TRANSIT
COURT RULES “KEEP BEL-AIR BEAUTIFUL” ATTORNEYS CAN DEPOSE METRO EXPERT ABOUT SEPULVEDA TRANSIT CORRIDOR PROJECT
Bob Anderson, SOHA Transportation Committee Chair
April 2025
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority – Metro – has been studying and designing the Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project (STCP) for fifteen years. They’ve spent way more than $200 million of our taxpayer dollars so far on this 13- to 16-mile-long project that would connect the Valley to the Westside using either an elevated monorail or a heavy rail subway. And Metro is still working on the project’s Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) – which is now officially three years late. Although Metro has held multiple public meetings over nine years, they have told the public few details about the project – and for the last five years nothing about project cost or schedule. Metro has also ignored public comments and public requests for more information. This is Metro’s modus operandi – tell the public as little as possible about the alternatives and tell them nothing about cost or schedule. Such information might bias public opinion against unaffordable project alternatives – a sensible reaction because the public is smarter than Metro and understands enough not to buy something they cannot afford. Metro’s budget for the project is about $8 billion. From our own research on similar Metro and other projects, SOHA has learned that the basic monorail would cost from $8 to $10 billion. The Bay Area is planning a new BART subway extension at a cost of $2.3 billion per mile. New York City is planning a new subway at a cost at $4.3 billion per mile. A 13- to 14-mile subway cannot cost any less than $30+ billion – and could easily exceed $40 billion. Why hasn’t Metro bothered to explain this at their public meetings – and tell us how they’re planning to get the additional $22+ billion they would need to build a subway? Metro also hasn’t told the public how long it will take to build a subway. 20 years? More? Metro’s affront to the public is beyond incomprehensible – but in keeping with their philosophy of being non-transparent with everyone. SOHA and our neighboring community of Bel Air have been unsuccessfully trying for years to get the additional information we all deserve for the project. After being stonewalled one too many times, Bel Air has resorted to litigation to get answers. In November 2022, Keep Bel-Air Beautiful filed a lawsuit against Metro – asking for a broad range of information about the project, including detailed costs and schedules. After several years of Metro’s stalling and stonewalling, Keep Bel-Air Beautiful requested a court ruling to depose Metro personnel to obtain the needed information. On March 28th, the Superior Court ruled to allow Keep Bel-Air Beautiful’s attorneys to depose a Metro expert well versed in the Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project – by no later than the end of April. Metro attorneys fought this ruling all the way – but now they will be obligated to reveal the truth. Time will tell. We’ll keep you informed.
METRO WAFFLES ON SEPULVEDA PASS TRANSIT
Bob Anderson, SOHA Transportation Committee Chair
March 2025 | Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association Newsletter
On February 12th, SOHA sent a short letter to Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins concerning when Metro would release the 25,000-page Draft Environmental Impact Report for the Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project: “Metro has spent more than $200 million studying the Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project since 2010. Metro’s project website states that ‘The Draft EIR release is anticipated in early 2025 …’ It is mid-February and Metro has never mentioned the STCP DEIR release in any email bulletin. This is nonprofessional and irresponsible. The DEIR is already three years behind schedule. Metro must immediately provide a specific release date for the DEIR and a decision date for the Locally Preferred Alternative decision – or risk the public thinking that Metro is even further behind schedule and has lost interest in the project.” Eight days later Stephanie replied, explaining the complexity and rigors of Metro’s environmental process and stating the DEIR “… will be released soon for public review, with sufficient time for comments.” This was not the specific date we requested, but a very typical Metro non-response. They continue to treat the public like mushrooms – keeping us in the dark and covering us with manure. But don’t worry – SOHA will review the DEIR when released and let you know what’s happening and how you can help.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM METRO – MORE DELAYS FOR THE SEPUVLEDA PASS TRANSIT PROJECT
Bob Anderson, SOHA Transportation Committee Chair
November 2024 | Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association Newsletter
When voters passed Metro’s Measure M ordinance in 2016, it showed the Sepulveda Pass Transit Project groundbreaking start date was in 2024. Today, 2024 is ending in a month and Metro is now saying the public won’t receive the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) until early 2025 – we hope. Metro originally promised the DEIR by May 2022 – as shown below in their environmental studies schedule which SOHA obtained through a California Public Records Act request. Metro is already three years behind schedule – and we think it will get worse. Project groundbreaking usually occurs at least three years after the DEIR is released. So hopefully Metro can begin sticking shovels in the ground by early 2028 – only four years later than their original Measure M commitment – and just in time to make a mess for the Olympics.
