Sepulveda Basin by 2001, a second phase to Warner Center by 2018. Capacity*: 20,000 people per day. Rail Cars*: 104 feet long, 8.9 feet wide; carry up to 82 passengers; top speed of 60 m.p.h. Support Columns: 20 to 30 feet tall, every 100 feet. * Based on a proposal by a private partnership Source: Los Angeles County Transportation Commission