With the prospect of a new light rail line coming to Downtown Los Angeles from the southeast, downtown businesses and civic groups have been pushing for that line to be built underground.
Last month, they got their initial wish as the board of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) voted in favor of a motion advancing the undergrounding of the Southeast Gateway Line through downtown.
The motion also directs the agency to pursue funding for the entire line to Artesia through an Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District, which diverts additional future property taxes from new development along the rail corridor to establish a repayment stream for financing the project. Such a financing district could generate as much as $2.5 billion in revenue that could be used to repay up-front project financing, according to an estimate from the Solutions Alameda Coalition that represents the downtown business and civic community.
The Southeast Gateway Line, formerly known as the West Santa Ana Branch line, has been decades in the planning stages. After traveling south along the Metro A Line corridor, it would turn southeast and follow a largely abandoned rail line that will head from what’s now the Watts Towers to a transit station in Artesia. The total cost has been pegged at nearly $9 billion.
Two phases of project
Metro has split the 19.3-mile route into two phases: the first is a 14.5-mile segment from Artesia to the Slauson Avenue station along the Metro A Line, formerly known as the Blue Line. It is the second segment, a 4.8-mile stretch from the Slauson Avae. station to Union Station in downtown, that has generated the concern from the coalition. Metro has been considering two options: an elevated guideway and an underground tunnel.
The Solutions Alameda Coalition was formed in part to advocate for the underground option. The coalition includes the Central City Association, which advocates for downtown businesses and property owners. The association also represents the interests of some downtown area neighborhood councils, nonprofits including the Weingart Center and Chrysalis and individual businesses such as Los Angeles Cold Storage and Atlas Capital Group. It also includes the Los Angeles/Orange County Building and Construction Trades Council, a major local union.
In pushing for the costlier underground option, the coalition contends that an elevated guideway would divide streets, lessen access to local businesses and take away from the community feeling.
“Today’s vote is a watershed moment for Downtown Los Angeles and the entire region,” said Mark Falcone, the coalition’s chair. “Undergrounding the Southeast Gateway is not just good transit policy, it’s a statement about who we value and where we are going as a region.”
To help pay for the higher-cost underground option, the coalition has urged Metro to join an effort already underway from some of the jurisdictions along the route to form an Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District, or EIFD. These districts are successor entities to redevelopment agencies that were disbanded statewide a decade ago. They use the same tax increment financing mechanism that redevelopment agencies did. Tax increment financing captures tax revenue generated from increased development within the target zone and uses that revenue to help subsidize the development – in this case, the rail line.
“Our members build the infrastructure of this region – and we want to build it the right way,” said Ernesto Medrano, executive secretary of the Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council.