METRO DESPERATELY NEEDS REAL TRANSPARENCY, NEW MANAGEMENT,
AND A DIFFERENT BOARD
Bob Anderson, SOHA Transportation Committee Chair
September 2024 | Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association Newsletter
On August 14th, as a result of a lawsuit by Keep Bel-Air Beautiful, Superior Court Judge Stephen I. Goorvitch ordered the LA County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) to provide detailed justifications for withholding records related to its Sepulveda Transit Corridor project that would connect the Valley to the Westside in the late 2030s, and then LAX in the late 2050s. Keep Bel-Air Beautiful had filed a petition for a writ of mandate, requesting that Metro comply with its document requests under the California Public Records Act. The group sought access to records concerning Metro’s analysis and public outreach efforts regarding the project. SOHA supported Keep Bel-Air Beautiful’s lawsuit since it was first filed. Judge Goorvitch wrote that some of the requested Metro documents “likely are exempt from disclosure, but that Metro is taking a ‘blanket approach’ with respect to every document” and cannot do this. Keep Bel-Air Beautiful’s lead attorney Eric George, a partner at Ellis George LLP, stated “Today the court validated what LA citizens have long believed – that the substantial amount of documentation the LA Metro has refused to provide the public is, in fact, subject to the California Public Records Act.” Judge Goorvitch found that Metro must demonstrate that the public interest in nondisclosure clearly outweighs the public interest in disclosure, he said. This is a critical court ruling that finally addresses Metro’s well-known lack of transparency to the public. For once, they cannot hide behind their fabricated cloak of secrecy – it’s been breached. And this court ruling will apply not only to the Sepulveda Pass project, but all Metro projects. It highlights one thing the public has always known – that Metro hides information that we the public should have easy access to. The real question is how Metro has gotten away for so long hiding basic information the public deserves to see. The answer is Metro’s executive management – who from the CEO down should immediately be replaced with new management who are given the mandate to make Metro a transparent public servant, beef up safety, stop wasting public funds, and start finishing projects on time and within budget. It also highlights that the Metro Board – comprising mostly elected officials – should be replaced with a business-type board. Let’s face it – our elected officials are very busy people and don’t have time to effectively oversee out-of-control Metro and its huge $9 billion annual budget. There’s no more time nor excuses for Metro’s executives to be left unaccountable and really unsupervised. We all need responsible and capable leadership – and the time is now.
METRO MUST ELIMINATE SEPULVEDA PASS ALTERNATIVE 4
Bob Anderson, SOHA Transportation Committee Chair
August 2024 | Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association Newsletter
We ask your help to demand that Metro eliminate the unfair Alternative 4 from further consideration for the Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project. Alternative 4 is an elevated train in the Valley and a subway on the Westside. It is a very noisy train operating 20 to 40 feet above Sepulveda Blvd and passing by homes, condos, and apartments for five miles in only the Valley. Alternative 4 has support columns that eliminate traffic lanes on high-traffic, congested Sepulveda Boulevard. Our community has been fighting this alternative for years – but Metro refuses to listen. How can they disrespect the Valley so much to propose Alternative 4 – the only high-speed elevated heavy rail trains Metro is considering in all LA County? The Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association and Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council are working together to eliminate Alternative 4 from further Metro consideration. This still leaves two monorail Alternatives (1 and 3) and two Subway Alternatives (5 and 6) for Metro to choose from. Please send an email to Metro Board Chair Janice Hahn at fourthdistrict@bos.lacounty.gov and tell her: Dear Metro Board Chair Janice Hahn and entire Metro Board, Please immediately eliminate Alternative 4 of the Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project from further consideration as a possible Locally Preferred Alternative. It is completely unfair to the San Fernando Valley. Add your name and community, plus anything else you might like to tell her. Thank You for Protecting Our Communities
SOHA SUPPORTS AFFORDABLE MONORAIL AND DEMANDS METRO ELIMINATE ALTERNATIVE 4
Bob Anderson, SOHA Transportation Committee Chair
June 2024 | Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association Newsletter
At their latest set of public meetings on the Sepulveda Pass Transit project in May, Metro asked the public to support eliminating the Alternative 2 monorail from the six alternatives being studied for the project. There were three monorails being designed by LA SkyRail Express (Alternatives 1, 2, 3) and three subways being designed by Bechtel Sepulveda Transit Partners and Metro’s environmental contractor (Alternatives 4, 5, 6). Alternative 2 is a monorail connected to the UCLA campus by an underground Automated People Mover (APM). UCLA apparently didn’t think much of this alternative, so SkyRail asked Metro to eliminate Alternative 2 from further consideration. SOHA’s response letter to Metro did not oppose the LA SkyRail Express request to eliminate monorail Alternative 2. However, we noted disappointment at eliminating the alternative which was an innovative concept with a good connection to UCLA akin to the people mover connection from Metro to LAX (Metro transit does not connect directly to airport terminals but to the LAX/Metro Transit Center and passengers must take a two-mile APM that is under construction now). It’s hard to understand why an APM is fine for the LAX connection but not acceptable to UCLA for their connection – adding an additional cost to the project of up to $18 billion. With the elimination of Alternative 2, the Alternative 1 monorail becomes the only one of the five remaining alternatives that is affordable within Metro’s Measure M budget. SOHA supports Alternative 1 because first, it is affordable, and second, it is capable with 35% higher passenger capacity than any of the subway alternatives. SOHA’s letter also demanded that Bechtel Sepulveda Transit Corridor Partners immediately eliminate their Alternative 4 “half-subway” which would be the only transit anywhere in LA County using heavy rail trains above street level – with elevated tracks only in Sherman Oaks and Van Nuys. Alternative 4 was developed without any consultation with or consideration of Valley communities. Its sole purpose was to cheapen the cost of a subway under the Westside at the expense of Valley communities. Metro must eliminate it immediately, before the Metro Board could possibly select it in 2025 as the alternative to be built. At their May public meetings, Metro also announced that the project’s Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) will finally be released to the public for comment in early 2025. This is good news, but Metro forgot to mention that their original date for releasing the report was May 2022. DEIR preparation was supposed to take only 18 months, but now Metro is saying it will take 50 months or more – a delay of almost three years. Because of extremely high construction inflation over the last three years, Metro’s delay increased the project’s construction cost by about 30% – an additional $2.3 billion for the lowest-cost monorail and up to a staggering $7.4 billion for the highest-cost subway. These are additional taxpayer dollars we will pay because Metro is already falling behind schedule.
