MTA FREEZES MILLIONS IN FUNDS FOR PROJECTS.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

MTA chief Roger Snoble has abruptly frozen as much as $700 million allocated for hundreds of future transportation projects across Los Angeles County in response to California's budget crisis, officials said Tuesday.

Anticipating drastic cuts in state funding, Snoble exercised his unilateral authority and eliminated the so-called Call for Projects - the primary avenue for the county and its 88 cities to compete for transportation money. Local governments had submitted applications for some 300 projects for funding in 2008-09, including car-pool lanes, road improvements and bikeways.

``We are fully aware of the time, effort, and expense that project sponsors undertook in preparing their applications,'' said a letter distributed through Snoble to the MTA's 13 board members. ``It would, however, be unfair to raise project applicants' hopes of funding new projects when funding is being taken away from existing transportation projects.''

Many planners had been bracing for the freeze, and others said it made sense for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to salvage ongoing projects rather than embarking on new ones.

``We're not surprised they're not having the Call for 2003, but that is not to say we are not disappointed - we are very disappointed,'' said James Okazaki, assistant general manager of Los Angeles' Department of Transportation, which had applied for $300 million for 150 projects - likely the biggest applicant in the biannual process.

``I guess access, mobility and traffic congestion relief issues are going to be on the back burner until we find more money.''

MTA board member John Fasana and others said they don't expect the MTA will be able to open up a new Call for Projects process for years.

Fasana also said officials of the San Gabriel Valley had previously encouraged the agency to stop the Call for Projects so it could focus on completing ongoing projects like the Alameda Corridor East, rather than starting new ones.

``Just trying to keep the wheels on our existing projects is paramount,'' said Fasana, the Duarte mayor. ``It seemed like a bad time to start new projects.''

Cancelling the Call for Projects is a first for the countywide transportation agency, which is feeling the impact of the state's budget crisis.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed reallocating $1 billion in transit money to help close a $15 billion shortfall in the general fund budget for fiscal 2004-05. The cuts would be in addition to billions of dollars previously slashed from congestion-relief projects.

Southern California's traffic congestion problems are already so severe, the region may not be able to meet its air-quality goals by summer - a crisis that threatens the loss of $8 billion in federal transportation funds through 2010.

MTA officials could not provide the list of applicants for the 2003 Call for Projects because they had not finished judging which would have been awarded funds, a spokesman said.

However, in all there were 363 projects valued at $2.3 billion seeking money from the MTA, said spokesman Ed Scannell.

Typically, the MTA is able to award $500 million to $700 million through the Call for Projects process, which happens every two years.

Funding comes from a mix of federal, state and local sources.

Most of the projects are constructed over multiyear funding cycles, and many of those now under way from past years will now see their completion dates deferred.

Among those now being pushed back include more than a dozen street improvement projects across the San Fernando Valley, as well as long- promised car-pool lanes on the Antelope Valley Freeway.

Officials of the Southern California Association of Governments, which is focusing on the bigger projects that can do the most to reduce smog - and salvage federal funding - said many of the new Call projects may have been smaller fixes that would not have had as great an impact.

But Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, who has been pressing for improvements to the 14 Freeway - feeding the fast-growing northern portion of the county - said deferring those projects would be unacceptable.

``We've had difficult funding realities facing us, but we haven't had as devastating as this,'' said Rosa Fuquay, the transportation deputy for Antonovich, who is also an MTA board member.

``Obviously we're concerned that projects that we've been fighting for for sometime, that have finally made it this far, now are being significantly set back,'' she said. ``To have them put them on the back burner is obviously disappointing and not acceptable.''

Lisa Mascaro, [phone]

lisa.mascaro(at)dailynews.com