UNIVERSAL CITY : Metro Rail Station Siting to Be Studied

A panel of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board voted on Thursday to continue studying the feasibility of relocating a planned Metro Rail station from Lankershim Boulevard to a site at MCA Inc.’s Universal Studios.

Transportation planners told the board’s Planning and Programming Committee that MCA’s proposed station would cost an extra $72.4 million in construction and other costs and could delay the project up to three years.

But MCA officials charged there are up to $103 million in hidden costs to building the Lankershim station and that their proposal could be built for the same amount or less.

“Clearly, we all need to carefully sit down and review these numbers,” said Judy Wilson, MTA’s executive officer for planning and programming.

The committee ordered MTA staff to come up with an official estimate of what the proposed move would cost.

The planned Lankershim station would encompass 24 acres, including a six-acre parking lot on Ventura Boulevard near Vineland Avenue that would be connected to a six-lane bridge over the Hollywood Freeway.

The 8.4-acre site suggested by MCA would be located underground beneath the Hollywood Freeway, with half of the parking south of the freeway and adjacent to Cahuenga Boulevard and the other half north of the freeway. Riders would be able to enter on both sides of the freeway via tunnels.

MCA officials have hinted for months that the company would not help pay for the proposed Lankershim Boulevard station, which will be more than half a mile from the company’s tourist attractions.

“We’re willing to pay our fair share if it’s going to benefit us,” MCA Development Co. President Lawrence Spungin said in an interview. “But (the Lankershim Station) is a detriment, and we’re not going to pay $6 or $7 million to rub salt in our wounds.”

Under a 10-year-old state law, MCA can withhold from the MTA nearly $6 million in property assessment fees on which the agency is depending to build the station. The law grants property owners the right to vote on whether to reject such assessments, and as owner of 70% of the assessment district established around the proposed station, MCA alone could swing the election.