Beverly Hills Mayor Barry Brucker sent a letter to Metro on Wednesday, repeating his city’s position that Metro not tunnel under Beverly Hills High School as part of the Westside Subway Extension.
The tunnels would likely need to go under the high school’s campus if the Century City station is located at Constellation Boulevard and Avenue of the Stars. A Century City station at Santa Monica Boulevard and Avenue of the Stars would place the tunnels under Santa Monica Boulevard.
The project’s Final Environmental Impact Statement/Report is scheduled to be released this fall and will contain the staff’s recommendation about the station location. The decision on station and tunnel locations will ultimately be made by the 13-member Metro Board of Directors.
The letter from Mayor Brucker does not include information about seismic issues in the area that could factor into decisions made about where the subway stations and tunnels are constructed. Here’s a recent post that provides an overview of the seismic issues under study.
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Categories: Projects
I think some perspective is important here. Instead of having Beverly Hills refusing to even consider the presence of a subway, the fight has been reduced to one of location, and there are positive things to be said about each location. Compare that to the experience with D.C.’s Metro and Georgetown in the ’70s, or other public transit megaprojects through wealthier districts.
Whatever ends up happening with this debate, there will be a subway going from downtown L.A. to Westwood with multiple stops in Beverly Hills and Century City, and that’s a good thing. We should instead focus on working together to press the case for America Fast Forward and make sure it gets done as quickly as possible.
I hope before BH files the law suit both parties submit their plans to a moderator for review to determine if the two plans could coexist.
Maybe BH would like to give their reasoning now why the subway shouldn’t be allowed even if it is determined that they can coexist, so we can skip this step.
I’m not sure why a subway tunnel deep underneath BHHS will impact any future modernization plans… There’s tons of construction here in LA and around the world that has been built on top of subway tunnels.
Plus, I believe there’s a major underground flood control channel right around there; they’ll probably have to dig the subway tunnels even deeper to avoid that.
Money quote from the letter:
“However, the City must keep its options open, including those which entail financial and legal approaches to protect our community.”
This is why these projects cost so much. Fighting lawsuits. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
I think these projects cost so much mostly because they entail serious work to be done on so many things — moving utilities, digging stations and tunneling far underground, installing sophisticated signaling systems, etc.
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source