METRO STILL REFUSING TO TELL PUBLIC REAL FACTS ABOUT SEPULVEDA PASS
TRANSIT PROJECT
Bob Anderson, SOHA Transportation Committee Chair
May 2024 | Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association Newsletter
For eight years, SOHA has been trying to work with Metro to get the best Sepulveda Pass Transit project for our community, the city, and the county. We made comments. We attended Metro public meetings. We met with elected officials. We met with Metro. We asked for information. But Metro kept stonewalling us and saying it’s coming, just wait. We’re through waiting. We’re working with other organizations, including Keep Bel-Air Beautiful, to learn what we should have known all along about the project. Here’s where we are today. In late 2022, Keep Bel-Air Beautiful made a request to Metro pursuant to the California Public Records Act to obtain various documents about the Sepulveda Pass Transit Project, its budget, and its public outreach efforts. Unsurprisingly, Metro was not forthcoming with documents, so Bel-Air has now brought legal action to force Metro to comply. Through this action, Bel-Air aims to enforce the public’s right to obtain public documents and pierce the veil of secrecy that Metro hides its operations and deliberations behind. The final court hearing in Bel-Air’s action is set for August of this year. Bel-Air is optimistic that the court will see through Metro’s excuses for keeping documents from the public and force Metro to comply with the law. We’ll keep you posted. Last month, SOHA submitted 20 critical questions to Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins who responded with 19 unacceptable answers. Metro’s answers to SOHA’s questions were so off the wall that a friend suggested I publish them as a weekly series in CityWatch Los Angeles (www.CityWatchLA.com). CityWatch is a great forum for what’s happening in LA. My articles are short and address each SOHA question and Metro response with juicy details. The articles published so far are listed below. You can search CityWatch for “Sepulveda PassTransit” or use the provided links. A new article appears each week. March 4th Sepulveda Pass Transit 1 – Can Metro Be Trusted? https://www.citywatchla.com/guest-words/28559-sepulveda-pass-transit-can-metro-be-trusted March 11th Sepulveda Pass Transit 2 – Is Metro Transparent and Accountable? https://www.citywatchla.com/los-angeles/28587-sepulveda-pass-transit-is-metro-transparent-and-accountable March 18th Sepulveda Pass Transit 3 – Is It Really Affordable? https://www.citywatchla.com/los-angeles/28622-sepulveda-pass-transit-is-it-really-affordable March 25th Sepulveda Pass Transit 4 – Show Us the Money! https://www.citywatchla.com/los-angeles/28657-sepulveda-pass-transit-show-us-the-money April 1st Sepulveda Pass Transit 5 – Prejudicial Survey https://www.citywatchla.com/los-angeles/28688-sepulveda-pass-transit-prejudicial-survey April 8th Sepulveda Pass Transit 6 – How Long To Build It? https://www.citywatchla.com/los-angeles/28720-sepulveda-pass-transit-how-long-to-build-it April 15th Sepulveda Pass Transit 7 – No Transparency, No Public Input https://www.citywatchla.com/la-election-2022/28755-metros-sepulveda-pass-transit-no-transparency-no-public-input April 22nd Sepulveda Pass Transit 8 – Metro Silent Treatment on Alternative 4 https://www.citywatchla.com/voices/28792-metros-silent-treatment-on-alternative-4-of-the-sepulveda-pass-project April 29th Sepulveda Pass Transit 9 – Unveiling the Black Box: Demystifying Metro’s Dubious Ridership Analysis Assumptions https://www.citywatchla.com/los-angeles/28818-unveiling-the-black-box-demystifying-metros-dubious-ridership-analysis-assumptions
METRO SENDS NON-ANSWERS TO 20 SOHA QUESTIONS ABOUT SEPULEVDA PASS TRANSIT
Bob Anderson, SOHA Transportation Committee Chair
April 2024 | Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association Newsletter
SOHA has been working on Metro’s Sepulveda Pass Transit project since before voters approved Measure M in 2016. We’ve reviewed concepts, made comments, asked questions, attended public meetings, and met with elected officials and with Metro. We know effective rapid transit is critical to LA’s and the Valley’s future and future increased density. The Valley has never received its fair share of Metro’s rail transit – today the Valley has only two rail transit stops out of almost 90 countywide. The Sepulveda Pass Transit project is the biggest and costliest of Measure M’s 40 transit and transportation projects. It’s got to be done right, affordably, and on a timely schedule. Sadly, Metro has not been telling the public all they should know about the project – especially its capabilities, probable costs, construction times, and potential eminent domain impacts. Metro has also been silent on the dreaded subway Alternative 4, which is not a subway at all in the Valley, but noisy elevated trains above Sepulveda Blvd for five miles. This alternative has no redeeming value other than being less costly for Metro to build – and will preclude much needed higher housing density along the Sepulveda Blvd corridor. Last month, I reported that SOHA demanded Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins answer 20 reasonable questions about the Sepulveda Pass Transit project. Stephanie replied by our 15-day deadline and her email said: “Fortunately, we were able to confirm that the vast majority of the questions have already been answered