MTA Approves Plan to Link Subway, Universal : Red Line: MCA had sought a station closer to the studio theme park. The compromise, which avoids costly delays, proposes a people-mover system connecting with the Lankershim Boulevard stop.

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

The deal brings to a close an aggressive lobbying campaign by MCA to bump the station from Lankershim Boulevard onto a site nearer its CityWalk attraction, a move that transit planners considered too expensive and time-consuming. After days of intensive talks, MCA and Los Angeles 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,” MCA Development President Larry Spungin said. “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 extend for at least 1,000 feet and which the multimedia concern has agreed to fund on its own. Technically, the company is not bound to provide a shuttle service if it ultimately deems it infeasible, but representatives said MCA is committed to trying to make the concept work.

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 a maximum price established.

“We’re just not knowledgeable enough of the problems,” Spungin said, adding that his company has two years to work out a plan.

For the county transit authority, Wednesday’s agreement means that the Universal City Metro Rail project can proceed as planned, without the costly delays of further studying station location or scrapping the present plan. Construction was scheduled to have begun earlier this month.

“That’s why we really hustled to get this deal closed,” MTA analyst Judith Wilson said.

Under 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 on the west side. Passengers will be able to exit through the eastern portals via an underground walkway beneath Lankershim.

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

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The agreement lays to rest a controversy that has engulfed both MCA and the county for five months. In the fall, MCA threatened to withhold millions of dollars in benefit assessment fees unless MTA moved the subway stop half a mile southeast from the present 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 July, 2000, opening 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.

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MCA executives said Wednesday that although they still would have preferred moving the station, the new agreement constitutes a workable compromise.

“It’s not a 100% solution, but it’s good enough to move ahead,” Spungin said.

MCA officials had planned to fly to Washington this week to lobby for federal funds to relocate the station. That trip is now off. MCA lobbyists had visited the nation’s capital earlier this month to seek funding.

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

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

Although she and others will have to move, Rice said she and her neighbors were happy to finally know the fate of their properties, which had been undecided under the old plan. “We’ve been held hostage for two years,” she said.