The Time is Now: A Transportation/Land Use Plan for the "Lower Westside"

It is time for the "Lower Westside" to have its makeover, and I've no doubt that Mike Bonin and Eric Garcetti are up to the task. 

While the Promenade at Howard Hughes Center will be one the main beneficiaries of this attractive, trendy region, by no means is it the only one.  Office space, residential and new industrial projects are planned in Playa Vista and the surrounding regions, and is entirely within the paradigm of a "Silicon Beach" that new CD11 Councilmember Mike Bonin has championed, and which new Mayor Eric Garcetti has lionized. 

The "Lower Westside" is comprised of heretofore underdeveloped land (once called "open space", but I digress) that is south and east of Marina Del Rey and north of LAX.  It includes Playa Vista, Playa Del Rey, Del Rey and the northern region of Westchester.  Urban planners and sociologists might argue that this region extends to the region adjacent to Westfield Mall Culver City. 

And, of course, it shouldn't surprise anyone that such a young, vibrant region with extraordinary upside economic potential (it is certainly more affordable than overbuilt and overpriced Marina Del Rey and Santa Monica) is in need of a transportation/land use plan, and one that includes at least one major transit line... ...a transit line that is north-south in direction, and which has been advocated for over a generation by Friends of the Green Line and others who are trying to find a better alternative to the 405 freeway in getting around, and who still remember that the original Green Line was not only supposed to go to, but through, LAX up Lincoln Blvd. to Marina Del Rey. 

Such a transit line has an interesting dichotomy to it:  most transit analysts, including those conducting the Westside Regional Transit Plan, recognize that Sepulveda Blvd. has the most cost-effective benefits for such a transit line, but those living near and on the Lincoln Blvd. corridor are much more bullish about having it there. 

Unfortunately, the ham-handed LAX expansionist effort not only precludes (or at least makes it very difficult and expensive) for such a transit line to be built, but also blocks the existing Lincoln and Sepulveda Blvd. roadways as well as creates a host of environmental and quality of life issues that would impact this new, burgeoning "Lower Westside". 

Yet the LAX expansion issue has been painted as one that pits 21st Century-minded pro-growth economists against Westchester NIMBY's, which is anything but accurate because of its effects on the entire Westside, if not the entire LA County and Southern California. Although a county panel recently refused to require reconsideration by a LAX City Council to move the runway north into the current intersection of Lincoln/Sepulveda and southern Westchester--a move probably more motivated in pleasing contractors, chambers of commerce and union workers starving for work than in pursuing good land use/transportation policy--it did recommend LAWA offer critics of this move to offer alternatives (LINK). 

Realistically, one can save over a billion dollars by modernizing LAX and runway operations without knocking down the northern airline terminals and without expanding the northern runway, and realistically one can spruce up the Century Blvd., Sepulveda Blvd., Jefferson Blvd. and Lincoln Blvd. commercial corridors if a focused transportation/land use plan is created that includes the intent of Measure R-funded transit lines. 

Money is always an issue, but so is vision and political consensus.  Now that the contentious Expo and Crenshaw Lines are on their way to being built, a focus on connecting MetroRail with LAX and creating northern access points to LAX and Metro transit lines is a critical way to please current and future residents of the "Lower Westside" who--like most Millennials--want more transit lines. Because Millennials, more than other generations, equate transit access to mobility, economic opportunity, environmental benefits and enhanced quality of life (LINK). 

Questions of whether Metro can combine its Green and Crenshaw Lines into a single bifurcated line with a stop under LAX (probably the route that most county voters and taxpayers want), yet provide enough passenger capacity to have trains proceed through LAX every 5-10 minutes must be asked, and answered. 

Questions of whether Metro, LAWA or both should pay for a proposed People Mover train (or even if it should be a train) between the future Century/Aviation station and the central airline terminals must be asked, and answered. Questions of whether Metro-owned land at 96th and Jenny should be sold to LAWA, and whether connections between a People Mover and the Green/Crenshaw Metro lines should be created at both 96th/Jenny and Century/Aviation must be asked, and answered. 

Questions of whether the current focus of a Green Line extension to the Westside--which isn't Marina Del Rey but instead the intersection of LAX Parking Lot C, Lincoln and Sepulveda--should be part of a comprehensive land use/transportation plan for LAX must be asked, and answered. Eric Garcetti, as both mayoral candidate and mayor, recognizes that the ham-handed way LA World Airports (and its Executive Director Gina Marie Lindsey) smashed its northern airport expansion effort over the objections of opponents and created more confusion than clarification of what's best for the City and County of LA, but that powerful commercial and municipal interests are at stake and must be aligned in a plan that's best for all parties. 

Let me advise (as if my $.02 really means anything!) both Mayor Garcetti and Councilmember Bonin that a revisitation of the nearly-passed Measure J, which would have allowed more funds for current transportation projects (including a comprehensive transit policy to allow mobility from all corners of the county to, and through, LAX) needs to be performed so that a more passable measure can be presented to voters. 

The "Lower Westside" is one of the few locations that building and economic growth makes sense, and developing a transportation/land use plan that includes Culver City, Inglewood, the South Bay, Marina Del Rey (and therefore the county) and Santa Monica is a perfect example of how Mayor Garcetti and Councilmember Bonin can lead by example and by compromise in establishing the City of LA as a good neighbor. 

The Time is Now for a makeover of the "Lower Westside", and that includes a visionary transportation/land use plan championed by Garcetti, Bonin and other regional leaders to create a 21st Century economy, environmental policy and quality of life for Angelenos and their neighbors to work, live and play.

(Ken Alpern is a Westside Village Zone Director and Boardmember of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), previously co-chaired its Planning and Outreach Committees, and currently is Co-Chair of its MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11 Transportation Advisory Committee and chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at   [email protected] This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . He also co-chairs the grassroots Friends of the Green Line at www.fogl.us. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.)

-cw

CityWatch

Vol 11  Issue 75

Pub: Sept 17, 2013