Monrovia looks to get rail yard (Source: Pasadena Star-News)

Link: Monrovia looks to get rail yard - Pasadena Star-News

Monrovia looks to get rail yard
By Nathan McIntire, Staff Writer
Posted: 09/08/2009 08:23:27 PM PDT

MONROVIA - Plans to put a Foothill Gold Line Extension rail yard in Irwindale near the Duarte border have met with opposition from residents who worry the yard would be too noisy and unsightly.

But a new proposal to put the maintenance yard in Monrovia could quell those concerns and speed up construction of the eastward expansion, Monrovia city officials said.

A site in Monrovia now slated to be part of the 80-acre Station Square mixed-use project could provide the solution, City Manager Scott Ochoa said.

"Metro has decreed the Gold Line cannot move forward until there is a rail yard along this alignment," Ochoa said. "We're looking at locating this site in Monrovia if it means the Gold Line will move forward expeditiously."

Duarte residents have sought to block a proposal to put the yard just east of the 605 Freeway on property owned by Mt. Olive Storage, saying it would be a blight to the community and decrease property values.

Henry Baltazar, who lives in the 500 block of Elkhorn Drive in Duarte, said his residents' group opposed the Irwindale site but welcomed Monrovia's idea.

"We're gung-ho," Baltazar said. "We hope Monrovia takes it, and we're more than happy to give it to them."

Over the next few months, Monrovia city staff will study whether city-owned property at the northeast corner of California Avenue and Duarte Road could work as the rail yard needed for the light-rail system planned to stretch
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from Pasadena to Claremont.

The 15-acre site, south of the 210 Freeway near Home Depot, is already in an industrial part of town. However, building the rail yard there would require the purchase of more property by the city to meet the MTA's goal of 20 to 25 acres of space, Ochoa said.

He was confident the city could do it.

"We've talked to every property owner on that block over the last 3 to 4 years" about buying their property, Ochoa said.

Duarte Mayor John Fasana said the Monrovia location would give easier access than its Irwindale counterpart because of its proximity to train tracks. But any decision about the site must wait for detailed environmental impact reports.

"We don't prefer a site," Fasana said. "We just want to make sure we don't lose the line because we haven't identified a site."

Construction on the rail yard at any location would likely start at the same time Gold Line construction begins, Ochoa said.

nathan.mcintire@sgvn.com

(626) 578-6300 ext. 4475