9 on Council Urge MTA Not to Back Trolley

Using unusually strong terms, nine members of the Los Angeles City Council have urged regional transportation officials not to pursue a private company’s proposal for a trolley line along the median of the Ventura Freeway in the San Fernando Valley.

In a letter to Larry Zarian, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the nine members said that if the MTA pursues the project, its future relationship with the city “would be drastically impaired.”

But Council President John Ferraro, who represents Studio City neighborhoods along the freeway, did not sign the letter, saying he fears the missive may have violated the state’s open meeting law.

The nine represent a majority of the council and Ferraro believes that, under the state’s Brown Act, their decision to oppose the freeway line should have been discussed in a public hearing, Ferraro aide Gayle Johnson said.

The author of the letter, Councilwoman Laura Chick, who represents communities along the freeway in the West Valley, said she will ask the city attorney’s office for its opinion.

“I’m surprised,” she said. “I’ll check it out on Monday.”

Assistant City Atty. Gail Weingart declined to state an opinion on the letter until she has seen it and reviewed the pertinent laws.

The proposed light-rail system is backed by a New York-based engineering firm, Frederic R. Harris Inc., which has offered to fund the project with private investments, at no cost to taxpayers.

State and county officials have already told the company they will cooperate in a study of the project.

A Harris spokesman said the company will conduct a thorough study during the next four months of Valley traffic patterns. If expected revenues and ridership numbers are confirmed, the company could begin work in 1998 on a 19-mile light-rail line from Buena Vista Street in Burbank to Valley Circle Boulevard in Woodland Hills, he said, and the line could be built by 2003 at a cost of $1.5 billion.

By that timetable, the project would be completed 20 years sooner and cost $2 billion less than the MTA’s plans for a subway line from North Hollywood to Warner Center along a route paralleling Burbank and Chandler boulevards.

But in the July 19 letter, Chick calls the private funding idea “pie in the sky” and said the MTA should stick with the government-funded Burbank-Chandler subway.

Zarian could not be reached for comment. But County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, a longtime supporter of using the freeway median for a rail line, blasted Chick’s letter, saying the Harris proposal would save millions in taxpayer dollars.

“It’s a shortsighted and misguided position,” he said. “It sounds like they are inhaling in City Hall.”

In an interview, Chick said the letter “was definitely not a threat but it was very much a reminder that the MTA and the council have a lot of important issues to work on together.” The mayor and four council members are also members of the regional transportation agency’s board of directors.

Chick pointed out that the Burbank-Chandler route was selected after years of studying other alternatives--including a freeway line--and expressed worry that continued debate and delay could jeopardize support for the project by the federal government, which is paying half the cost.

Besides Ferraro, Councilmen Hal Bernson and Richard Alarcon were the only other Valley council members who did not sign the letter.

Bernson was not available for comment.

Alarcon’s chief of staff, Annette Castro, said the councilman didn’t sign the letter because he thinks the MTA should at least study the proposal.

“He doesn’t want to close the door on this before we look at it,” she said.