The Beverly Hills City Council is holding a meeting Sunday night where they will decide whether to request a special hearing on the Purple Line subway extension plans, reports the Beverly Hills Patch. This action could delay the certification of the subway plans at the Metro board meeting on April 26, the website claims (we're waiting to get confirmation from Metro). As has been noted extensively, Beverly Hills is in full Code Red over Metro's plans to tunnel under Beverly Hills High School in order to construct a subway station in the heart of Century City--BH officials want a stop on Santa Monica Blvd., though there are active fault lines on the Boulevard, according to studies (including one commissioned by Beverly Hills). Metro, though, is not getting soft with Beverly Hills--at Metro's planning and programming committee meeting on Tuesday, transit officials approved the alignment and station recommendations, with County Supervisor and Metro board member Zev Yaroslavsky saying they would not hold off certifying the project to wait for more studies from Beverly Hills: "This project has already been delayed for a long time," Yaroslavsky said.
"If I thought that a 30 day delay would solve the problem I would consider it," Yaroslavsky said, adding that the differences between Beverly Hills and Metro were intractable and that Metro would not be extending the comment period for the final environmental report. "We have had meetings with stakeholders to try to find middle ground. The instruction we got back from Beverly Hills was to talk to our lawyers." But according to The Source, if Beverly Hills requests a public meeting, Metro would have to comply, thanks to the state Public Utilities Code. It's pretty clear the city council will vote for a public hearing, meaning BH is now no longer only holding up the west end of the subway extension, but the entire project. Image via BH Patch
· BH City Council Action Could Delay Subway Decision [BH Patch]
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