Los Angeles County has moved one step closer to connecting the San Fernando Valley to the Westside via public transportation.
In June, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) released a Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) of five proposed routes, known as alternatives, for the Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project.
The route chosen will run north and south from Van Nuys to West L.A. alongside the 405 Freeway. Two proposed alternatives are for monorail transit, and three are for heavy rail transit.
The cost to build the project is currently estimated to be between $15.4 billion and $24.4 billion.
The release of the DEIR drew mixed reactions.
Steve Sann, a spokesperson for STC4All, a coalition that supports the implementation of the project, expressed his enthusiasm for the latest development.
“The fact that the draft EIR is now out [is] a major milestone in this project,” he said. “We’ve been waiting three years.”
Fred Rosen is a resident of Bel Air, a neighborhood under which some of the proposed alternatives would require tunneling. Rosen alleged that Metro’s cost estimates are incorrect and that the department has been “deceitful” in its dealings with the public, particularly Bel Air residents.
“This project starts to get developed 11 years ago—no one calls us, no one talks to us,” said Rosen, who has been advocating against the project for at least four years. “We wake up one morning and discover that three or four of these routes are under our community … Metro [has] no interest in being transparent with the public.”
According to Metro, the 405 Freeway between the San Fernando Valley and the Westside is one of the most congested corridors in the country, with over 400,000 trips taken by drivers each weekday. That number is expected to grow approximately 24% by 2057.
Metro estimates that the Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project, when complete, could attract approximately 63,000 to 124,000 daily riders and reduce the number of miles traveled by automobile by between 342,000 and 775,000 daily.
Plans for the project began in earnest in 2016 when L.A. voters approved Measure M.
The ballot initiative funded various transportation improvements throughout the county, including the Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project, for which $9.5 billion was identified.
Metro issued a request for proposals in 2019, and in 2021, six potential alternatives were developed. One was removed from consideration in 2023.
Alternatives 1 and 3 would utilize driverless monorails traveling largely above ground. Alternative 1 proposes an electric bus connecting the monorail to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and Alternative 3 proposes an underground train connecting the Getty Center and Wilshire Boulevard.
Alternatives 4 and 5 feature driverless heavy rail transit, and the routes are largely underground with some aboveground segments. Alternative 6 proposes driver-operated heavy rail transit with all underground travel.
In the DEIR, Metro found that while all alternatives would have some significant and unavoidable environmental impacts, Alternative 1 would have the fewest.
The DEIR also reports that all five alternatives would cause elevated nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide emissions, as well as an increase in noise, during construction. All alternatives would conflict in some ways with local land use plans.
According to Mallory Mead, a spokesperson for Metro, the city is currently “agnostic” about which version it approves.
“The environmental impact report … requires that we look deeply into all of these alternatives before we determine any specific project we want to take further,” Mead told the Courier. “We’re putting [all of the alternatives] up against each other to go through and look at the relative merits and benefits of each.”
Sann said STC4All hasn’t identified a single alternative that they support, but that whichever version Metro chooses, the group would like to see one with an on-campus UCLA station and a “direct, seamless connection” to the Wilshire D Line (Purple Line) subway station.
“The only one that completely fails the test is horrible, terrible, worst of all possible options, Alternative 1,” he said.
Rosen said he and other residents of Bel Air will continue to fight against the project.
“We’ll do what’s necessary to protect our community,” he said.
Metro has now entered into a 90-day public comment period, during which residents and stakeholders can submit feedback online, by phone, by mail or in person at a public information session. Those sessions will be held throughout July and August.
The public comment period will close on Aug. 30.