publicly. The rest are based on misinformation, so we appreciate the opportunity to correct the record.” We were surprised by her comments because our questions may have been reasonable, but they weren’t easy to answer, weren’t answered before, and didn’t deserve being unceremoniously dismissed in this way. After carefully studying Metro’s supposed answers, we formally replied to Stephanie and said: “We critically reviewed your responses to our 20 questions about the project and found only one of them acceptable, one marginal, and 18 unacceptable …” Our letter carefully explained why Metro’s answers were unacceptable. It basically showed that Metro answers were non-answers that never addressed our actual question or were irrelevant. We even called one answer dishonest. Our letter was covered by the LA Daily News and Valley Current. You can read it on the SOHA website at www.SOHA914.com at “Click Here to Read Letter to Metro”. A week later, Stephanie emailed and bluntly said: “The information provided in our earlier correspondence remains current and accurate.” What a sad ending. Once again, Metro abruptly shut down a potential opportunity for the public to learn vital information about the Sepulveda Pass project – information that a trusted and transparent steward of the project would be more than willing to share. What are they hiding and why? We’re going to find out.
SOHA DEMANDS METRO ANSWER 20 QUESTIONS
Bob Anderson, SOHA Transportation Committee Chair
March 2024 | Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association Newsletter
On February 28th, SOHA submitted our strongest letter yet to Metro about the Sepulveda Pass Transit project. We demanded that Metro respond to 20 “reasonable” questions, announce when Metro will release the Draft Environmental Impact Report, and give the public no less than 90 days to review the report which will be at least 25,000 pages. On February 29th, Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins replied and said “I have asked my staff to review your comments and questions and prepare a response.” You can read our letter on the SOHA website at www.SOHA914.com at “Click Here to Read Letter to Metro”. Our letter asked for Metro responses by March 14th. We told Metro that if they did not respond by then, SOHA would elevate our concerns with federal and state transportation authorities to convince them that Metro has withheld essential project information from the public, provided misleading and possibly fraudulent information to the public, and purposefully undermined the public’s ability to make educated relevant comments and ask intelligent questions about the project. It’s not an idle threat.
SOHA ENDORSES AFFORDABLE MONORAIL AND DENOUNCES ELEVATED “SUBWAY” IN VALLEY
Bob Anderson, SOHA Transportation Committee Chair
February 2024 | Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association Newsletter
Since 2016, SOHA has heavily participated in Metro’s Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project between the Valley and Westside, and eventually LAX 30 years in the future. We’ve suffered through Metro’s public meetings and learned next to nothing. We’ve submitted a hundred comments and questions, but never received any responses. Metro may finally make their decision on what to build toward the end of 2024 or the beginning of 2025. It’s time, but we worry they’ll give the public no time to comment before selecting an unaffordable alternative. SOHA is now demanding that Metro give the public extra time to review and comment on the project’s Draft Environmental Impact Report which should be released later this year. It will be several thousand pages long and not written for easy reading. Metro typically gives the public at most 45 days to review and comment on these huge reports, and that’s ridiculous for Metro’s biggest-ever project that’s dragged out for almost a decade. Metro’s Board typically makes their final decision on which alternative to build almost immediately after public comments are received. That’s even more ridiculous – and shows you how little Metro values your comments. The Metro Board will decide on one of six alternatives. Metro has paid its contractors about $150 million for final analysis of the six alternatives. There are three monorails being designed by LA SkyRail Express (Alternatives 1, 2, 3) and three “subways” being designed by Bechtel Sepulveda Transit Partners and HTA Partners (Alternatives 4, 5, 6). We put subways in quotes because Bechtel’s Alternative 4 is only “half” a subway – underground beneath the Westside and Santa Monica Mountains but noisy elevated heavy rail trains running above Sepulveda Boulevard in the Valley. Metro is trying to cut costs by again screwing the Valley and foisting off an elevated “subway” alternative on Sherman Oaks and Van Nuys. But Metro is doing something much, much worse. They are withholding vital information from the public about the costs and construction times to build the six alternatives. The only time Metro gave the public any cost estimates was at a July 2019 public meeting – and those costs were for four old Metro concepts – not the six new alternatives. Metro has NEVER told the public how much it will cost to construct and operate the six alternatives – or how long each will take to construct. They’ve spent more than $150 million since that July 2019 public meeting but claim they must do further analysis before giving the public cost