A homeowners’ group from Sherman Oaks critical of LA Metro is demanding the transit agency answer 20 detailed questions about its Sepulveda Pass transit project and provide extra time for the public to review future environmental reports.
In a letter dated Feb. 28, the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association asks Metro to double the comment period on the Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project’s future Draft Environmental Impact Report from 45 to 90 days to allow more time for commenting on a document that will be more than 20,000 pages, the letter states.
The letter, signed by Bob Anderson, SOHA’s vice president and transportation committee chair, says Metro has not been forthcoming about the massive project that will potentially impact homes, traffic and aesthetics in Sherman Oaks.
Metro is considering six alternative routes, either by a monorail (alternatives 1-3) or underground heavy rail (alternatives 4-6) that would become the first transit project to connect the San Fernando Valley with L.A.’s Westside. It would be built either over or under the Santa Monica Mountains, offering an alternative to driving the busy 405 Freeway.
If Metro does not answer SOHA’s questions, most of which center on cost estimates, funding sources, outreach and use of eminent domain, the group will ask federal and state agencies that have given billions of dollars in grants to other Metro rail projects to withhold funding for the Sepulveda Pass project until all questions are answered and posted on the transit agency’s website.
SOHA has given Metro until Thursday, March 14, to answer all of its questions before it tells outside funding agencies “that Metro has withheld essential project information from the public,” the letter states.
“We’d like to be able to get their funding canceled or put on hold,” Anderson said in an interview on March 4. “If you want to call it a threat, call it a threat.”
Stephanie Wiggins, Metro CEO, responded to the letter in an…
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