2 Supervisors Back Sales Tax Hike for Elevated Rail : Transportation: The half-cent levy would bring Los Angeles County’s proposed line along the Ventura Freeway to Thousand Oaks.

Two Ventura County supervisors went on record Thursday as supporting a half-cent sales tax increase to extend a proposed elevated rail line through the San Fernando Valley into Thousand Oaks.

After a briefing in Woodland Hills on the projected costs and ridership for the San Fernando Valley portion of the elevated line, Ventura County Supervisor John K. Flynn and a representative for Supervisor Maria VanderKolk said they are willing to put a sales tax increase on the ballot to pay for an extension.

“I’ve thought about a monorail for some time in our county, for four years, and I think it has some great potential for us in Ventura County,” said Flynn. “I personally, as a county supervisor, support it in concept.”

A proposed 16-mile elevated line along the Ventura Freeway from Universal City to Warner Center was tentatively approved last month by the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, following years of debate over rail routes through the Valley. Though the specific technology has not been decided, supporters favor a monorail.

The commission will discuss the project again on Wednesday when it meets to review a report showing that over 50 years, an elevated line would cost $13 million less annually to operate and would generate about 16% more passenger revenue than a rival mostly underground line. The commission rejected the subway concept last month. On Wednesday, the commission is expected to take a final vote on the freeway line.

Ventura County Supervisor Vicky Howard, who did not attend the meeting in Woodland Hills but sent a representative, said she would have to study the extension proposal in more detail before she can commit to a sales tax increase. “I just won’t know until I look into it further,” she said after the meeting.

Voters in Ventura County rejected a half-cent sales tax increase placed on the ballot in 1990 by the Ventura County supervisors to pay for transportation programs.

An aide to Supervisor Susan K. Lacey, who did not attend the meeting, said the supervisor wants to review the proposal before she decides whether to support a half cent sales tax increase. Supervisor Maggie Kildee was out of town and could not be reached for comment.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, chairman of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission and a longtime advocate for building a freeway monorail, organized the meeting to gain support for the project from neighboring Ventura County officials.

“For a head start to the future, we are here to chart a new course in transportation and begin a dialogue for establishing an effective regional transportation network which would serve the San Fernando Valley and Ventura County,” he said at a news conference after the briefing.

Russ Baggerly, VanderKolk’s representative at the meeting, said the supervisor believes a regional transportation system would benefit Ventura County. “Supervisor VanderKolk is very supportive of the concept and I personally think in time it will become a necessity rather than just a dream,” he said. VanderKolk was out of town and could not attend the meeting.

Despite the optimistic discussion about an extension of the proposed freeway line, neither Los Angeles nor Ventura county officials have studied the costs or potential ridership for such an extension, which would nearly double the planned length of the line.

“Is the ridership there? That is the big question,” Ritch Wells, Ventura County Supervisor Vicky Howard’s representative, said after the meeting.

A study by the Southern California Assn. of Governments found that about 100,000 Ventura County residents commute daily in and out of the Valley, according to an Antonovich aide. But he said no studies have been done to determine how many of those commuters would ride an elevated rail line.

Norm Jester, a project manager for the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, said he did not know what it would cost to extend the line, or how many additional passengers would be needed to justify such an expansion.

“It’s just a concept right now,” he said. “I have no idea.”

The freeway line in the Valley, which is expected to serve 59,100 passengers per day, is not expected to reach Warner Center in Woodland Hills until 2018.

Gerald Silver, an Encino resident and head of a coalition of homeowner groups opposed to the freeway line, chided Antonovich, saying, “He’s grasping at straws trying to gain new allies.”

Silver said hundreds of Valley residents as well as elected officials plan to attend Wednesday’s transportation commission meeting to urge the commissioners to reverse their decision on the freeway line. “The 27th will be a beginning, not an ending,” he said.

The freeway line would cost $2.24 billion to build, compared to $2.79 billion for the rival subway proposal paralleling Burbank and Chandler boulevards, according to an independent analyst’s report released last week.

The cost savings were a determining factor when the transportation commission voted 6 to 3 last month to support the elevated freeway route over the Burbank-Chandler line. The savings are even greater in proposals by two private partnerships 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 with Palmdale.