and construction time estimates. What’s really going on? It's simple. Metro doesn’t want to tell us that they only have enough budget to afford two of the six alternatives – and both these are monorails (Alternatives 1, 2). They don’t want to tell us that a real subway underground in the Valley (Alternatives 5, 6) will cost $25 to $30 billion and take 12 to 15 years to build – three times as much as two of the monorails (Alternative 1, 2). They don’t want to tell us that they only have $8 billion – and it just isn’t anywhere near enough to build any subway. SOHA endorses Alternative 2, which is a monorail with an automated people mover to UCLA. We are not endorsing Alternative 1 which is a slightly less expensive monorail with a poor UCLA connection. We are not endorsing Alternative 3 which is a more expensive monorail because a tunnel under UCLA to a UCLA station makes it unaffordable. Affordability is paramount in getting this critical transit project built quickly and within budget. It’s fiscally irresponsible to endorse anything that is unaffordable. Remember, Metro is spending our federal, state, county, and city tax dollars. We have a say in what Metro spends it on. It is also time to denounce the Alternative 4 “subway” with its noisy elevated trains above Sepulveda Boulevard in Sherman Oaks and Van Nuys. It is unfair to our communities to have large, noisy elevated trains running 25 feet above Sepulveda Boulevard near homes and apartment buildings and would require demolishing more than 150 homes, condos, apartments, and businesses near Sepulveda and Valley Vista to make way for the elevated tracks, which violates the city’s efforts to build more housing. Metro should have stopped studying Alternative 4 in 2019, but instead chose to keep wasting our money on it. Enough already. The Valley hates it!
NEIGHBORHOOD TRAFFIC IMPROVEMENTS
Bob Anderson, SOHA Transportation Committee Chair
November 2023 | Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association Newsletter
Under the Buckley School ‘s Conditional Use Permit, the school must establish a Neighborhood Protection Fund. This fund is used for improvements to traffic, noise, landscaping, buffering, and any other issues which may arise from the school’s operation in a residential neighborhood. As most of us are all too aware, the intersection of Valley Vista and Beverly Glen has been a mess for many years due to morning and evening traffic – and Buckley School is one reason for the traffic buildup. As a result, after a meeting with our City Council Office and making these and other traffic complaints known, the LA Department of Transportation (DOT) suggested and designed a roundabout at the Beverly Glen-Valley Vista intersection. The roundabout will replace the existing stop signs that make it extremely difficult to enter southbound Beverly Glen from Valley Vista. According to the DOT, this should make the flow of traffic better and safer. The roundabout will be implemented in the coming months, and entirely paid for by Buckley and not our tax dollars. In addition, Buckley will pay for speed bumps along Valley Vista on either side of Stansbury to slow traffic and prevent vehicles from running the stop sign and endangering students and others. Finally, Buckley will also pay for landscaping improvements on Coy Drive, making that street cleaner and safer when it rains, as well as a bit more attractive.
METRO STILL WITHHOLDING CRITICAL INFORMATION ON SEPULVEDA PASS TRANSIT PROJECT
Bob Anderson, SOHA Transportation Committee Chair
October 2023 | Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association Newsletter
If you’ve wondered when you’ll hear new information about the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s rapid transit project over (or under) the Sepulveda Pass, the answer is Saturday, October 28 from 10:00 am to 12:30 pm at the Marvin Braude Center, 6262 Van Nuys Boulevard in Van Nuys. Metro hasn’t provided any new information or held any public meetings since January, even though they have spent around $100 million analyzing and studying every aspect of the project. So, this is a rare event, and you should attend – because this project will truly impact Sherman Oaks forever. There is plenty Metro should tell us – especially critical information about costs, affordability, schedules, and construction impacts for the six project alternatives. But Metro’s announcement says the meeting will “focus on travel times and boardings”. That’s interesting but it misses the big picture of how badly they have managed this project and driven it off a fiscal cliff. All three subway alternatives are totally unaffordable within Metro’s available $8 billion budget. Some of them will cost three times the budget. Not a good place to be when the final decision may be only months away. And don’t forget, one of these “subways” operates noisy elevated trains above Sepulveda Boulevard for five miles in only the Valley and takes out two badly needed traffic lanes. It would be a disaster for Sherman Oaks. Fortunately, Metro is also studying three monorail alternatives that may provide the only affordable solutions for the project – if Metro treats them fairly. Keep Bel-Air Beautiful, a nonprofit organization, is currently suing Metro to force them to provide all the public information they should have provided a year or more ago. The battle is heating up and we’ll give you a front-row seat as things develop.
