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Politics & Government

Council Designates $350K for Metro Subway Fight

The City Council anticipates work for consultants in the wake of a final environmental impact report on the Westside Subway Extension.

The City Council on Thursday authorized an initial $350,000 for future efforts opposing the under Beverly Hills High School.

Vice Mayor William Brien said the money is designated for technical, public relations and legal services by consultants. He specified the following:

Tunneling geotechnical and vibration analysis, seismology issues, ridership projections, failure analysis issues, state requirements for school architecture, gas and oil drilling impacts from tunneling and ongoing subway operations, construction cost estimates on techniques in fault zones, subway operation analysis including travel time, maximum grades and turning radiuses impact on train speeds, urban planning issues, comparison of the two routes the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has studied, a parking-demand analysis and legal experts to examine eminent domain takings from public agencies.

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"It doesn't mean that it has to be spent or will all be spent, but you need to have the money there if and when we need to do the work," Brien said. "We thought $350,000 was the initial amount of money we needed to set aside in order to do all of the analysis we're going to need to do in a relatively short, finite period of time."

A presentation from Cheryl Friedling, deputy city manager for public affairs, and Aaron Kunz, deputy director of transportation, outlined the issue:

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  • The city hired Shannon & Wilson Geotechnical Engineering in September to vet scientific and technical claims put forth by advocates of the subway route under BHHS and lobbying firm Arnie Berghoff & Associates in April.
  • The Metropolitan Transportation Authority's estimated time frame equates to August or September for geotechnical and seismic data to become available for review by the city's experts, an environmental impact report, or EIR, due sometime in the fall and a final decision by the Metro Board by this winter.
  • Potential funding sources for the $350,000: $111,000 of unallocated hotel-tax revenue; $50,000 from holiday decor and special events funds; $250,000 from the centennial anniversary fund; $150,000 from contingency programs; $8,045 from the city's promotional advertising budget and a yet to be determined amount from the unallocated citywide year-end fund balance.

Councilman John Mirisch expressed concern about the absence from the final EIR of city comments challenging Metro and developers' studies of the subway expansion, as opposed to the format of draft reports.

"It would not be included in the EIR, similar to the EIR of a development project, but the city would be able to submit comments to the Metro Board as part of their decision ... at a board meeting," Kunz replied.

City Attorney Lawrence Wiener explained "we have the ability to comment and respond to any changes that we see in the document and that is part of the record. It must be considered by the decision makers and if there were a legal challenge, for example, it would be part of the record as part of the testimony that was presented."

However, Metro Board members must choose to include the city's comments that refer specifically to the final EIR, Wiener said.

"That's my whole point—at least there's more transparency in the draft document because individual cities or organizations have the chance to respond to initial findings," Mirisch said. "Let's say that changes, let's say there's a new ridership study that completely goes against what's in the original one. I understand it will be part of the record but it won't be part of the document that forms the basis of the final EIR."

Wiener responded that "if there are changes to the project which create potentially new or different environmental impacts, then that would trigger a requirement to recirculate the draft and therefore accept new comments, and then the requirement to respond to those comments."

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