Wrangling delays Metro stations' projects; confusion, poor planning stymie joint developments.

Wrangling delays Metro stations' projects

Los Angeles officials are worried that joint development opportunities around Metro Rail stations are being derailed by "haphazard planning" and bureaucratic confusion.

The Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, builder of the region's huge subway system, has the lead role in working with private developers to build commercial facilities around the eight depots that will be part of Metro Rail's $1.4 billion second phase. While the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency and the city Planning Department also have a say, there is no overall coordinating group.

"There has not been communication among the agencies," said Nick Patsaouras, an LACTC board member and president of the Southern California Rapid Transit District. "As a result there have been conflicting goals and haphazard planning that, as it stands now, will be detrimental to the system's efficiency and possibly safety."

Because of the confusion, officials are considering formation of a standing committee made up of officials from various agencies and are pushing the Planning Department to develop specific plans, which include spelling out zoning, density and sidewalk length in set areas.

There are no approved joint development deals, which are essentially public-private partnerships, on the books of either the City Council or the LACTC.

Development around the stations has been touted as a way to revitalize blighted parts of the city while giving the private sector a chance to share in the financial rewards of being near a depot. Each station is estimated to cost between $40 million and $50 million. However, development costs around the station for office buildings or retail outlets have not formulated.

The need for more centralized planning became obvious, sources said, when a disagreement broke out between the LACTC's management arm, the Rail Construction Corp., and the CRA over a proposed subway depot at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue. The Rail Construction Corp., eager to keep the subway segment on budget and under deadline, proposed eliminating one of two subway entrances. But the CRA and others worry about forcing passengers to cross one of the city's busiest streets.

"Metro Rail is the largest public works project in the United States, spending million of dollars per square inch, without specific plans for the stations," said Patrick Michell, legislative deputy to Councilman Mike Woo, who represents Hollywood. Woo now wants a master plan for the vicinity of six Hollywood subway stations, though Patsaouras faulted him for not taking a more "aggressive" approach early on.

In recent weeks, Patsaouras has publicly assailed tentative joint development plans for two stations, calling them inadequate in their focus to breathe economic life into downtrodden areas.

The CRA, for example, was planning to build a strip shopping center for the terminal at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Western Avenue. The agency, in an about-face, now wants a four-square-block master plan with commercial and retail space and bus feeder points, as Patsaouras wanted.

Part of the problem, officials say, is differences in the bureaucratic mission of each agency involved.

"The Planning Department has not done Metro Rail specific plans, the CRA has attempted to plan on a station-by-station basis and the RCC wants to build as cheap as possible," said CRA Board member Norm Emerson. "If we are investing millions upon millions in transit, we need to make land use decisions that make sense and have a mechanism so that the public sector and developers can participate."

Judy Weiss, LACTC executive deputy director, acknowledged the problems, but said the commission will hire a director for joint development soon.

"Some of the commissioners, especially Patsaouras, are concerned that we don't lose the opportunity and I share that," Weiss said. "Joint development, done right, is more than a cash register. It's an opportunity to create important urban space, where people use transit and create economic development. It's an evolutionary process for the LACTC."

Los Angeles Director of Planning Melanie Fallon said the city and the LACTC are working on details to fund a $1 million study for specific plans and environmental studies around the stations. But so far, she said, the effort has been hampered by the city's budget crunch.

"We know we need to do it but we have five times more work than our staff" can accommodate, she said.

The RTD, as part of a $1 billion plan to jointly develop six of its sites, announced last February that it will build a $200 million office/retail project with Catellus Development Corp. at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles.

Construction consortium Tutor-Saliba-Perini was awarded one of the first phase-two contracts, an $80 million deal to build a tunnel from Wilshire Boulevard and Alvarado Street to Wilshire and Western Avenue, as well as to a nearby station.