CD4 TURNS BLIND EYE TO SOHA REQUEST TO FIX BROKEN PARKING METER SITUATION
Tom Glick, SOHA Planning Committee Chair
October 2023 | Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association Newsletter
Recently, SOHA reached out to Councilmember Nithya Raman’s office, including her chief of staff, to make them aware that parking meters throughout Sherman Oaks are broken and effectively unavailable for use – or if used, subject the user to a parking fine. We wanted to enlist their support in getting these meters fixed, not only in our community but citywide. It is just plain crazy that we have limited commercial parking throughout our community, and especially on Ventura Boulevard, and that workable readable meters are not available for use – or subject to a fine just because our LA Municipal Code does not address broken meters. We asked Councilmember Raman’s office to enact a Code change because the city is very slow to fix broken and non-usable meters, and this puts our community and especially our business owners at a disadvantage. We asked that City Council issue either a Council Order or a Code Amendment to put the responsibility for broken meters on the City and not its citizens. If a meter is broken or not working, parking should still be available to the public and should be free to use – with no parking fine – until the city fixes the meter. But today, if the meter is broken, it is not the city's responsibility so there is no rush to fix it. Parking meters have historically been an affordable way for people to park in the community and if not working, those who can least afford to pay for private parking spaces are most affected. We suggest that City Council either use their authority to issue a Council Order to the Parking Enforcement Bureau to suspend parking fines on broken meters as a short-term solution or initiate a long-term solution to amend the Municipal Code accordingly. SOHA offered to provide a draft fix for the Municipal Code to Councilmember Raman’s office. As of the writing of this article, some three weeks after our initial email request to the Council Office, they have not responded to our request. As a result, SOHA Board members will be spending a Saturday morning in October to identify broken or under- performing meters and report on them – because we feel it is an important issue that needs to be fixed immediately for benefit of our community. Maybe Councilmember Raman will step up once she sees the results of our report
$4.5 BILLION A YEAR FROM OUR SALES TAX AND METRO KEEPS FAILING
Bob Anderson, SOHA Transportation Committee Chair
June 2023 | Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association Newsletter
LA County gives two cents of all sales taxes to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for transit and transportation. In 2022, this totaled $4.5 billion. How did it get so high? In 2016, voters approved Measure M which added a one-half-cent sales tax for Metro. But voters also approved Measure R in 2008, Proposition C in 1990, and Proposition A in 1980? Each added its own one-half-cent sales tax – so we now pay Metro two cents in sales tax every time we buy anything. It’s $4.5 billion a year today and inflates higher and higher each year – forever – because these sales taxes never expire! For this huge public investment, we are supposed to get more modern and safe transit and transportation. Measure M alone lists 39 major projects to be completed by 2067. But the $4.5 billion annual sales tax receipts fund less than half the projects’ estimated costs – the rest must come from even more federal, state, county, and local city funding – taken from the federal and state income taxes we pay. So, these Metro projects are costing us more than $9 billion each year out of our public pockets. But that’s only if Metro can plan, build, and safely operate the projects within their Measure M cost estimates. Right now, they are not doing this very well. Metro’s public transit is unsafe – with attacks, deaths, and drug overdoses increasing every month. Metro overruns their cost estimates on every transit and transportation project. The East San Fernando Valley Transit Corridor project along Van Nuys Boulevard will cost more than twice its estimate. The Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project may cost more than three times its estimate if Metro selects the wrong technology. The West Santa Ana Branch Transit project in southeast LA County will cost more than twice its estimate. Metro is out of control. Their mismanagement is costing taxpayers a fortune. Metro is also facing a fiscal cliff – because they can’t build and safely operate their transit system with their current budget – even with the more than $9 billion they take out of our pockets every year. The Metro Board must get Metro under control – or face every project being unfinished or delayed for years and years. It’s now or never to fix Metro for the public good.
CAN’T READ YOUR PARKING METER?
Jules Feir, SOHA Community Liaison Chair
May 2023 | Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association Newsletter
Ever tried to park in Sherman Oaks and pay a parking meter that you can’t read? Pretty tough when you can’t see how much time is left or how much money it wants. Our parking meters are 25 years old, dirty, unreadable, and undependable. It’s time to replace them with modern meters. We’re working with our City Council office to expedite meter replacement. Help us out. Next time you try to park and can’t read the meter, contact the Council Office at ContactCD4@LACity.gov and let them know that it’s time to replace the meters
BEL AIR SUES METRO FOR WITHHOLDING INFORMATION – GREAT!
