County transportation officials today urged the state Supreme Court not to halt construction on the second phase of the Expo Line light rail from Culver City to Santa Monica, saying a delay would cost $90 million and eliminate thousands of jobs.
A group called Neighbors for Smart Rail filed a lawsuit to temporarily block construction of the 6.6-mile stretch of light rail, which is slated to begin operating in 2015. The group, which includes Westwood and Cheviot Hills homeowners’ associations, opposes the line crossing an intersection at street level near Overland Elementary School.
The group contends the Exposition Metro Construction Authority improperly used hypothetical 2030 traffic conditions as a baseline to measure the Expo Line’s effects on traffic and air quality on the Westside. The petition for review also argued that the Expo Authority failed to mitigate anticipated parking problems around proposed stations.
An appeals court disagreed, ruling that using present-day traffic and air quality measures to gauge the need for the second phase of the Expo Line would “yield no practical information to decision makers or the public.”
Judges also agreed the Expo Authority’s proposed parking mitigation measures were sufficient.
Neighbors for Smart Rail appealed, and the state Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.
Expo Authority and Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials filed a brief and asked the court not to suspend the $1.5 billion project, which has been under way for nearly a year.
Lawyers for the authority argued that the opposition was only to the anticipated 2015 operation of the line and not the construction. The anticipated opening gives the court enough time to rule on the neighborhood groups’ legal complaint before any trains start running, the lawyers argued, adding that the court can block trains from running on the second phase of the Expo Line if the judges find the Expo Authority erred in its analysis.
“We have faith that the California Supreme Court will allow construction of Expo Phase Two to continue,” Expo Construction Authority CEO Rick Thorp said. “The impact of shutting the project down at this point would be enormous.”
Neighbors for Smart Rail President Terri Tippit said the group was forced to ask the court to halt the project after the Expo Authority accelerated construction rather than addressing the group’s concerns.
“We are not trying to stop this project. I’m very upset we’re being portrayed that way,” Tippit said. “All we are saying is, if you’re going to build it you need to build it right.”
Tippit scoffed at the Authority’s claim that a one-year delay would add $90 million to the project’s cost. The project has nearly doubled in cost without a delay, and “I think $90 million is a small price to pay to build it for $1.5 billion and have to go back and fix it.”
Neighbors for Smart Rail is comprised of the West of Westwood Homeowners Association, Westwood Gardens Civic Association, Cheviot Hills Homeowners Association and Tract 7260 Homeowners Association, among others.