Santa Monica Blvd. Parkway Plan OKd

A $68.2-million make-over for heavily traveled Santa Monica Boulevard between Century City and the San Diego Freeway won strong approval from the MTA board Thursday, after a last-minute deal with a Mormon church removed major opposition.

In a testament to the political power behind the plan, the MTA board voted 10-1 to back the parkway project, which will transform two neighboring streets into one wide, tree-lined boulevard.

County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky pushed hard for approval, saying the project would make a functional roadway out of two dysfunctional streets.

The combination of the main road popularly known as Big Santa Monica Boulevard and Little Santa Monica Boulevard will be a massive undertaking, with construction expected to take at least two years.

Neighborhood activist Laura Lake, a longtime Yaroslavsky foe, said part of the project is good, but that the plan does not include enough transit improvements.

Lake, representing the Friends of Westwood, branded as “fatally flawed” the thick environmental impact report that the board approved.

Marilyn Cohon, representing the Westwood South of Santa Monica Homeowners Assn., said backers of the project managed to pick off opponents block by block.

“You will devastate our community,” she said.

Yaroslavsky replied that project planners “responded to every block’s concerns” by incorporating measures to protect residential areas from commuter traffic cutting through the neighborhoods.

In calling for his colleagues to support the plan, the supervisor and MTA board member made a late addition to the project: a traffic light to allow better access to the Mormon Temple that dominates the boulevard in West Los Angeles. The church had hired a prominent City Hall lobbyist and a powerhouse law firm to press its case.

Dr. Charles Chandler, representing a neighborhood near Century City that lies north of the boulevard, said the roadway will improve traffic flow, prevent commuters from intruding into neighborhoods, enhance the aesthetics of the street and allow businesses to remain viable.

Area resident Judy Koenig-Mintzer said the new roadway will increase traffic, noise and air pollution.

If there are no legal challenges to the project or delays in final design, construction is slated to begin in 2002 and last until 2004.