Bob Anderson, SOHA Transportation Committee Chair
April 2023 | Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association Newsletter
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority – Metro for short – is short on integrity, short on honesty, short on transparency, and short on fiscal responsibility. They don’t know what they’re doing, don’t tell the public anything, and don’t have the funding to build what they plan. Last November, Keep Bel-Air Beautiful, a nonprofit corporation representing Bel Air homeowners, requested hundreds of documents about the Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project through the California Public Records Act. SOHA worked closely with them to ensure they get all needed information. Metro should have delivered the documents in 14 days. Instead, on March 21 – 115 days later – after Metro gave itself five unilateral extensions and delivered only a few documents – Keep Bel-Air Beautiful filed a lawsuit to obtain them. As noted in the lawsuit: “Bel-Air believes that the records responsive to its request will uncover: (a) Metro’s total lack of transparency and intentional exclusion of the public from its decision-making process; (b) Metro’s failure to consider other, more feasible options besides tunneling under Bel-Air and Sherman Oaks through the Sepulveda pass; (c) Metro’s willful ignorance of the very real safety concerns inherent in its proposal for the Project; and (d) Metro’s enormous cost, budget and scheduling overruns.” SOHA overwhelmingly supports Bel Air’s lawsuit which they are fully self-funding. The SOHA Board passed a motion to join the lawsuit if this can be legally arranged. We want to know what Metro is doing and we want an affordable Sepulveda Pass transit project that can be built within available funding as fast as possible – without unacceptable community impacts. This simply means monorail – which has higher passenger capacity than subway and can be built at least twice as fast for about one-third the cost. This is more than a lawsuit for documents – it is a line in the sand against an out-of-control Metro that ignores the public and does want it wants – not what the public needs – and does it badly. An organization mired in past technologies, incapable of inspiration and innovation, and blind to basic fiscal responsibility. When the Sepulveda Pass project began eight years ago, Metro never bothered to ask the Sherman Oaks and Bel Air communities about our needs and concerns. Instead, they drew routes without any community input – subways under hillside homes and noisy elevated trains above Sepulveda Boulevard in the Valley – subways that are completely unaffordable and will never be built. No matter how much we complained, Metro never listened. Even worse, they withheld information from the public – causing massive confusion. Metro directed – even threatened – project contactors not to communicate with residents of the impacted communities. The result is a mishmash of confusing alternatives that few understand – and the likelihood of a $20+ billion budget overrun should Metro idiotically select a subway alternative. Parenthetically – Metro has never built any major project on time and on budget in the last 25 years. Why would anyone believe any information they report. We need to get this project and Metro under control now – before it’s too late for LA County. Today’s Metro is not the organization that should be planning the future of our transit! One further point – Metro has hired outside counsel to respond to the lawsuit – which is fascinating because this request is ministerial, not adversarial – and this raises the following questions. What are Metro’s in-house attorneys doing? Why are they being paid? Why is Metro wasting more public funds in hiring outside lawyers? Bel Air’s counsel spoke with Metro’s three outside attorneys – ring up that cash register – who agreed to begin providing the documents in early April.
METRO – SHOW US THE MONEY – NOW!
Bob Anderson, SOHA Transportation Committee Chair
March 2023 | Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association Newsletter
Metro has NO TRANSPARENCY – especially about project affordability. They treat the public like mushrooms – keeping us in the dark, dumping manure on us at “pony-show” public meetings, and hoping we’ll ask no questions. That’s not going to happen on the Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project. Our key question is “Why is Metro spending more than $100 million studying unaffordable Sepulveda Pass alternatives that will never be built?” Metro’s standard answer – “Don’t worry, we’ll get the funding” – is not acceptable. The public needs to know now what funding Metro has for this project. Measure M, which voters approved in 2016, funds 90 transit and transportation projects and each has its own budget. The Sepulveda Pass budget is about $7.5 billion in today’s dollars. Yet, Metro is studying heavy rail subway alternatives that will cost $20 to $25 billion or more. Metro – start being fiscally responsible. A perfect example of why SOHA worries about funding and affordability is Metro’s East San Fernando Valley Transit project. Metro soon starts construction of this 9.2-mile low-capacity street-level light rail line along Van Nuys Blvd. Its Measure M budget is about $1.7 billion. Metro officially estimates the first 6.7 miles will cost $3.6 billion – more than twice its Measure M funding – and they don’t yet know the cost of the last 2.5 miles. The project could end up costing more than $5 billion – three times its budget. Metro just asked California for $1.9 billion in additional transit funds. They got $600 million for this project but failed to get the other $1.3 billion they requested for two other underfunded transit projects. Unlimited funds are not available anymore – even for the critical Sepulveda Pass. Metro – put your money where your mouth is. Provide the public a list of all secured and potential federal, state, county, and local funding for every Measure M project that you are currently building, studying, or planning to study soon. This act of TRANSPARENCY might help the public begin trusting you again.
SCOOTERS CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO OUR NEIGHBORHOODS
Jules Feir, SOHA Community Liaison Chair
March 2023 | Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association Newsletter
Since the city introduced electric scooters for personal transit, they’ve created a lot of unintended problems. Many scooters are illegally driven on sidewalks like a fast toy and pose a danger to pedestrians. On streets, they are often driven irresponsibly, interfere with traffic, and create dangerous situations. Once rides are finished, scooters are left lying on sidewalks, at bus stops, on streets, in front of businesses, and around residential neighborhoods. Scooter companies are supposed to pick them up within 24 hours – but they don’t. The scooter in the photo has been sitting in the same Sherman Oaks location for two weeks. The city should enforce scooter pickup – or even better, renegotiate scooter contracts to make scooter companies more responsible and operation more enforceable.
