West Hollywood hopes to bring rail service to the city much sooner than the current project start of construction in 2041. (photo courtesy of Metro)

Efforts continue to bring rail service to West Hollywood, as the West Hollywood City Council voted unanimously on Oct. 19 to approve a rail integration study for the proposed Metro Crenshaw Northern Extension.

“We know that Metro will have, depending on the route that is selected, between one and four stations in West Hollywood, so the rail integration study is intended to look at questions more specifically. [For example, for a station at] an intersection of, say, Santa Monica and San Vicente, where will the station be more specifically? What are the trade-offs of different locations for nearby businesses? What are the first- and last-mile projects to get people to and from those stations? What can the city do to reduce those construction impacts?” Associate Planner David Fenn said.

The study will be conducted by Cityworks Design and will cost the city approximately $554,000.

The city’s vote comes on the heels of a vote by Metro’s board of directors to authorize an environmental impact report to examine the project’s three potential routes.

The routes all begin where the Crenshaw/LAX line currently ends at Crenshaw and Exposition boulevards, then travel north up Crenshaw Boulevard and San Vicente Boulevard. Once on San Vicente, two routes split, one going north up La Brea Avenue and another going up Fairfax Avenue.

The Fairfax route splits again at Beverly Boulevard, with the hybrid route heading west until it turns north onto San Vicente Boulevard again, then turns at Santa Monica Boulevard. All three routes run east along Santa Monica Boulevard, then turn north on Highland Avenue before joining the red line at the Hollywood/Highland station.

A potential continuation of the line past the Hollywood/Highland station, which would provide a more direct connection to the Hollywood Bowl, is also considered.

The council’s vote was unanimous, but Councilwoman Lauren Meister was initially dubious of the study, which she said was expensive and potentially ill-timed. The city had already allotted $2.4 million for the Metro rail project, bringing the new total to approximately $3 million, Meister said. She questioned why this study would be happening concurrently with the Metro EIR instead of happening before the Metro study, when the results could have been used to help sway Metro’s choice of potential routes, or after, once the EIR identifies more about the routes.

“I don’t understand why we’re proposing a $554,000 study before we know what is possible based on the environmental impact report … Wouldn’t it make more sense to wait until we know that we have the route that we want, and then work on the technical analysis when it’s just focusing on the one route and maybe the price tag would be lower because it wouldn’t be looking at three different [alignments]?” Meister said.

(map courtesy of the city of West Hollywood)

City staff and other council members responded that the city’s study could help sway Metro in decisions about the placement of stations and other questions that will arise from its EIR.

“We understand, it does appear to be a lot of money, but this is a major investment in this city’s future … We think it’s really critical for us, looking at this in the long term, that we take this step early in the process to influence Metro,” responded John Keho, director of the city’s Planning & Development Services Department.

“The things that I’ve heard from people in West Hollywood who are most skeptical about Metro have been, ‘How do we make sure that we’re doing this the way that we want it done in West Hollywood?’ I think that’s what this whole plan is about. That’s why we need to support this tonight,” Mayor Lindsey Horvath said.

“There is incredible support in the community for bringing Metro rail to West Hollywood … This is a priority for members of the public. Going forward with staff’s recommendation at this time is really critical because we need to make sure that we have the information necessary to make sure that whatever stations are located in West Hollywood are configured in a way that makes sense for our residents and makes sense for our businesses,” Mayor Pro Tempore John Heilman added.

West Hollywood would like to see the project, which is scheduled to begin in 2041, accelerated by as much as 20 years, but for that to happen, the city may have to contribute up to 25% of the funding that will be required for the work in the city of West Hollywood, which could mean hundreds of millions of dollars.

Councilman John Duran made sure to clarify that he was most strongly in support of the hybrid route, the westernmost route that would best serve the city’s entertainment districts, but he was “absolutely not interested with moving forward with another dollar” if the La Brea route were chosen, as it “does almost nothing for the people of the city of West Hollywood.”

Community and Legislative Affairs Manager John Leonard said Metro is aware that West Hollywood largely prefers the hybrid route.

“In our discussions we have with Metro, they know our preference is for the western alignment, and specifically, the hybrid is the one [remaining option],” Leonard said. “I think they understand that that is our preferred alignment and that, if there is going to be a financial contribution made from the city, it’s going to be less likely if it’s not the preferred alignment.”

Councilman John D’Amico also said the city could lobby federal officials for more funding, and his colleagues agreed.

“We could certainly … have staff come back with a strategy for lobbying not only our Congressman Adam Schiff, but also neighboring Congressmen and women … to see if they have a couple of billion dollars laying around that they’re willing to send to help fund this,” D’Amico said.

City staff said the fact that the project is moving at this pace bodes well for potential acceleration. Leonard said a “best-case scenario” for the completion of the EIR is three years, though Fenn said the Crenshaw Northern Extension’s final route will likely be chosen in the first year or two of that process. Given this timeline, construction could begin as soon as five years from now, Leonard said.

“Executing a $50 million EIR contract is not something you want to do if you want it to sit on a shelf, but as an agency, they can’t commit to a more firm start of construction until we have the parallel commitments on our side and the county and the funding package, and those have to be developed in consultation with those agencies,” Fenn said.