The back and forth between the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association and LA Metro over a proposed mass transit project through the Sepulveda Pass via aerial monorail or underground rail continued last week, when Metro responded to the group’s demands for information.
Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins wrote that most of the group’s 20 questions were already answered publicly by Metro, and that “the rest are based on misinformation.”
The group, which favors the monorail and is concerned that tunneling for a subway would damage hillside homes, is asking for cost estimates from Metro. In a letter to Metro dated Feb. 28, SOHA said it would lobby federal and state transportation agencies to withhold grant dollars if it didn’t receive answers by March 14.
Wiggins sent the agency’s response on that date.
Tensions continued on Monday, March 18, when Bob Anderson, SOHA’s vice president and transportation committee chair, bristled at Wiggins’ written responses, calling her letter “extremely weak.” Her statement that the group had cited misinformation, Anderson said, “is not true.”
Wiggins responded to the 20 questions with short answers, often pointing to links from reports on frequently asked and answered questions accumulated from years of community meetings and public input. From three meetings held last fall, Metro reported receiving more than 720 submissions from more than 160 different ZIP codes in Los Angeles County.
Anderson said he found Wiggins’ response letter unacceptable, adding: “Most of the responses do not actually answer the questions we submitted.”
Responding to the group’s main issue — the cost for each of the six project alternatives — Wiggins wrote that the agency is working on environmental documents which will detail impacts and the need for addressing them. Wiggins basically said the costs of the different project alternatives and alignments would be relayed to the public at a later time — before the Draft Environmental Impact Report is released.
Wiggins wrote that the DEIR will be released to the public in about a year, roughly around early spring 2025.
“You can’t draw up a budget or funding plan until you have a project analyzed under CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act). It would be premature to come up with project cost before that,” said Anthony Crump, Metro’s executive officer of community relations on Monday, March 18.
Metro is considering six alternatives for the Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project, either by a monorail (alternatives 1-3), or mostly underground heavy rail (alternatives 4-6), that would become the first transit project to connect the San Fernando Valley with L.A.’s Westside. It would be built either over or under the Santa Monica Mountains, offering an alternative to driving on the busy 405 Freeway. (Alternative 3 includes a 3.4-mile monorail tunnel that provides a one-seat ride to UCLA by way of an underground monorail station located beneath the UCLA Luskin Center.)
The project would have two end points: the north end would be at the Metrolink/Amtrak station at Van Nuys Boulevard and Saticoy Street, and the south end would connect to the Metro E (Exposition) light rail line, which runs from Santa Monica to East Los Angeles. The line would either use an aerial monorail and tunnel in the case of Alternative 3, or a predominantly underground subway similar to those running in downtown Los Angeles. Or a mixture of the two.
Two private companies were signed by Metro to prepare the concepts and designs. Los Angeles SkyRail Express (LASRE) is developing plans to build the monorail, while Sepulveda Transit Corridor Partners, including Bechtel Development Company, Meridiam Infrastructure and American Triple I Partners, would build the heavy rail.
Metro has about $8 billion budgeted, mostly from Measure M, the half-cent sales tax for transportation projects passed by county voters in 2016 — including a majority in the San Fernando Valley.
Sepulveda Transit Corridor Partners put the cost of their subway/rail project at $10.8 billion. SOHA has said the rail project would cost upwards of $25 billion and that Metro would not have the money to complete it.
The group favors the monorail as a more cost-efficient alternative, saying it could be built for around $8 billion.
Wiggins explained that Metro’s standard practice is to use Measure M tax funds as leverage for acquiring other local, state and federal dollars. She said this has been a successful approach for helping fund the East San Fernando Valley Light Rail Transit Project and the D (Purple) Line extension from Koreatown at Wilshire and Western to the Westwood/VA station.
Once the DEIR is released, Wiggins said Metro will extend the comment period to 60 days. SOHA had asked for 90 days. But Crump said the courts have said that going beyond 60 days of review requires unusual circumstances. However, with the proposed C Line extension project in the South Bay, after the official review period, the Metro board has allowed extra time for additional community meetings.
