Council’s Transit Chief Endorses Rail Station, Commercial Project : Transportation: Backing of a commuter link between Moorpark and downtown Los Angeles helps assure the project’s success, proponents say.

Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden, chairman of the council’s Transportation Committee, on Monday threw his support behind plans to create a commuter train station and adjoining commercial complex in Chatsworth.

Councilman Hal Bernson, whose 12th District includes the proposed station site, said Holden’s endorsement will help ensure the project’s success, and Holden predicted that the City Council would support the effort financially.

“When the money is needed, it will be available,” Holden said.

A commuter rail line planned by the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission would link Moorpark in Ventura County with downtown Los Angeles, using the present tracks through the northern San Fernando Valley. The Chatsworth station would occupy a now-vacant 13-acre property south of Devonshire Street between Owensmouth and Canoga avenues, the site of a Southern Pacific train station that was torn down in 1962.

Bernson and Holden, joined by Nikolas Patsaouras, president of the Southern California Rapid Transit District board of directors, endorsed the project at a press conference staged in front of the fenced-off site. They predicted that the Chatsworth stop for the commuter line would ease traffic congestion in the northwest San Fernando Valley and neighboring Simi Valley.

The county Transportation Commission expects to close escrow soon on the $17-million site, said Patsaouras, a member of the commission. Patsaouras said the cost would be offset by contributions from the city of Los Angeles and the private sector.

Holden said he could not predict how much money the Los Angeles City Council would contribute toward the project.

Bernson has described the station as a “super transit center” where commuters could catch airport shuttles and taxis. As envisioned by Holden, Bernson, Patsaouras and the Chatsworth Chamber of Commerce, the center would include a park-and-ride lot, child-care center, shops, restaurants and perhaps a movie theater.

But some critics say the extra traffic generated by the project would overwhelm the area.

Walter Prince, one of five candidates running against Bernson in the April 9 City Council election, said the ambitious project, especially the proposed commercial outlets, should be scaled back.

“Just like Porter Ranch,” Prince said, comparing the station to the controversial commercial and housing development. “We don’t object to the idea. It’s the size of the thing.”

The Chatsworth station is scheduled to open in the fall of 1992, with train service beginning in September or October. The transportation commission is also searching for station sites in Van Nuys, Burbank and Glendale. Bernson said some Northridge residents are pushing for a station in their community too.

A separate commuter rail line passing through the San Fernando Valley would link downtown Los Angeles with Santa Clarita, and officials in that city have singled out property near the Saugus Speedway as a tentative site for a commuter rail station there.