Lawmakers eye rail construction as a good planning opportunity.

Hidden by the hoopla trumpeting the end of commuter gridlock is the likelihood the rebirth of the Southland's long-dormant rail network could mean a halt to decades of scattershot development and urban sprawl.

Fueling the change is $150 billion the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission plans on spending on light rails, commuter trains, subways and highway upgrades between now and the year 2020.

To offset the impact of expected population growth, regional and local officials are now hoping to cluster new commercial and residential development around so-called "transit corridors" and the rail stations that feed into them.

In the city of Pasadena, for example, where a light rail will connect it to downtown Los Angeles by 1996, officials are pondering how to incorporate land-use planning around rail stations in a revamp of the city's all-important general plan. Likewise, officials in Claremont, Industry, Riverside and Santa Ana are also looking at integrating their major employment and residential centers around rail lines.

Since the end of World War II, when Los Angeles' population began to skyrocket, commercial development was invariably planned around freeways and major highways. Geography, urban sprawl and free-flowing commutes funneled residential life into the suburbs, new housing subdivisions or around job hubs called "city centers." When the drive or overcrowded urban conditions grew unbearable, many left for Orange, Riverside or San Bernardino counties.

During the same time, as homeowner groups became more influential, Southland commercial zoning guidelines failed to emphasize transportation or mixed-use development possibilities.

The Southern California Association of Governments has projected that the ensuing gridlock costs Los Angeles-area business at least $2 billion a year in shipment costs and wasted employee time.

"The problem is that we have a development community that looks at automobile access as the sole means because they have no experience with transit orientations," said Bob Huddy, a senior transportation planner at SCAG. "In many cases cities have the same problems."

Symptomatic of the mindset, according to Huddy, is the panoply of automobile-related rules municipalities impose on developers, like so-called "trip fees" and requirements to construct parking lots adjacent to projects.

Conversely, some regional and municipal governments have taken the other path, proposing regulations that would reduce the stream of automobiles clogging local freeways and streets every day. Examples include Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley's controversial plan to ban roughly 70 percent of heavy trucks from city streets during peak business hours and the South Coast Air Quality Management's stricture forcing all companies with more than 100 workers to develop rideshare programs.

Now after nearly six months of bureaucratic wrangling and complaints about funding shortfalls, Los Angeles city planning, transportation and redevelopment leaders have agreed to master-plan commercial and residential structures around the stations of the multibillion-dollar 17-mile Metro Rail subway system -- that will begin initial operations in 1993.

And in mid-November, the Los Angeles City Council formally endorsed a new affordable housing plan -- part of a $100 million application for federal aid -- calling for low-cost housing around rail lines. The plan also stirred renewed calls for mixed-use development, where housing, office and retail space is merged.

The value of transportation-oriented development was high back in the 1920s, when the old, 1,160-mile "Red Car" system shuttled people around. Back then, developers would routinely ask for extensions of that system to make their property more valuable. Most recently, transit center development was revisted in the L.A. 2000 Report, a regional study released in November 1988.

The report noted: "Without bold action, congestion on our roads and freeways will only worsen. Even with completion of the first phase of Metro Rail and light rail projects under construction, 96 percent of us will still travel by car. At the same time, distances between home and work are increasing along with the number of drivers, which is multiplying faster than the population, with the result that the average morning rush-hour speed on the entire freeway system in the year 2000 is forecast to be 17 miles per hour, or roughly half the speed in 1980."

However, at least one transit official said he believes Los Angeles City Hall is still moving too sluggishly.

Nick Patsaouras, former board chairman of the Southern California Rapid Transit District and an outspoken LACTC board member, said he attended an urban affairs meeting last month but barely heard a word about transit-oriented development.

"During their formal presentation, the mayors from Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Culver City and three other cities did not refer to rail one iota," Patsaouras said. "Not ever whispering the idea that housing should be linked to bus and rail routes, until they were asked, is astonishing, like they are not emotionally connected to it."

Larry Kosmont, president of Kosmont & Associates, a Burbank based real estate consulting outfit, said developers are taking a "wait-and-see" approach to the new development idea.

"Transit-related development isn't going to be a true reality until the transportation systems actually get there," Kosmont said. "Also unclear is the incentive near the lines. Will mixed use be the preferred use? Will affordable housing be induced? And once we start looking at a specific site, will there be the incentive to change the zoning?"

To get a better handle on the "big picture," the LACTC is conducting a three-tier study to understand the connection and demand for development along the 140 miles of light rail and 160 miles of commuter rail planned for Los Angeles County, according to Nancy Michali, a senior project manager with the commission.

One thrust of that study is how Los Angeles can manage development near subway stations and growth around commuter and light rail routes like Portland, San Jose and Sacramento have tried to do. A draft of the LACTC report, done in cooperation with the city, is expected by December.

"If we can get Los Angeles moving on this, then'll take on the rest of the county," said Michali. "Back during the time the Red Car was running, we had some logic and organization and then we blew it. Now we are trying to put some logic back and a lot of people are waiting to see."

Areas ripe for either commercial or mixed-use development are along commuter rail routes outside of populated Los Angeles areas, officials said. For example, the LACTC is negotiating with Santa Fe Railway to buy 310 miles of rights of way and trackage rights for six commuter rails linking downtown Los Angeles with outlying areas in Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, San Diego and Los Angeles counties.

While much of the land adjacent to Santa Fe's rights of way is developed, much is not and could be tempting for developers.

"Santa Fe land banked a lot of space in the heart of some small towns where someone could come in and build a mixed-use development," Michali said. "It could be exciting."