Santa Monica Dispatch » Blog Archive » Expo Takes Santa Monica For a Bumpy Ride
Expo Takes Santa Monica For a Bumpy Ride
By: Peggy Clifford
Published: August 7th, 2009
City Hall is counting on the Expo Light Rail Line to eliminate the traffic jam that it created. Many residents look forward to its arrival with great excitement.
Surf Santa Monica reported Tuesday that “After more than a year unsuccessfully scouring the Westside for available land for a maintenance yard for the proposed light rail line to Santa Monica, Expo officials next week will ask the City Council to begin planning for the facility at the Verizon property neighboring residents oppose.
“Expo Construction Authority officials said they will ask the council members to scrap their plan to split up the yard after vocal opposition from area residents and a key land owner at a council meeting last month…
“ ‘There was no support for the hybrid site as was being proposed,’ said Samantha Bricker, the chief operating officer for the Expo Construction Authority…
“Expo officials said they — as well as City officials — have exhausted the hunt for a property adjacent to Phase 2 of the line, which will run from Culver City to Downtown Santa Monica.
“ ‘The City hired their people (consultants), we hired our people, we searched everywhere and didn’t find anything,’ said Rick Thorpe, the Expo Construction Authority’s CEO.
“’…Now I think we’re at the point of deciding on the Verizon site and start planning ways to make it work.
“City officials, who are in constant contact with the Construction Authority, said they are continuing to explore options, but are also moving ahead with plans for the Verizon site….
“City and light rail officials said they would be reaching out to the community next Tuesday, when the council is expected to give the green light to move ahead with the Verizon site…
“The Construction Authority will hold a community workshop to gather input on how to make the site work, and officials have offered to give neighboring residents a tour of a maintenance facility that has operated successfully next to a condominium complex along the Green Line.”
At the July 11 Council meeting, Council members Bob Holbrook and Bobby Shriver both questioned City Hall and Expo claims that there was no better site than the Pico Neighborhood for the maintenance yard in West L.A.— especially since Epxo has the authority to take whatever property it wants.
Having watched this sort of ritual dance too many times, I believe Expo’s claims of “scouring” the Westside, and “exhausting the hunt” is a show, as Expo actually decided on the Pico Neighborhood site sometime ago. It’s at the west end of the line. Check. It’s the right size. Check. It’s in a rundown area. Check. It’s in Expo’s price range. Check. And City Hall is so desperate for the line, it would not get in Expo’s way. Check and checkmate.
At the July11 meeting, someone asked what would happen if a Pico neighborhood site were not available for sone reason. Thorpe said, “That would be a deal-breaker.”
Word is that Expo officials are not enthusiastic about townspeople’s choice of Colorado Boulevard as the line’s route into downtown Santa Monica. They are also said to favor elevated tracks, which residents oppose.
As planning proceeds, no one should be surprised if Expo opts for Olympic over Colorado and prefers elevated tracks. Expo has its own priorities, and they are not necessarily our priorities, and it has the upper hand.
But it’s our town, and the insertion of the stations and tracks, with or without the maintenance yard, into our densely made townscape must be done very carefully, and, to this point, nothing has been done very carefully.
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