City to Expand 2 Park-and-Ride Lots
Relief may be in sight for bus travelers who leave their cars at the overcrowded Encino park-and-ride lot at Magnolia and Hayvenhurst.
But it may require a short drive.
The City Council Transportation Committee voted Friday to approve funding for a supplementary lot at Victory and Balboa boulevards, about a mile north of the other lot. The proposed lot would hold 150 cars.
More parking may be in store for users of the Van Nuys Amtrak/MetroLink station too. The same committee agreed to buy 1.2 acres from the Department of Water and Power to expand parking by 145 spaces.
Expansion of the Encino park-and-ride lot had been planned for several years. But negotiations with the landowner, the Army Corps of Engineers, broke down.
Land for the new lot will be leased from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The MTA also will pay $400,000 of the project’s $500,000 cost. The balance of the funding will come from the city’s Proposition C transit account.
Eventually, the MTA would like to reclaim the land for use as a Red Line rail station. The next step for the two parking lot expansions will be approval by the City Council.
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