Opposite Sides of the Tracks
Every five to 15 minutes, a proposed extension of the Metro Green Line would pass within 100 feet of 1,000 North Redondo Beach and Lawndale residents.
by Garth Meyer
Tanker trains run 66 feet from Chelsea Schreiber’s backyard, and 66 feet from her neighbor on the other side of the tracks. Two trains per day go by, at 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m.
If an extension of the Metro Green Line light rail is built there, as is being studied, the freight tracks would be moved 20 feet closer to Schreiber’s fence.
The light rail trains would go by every five to 15 minutes.
“Everybody moved here knowing the (tanker tracks) were there. The surprise is Metro” said Shreiber, who lives with her husband, four-year-old son and baby daughter on 163rd Street and Condon in Lawndale.
A similar situation exists for an estimated 700 North Redondo Beach homeowners and renters along the tracks. About 1,000 people in Lawndale and North Redondo live within 100 feet of the freight tracks.
An alternative route is for Metro to run its Green Line extension down the median of Hawthorne Boulevard, on raised tracks, through the commercial corridor by South Bay Galleria (soon to be redeveloped as South Bay Social District).
For the first option – between the backyards – Metro owns the right-of-way land.
This route would cost less than elevated tracks down Hawthorne (like a Chicago L-Train). How much less would depend on if the right-of-way tracks were laid at ground level, or set in a 20- to 40-foot deep trench.
Price estimates are $2.96 billion for the Hawthorne option, $2.84 billion for the trench option past the Lawndale and North Redondo backyards and $1.96 billion for the ground level option past the backyards.
On Jan. 26, Metro released a 1,008-page Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) about these proposals.
Now Metro gathers public input on the DEIR. Metro public meetings have included a session in Lawndale Feb. 15 and another at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center a week later.
At Lawndale, Jay Gould, an activist and local resident had a heart attack during public comment, after which Metro shut down the meeting.
The view looking south from 163rd and Condon Ave. in Lawndale, into North Redondo Beach, along the Metro right-of-way in which a light rail train may be added next to the freight tracks.
Fourteen people had spoken in the one-minute time slots.
“People were shouting. People just stood up and rioted, basically,” said Shreiber, of the reaction to the meeting’s end. “The fight’s just getting started. We’re examining the facts and we’re getting ready to fight.”
She ordered 11 hard copies of the Draft Environmental Report from Metro to give to neighbors. On Monday, her family’s dog was killed by a passing tanker train.
Pros and Cons
The Hawthorne option also has opponents.
“The Torrance City Council unanimously supports the Metro Railroad Right-of-Way (by the backyards) alignment,” said Torrance Mayor George Chen, in a statement to Easy Reader. “This allows the train to utilize existing railroad right-of-way to connect with the new Regional Transit Center in Torrance. The Right-of-Way alignment offers the least impact to local businesses, residents, traffic flow, construction, parking and landscaping.”
The Hawthorne choice would mean the elimination of 20 parking spots in the median.
“This alignment is more expensive, would take longer to complete, would require significant property acquisition, and would create major traffic congestion for South Bay commuters as well as cast large shadows on businesses,” Mayor Chen said.
The Green Line extension project is being funded by sales taxes approved by Los Angeles County voters (Measure R in 2008, and Measure M in 2016).
Metro states that the Green Line addition will connect the South Bay to its expanding rail network, “to provide faster and more efficient access to the region, including LAX.”
The final stop of the Green Line extension would be Torrance.
Impacts
The above-ground option along the right-of-way would result in “Significant and Unavoidable” noise during construction and during operation, according to the DEIR.
The trench option would also bring “Significant and Unavoidable” air quality, noise and vibration problems, but only during construction.
For the Hawthorne Boulevard path, noise and vibration were termed “Significant and Unavoidable,” only during construction.
For all three choices, Land Use Planning, Aesthetics, Biological Resources, Geology, Soils and Paleontological Resources, Cultural Resources and Tribal Cultural Resources were all found to have “Less than Significant Impact with Mitigation.”
Categorized as “Low Impact/Less Than Significant Impact” were Transportation, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Hazards and Hazardous Materials, Hydrology and Water Quality, Utilities and Service Systems, Energy and Public Services.
Georgia Sheridan, Metro project manager, addresses North Redondo residents gathered for a walk-through meeting last April. Photo by Zein Obagi, Jr.
A diagram of the right-of-way trench option, appearing in the Draft Environmental Report Executive Summary. Courtesy Metro
Routes
The Hawthorne tracks would run parallel to the I-405 between Inglewood Avenue and Hawthorne, following the boulevard south from 162nd Street to 190th. All of the 2.7-mile route would be elevated. A station would be built just off South Bay Galleria – in the median between Artesia and 177th Street.
The near-backyards, ground-level route would follow Metro’s Harbor Subdivision railroad right-of-way for 4.5 miles in a north-south corridor from the Redondo Beach (Marine) Station, cutting southeast to the Torrance Transit Center. The project area includes parts of Redondo Beach, Torrance, Hawthorne and Lawndale.
The trench right-of-way option would go along the right-of-way between the Redondo Beach (Marine) Station and 190th Street, in both above-ground stretches and below ground. In the north part, it would travel for two miles, crossing under eight streets (Inglewood Avenue to 182nd Street).
Metro considered four options for extending the Green Line. In 2018, its board voted to move forward with two for environmental analysis.
In February 2022, after community response in the lead-up to the DEIR, Metro added the trench alternative.
Also last year, Metro determined that the Hawthorne tracks would need to be on a raised platform, for safety reasons.
The overall question at hand is, should the South Bay rail line extension go down the median of Hawthorne Boulevard on a high track or down a railroad right-of-way past backyards?
