Neighbors for Smart Rail

Community Meeting

Sunday, February 21, 2010

1-3pm

Meeting Minutes

Agenda

Terri Tippit - Welcome

Drew DeAscentis & Colleen Mason Heller - The Case for Below-Grade Expo Light Rail

Kim Christensen - Expo Light Rail Update

Mike Eveloff - What Lies Ahead

Terri Tippit - What You Can Do

Q&A

Sound from Gold Line played

Terri Tippitt - Welcome

Introduction of NFSR board members

oTerri Tippit, Colleen Mason Heller, Drew DeAscentis, Mike Eveloff

February 4th Expo board meeting

oOver 200 people from our community attended the hearing

oSMC had 2 busloads of kids attending the hearing

o2-7pm: testimony – that’s how many people spoke

oSMC student testimony: there for school extra credit; after listening to everyone there is merit in studying below-grade

Drew DeAscentis - The Case for a Below-Grade Expo Light Rail

The traffic myth

oAt grade causes more congestion than it solves

oCut through traffic will spill into neighborhood streets

oImpact to businesses

oDecreased access to 10-freeway

The safety issue

oCrossing hazards

oIncreased risks for accidents

oDerailment

oDelays caused to emergency services

Overland Avenue Elementary School

oThey are a California distinguish school; can they thrive with a train disrupting every 2.5 minutes?

oNoise

oSafety at crossing

oPollution from trains, idling cars

Quality of Life

oDividing a long-standing neighborhood

oAttract more cars

oReduced parking for residents

oPrivacy

oVisual blight

oIncreased opportunity for crime

Colleen Mason Heller - The Case for a Below-Grade Expo Light Rail

Quote from Zev Yeraslavsky (1988)

The case against below-grade

1.Too costly – CEQA regulations state that cost cannot be a factor in determining grade-crossing. CPUC says cost is the least of their 8 considerations evaluating grade crossings separations

2.Would take special engineering – Isn’t most engineering special?  The subway to the sea is going through tar and methane fields!

3.Will take longer to build but a year longer construction is better than 100 years of at grade impacts.

4.It isn’t fair to community with at-grade rail – Mark Ridley-Thomas has asked the grade-crossing policy to be reviewed.  Art Leahy is in fact looking into the policy.  Paul Koretz: Overland, Westwood, Sepulveda should qualify for grade crossing.  The solution to add more lanes is no solution.  Mark Ridley-Thomas is looking at grade-crossing policy in the Crenshaw Corridor. It doesn’t say if one line is badly designed all the others have to be, rather if one is better, you go back and improve the poorly designed ones.

The FTA noise standard is 75 db’s – the one’s they will use along the ROW will be louder than the Gold Line because there is much more traffic in WLA and obscured crossings.

Kim Christensen - Expo Light Rail Update

NFSR’s position

oNFSR has been involved in this project since the beginning

oThoroughly evaluated the environmental impacts that will be caused by the

       project

oConcluded that the project must be build below grade so that the environmental impacts can be eliminated and/or significantly reduced

oConducted community outreach, educational efforts, met with Expo authority staff, board members to discuss concerns, participated in public hearing

DEIR (Draft Environmental Impact Review)

oPublic comment period for the DEIR closed at the end of March 2009

oSubmitted a 58-pg comment letter and attachments, with assistance from qualified technical and legal professionals regarding the environmental impacts and the deficiencies of the DEIR

oApril 2009 – Expo board selected the right-of-way versus the Sepulveda route

FEIR (Final Environmental Impact Review)

oFEIR was released on December 11, 2009 (concerns about it being released in the holiday season, not enough time for people to respond)

oHearing scheduled for January 7; NFSR worked to get it pushed back to January 14 and finally to February 4 – more time to evaluate the document and hire additional experts to assists with the analysis

oNFSR submitted a 49-page comment document (plus attachments)

oBelieve that if properly studied, the FEIR clearly will show that a below grade design would be the environmentally superior alternative

oNFSR requested that the FEIR be re-circulated as a DEIR so that the public could comment and expo would have the benefit of accurate and complete information prior to making a decision – that did not occur

February 4th, 2010

oExpo board adopted a statement of overriding considerations; approved alternative 2 (ROW to Santa Monica via Colorado Blvd)

February 5th, 2010

oExpo authority filed a notice of determination.

oThis date is important; filing begins the 30-day period in which NFSR can file a lawsuit against the Expo authority regarding the FEIR; after 30 days the statute of limitations runs out

Next steps

oNFSR has retained legal counsel

oPreparing a petition for rid of mandate – a request to invalidate the project approvals

oCEQA lawsuits are heard before a judge, not a jury

oThere are 4 CEQA judges in California and one of them will hear our case

oOnce the lawsuit is filed, it will take 4-9 months for the case to be heard

oTrial Court → Appellate Court → CA Superior Court

Potential outcomes that can be achieved by filing a lawsuit

oRevision to EIR that requires studying grade-separation design options

oAdded/modified mitigation measures

oGet the document re-circulated as a DEIR, with the opportunity for public comment

oDelays to project design and construction

oChanges in final project design

We feel very strongly that we have numerous strong arguments regarding challenging the doc.  The deficiencies are so significant, that we feel that a court would make the project be re-analyzed

Mike Eveloff – What Lies Ahead

Without funding, our odds drop to zero

$18,750 check from tract 7260 – will reach $25,000 to retain attorney

Our legal task is simple: prove that the EIR is flawed

How so?

oThey did not study an intersection east of overland; they didn’t study cut through

oThey didn’t study any intersection north of Pico (such as Sepulveda, Westwood)

oThey did not study what will happen at the station with a lack of parking

oThey did not study the impact to the business community – the Greater West LA Chamber of Commerce is sided with NFSR

oDid not study the safety of kids at Overland Avenue Elementary

oDid not address emergency service vehicles

oDid not even study grade separation – THIS IS A FATAL FLAW IN THEIR EIR

oFor all these reasons, we will prevail

Mass transit is useless if you can’t use it and you can’t get to it

This is why the EIR is fatally flawed, and this is why it is worth the investment

This same group of HOA’s fought the Pico-Olympic one way; we’ve had numerous wins in Century City; we put together a community benefit fund (palms park = $18,000 two years in a row); won SB1818 lawsuit; revisions to the Santa Monica Blvd transit parkway; won 3 lawsuits in Century City

oIn each of these cases we have been told that we cannot win

oWhen we all get together, we can win!!!!!

