Transit Officials, MCA Agree on Subway Station Site : Metro Rail: Agreement ends five-month controversy. Universal Studios will be linked to the stop through people-mover system.

Ending months of haggling with entertainment giant MCA, the county Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved an agreement Wednesday to link a planned subway stop with MCA’s sprawling Universal Studios complex through a people-mover system.

The deal ends a lobbying campaign by MCA to relocate the station from Lankershim Boulevard to a site nearer MCA’S CityWalk attraction--a move transit planners consider too expensive and time-consuming. MCA and the county agreed on a city-brokered compromise to keep the station on Lankershim but connect it to a shuttle bound for Universal Studios.

“We’re very happy that it’s over,” said Larry Spungin, president of MCA development. “Just as MTA can embark on what it has to do, we can embark on what we have to do.”

For MCA, the next step is to consider its options for a people-mover system, which would be at least 1,000 feet long.

The entertainment company has agreed to fund the system. Although technically not bound to provide a shuttle service, MCA is committed to trying to make the concept work, representatives said.

City transit officials have suggested a monorail-type system that could cost as much as $20 million. However, MCA executives say no particular technology has been selected or maximum price established.

“We’re just not knowledgeable enough of the problems,” Spungin said.

For the county transit agency, Wednesday’s agreement means that the Universal City Metro Rail project can proceed as planned, without the costly delays of further studies or scrapping the current plan. Under the terms of the compromise, the county will pay for two entrances on the east side of the Lankershim station, in addition to the pair planned for the west side. Passengers will be able to exit through the eastern portals via an underground walkway beneath Lankershim.

Transit analyst Judith Wilson said the $2 million required for the tunnel and extra entrances can be covered through various project reserve funds and will not cause any cost overruns.

The transit agency is also responsible for various roadway improvements to ease traffic, such as widening Lankershim by 22 feet and adding new ramps to the Hollywood Freeway. Those expenses, estimated at between $4 million and $5 million, also are to be incorporated into the current budget.

The agreement lays to rest a controversy that involved MCA and the county for five months. Last fall, MCA threatened to withhold millions of dollars in benefit-assessment fees unless the transit authority moved the subway stop half a mile southeast from the current site to one beneath the Hollywood Freeway, near Cahuenga Boulevard.

County planners said such a change in plans would cost $42 million and delay the scheduled opening in July, 2000, by nearly two years.

At the prompting of Mayor Richard Riordan--who was on hand Wednesday to vote on the agreement as a transit authority member--city officials crafted a compromise blueprint that satisfied planners’ demands to stay on schedule and MCA’s request that the station better serve its theme park.

Homeowners near the planned Red Line stop expressed relief that the station site had finally been agreed on.

“We’re thrilled it’s over,” said Ronni Rice, who owns a nearby condominium that will be razed by the county to make way for the traffic improvements.

Although she and others will have to move, Rice said she and her neighbors are happy to know the fate of their properties.

“We’ve been held hostage for two years,” she said.