[Editor’s Note: Since a low-key announcement last month, the longtime Santa Monica City Councilman has been tracking the controversial intended arrival of an MTA light rail maintenance yard to the Stewart Park neighborhood of Santa Monica. Fur the last 4 weeks, angry neighbors have been organizing, and the newspaper has charted their progress. See “Wasting No Time, Neighbors Organize, Plan and Get Set to Battle the MTA,” and “An Encouraging Beginning for Residents Protesting Train Yard.” ]
I've been active on the Expo maintenance yard issue since the surprise was sprung on Santa Monica with the unanticipated apparent conclusion in the Feb. 2 Draft Environmental Impact Report. That release said that only the “Verizon site” fulfills their needs, even though the DEIR itself says one of the criteria for a yard is placement away from residences.
I immediately emailed (Stewart Park) neighborhood leaders:
Are you already aware that the Expo DEIR we are considering for comment Tuesday night includes a massive 12-track maintenance facility directly across Exposition Boulevard from your neighborhood, which would have washing and repair functions that could operate on three shifts, 24 hours a day? The frontage on Exposition Boulevard would be about 1000 feet, with a 125,000 sq.ft., 2-story office/administration building right along the street.
Then, in advance of the City Council's first meeting on the matter, I sent this to senior staff at City Hall:
I explored the Expo right of way Sunday afternoon, first looking at the history, then at maps, then at the situation as it exists today on the ground.
When the original 1875 ROW was joined by a line running north up to the Veterans' Home, probably somewhere in the early 1900s, the new line connected by a curving upside-down Y at what became known as Home Junction. If you look at current Google satellite maps of the Expo ROW just east of where it passes under the 405 Freeway, you can see shadows of the curving Y in retaining wall alignments on one side and the way parking spaces are striped (!) on the other.
Part of the old Home Junction site, the half east of Sepulveda, is now Anawalt Lumber, and other businesses. On the west side of Sepulveda, though, most of the old Home Junction is still underutilized space, including an outdoor industrial operation of some kind and an area used by workers soliciting jobs from customers of nearby home improvement retailers. Even working around structures, I think that block, bounded by Exposition Boulevard, Sawtelle, Pico and Sepulveda, has room to accommodate a yard, albeit in a different configuration than the Verizon property.
That block has NO adjacent residential. Across Exposition Boulevard to the south is a post office.
I have no idea who owns that land. I do suspect the existence of that site means we can question the Authority's claim that no other location is possible, and make our own local case that a 24-hour train maintenance operation across the street from a row of multi-family housing for lower-income families is not environmental justice.
At least I hope so.
What I want to know, though, is how did this get sprung on us?!?!?
I found particularly misleading (and almost offensive) the cropping of the aerial view plan for the Verizon site in Appendix F to eliminate the homes across the street. Other pages in this section show complete rectangles of satellite views.
Thanks,
Kevin
One night recently, I sent the following to a growing list of neighborhood activists unhappy about the yard in their backyard. You can follow the links to view the relevant parts of the (now two) Council meetings:
This is the last week to comment on the Expo Authority's plan to place a light rail train maintenance yard in the Pico neighborhood. Information on how to do that is at the end of this email.
On Tuesday night the City Council unanimously supported my motion that the City of Santa Monica oppose the location of this facility in the Pico neighborhood adjacent to homes and apartments, and encourage the Expo Authority to find another location in an appropriate industrial neighborhood.
My thanks go to those of you who came to the meeting to testify. I've put some edited video of how the Council's policy motion came about on my website. Go to http://www.mckeown.net, and click on “Hot Issue: Expo Yard in Pico?”
Although the City Council has supported you, the final decision on that maintenance yard will not be made by us. It is the Expo Construction Authority and ultimately the regional mass transit agency, the Metro Board, that will determine the fate of your neighborhood.
Testimony at Tuesday's Council meeting was heard by representatives of the Expo Authority, but specific written comments challenging the environmental impacts of locating a quasi-industrial 24/7 rail yard near your homes are still needed.
[Editor’s Note: The comment period on the Draft Environmental Impact Report has been extended, and it remains open.]
You can comment via mail to
Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority
Monica Born, PE, Project Director
707 Wilshire Boulevard, 34th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90017
…or email to phase2@exporail.net.
The DEIR is on the Expo website at http://www.buildexpo.org/phase2_overview.php
Thanks for your involvement. Please make sure all your friends and neighbors know about this. Feel free to forward this email.
Kevin
Mr. McKeown may be contacted at kevin@mckeown.net