Paul Koretz

oE-mail Paul Koretz – thank him for his statement

oWhen you thank him, encourage him to support grade separation

Colleen Mason Heller - Bike Path Update

Friday, February 19, 2010: MTA board held a bike roundtable

The entire bike path on phase 1 and phase 2 has received a categorical exemption from DEQA and the FTA

The 0.28 mile through Cheviot Hills (“Northvale segment”) has not received a categorical exemption

Cheviot for Light Rail, Friends for Expo members say that– 7-8 homes on Northvale should give 12 feet of their property for a bike path – has NOT been studied – have allocated over 5.5 million for that ¼ mile

The community on Northvale is hanging tough!

There will be a cumulative impact with the addition of a bike path and a bike path has NOT been studied

Terri Tippit - What You Can Do

We can’t have our point of view without meeting criticism

oWhen we asked for buses to the February 4th Expo board meeting, a blogger compared us to Hitler invading Poland

However, a lot of people feel that our voice needs to be heard

Be sure to communicate with you neighbors about what happening!  It’s been approved!  Unless we do something, it will come at grade!

This project will not only affect the community, but all commuters who come through our community.

Impact on Fox Studios & Century City

oCommuters/business people coming from this area will take Motor to get through to the freeway; people in Cheviot will be impacted! Motor WILL be impacted.  All the side streets in Cheviot WILL be impacted.

If you live between Overland and Westwood, you will be sandwiched

Impact to businesses

oDuring and after construction

oPeople will avoid the Tavern and the Landmark and go to Culver City instead because they don’t want to deal with the hassle of the construction traffic.  They will find other options and businesses will lose customers.

The light rail will slow down the traffic as we have it today

Emergency vehicles will be heavily impacted and so will the community as a result

Gate malfunction: gates stay down for no reason.  Parents/kids will cross the gates to get to school.

Blue Line: 860 accidents, 99 deaths

Expo took Overland Avenue parents to the Gold Line; 2 hours later there was an accident in front of a high school

The human train

oOn Sepulveda, Overland, etc. – form the human train during peak traffic hours

Every single person who lives in this community should be donating

We were told by expo that this will NOT reduce traffic, but only provide another option for a mode of transit.

Pledge plan (payment plan) – how much a month you can donate to NFSR for a year

We cannot do it alone

Ask yourself: what is the cost of preventing an increase in cut through traffic on your street; what is the cost of being able to get out onto Westwood, Military, Sepulveda; what is the cost of getting a good nights sleep; what is the cost got the safety of our children.  It’s priceless.  We all need to dig deep.

Asking developers to help, because it will impact their projects, as well.

BUILD IT RIGHT OR NOT AT ALL.

Mike McIntyre– Yard Signs

Community support through yard signs

o“Build it below or Expo must go”

oJust say no until it’s below”

oIt ain’t over till it’s under”

oKeep kids safe and sound, put the train underground”

Q&A

Q: What happens if they threaten to close Overland school due to impacts?

A: Will not happen.

Q: Regarding the signs, “below” what?  Make it more clear.

A: There are people who still don’t know what’s happening and that’s why we’re here.  That’s why we need people to walk down their blocks, go door to door and seek their help and donations.  We need people who will sign up to take up one block.  Keep doing the “coffees” – get people together.

Kim Christiansen - offer to post terminology for newcomers on the NFSR web site.

Mike Eveloff - inform people of these impacts: property value, school, getting to the 10 freeway, affect to fire fighters.  This is a real problem.

Q: Who are the people with the vested interest who are supporting the above ground.

A: They are allowed to have their opinion.

Q: Northvale 7 - Do you have a handout that we can give when we go door to door?  Call the elected officials.  They count the phone calls, they count for/against.  Ask for jay Greenstein.  Tell him you’re against the bike path.

A:  Handout has all elected officials contact info.

Q: What is the position of Fox studios?  Couldn’t we get help from them?

A: Agreed, we need to contact them.  We need business contacts. 

Q: Has anything been discussed about how to safeguard all the bushes and eucalyptus along Northvale?  Has that been part of the EIR?

A: Until the final design, no one really knows. 

Q: The train should serve people and do some good.  What is the pro side of having it go through here?  It seems like it’s going through a bunch of single- family homes, where no ones going to use it.

A: The Venice-Sepulveda route was put in there so that they could say they studied something else. It had the highest ridership because of the multi-family units in Palms.

Q: Can we get Tree People involved?

A: The helped plant the trees Westwood to Military but did not buy or maintain them.

Q: Are companies in Century City being approached?

A: We’re starting with our people and moving forward to let people know that this project will not just affect us.  We need contacts for businesses.  We’ve contacted Macerich & Westfield and they agree it should be grade separated.

Q: Impact to Fantasy Island.  Owner of Billingsley is oblivious about this.  Taking away parking.

A: Get the word out to businesses – they WILL be impacted.

Q: Signs are important because not everyone has e-mail/internet access.

A: That’s what the coffee’s are about, too.