New Agency Proposed to Meet Valley’s Transit Needs

In a move that could divorce the San Fernando Valley from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a coalition of seven Los Angeles City Council members Tuesday took the first step toward creating a separate transit district for the Valley.

To be modeled after Foothill Transit, which serves the San Gabriel Valley, the new agency would be funded through sales taxes collected by MTA but operate independently of it.

Ironically, the move comes just as MTA officials are celebrating the historic completion of a subway tunnel linking Hollywood with the Valley at the future site of the North Hollywood Red Line station.

Under a motion submitted by Councilman Richard Alarcon and co-sponsored by six colleagues whose districts touch the Valley, the city would become the lead agency in an effort to break away from the MTA.

It does not set up a new agency, but directs city administrators to report on how to develop one, including procedural requirements, staffing needs, successes and problems with the Foothill model and a time frame for development.

The motion reflects growing dissatisfaction with the way MTA provides bus services in the Valley. It also comes at a time when City Council members are struggling to hold off efforts by some in the Valley to secede from the city.

It is “absolutely” designed to show proponents of Valley secession that they don’t need to leave the city in order to gain local control over municipal services, Alarcon said. “If services don’t improve, the [secession] movement is going to succeed,” he said.

Setting up a separate transit district for the Valley would require several legal steps, including approval of the Metropolitan Transit Authority board, and possibly permission from the state Legislature, said MTA spokesman Jim Smart.

It would be likely to provoke opposition from people in other parts of town, who might fear that resources would be taken away from their neighborhoods in favor of the Valley.

“We recognize the need for improved bus service in the San Fernando Valley, as well as throughout the county of Los Angeles,” said Smart. “But it would be premature to comment on the motion until we’ve had a chance to study it.”

As envisioned by its supporters--who acknowledge they might back away from the plan if the upcoming study shows it is not feasible--the new agency would handle local bus and van service, while MTA would continue to plan for regional needs.

The idea, said Councilwoman Laura Chick, would be to create a subsystem within the larger, regional transportation system.

Philosophically, she said, it is in keeping with other ideas that have been considered by opponents of secession recently, such as dividing the Los Angeles Unified School District into sub-groups without fully breaking the Valley away, or creating a series of local councils through charter reform.

“The status quo isn’t working in the San Fernando Valley,” said Chick, who represents the West Valley and seconded the motion along with council members Hal Bernson, Joel Wachs, John Ferraro, Cindy Miscikowski and Mike Feuer. “This concept would give us more local control without creating radical ruptures.”

Feuer, who represents parts of West Los Angeles and the Valley, said he would also consider supporting separate transit agencies for other parts of town, including the Westside and South-Central.

“It’s high time that every region of Los Angeles had tangible solutions on the table for traffic congestion and the lack of accessible public transportation that plagues all of us,” Feuer said.

The MTA, he said, is not able to simultaneously plan for regional and local needs.

“The MTA was designed to be an entity that would look to the truly regional transit needs of metropolitan Los Angeles, rather than the city of Los Angeles or individual neighborhoods,” Feuer said. “I think the MTA fell into the trap of attempting to be all things to that large region and in many instances has failed.”

A local transit system could provide buses on a grid across the Valley, rather than lines that meander across the region on their way to downtown Los Angeles, said Wachs. Some would circulate within neighborhoods, transporting children to school and consumers to area shopping centers. Other routes would be longer, so people could ride to work in other parts of the Valley. Still others would connect with buses and--if they are ever built--trains, to other areas, including downtown Los Angeles.

MTA’s embattled subway line, Wachs said, won’t be enough to serve the Valley even if it does get built.

“The talk about a subway is always about one line going somewhere,” Wachs said. “That’s hardly going to be enough.”

Wachs cautioned against setting up a new agency just to make a political point, however.

“I just want to look at the best way to do it,” Wachs said. “If we can do better, then I don’t care if it’s a slap in MTA’s face. And if we can’t, then I don’t want to do it just because it looks good.”

* RELATED STORY: B4