One hundred and thirty-eight years ago, downtown Los Angeles was linked by rail to the coast 18 miles away. It’s been 51 years since that link, and rapid mass transit in the region, was broken with the disappearance of the famed Red Cars.

Los Angeles would like to rekindle the connection, but if the wealthy enclave of Beverly Hills has a say, the nine-mile, $5.6 billion subway extension might be delayed for a while.

The city filed a lawsuit last week against the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to block a subway route that would tunnel 50 feet beneath Beverly Hills High School in violation of environmental and transit laws. The lawsuit asks the federal government to withhold funding for the project until its concerns have been addressed.

In announcing the lawsuit, the city’s press release professed support for the subway project in general, just not the route. The suit claims that noise and pollution from the construction will be a threat to children and the surrounding community. The subway project, the suit says, would impede school district plans for a $340 million expansion of the 80-year-old structure, reportedly eligible for historic registry consideration.

The city lawsuit mirrors one filed nine months ago against the FTA by the Beverly Hills Unified School District. Beverly Hills residents say they were blindsided last August when a nearby route that would have missed the high school was quietly set aside. Planners said the chosen route is seismically safer and likely to experience heavier passenger use.    

The issue has been playing out for a year leading up to elections on March 5. The mayor and two city councilpersons initially opposed suing to block the subway, but eventually voted to fund the effort. The city attorney is the only Beverly Hills official quoted in the press release announcing the lawsuit.

–Ken Broder

To Learn More:

Beverly Hills Fights L.A. Subway Extension (by Matt Reynolds, Courthouse News Service)

City of Beverly Hills Files Lawsuit in Federal Court to Block Subway Funding (City of Beverly Hills) (pdf)

BH Files Separate Westside Subway Lawsuit (by Marie Cunningham and Sara Fay, Beverly Hills Patch)