Runyon Canyon Tunnel Gets Green Light

The Los Angeles parks commission voted Wednesday to allow the Metropolitan Transit Authority to drill a subway tunnel under Runyon Canyon Park in the Hollywood Hills, angering some neighboring homeowners.

The Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners, by a 3 to 1 vote, granted an underground easement to the MTA in return for a payment of $150,000.

Under the agreement, the MTA in turn must abandon plans to construct 900-foot-deep ventilation shafts that would surface just outside the park and must meet with the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy to consider ways to minimize environmental harm to the park.

The MTA will also put $4 million into a trust fund to cover any damage done to the park.

Voting in favor of the proposal were Commissioners P. Juan Santillan, Mike Roos and Steven Soboroff. Commissioner LeRoy Chase opposed the deal, saying that the land is worth more money. Commissioner Lisa Specht recused herself from the vote after state Sen. Tom Hayden, D-Santa Monica, noted that her firm--Manatt, Phelps & Phillips--represents a company that does work for the MTA.

Hayden appeared as an ally of the disgruntled homeowners.

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Opponents of the Metro Rail project held a rally before the meeting, with many homeowners and park lovers later offering emotional testimony expressing fear of what the tunneling will do to the popular park, which they see as a natural refuge in the midst of the city.

After the vote, many opponents yelled to the panel, “You sold out!”

Rocky Rushing, an aide to Hayden, said after the meeting: “If this thing goes through, there will be irreparable consequences.”

Neighbors urged the board to recommend that the MTA suspend construction and conduct another environmental impact report to determine whether the project will harm wildlife and vegetation in the area. The agency conducted a study in 1989 but, opponents say, the project has changed dramatically since then.

Two organizations, Rescue Our Canyons and Friends of Runyon Canyon, have filed a lawsuit demanding that the MTA do further studies.

Marylane Farris, Hollywood Hills homeowner and member of Rescue Our Canyons, said granting the easement is “giving them a license to kill--to kill our wildlife, to kill our vegetation--leaving Runyon Canyon a barren desert.”

Parks commission president Soboroff said the board did all it could to address concerns about the project. As for whether the MTA will be required to conduct another environmental impact study, Soboroff said, the courts will have to decide.

“Let them go tell it to the judge--but that doesn’t mean we don’t care,” he said.

MTA officials also testified at the meeting, along with experts they hired to evaluate their work. Geologist Dan Eisenstein told the panel that any comparison to the Metro Rail project on Hollywood Boulevard, which has drawn complaints from residents and business owners, is unfair.

“It’s apples and oranges,” said Eisenstein. The only thing the two projects have in common, he said, is the agency in charge.

“The tunnel in Hollywood is soft ground, tunnel below the street. The Santa Monica is a hard rock tunnel, deep tunnel,” he said. “They are of entirely different nature.”

Jim Sowell, manager of environmental compliance for MTA, said he was pleased with the outcome.

“We certainly recognize the love that people have for Runyon Canyon Park and it’s our intention not to do anything to harm the park,” he said.