A rendering of two possible routes for the Green Line extension. Image courtesy Metro
in either scenario, the Green Line extension is scheduled to open for riders between 2030-33.
The freight tracks were built before the neighborhoods grew up alongside.
The Redondo Beach planning commission took up the matter of the DEIR at its Feb. 16 meeting. The City Council is scheduled to discuss the Green Line extension at its March 14 and March 21 meetings.
City staff will then submit a letter to Metro with the council’s views on the DEIR.
“It can’t just be complaints,” said District 3 Councilman Christian Horvath. “It has to be specifically about the environmental impact findings.”
The council previously gave its input to Metro five years ago, in a letter drafted by Horvath, who was then chair of the transportation committee of the South Bay Cities Council of Governments. That letter suggested Metro study a trench option for the right-of-way and an elevated version for Hawthorne. At that time, Hawthorne was proposed at ground level.
A rally in opposition to the right-of-way option was held Feb. 11, organized by Right-of-Say, which gave out 80 signs promoting the cause. Photographer unknown, taken on Candace Nafissi’s phone
“Trenching might make a big difference in quality of life,” Horvath said.
District Four Councilman Zein Obagi, Jr. concurs.
“I’ve only read the (DEIR) executive summary so far,” said Obagi, who represents neighborhoods that the backyards-option goes through. “It moves the heavy train closer to residences.”
He cites the fundamental drawbacks to this as ground shake, noise and threat to safety.
“Derailments happen,” Obagi said.
He tells of residents of Breakwater Village, a retirement community along the proposed line, already having to readjust pictures on their walls after the tanker trains pass by every day.
The trench option, the councilman said, is not viable.
“The land there is more or less sand. It crumbles,” he said. “A 30-foot deep trench right next to a heavy train. That doesn’t make physical sense.”
The reason for the trench is so the light rail does not have to cross traffic, and would have no need to sound its bell.
Hawthorne is Obagi’s choice.
“It’s a fantastic option. It’s going to get more ridership. It’s going to pass by the front of the mall,” he said. “Redondo Beach is united on this.”
He spoke on the topic three different times during a Torrance council meeting last year.
“The real problem is (the light rail) doesn’t get to downtown L.A. in an efficient manner. It’s not going to get ridden. Metro is already struggling with low ridership,” Obagi said.
He mentions a “no-build” option.
“Why would you spend two billion dollars for something that the community doesn’t support and nobody is going to ride?”
Mitigating circumstances
At the Feb. 22 meeting at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, Metro representatives told of mitigation equipment it would use to cut down on the sound of a light rail train: sound walls, shrouds over bells, wheel lubrication, resilient fasteners which shake less, “low-impact frogs” (a rail design feature at crossings which reduces noise) and more.
Metro’s goal for extending the Green Line is to thin congestion on the 405, and expand access to the South Bay by linking to the current Metro Rail K (Crenshaw), A (Blue) and J lines.
Mark Dierking, Metro community outreach coordinator, told the Performing Arts Center audience that alternatives to a Green Line extension have been considered. These included no project at all and running high-frequency buses.
Light rail attracts more riders than buses, Dierking said. Metro estimates the Green Line extension would have 4,000 to 5,000 new daily riders.
A man gives public input at the Feb. 22 Metro meeting at Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center. Photo by Garth Meyer
No residential acquisitions for either the right-of-way or Hawthorne options are anticipated, he said, though commercial acquisitions would be needed on Hawthorne.
“All public comment is to be formally responded to in our final EIR,” said Georgia Sheridan, Metro project manager.
“I think the two choices will end up being the right-of-way and nothing,” said Laura Emdee, Redondo Beach District Five City Council Representative. “I think the Metro board doesn’t have faith that South Bay residents would use it. It’s an educated guess. I’m just speculating.”
The Metro board has 13 members, including the five Los Angeles County Supervisors.
The public comment period began Jan. 26 and ends March 27. The Metro board will make its choice during a public board meeting in the spring.
Once the decision is made, a Final EIR is to be completed, followed by further design work, and a construction schedule.
Advocates
Right-of-Say, a community group against the right-of-way option, began five years ago.
“I’ve never been a community activist or advocate before, I’ve never been politically active but this is a very important issue,” said Niki, a Right-of-Say organizer who lives on 182nd Street in North Redondo. (She asked that her last name not be printed.)
The freight track is now 30 feet from a cinder-block barrier she and her husband put up 13 years ago after a wood fence blew down.
A right-of-way Green Line extension would move the tanker track to 23 feet from her back wall.
She has lived at the house for 15 years.
Niki recalled the “sinkhole at Ruxton Place,” an incident in 2020, during pipeline maintenance next to a residential development south of Artesia Boulevard.
Chelsea Schreiber gives public input at Metro’s Lawndale meeting Feb. 15, along with her five month-old daughter.
“You don’t have to be Einstein to figure out that if you can’t do routine maintenance in a small area without (a possible sinkhole), how can you dig out the entire swath without risk of compromising the buildings,” she said. “It’s all housing. This is really a game-stopper.”
She was at last Wednesday’s meeting at the Performing Arts Center, and spoke three times.
“The attendance was shockingly low,” said Niki, contrasting it with a 2018 Metro meeting when the original four alternatives were presented.
“I think people might’ve lost hope,” she said. “… A lot of us would be happy with no project at all.”
“Metro’s job is to improve people’s ability to get around,” said Horvath. “I would be shocked if the Metro board did nothing.”
Public comments may be sent by email to greenlineextension@metro.net or given by voicemail at (213) 922-4004. Comments may be sent in regular mail to: Georgia Sheridan, Project Manager, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, One Gateway Plaza, Mail Stop: 99-22-3, Los Angeles, CA 90012. ER