Lawmakers Push Light-Rail Project
By Fred Ortega
With a key decision on extending the Metro Gold Line expected today, Rep. Hilda Solis and other local lawmakers are working behind the scenes, meeting with officials and writing letters to try to make the planned light-rail line to Montclair a reality.
The El Monte Democrat and her colleagues, Rep. David Dreier, R- San Dimas, and Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, met last week with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to discuss local transportation- related issues, including the $1.4 billion, 24-mile Gold Line extension from Pasadena to Montclair.
Villaraigosa, who wields multiple votes on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board, has expressed support for plans to further extend the line to the Ontario Airport. His support is key because the MTA Board will vote today on whether to include the project in its long-range transportation plan, a move that Gold Line officials say is crucial in order to keep the extension in the running for hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding.
Solis, who has also written to the MTA urging it to include the project in its long-range plan, was confident about the extension’s prospects.
“It is going to happen,” she said Wednesday.
Dreier, a longtime Gold Line supporter, has also written to the MTA Board urging it to fund the extension, said spokeswoman Alisa Do.
“This is something that is long overdue,” said Do, noting that the environmental studies and preliminary design for the extension are complete and officials are ready to break ground. “We need to continue the stream of federal dollars coming into the Southland, and the Gold Line is the project for that.”
None of the other projects vying for the MTA’s long-range plan list, including the proposed “Subway to the Sea” Westside extension to Santa Monica, are anywhere near as ready to begin construction as the Gold Line, Do added.
And with a connection to the Ontario Airport, the Gold Line extension also would benefit residents on the Westside by providing a rail alternative to LAX, Solis said.
“The Gold Line would alleviate congestion on that side of town, so it is a win-win for everyone,” she said.
Getting the project on the MTA long-range plan list is a necessary step in order for officials to apply for federal transportation grants for the extension, said Habib Balian, CEO of the Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority.
Legislators have included language in a federal transportation bill that could give the project 80 percent funding, or roughly $320 million, to build the first leg to the Azusa-Glendora border. But even if the bill is approved, the 80 percent language is only a recommendation and does not guarantee all of the money, Schiff said.
In addition, local officials still have to come up with the remaining $80 million for the first leg. Cities along the route have so far pledged $1 million each, but Gold Line extension officials hope that the MTA will be able to provide the bulk of the local funding.
Schiff said he has been calling individual MTA Board members to urge them to include the project in the long-range plans and to ask them to use Proposition 1B funds – approved by voters in November 2006 as part of a $20 billion transportation bond package – to come up with some of the $80 million in local funding needed. The board is scheduled to program about $200 million of those funds today, but MTA staff is recommending that the bulk of that money go toward bus improvements, not for rail.
Schiff said that with the MTA’s long-term commitment and part of the Prop. 1B funds, “We feel pretty good about our chances” of getting the federal matching grants.
He also said during his meeting with Villaraigosa, the mayor expressed concerns about the congestion problems in the San Gabriel Valley and reiterated his support for the Gold Line’s extension to the Ontario Airport.
A spokesman for Villaraigosa did not return calls Wednesday seeking comment.
fred.ortega@sgvn.com
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