A California appeals court on Thursday upheld the Final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Purple Line Extension, which will extend the subway from its current terminus at Wilshire/Western to Westwood. In a ruling in April 2014, a Superior Court judge had also upheld the validity of the EIR.
The city of Beverly Hills and the Beverly Hills Unified School District (BHUSD) had challenged the studies in state court. But a panel of judges for the Court of Appeal ruled that “substantial evidence” supports Metro’s decision to route the subway under part of the Beverly Hills High School campus to reach a station in the middle of Century City.
Metro officials said they were grateful for the ruling. A federal lawsuit by the city of Beverly Hills and the BHUSD challenging the project’s Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is pending.
Here is the ruling:
The first section of the project between Wilshire/Western and Wilshire/La Cienega is under construction. The second section to downtown Beverly Hills and Century City is in the pre-construction phase and remains on schedule.
Categories: Projects
[…] Similarly, the legal efforts of Metro to extend the Purple Line Subway to the proper and centrally-located stop at Century City […]
Time to move forward to get the funding to expedite the building of the line to Westwood….Hopefully, LA will win the Olympic games and funding from the Feds will allow for the completion to Westwood by 2024.
[…] the ruling document, posted at The Source, Beverly Hills and BHUSD asserted that Metro’s environmental impact reports (EIS/EIR) […]
The document towards the end said that both BH and BHUSD had to pay Metro for its legal costs.
Too bad they don’t have a “loser pays” provision for what is in effect a frivolous lawsuit.
[…] Purple Line Tunnel Lawsuit: Metro Wins Vs. Beverly Hills Appeal (The Source) […]
As I recall, did not the BH City Council require all permits to be approved by them?
I agree with both of you.
I’m glad to see the EIR holding up in court. Still, this is yet another example of how CEQA is being used to delay or defeat a project that common sense tells us will be massively GOOD for the environment. This subway is going to be the best alternative to driving that LA has ever had, so the idea that it should have to defend itself on environmental ground is ridiculous on its face. We should cut the red tape involved with approving transit projects like this.
Please don’t be naive that the BH NIMBYs will stop there. You all know they’re going to keep trying delay tactics again by having this case go up further to the California Supreme Court.
If you can’t beat’em, delay it through litigation as long as possible. That’s how the tactics usually works here.