The West Hollywood City Council approved an agreement on Monday to spend approximately $64,000 on transit consulting services to analyze the information in Metro’s draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR), released Sept. 3, for the long-anticipated Westside Subway Extension.
The City of West Hollywood wants to make sure that it receives fair consideration for a subway route. (photo by Edwin Folven)
The consultant, Sam Schwartz Engineering, will examine the draft EIR — which offers five route options — and present the city’s concerns to the Metro Board.
The five subway routes include a nine-mile extension to Westwood, a 12-mile route to Santa Monica, and a 16-mile option that includes access points to Santa Monica and West Hollywood. The estimated costs of the alternatives range from $4.2 billion to $9 billion. A no-build option was also considered.
The Metro Board is set to choose a final subway route, called the “Locally Preferred Alternative” (LPA), on Oct. 28.
West Hollywood officials are worried that the two alternatives being seriously considered by the Metro Board members do not include a subway that would go through their community. The two routes involve extending the Purple Line to either Westwood/UCLA or the Veterans Administration Hospital.
While the EIR might be “technically accurate,” there could be some broader issues not taken into consideration, said Lisa Marie Belsanti, a senior management analyst with the City of West Hollywood.
“There are a number of concerns we want to make sure are weighed in by the Metro Board,” Belsanti said.
The consultant will also advocate the selection of the Santa Monica/West Hollywood alignment as the LPA, according to a city staff report.
Metro officials said they are aware of the city council’s decision to investigate further, said Jody Litvak, a community relations manager with Metro.
“We are cooperating fully with their consultant to make sure they understand everything,” Litvak said.
Litvak added that the Metro Board has to be realistic in what subway route it chooses, since the subway needs matching federal dollars to help make the $4.2 billion project at reality.
Measure R — a countywide half-cent sales tax passed in part to pay for the “Subway to the Sea” — would restrict funding to the area along the Wilshire corridor, Litvak said.
As part of Measure R’s expenditure plan, only the Westwood/UCLA route and the Veteran’s Administration Hospital routes would fit the funding requirements, Litvak said.
“We have to consider everything, including fiscal constraints,” she said. “(Metro officials) don’t want to ask for federal funds if they don’t have the local funds to match.”
Metro’s long-term transportation plan is more in line with the UCLA and Veteran’s hospital routes, according to a West Hollywood staff report.
“We don’t want to see our money going from the Westside to the Gold Line,” Belsanti said.
Specifically, Sam Schwartz Engineering will review the draft report and note any critical assumptions and methodologies that may “skew” the information in favor of not considering the West Hollywood route, including additional ways for funding.
“We want to make sure all the calculations were accurate and verify it was really evaluated properly,” Belsanti said.
Metro’s draft EIR for the subway extension examined the impacts, preliminary engineering and construction timelines for the project.
Next year, a final environmental impact report will be completed for the route that is selected by Metro.
The release of the subway’s draft environmental impact report began a 45-day public comment period, which includes a series of public hearings to analyze the five route alternatives. The next meeting is on Monday, Sept. 27 at 6 p.m., in the Roxbury Auditorium, at 471 South Roxbury Dr., Beverly Hills. The final meeting will be held in the Santa Monica Library on Wednesday, Sept. 29. Public comments can be submitted to Metro through Oct. 18.
For more information on the Westside Subway Extension, visit: www.metro.net/projects/westside.
2 Comments
Let’s not burn a bridge to the future. Even if there is no money this time for WeHo, the Wilshire connector should be built to create a transfer-free ride to Westwood.
The money to do this is already there if the Crenshaw station is eliminated.
East Valley boardings will get what no freeway can do: a straight shot between Universal and Century City!
It is unfortunately unlikely that the West Hollywood spur will go through at this time which I went over in my blog.
http://ridethepinkline.blogspot.com/2010/06/one-seat-ride-to-beach-or-to-lax.html
While those who want the Purple Line to go all the way to the beach have only the option of lobbying for money from some identified unknown pot of money somewhere, those who support subway service through West Hollywood have three realistic options:
(1) Continue to push for a Heavy-Rail subway as a spur from the Purple Line, hoping that the money will eventually come from somewhere, even though Metro will be tied for at least 30 years paying for the approved projects in Measure R. This will mean a WeHo subway sometime in 2040.
(2) The planned Crenshaw Line light-rail line will likely eventually be extended to Hollywood. Original plans had the line going up LaBrea, but new maps show a San Vicente/Santa Monica Blvd. extension of the line. (Both San Vicente and Santa Monica Blvd. originally had rail lines). Instead of a one-seat ride to the beach, WeHo would have a one-seat ride to/from LAX.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/coachocd/Crenshawnorth-1.jpg
Of course, there is no money identified for this extension either. As a light-rail project, it would be cheaper to construct than the heavy-rail subway. However, there is no guarantee this is the route that would be chosen for this extension and not all of it would probably be underground. This may be able to be done in 10-15 years.
(3) Bring back rail on Santa Monica Blvd. in the form of a transit only lane with modern streetcars as we see in Portland and around the country. For example, the modern streetcar could run from downtown via Sunset then down Santa Monica Blvd. to San Vicente and then either go towards Century City via the unused back end of Beverly Hills ROW that Metro owns or down La Cienga to Venice Blvd. to Venice Beach. This would be the least expensive option, but it would require taking away a lane of parking/traffic in each direction. I have no problem doing this, but would motorists and storefront owners? Two weekends a year there would likely need to be substitute buses running because of the Gay Pride Festival and Sunset Junction Street Fair. I can live with that. A coordinated effort could build this in five years.
Those are the three options for people who want rail to WeHo to pursue if Metro, as I suspect, doesn’t go forward with either the West Hollywood branch of the Purple Line at this time — all with their own pitfalls and political problems.
There has been no greater supporter of a West Hollywood subway than me, but these are the realistic options. I’d rather go for options 2 or 3 and get something built within 10 years than wait 40 years for a heavy rail subway line.