Rail Debate Has Run Its Course With Merchants

For local business leaders, there is one overriding question concerning the long-awaited San Fernando Valley rail line: not how, but when.

So Mayor Richard Riordan’s proposal Tuesday to abruptly transform the proposed subway project into a cheaper, overland rail system was, for them, a bit off the point.

“Whether it’s a subway, or aboveground . . . I want to see it get done,” said Jerry Curry, president of the United Chambers of Commerce of the San Fernando Valley. His response was typical of many business advocates who have traditionally been among the most ardent supporters of commuter rail in the Valley.

Although some business leaders were concerned that a sudden change in plans could erode political support for the railway, they were united in wanting a quick antidote to what they perceive as slow economic death by gridlock.

“We want [the rail line] done in a timely manner, whatever the best way is to go,” said Michael Murphy, general counsel for the North Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. Murphy said getting people out of cars onto trains is vital to keeping employment in the Valley.

The route of the proposed rail line would be west from North Hollywood along an old Southern Pacific freight track north of the Ventura Freeway. The subway plan calls for five miles of underground tracks and two miles aboveground, said David Mieger, MTA project manager.

Riordan’s plan to replace the subway with a surface line is designed to keep commuter rail on schedule despite shrinking dollars for construction.

The mayor’s idea is the latest twist in a project that has been discussed for decades, and has become a source of bitterness among those who see its delay as a sign that the Valley gets short shrift when it comes to apportioning tax dollars.

Such sentiments got a boost last week when a state panel recommended that funding for the project be bumped off a priority list until 1998. The move raised fears that once again the long-promised rail line would be postponed. And it prompted Riordan’s proposal to scale back the project’s cost in order to keep it on track.

“I was angry 20 years ago. Now I’m discouraged,” said Bob Scott, a Sherman Oaks attorney and member of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn. (VICA). Any more delays and the whole project threatens “to become a joke,” he added.

Scott said VICA would need a chance to review any new proposal before deciding whether to support it. But “almost everyone would agree: If it’s a choice between light rail or nothing, certainly we would prefer light rail,” he said.

Business interests have been prominent in the fight to get the rail line built because they are convinced the Valley’s endless, aggravating traffic jams will erode the area’s commercial base.

For instance, traffic jams and related parking problems are among the main reasons businesses consider moving from the Ventura Boulevard corridor, said Sondra Frohlich, executive director of the Studio City Chamber of Commerce.

“When something happens to clog the freeway . . . Ventura Boulevard becomes an alternate, and can virtually shut down,” she said. “It makes it impossible for employees to get to work, and impossible for customers to get here,” she said.

And transportation has become such a key issue in the Valley that proximity to the proposed MTA rail line is one of the first considerations for companies deciding whether to lease property here, said Drew Planting, a director at Cushman & Wakefield in Los Angeles.

“From an economic development perspective, we need a [rail] system now,” said John Rooney, president of the Valley Economic Development Center. “Not 20 years from now, but now. Or we are not going to be competitive.”

Despite the unanimity of support for commuter rail systems, some advocates were hesitant to show much enthusiasm for the mayor’s new light-rail alternative.

After all, current plans for an underground route were agreed upon only after years of squabbling between homeowner groups that did not want trains running through their neighborhoods, and business people who wanted to keep the rail line off the Ventura Freeway, where they thought it would increase traffic congestion, Curry said.

Jeff Brain, president of the Sherman Oaks Community Merchants’ Assn., was among those who worked to forge a delicate compromise that helped break the stalemate. Riordan’s proposal might “throw [the project] back into a can of worms,” he warned.

Marcia Mednick, chairwoman of VICA’s transportation committee, noted that overland proposals for trains in the Valley have been defeated in the past. “We need service, but it’s got to be something that won’t stir up a hornets’ nest,” she said.