Councilmen Ask MTA to Move Sound Wall

Councilmen Joel Wachs and Michael Feuer recently wrote letters urging the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to reevaluate its plans for construction on the Chandler Boulevard median.

The median, which runs through a residential neighborhood, has been the center of controversy since the MTA announced it would use the site to help complete work on the North Hollywood Red Line subway.

In a letter to Julian Burke, the chief executive officer of the MTA, Feuer asked that Burke consider placing the sound wall and storage facility on Chandler Boulevard east of the Hollywood Freeway and away from the homes along the boulevard.

Under current plans, the sound wall and storage facility are slated to be constructed west of the freeway.

“This community takes great pride in preserving its residential neighborhoods and considers this construction to be an unwelcome and unnecessary intrusion,” Feuer wrote.

In Wachs’ letter addressed to Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, one of 13 officials on the MTA’s board of directors, the councilman reiterated Feuer’s suggestions and asked that the MTA pursue a plan that is more acceptable to area residents.

The involvement of Wachs and Feuer came after an outpouring of letters and telephone calls to the council members from area residents opposed to the median project.

“We’re very pleased with their participation,” said Lori Dinkin, president of the Valley Village Homeowners Assn., and one of the leading opponents of the project.

Dinkin and others are fearful the 6-foot-high sound wall will become a canvas for graffiti artists and bring down property values.

Dinkin said that although the letters are a step in the right direction, her work will not be done until the MTA agrees to keep all work east of the freeway.

“Right now we’re waiting for their next move,” she said.

That next move may be as early as today when the MTA is set to begin the first phase of the work on the median.

According to Steve Pippen, public affairs officer for the MTA, the grading portion of the project is set to begin this week. It was scheduled to begin earlier this month, but was delayed because of rain, he said.