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
Terri Tippit, Colleen Mason Heller, Drew DeAscentis, Mike
Eveloff
February 4th Expo board meeting
Over 200 people from our community attended the hearing
SMC had 2 busloads of kids attending the hearing
2-7pm: testimony – that’s how many people spoke
SMC 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
At grade causes more congestion than it solves
Cut through traffic will spill into neighborhood streets
Impact to businesses
Decreased access to 10-freeway
The safety issue
Crossing hazards
Increased risks for accidents
Derailment
Delays caused to emergency services
Overland Avenue Elementary School
They are a California distinguish school; can they thrive
with a train disrupting every 2.5 minutes?
Noise
Safety at crossing
Pollution from trains, idling cars
Quality of Life
Dividing a long-standing neighborhood
Attract more cars
Reduced parking for residents
Privacy
Visual blight
Increased 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
NFSR has been involved in this project since the
beginning
Thoroughly evaluated the environmental impacts that will
be caused by the project
Concluded that the project must be build below grade so
that the environmental impacts can be eliminated and/or significantly reduced
Conducted community outreach, educational efforts, met
with Expo authority staff, board members to discuss concerns, participated in
public hearing
DEIR (Draft Environmental Impact Review)
Public comment period for the DEIR closed at the end of
March 2009
Submitted 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
April 2009 – Expo board selected the right-of-way versus
the Sepulveda route
FEIR (Final Environmental Impact Review)
FEIR was released on December 11, 2009 (concerns about it
being released in the holiday season, not enough time for people to respond)
Hearing 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
NFSR submitted a 49-page comment document (plus
attachments)
Believe that if properly studied, the FEIR clearly will
show that a below grade design would be the environmentally superior
alternative
NFSR 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
Expo board adopted a statement of overriding
considerations; approved alternative 2 (ROW to Santa Monica via Colorado Blvd)
February 5th, 2010
Expo authority filed a notice of determination.
This 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
NFSR has retained legal counsel
Preparing a petition for writ of mandate – a request to
invalidate the project approvals
CEQA lawsuits are heard before a judge, not a jury
There are 4 CEQA judges in California and one of them
will hear our case
Once the lawsuit is filed, it will take 4-9 months for
the case to be heard
Trial Court → Appellate Court → CA Superior Court
Potential outcomes that can be achieved by filing a
lawsuit
Revision to EIR that requires studying grade-separation
design options
Added/modified mitigation measures
Get the document re-circulated as a DEIR, with the
opportunity for public comment
Delays to project design and construction
Changes 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?
They did not study an intersection east of overland; they
didn’t study cut through
They didn’t study any intersection north of Pico (such as
Sepulveda, Westwood)
They did not study what will happen at the station with a
lack of parking
They did not study the impact to the business community –
the Greater West LA Chamber of Commerce is sided with NFSR
Did not study the safety of kids at Overland Avenue
Elementary
Did not address emergency service vehicles
Did not even study grade separation – THIS IS A FATAL
FLAW IN THEIR EIR
For 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
In each of these cases we have been told that we cannot
win
When we all get together, we can win!!!!!
Paul Koretz
E-mail Paul Koretz – thank him for his statement
When 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
When 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
Commuters/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
During and after construction
People 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
On 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
“Build it below or Expo must go”
Just say no until it’s below”
It ain’t over till it’s under”
Keep 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.
