Metro Board Meets Thursday on Westside Subway Extension

The Metro Board of Directors is expected to discuss and make a decision about the Westside Subway Extension stops in Beverly Hills, Century City, Westwood and the Veterans Administration Medical Center in a meeting Thursday morning.

The meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. at Metro headquarters, 1 Gateway Plaza. The board room is on the third floor.

Last Thursday, a public hearing on the placement of the Century City subway stop was held . During the meeting, that there are no active faults on Santa Monica Boulevard. that would reach the Metro-recommended subway stop at Constellation Boulevard and Avenue of the Stars that would not involve tunneling under Beverly Hills High School—the heart of the issue.

Metro staff recommended Tuesday that the , despite the testimony from Beverly Hills' consultants. Also on Tuesday, an attorney for Beverly Hills Unified School District the decision on the subway route be deferred until geologists with expertise in the area can agree on the safest route for the subway.

The board is also expected to discuss the extension of Measure R, the half-cent sales tax increase, past 2039 in order to speed up local transit projects.

For complete coverage from Patch of the Westside Subway Extension, click here.

Earlier this week:

Steve Hymon of Metro's blog "The Source" posted the following in advance of the Thursday board meeting:

As for the subway issue, I think it’s pretty clear that Metro’s staff, consultants and experts believe there is abundant physical evidence that tells them that building a subway station or tunnel along Santa Monica Boulevard would be a bad idea because of earthquake faults along that street.

A fault is like a seam. Seams tear. And that’s the simple non-scientific reason that building along faults is undesirable.

It’s also pretty clear that Metro staff, consultants and experts have not seen any physical evidence to convince them that Santa Monica Boulevard is a safe place to build.

Obviously, Beverly Hills feels differently. They want more studies done. They don’t want a subway that will tunnel under part of the Beverly Hills High School campus to reach a Constellation Boulevard station in Century City — as per the proposal by Metro staff.

I don’t like to guess what the Metro Board will do, so we’ll see. I will guess that the conversation will involve this question: if litigation is inevitable, is it better to get to that unfortunate step sooner or later? A judge will either uphold Metro’s studies or ask they be re-done. A judge isn’t likely to draw a line on a map and say “the subway will go here.”

One other thought: some of the rhetoric and name-calling coming from both sides of the issue is ridiculous. It also just goes to show that many adults have no ability to control their impulses when seated before a keyboard, internet browser and comment board.

I’m trying to keep the discussion on The Source focused on the issues at hand. There’s no denying that Beverly Hills and Metro are in a mighty big dispute, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a civil discussion about it.

Will you attend Thursday's Metro board meeting? What do you hope the board will decide? Tell us in the comments below.

A previous version of this article mistated the time of the Metro meeting. It starts at 9 a.m.