Valley Leaders Pressed for Agreement on Busway

Gov. Gray Davis’ proposal to have the state pay for most of the cost of a high-speed busway across the San Fernando Valley has put increased pressure on the area’s leadership to reach a consensus on the project.

Davis’ plan, which still faces a tough battle in the Legislature, would increase the state’s share of the $291-million east-west busway’s cost to $245 million from $145 million.

The large, multisection buses would run along the so-called Burbank-Chandler route, on a dedicated roadway built on an existing railroad right of way between the North Hollywood subway station and Woodland Hills. Buses would stop at stations about every mile on the 14-mile route.

City and Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials say that, with the state picking up a larger share of the project, they should be able to find the rest of the money in local sales tax revenue.

But a proposal for a potentially competing north-south busway in the Valley has emerged in recent weeks, and some Valley leaders are uncertain that any bus system is the best project.

Former Assemblyman Richard Katz said he hopes that a consensus is emerging on the busway project and that a lesson was learned by the past debate over Valley rail, which resulted in transit dollars going to other parts of the county.

“I think we understand from the past what happens when the Valley splits and moves in different directions: So does our money,” Katz said. “So I think this will get support. The fact that there is money on the table also makes it attractive to move forward.”

The history of transit planning in the Valley is marked by division.

County officials decided in 1987 to shelve a planned light-rail system along the Burbank-Chandler route after more than a year of squabbling and opposition from those who live and work nearby.

Officials agreed in 1990 to pursue a rail system that would go underground in residential areas of the corridor, but that plan drew opposition from officials and residents who said it was too expensive. County Supervisor Mike Antonovich demanded that a possible elevated rail system along the Ventura Freeway be studied.

After years of debate and study, the MTA ended up shelving plans for rail in the Valley.

Some Valley leaders said they will have to start from scratch to build a consensus around the busway idea, which is modeled on a system working in Curitiba, Brazil.

“My guess is, we are right back to Square 1 in terms of getting consensus,” said one city official.

Already, some Valley leaders are questioning whether the east-west busway project would be the best use of limited transit funds.

A group of business and civic leaders called the Valleywide Transit Coalition recently split 7-7 in a vote on supporting the busway, with some members saying the Valley deserved to get rail for the taxes it has paid over the years, according to Gerald Silver, president of Homeowners of Encino and a coalition member who favors the busway.

In addition, state Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar) urged Davis in a meeting last week to consider other bus corridors as well--ones that are more densely populated than the Burbank-Chandler route and therefore likely to attract more riders.

In particular, Alarcon said he won a commitment from the governor’s office to consider a similar bus system on Van Nuys Boulevard, which runs north and south, between Pacoima and Sherman Oaks.

“I have let the governor know I would like to see an investment in the Van Nuys Boulevard corridor,” Alarcon said.

The senator said he would support both the east-west and north-south projects if money is available for both, but he believes the north-south route is better if only one can be built.

City Councilman Alex Padilla of Pacoima is also pushing for a north-south system.

With pressure building for a second busway project, Assembly Speaker-elect Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks) said during Davis’ news conference last week that any consideration of an east-west project would also have to include a possible north-south line.

State officials are already saying that some of the additional $100 million that Davis announced for the Valley busway could go to the north-south project, according to Paul Hefner, a Hertzberg spokesman.

Building a busway on Van Nuys Boulevard would cost about $200 million, but county Supervisor and MTA board member Zev Yaroslavsky said that with the governor upping the ante for the Valley, both projects could be built, though one might have to follow the other.

Yaroslavsky does not fear that the east-west project will be sidetracked in the kind of debate over alternatives that delayed rail systems a decade ago.

“I think it’s a much different situation this time,” he said. “There is consensus in the Valley for this. We know the price we paid for parochialism in the past.

“I think people in the Valley are tired of the traffic and tired of the long commutes,” he added. “The catalyst of the opening of the North Hollywood Red Line station offers the opportunity to connect the rest of the Valley to the rest of the city.”

Even Yaroslavsky agreed that there will probably still be opposition from some people along the busway route.

Original proposals for high-speed rail systems drew opposition from Orthodox Jewish synagogues clustered along Chandler Boulevard in North Hollywood.

Rabbi Marvin Sugarman of the Shaarey Zedek synagogue in North Hollywood is among those who say they also would probably oppose a high-speed busway along the Burbank-Chandler route.

Sugarman said he was recently approached by aides to Hertzberg to see if he would back the busway.

“I told them a bus line down the Chandler corridor would still be devastating to our community,” he said. “Our community is basically a pedestrian community. Having buses running down that corridor every two to three minutes would cause a hazard. It would be a tremendous nuisance.”

Anticipating those concerns, the new busway proposal includes an alternate route that would go around that area, Katz said.

Even so, Sugarman said the MTA should not go with the Chandler route just because the agency owns it.

“That is stupid, because there is no ridership,” he said, adding that other routes would be closer to the transit-dependent populations that might ride the buses.

The level of consensus or division will become more apparent next month when the MTA holds public hearings in the Valley to get input on what an environmental impact report should consider.

Mayor Richard Riordan is confident that the Valley will rally around the busway plan, said Jaime de la Vega, the mayor’s transit deputy.

“I think the challenge for the Valley leadership is to make a commitment to make this happen and all get on the same page,” De la Vega said.