ELECTIONS / L. A. MAYOR : Dispute Over Freeway Sound Wall Intensifies

Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs and Assemblyman Richard Katz--both candidates for mayor--have intensified their long-running dispute over who is responsible for building a sound wall to shield North Hollywood residents from freeway noise.

In letters sent the past three months, Wachs has accused Katz and state transportation officials of shirking their responsibility to the residents along the Hollywood Freeway, while Katz has accused Wachs of misleading his constituents.

But the dispute has not put residents along Babcock Avenue between Strathern and Lull streets any closer to getting the sound wall that they have been requesting for almost six years.

“We’ve done everything peaceful we can do to bring to the attention of our elected representatives our concern, and it seems like our efforts have been wasted,” said Robert Brice, who heads a group of Babcock residents.

Brice and about 60 other homeowners next to the freeway have repeatedly complained about the noise and dangers of freeway traffic next to their homes to both Katz and Wachs, the respective state and city representatives for the area.

The complaints intensified in 1989 after a tractor-trailer truck carrying hazardous waste careened off the freeway and into two houses on Babcock.

Brice blames both Katz, who is also chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee, and Wachs for failing to make a serious effort to solve the problem. “It seems like their political egos are more important than their constituents,” he said.

Normally, sound walls along freeways are the responsibility of the state. But because the homes were built after the freeway was completed in 1968, the area is not eligible for state-funded sound walls.

In a letter dated Jan. 4, Wachs told Katz that the state is responsible for building a sound wall because the state plans to install car-pool lanes on the freeway, which will increase traffic and noise.

“An HOV lane will attract even more motorists and add to the already burdensome noise problems,” Wachs said in the letter. “Richard, this is an issue that needs to be resolved now by the state and not referred back to the city.”

But Katz fired back in a Feb. 18 letter, saying it is the city’s fault for allowing the houses to be built along the freeway without requiring the developer to install a sound wall or noise-dampening landscaping.

“I am shocked that you would attempt to exploit our Babcock-area constituents in this way,” Katz said in his letter. “You know as well as I do that our constituents have been victimized by bad planning decisions on the part of the city of Los Angeles.”

The state Department of Transportation builds sound walls to protect against noise 67 decibels and louder, but only when a freeway is built after the homes. That noise level is equivalent to that produced by a normal conversation heard about 3 feet away.

Even though the homes were built 11 years after the freeway was completed, Arline DeSanctis, a field deputy for Wachs, said that according to state highways codes, a neighborhood is eligible for a sound wall if alterations have been made on the freeway to increase traffic noise.

DeSanctis said noise and traffic on the freeway will increase when the car-pool lanes are added between the Golden State and Ventura freeways.

Construction of the 7 1/2-mile-long car-pool lanes on either side of the freeway will begin this winter and be completed within two years.

In an interview Tuesday, Katz said the car-pool lane will not qualify the neighborhood because the added lanes will not necessarily increase noise.

Russ Snyder, a Caltrans spokesman, agreed, saying the new lanes will be built along the 20-foot median and not bring traffic closer to the adjacent homes.

Katz accused Wachs and other city officials of misleading homeowners into believing that the state will build a sound wall.

“I feel for the people in that neighborhood because they have been misled and lied to by the council and the city,” he said.

He said that in his most recent letter to Wachs, he suggested that the city build the wall, using funds generated by a gas tax increase.

“I think they should stop whining about it and take some consideration of the suggestions we offered,” he said.

DeSanctis said the councilman’s office is exploring Katz’s suggestion.

“We are just exploring any avenues, but we really feel it’s the state’s responsibility,” she said.