Rail Foes Take Aim at Tunnel Vision : Transportation: Runyon Canyon residents fear that construction of Red Line link through the mountains would harm the ecosystem. But officials insist that route of the 2.2-mile segment is the best option.

In a sprawling wilderness overlooking Hollywood called Runyon Canyon Park, an irresistible force is about to meet an immovable object, and nearby residents are fearing for the outcome.

In this case, the force is the imminent Metro Rail Red Line link between Hollywood and Universal City, on which construction could start as early as next summer. The unyielding object is the 133 hillside acres that make up the park, a federally protected open space that stretches from above Franklin Avenue to Mulholland Drive.

The likely outcomes of the encounter, as proposed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, are two 2.2-mile-long, 800-foot-deep tunnels to be plowed through the mountain during the next several years, with at least one 30-foot-wide vertical shaft to vent the heat, fumes and noises of construction.

And a growing number of canyon-dwelling residents are not happy about it.

“You start making these kinds of changes in the mountains and you’ve changed them forever,” said Alan Kishbaugh, president of The Federation of Hillside and Canyon Assns. He added that the construction will disrupt canyon neighborhoods and harm the area’s ecosystem and wildlife, which include deer, coyotes, opossum and the occasional mountain lion.

He would prefer that the Red Line link parallel the Hollywood Freeway through the Cahuenga Pass.

“They’ve got other routes they can use,” he said. “They don’t have to go through the mountains.”

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But MTA officials say that’s exactly what they have to do. Given that redevelopment plans also call for a Metro Rail station to be built at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, John Higgins, coordinator of the Runyon Canyon project, said it’s impractical to have the rail line double back to Cahuenga Boulevard to travel through the mountains. “You can’t make that turn and go back up the pass,” he said.

Repositioning the Hollywood-and-Highland station would also be impossible, said Higgins, because ridership surveys indicate that 10,000 more people would ride Metro Rail daily if the station were built at Highland, rather than near the Hollywood Bowl on Cahuenga, as had been previously considered. And the more than $1.3 billion in federal funds available for that segment’s construction are based on such ridership projections.

Renee Weitzer, planning deputy for Councilman John Ferraro, who represents the Runyon Canyon area, estimates a route change would cost $13.5 million in construction costs alone. “If there is realignment, someone is going to have to pay for the change,” she said. “Metro Rail is there for a reason. It’s there for ridership.”

Residents, however, are also questioning how long the Runyon Canyon plan has been in the works. MTA officials say the proposed tunnel has been under consideration since at least 1989, when the last Environmental Impact Report on the construction was issued. But those opposing the Red Line link say the 1989 environmental report made no specific mention of a Runyon Canyon route and that they became aware of the proposed construction route only last year when the agency began digging test pits in the area.

Though MTA officials defend the 1989 report, saying that Runyon Canyon was indeed mentioned in the report, they acknowledge that there might have been a problem with the failure of the agency to notify residents of the planned construction.

An MTA agency consultant is researching old environmental reports and past records to determine exactly what was stipulated concerning Runyon Canyon Park and if project information was fully disseminated to canyon dwellers. “It’s been a while for them as well as us,” said Higgins.

Facing impending construction, some residents are calling for a compromise with the MTA, asking that in lieu of rerouting the rail tunnel, the agency choose a different site for the big ventilation shaft that is necessary for construction. The designated site is at the end of Solar Drive, at the edge of the park. The shaft would be housed in a two-story, 100-foot-by-100-foot concrete structure.

Residents say a better site would be on nearby Desmond Estates Road, which is less conspicuous and also closer to Mulholland Drive, thereby facilitating access for construction vehicles. “That’s the only site that is marginally acceptable,” said Jenifer Palmer-Lacy, president of the Friends of Runyon Canyon.

Some canyon-dwellers still harbor hopes of keeping Metro Rail out of their hills altogether. Bill Gable of the Runyon Canyon Coalition, for one, said he is standing firm in his opposition to any Metro Rail construction through the park.

“We don’t want any vent in the wildlife corridor and we don’t want any vent in the hills,” he said. “The only logical place this should go is . . . through the Cahuenga Pass.”

The Metro Rail Red Line is intended to tunnel through the hills beneath Runyon Canyon Park, a 133-acre wilderness preserve just north of Hollywood. Some hillside residents say the excavation and the construction of a ventilation shaft would threaten the park and disrupt their neighborhoods. They want the line rerouted along the Hollywood Freeway through Cahuenga Pass.