Santa Monica Boulevard to Get a Two-for-One Make-Over Deal

Call it a face lift on a grand scale: a colossal $68.2-million project to transform two of the most heavily traveled streets on the Westside of Los Angeles into one grand boulevard.

This make-over will be no easy undertaking, requiring two years of construction.

When the dust settles, Santa Monica Boulevard and its longtime companion, Little Santa Monica Boulevard, will be reborn as a heavily landscaped roadway that can handle up to 20% more traffic than the current thoroughfares.

There will be bike lanes, broad sidewalks, plenty of trees and fewer of the mind-boggling intersections that back traffic up and leave motorists gritting their teeth.

Many of the billboards that now make the street a bewildering visual maze will be gone when the dirt median that was once a railroad right-of-way is eliminated.

While not minimizing the challenge posed by construction, county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said the new Santa Monica Boulevard will be a “beautiful gateway to West Los Angeles rather than the dysfunctional and ugly street it is today.”

For years, planners from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the city of Los Angeles have been working to address the concerns of residents, neighborhood groups, businesses and property owners along a 2 1/2-mile stretch of the boulevard from the San Diego Freeway on the west through Century City to the Beverly Hills city line on the east.

Their attention to detail is paying off. As Thursday’s critical vote by the MTA Board of Directors on a final environmental impact report approaches, there is little neighborhood opposition to the project.

The most powerful critic at this point is the Mormon Church, which wants a traffic light and a new entrance to its landmark temple that stands tall above the boulevard. That issue remains unresolved. The church has hired a major law firm and City Hall lobbyist to represent its interests.

Maria Rychlicki, director of transportation for Beverly Hills, said her city remains concerned about the impact of the project on the intersection of Santa Monica and Wilshire boulevards. A recent insurance company study ranked the crossroads as one of the worst intersections in the nation based on the number of traffic accidents there.

Beverly Hills also has concerns about how the project will affect Moreno Drive, a residential street just east of where the project would end.

But in a part of Los Angeles where the mere mention of new development can unleash a torrent of criticism, the Santa Monica Parkway project has sparked relatively little hue and cry.

Instead, many of the suggestions of residents, homeowners associations and businesses have been incorporated into the project’s plans, including measures to prevent commuters from cutting through residential areas.

Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Feuer, who represents the area, said officials have carefully listened to the community and responded. “It has been clear to neighboring residents and businesses that we are very determined to address their concerns. . . . People’s comments have been taken very seriously.” Otherwise, Feuer said, “We’d be seeing a firestorm of protest.”

Indeed, at an MTA committee meeting Thursday, Carolyn Spencer, representing homeowners in an area north of the boulevard, praised the project. She said the parkway would improve traffic flow, minimize adverse impacts on the neighborhood, improve aesthetic values and maintain the viability of businesses.

Representatives of a homeowners group south of the boulevard expressed reservations about the project, including unspecified plans to build a parking lot in a residential area next to the street.

Bob Cimiluca, president of the Westwood South of Santa Monica Boulevard Homeowners Assn., said he is concerned about the impact on his area during construction. “We’ll be left to live there,” he said.

The “Classic Boulevard” concept essentially involves making the two Santa Monica Boulevards function as one. There will be three lanes of traffic eastbound and three westbound, separated by a new median lined with jacaranda trees.

On the north side of the boulevard beginning in Century City and heading west will be a new single-lane westbound frontage road separated from the main roadway by another tree-lined median. To restrict commuter access to residential areas from the main roadway, that median will extend for blocks with few breaks. Parking spaces will be available on the street in front of businesses.

On the south side, where Little Santa Monica Boulevard is today, the frontage road will take on a different character. Beginning just east of Sepulveda Boulevard, plans call for a single-lane eastbound frontage road separated from the main boulevard by another tree-lined median. However, in the stretch between Overland Avenue and Beverly Glen Boulevard, the south frontage road will carry two-way traffic. From Beverly Glen to Century Park West the frontage road will again be a single lane eastbound.

The newly configured street will be dramatically different in Century City, with direct access from the main roadway into and out of the shopping center and the major north-south streets lined with office buildings.

Although the reconfigured route is billed as a “transit parkway,” its only exclusive bus lanes will be in a short stretch of the combined boulevard through Century City. The concept calls for bus stops off the main roadway, but not the type of technology that would allow buses to change traffic lights from red to green to speed movement.

Alan Patashnick, project manager for the MTA, said the project will reduce delays and improve traffic flow, eliminate most of the double intersections, provide landscaping and remove the billboards along the old railroad right-of-way.

Controversial History

The former Southern Pacific railroad property was purchased in 1992 with $27 million in county transit sales tax money.

Patashnick said current traffic volume on Santa Monica Boulevard ranges from 40,000 to 66,000 vehicles per day, with the heaviest traffic closer to the San Diego Freeway. He said estimates of traffic volume for the year 2020 exceed 80,000 vehicles a day.

The parkway project also features improvements to the southbound freeway onramp, including a new carpool lane.

Plans to improve Santa Monica Boulevard have a long and controversial history. In the 1970s, the California Department of Transportation wanted to build a Beverly Hills freeway along the route, but intense public opposition killed the idea. A series of other studies were undertaken after the freeway idea was abandoned.

An MTA proposal to create a roadway with four lanes in each direction, plus an exclusive bus lane on each side, a bikeway and a landscaped median was rejected in 1994 because it was seen as too much like a freeway.

By reducing delays, Patashnick said, the latest parkway concept could allow an increase in traffic capacity “somewhere in the 17% to 20% range.”

However, he said, the MTA does not believe that the project itself will encourage more growth. “This is a densely populated area. This area would grow anyway if nothing was done,” he said.

The current environmental impact analysis--required by state and federal law--has been underway for almost two years. The environmental documents are manifold, filling three substantial volumes. After an extensive outreach campaign, Patashnick said about 900 comments were received.

Although the environmental work was done by the MTA, the project will be built by the city of Los Angeles. The MTA board will be asked Thursday to approve the final environmental impact report and a series of agreements, including the transfer of the old railroad right-of-way to the city.

Once the City Council has considered the project, final design work can begin. Construction is slated to start in 2002 and end in 2004, with the work being done in stages. The project will be paid for with local, state and federal funds.

Yaroslavsky has worked on the issue throughout his long political career--as a city councilman representing the Westside and as a county supervisor and MTA board member. He is pleased with the outcome.

“This is a project and a process which has worked the right way,” he said. “This is a major project. It is major in cost. It is major in disruption and in the benefits . . . to the neighborhood.”

Yaroslavsky readily admits that the actual construction is “not going to be pretty,” but he said it can be done in stages to ease the impact on commuters, residents and businesses. “Even people who came to this very hostile have come to realize this is a plus for them,” he said.