MTA Fears Increased Delays in Street Repair

If the Los Angeles City Council decides to seek more money for North Hollywood businesses harmed by the proposed 26-day closure of Lankershim Boulevard, then the Metropolitan Transportation Authority might have to take almost three months longer to repair the street, MTA officials said Friday.

Lankershim needs repairs because it was damaged by underground construction of the North Hollywood extension of the Metro Red Line.

The City Council’s Transportation Committee decided Wednesday to recommend to the council that the MTA give 80 business owners along Lankershim Boulevard more than the $150,000 originally budgeted for mitigation activities such as advertising, cleaning and parking. The City Council must approve the committee’s action before the recommendation can be sent to the MTA.

The MTA had been considering closing Lankershim between Killion and Weddington streets for 24 hours a day for 26 days beginning Sept. 14. MTA officials said Friday that the accelerated plan was never locked in place, although they had previously said it was the direction they were leaning.

“Now there is a suggestion that more money should be provided above and beyond the amount contemplated by the environmental report,” MTA Chief Executive Julian Burke said in a statement Friday. “Any such additional cost would have to be factored into the financial analysis before a decision is made to accelerate the restoration work.”

The 26-day plan was offered as an alternative to closing the road for six weekends, plus closing it sporadically on weekdays, over a four-month period.

“We have not determined whether a stepped-up schedule makes the most sense for everyone involved,” Burke said. “We need to consider the benefits and the burdens, the costs and the desires of the community before making a final decision.”

City Councilman Richard Alarcon, who as head of the transportation committee called Wednesday’s public meeting, said he was pleased that the MTA would seek the public’s input, but that didn’t change the need for compensation.

“It matters not whether it’s 26 days or four months; what matters is that the business owners get satisfactory compensation,” Alarcon said, noting that businesses in Hollywood were given more than $16 million to reimburse them for losses during subway construction there.