METRO OPEN HOUSE ON SEPULVEDA PASS TRANSIT NOT SO OPEN
Bob Anderson, SOHA Transportation Committee Chair
February 2023 | Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association Newsletter
January was Metro open house month for the Sepulveda Pass Transit Project. SOHA’s Bob Anderson attended the Saturday January 21st open house in Van Nuys hoping to learn a lot more about the project. Metro showed some new station information but not much else. Through judicious questioning of Metro personnel, we learned that: § Metro has delayed publishing the project’s Draft Environmental Impact Report by two years to the “latter part of 2024”. This is a ridiculous slip but typical Metro – hurry up and wait! § Metro has delayed the project selection decision by two years to hopefully the end of 2024. But this gives us more time to fight now for affordable alternatives that best serve communities along the route. § Metro has updated the peak passenger capacity for the monorails to 16,560 passengers per hour in each direction (Metro Alternatives 1, 2, and 3). This is 35% more passenger capacity than any of the heavy rail subways which only carry 12,240 passengers per hour (Alternatives 4 and 5) and 11,970 passengers per hour (Alternative 6). Metro did show new location diagrams for all stations but didn’t show any renderings of what the stations might actually look like. That’s important to communities and was sadly missed. Metro provided NO information about construction costs, operation and maintenance costs, financing, affordability, project schedules, construction timelines, public-private partnerships, route details, travel times, station parking, maintenance facilities, eminent domain, tunneling impacts, elevated train impacts, noise, or safety. The public needs much more information – NOW! In two years, we will have only a month or so to review and comment on a 1,000-page or more Draft Environmental Report. By that time, we’ll have had no substantive project information from Metro for four years. How can Metro reasonably expect people to read 1,000+ pages and make good comments in a month? Metro – get real and give the public information now. Stop the silly dog and pony shows. Be collaborative, not combative. Be informative, not misinformative. Work with us, not to spite us. Contact SOHA for honest answers on the project at FairTransit4ShermanOaks@gmail.com. Email us your name and email and we’ll send you our own honest project updates.
METRO HIDES AGAIN BEHIND FREEWAY DIGITAL BILLBOARDS
Jay Weitzler, SOHA Board Member
February 2023 | Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association Newsletter
Transparency is not the favorite way for Metro to operate, so without any public outreach whatsoever, it appears that they have approved the installation of 97 changing digital billboards towering over 16 commercial corridors and 8 different freeways across LA County, including the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve and additional sensitive locations. Although Metro is clearly involved in planning transportation countywide, they seem to be unconcerned in the least about safety and more concerned about a money grab from renting billboard space. Had Metro held public hearings, they would have been properly informed about the risk to drivers from looking at changing billboards while going 70 mph on the freeway or driving on other highly traveled streets. But, as we have learned in studying the “plans” for the Sepulveda Transit Corridor, listening to their constituency is not the way Metro works. Please let City Councilmember Nithya Raman (contactCD4@lacity.org) and County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath (ThirdDistrict@bos.lacounty.gov) know that this is not what we expect of our officials.
METRO WITHHOLDING VITAL INFORMATION ON SEPULVEDA PASS TRANSIT
Bob Anderson, SOHA Transportation Committee Chair
January 2023 | Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association Newsletter
SOHA’s VP Bob Anderson has studied every aspect of Metro’s Sepulveda Pass Transit Project and its six alternatives. Metro Alternatives 1, 2, and 3 are affordable monorails but Alternatives 4, 5, and 6 are totally unaffordable subways, with the Alternative 4 “subway” ruining Sherman Oaks with noisy elevated trains above Sepulveda Blvd. He has read hundreds of documents and thousands of pages. They tell a sad story how Metro has withheld vital information from the public and even from Metro Board members and their staff. Metro is an organization that must be reviewed, reorganized, and reformed – or replaced – before it’s too late! In recent talks with several people including Metro Board staff, it’s obvious that nobody has the basic information they need to fully understand the Sepulveda Pass Transit project. A glaring example is passenger capacity – the maximum passengers an alternative can carry per hour. Capacity is critical to selecting the best alternative for this project and getting cars off the 405. Yet in the last five years, Metro has presented passenger capacity information to the public ONLY ONCE – four years ago at their January 2019 public meetings. And some capacities they presented then were wrong! The honest-to-goodness passenger capacity for the three monorail alternatives is 14,040 passengers per hour. That’s way above Metro’s January 2019 incorrect estimate of 7,500. The passenger capacity for the three subway alternatives is 11,970 to 12,240 passengers per hour. These capacities are available in August 2020 contractor proposals to Metro and can be calculated from data in Metro’s November 2021 Notice of Preparation of a Draft Environmental Impact Report. Metro has known the true passenger capacities for two and a half years but never mentioned them publicly, put them in fact sheets, or told their own Board that monorail has higher capacity. Congressmember Brad Sherman’s November 2022 letter to Metro asked, “What is the capacity at rush hour and what are the opportunities to add additional capacity?” He doesn’t know. Neither does anyone else. Because Metro never told anyone. They withhold information, so we aren’t knowledgeable enough to ask tough questions. Metro is also spreading misinformation. Last month, they published a bogus survey where two-thirds of survey participants had never heard of the Sepulveda Pass project. Participants were shown incomplete and misleading information, then responses were treated as gospel. Garbage in – garbage out! The survey is worthless. And at last month’s San Fernando Valley Council of Governments meeting, staff for two Metro Board members asked Metro’s External Affairs Director Jody Litvak when Metro would decide on the final alternative to be built. She responded, “I don’t know”. Metro is spending $200 million to make this decision. Let’s hope someone in Metro knows when they’ll decide! The next time you attend a Metro public meeting and hear Jody Litvak or other Metro staff try to explain something, listen warily then contact SOHA for honest answers.