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Light Rail for Cheviot is Cheviot Hills Homeowners advocating use of the existing “Exposition Right of Way” south of Northvale Road at the edge of our neighborhood

9. DOES EXPO MEET FEDERAL STANDARDS?

Yes. By law, Expo must be built according to the Federally-approved Safety and Environmental Protection plans.

Expo opponents make the misleading claim that Expo “did not qualify for Federal New Starts matching funds” and that “Expo's failure to secure federal money for this project puts safety, the environment, traffic, and neighborhood cohesion at risk for cost considerations.” (Cheviot Hills Homeowners’ Association, 7/30/07.)

Click here to read the truth from Caltrans.

Expo is federally approved, as set forth in the U.S. Department of Transportation, Record of Decision:

· “The U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration (FTA), has determined that the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) have been satisfied for the Mid-City/Exposition Transit Corridor Light Rail Transit Project (Project) in Los Angeles, California.”

· “FTA finds that all significant impacts on the environment have either been the subject of mitigation measures of the Statement of Overriding Considerations adopted by the LACMTA Board. This finding is based on the environmental analyses set forth in the Final EIS/EIR and related studies of the Project, and those documents are hereby incorporated by reference into this finding. Furthermore, this finding is premised on LACMTA’s obligations to carry out the mitigation measures attached hereto and identified in those documents.

The Exposition Construction Authority confirmed Federal Approval and explained why Federal “New Starts” funding was not sought for Phase 1 (Per Gaby Gonzalez, Government/Community Relations Representative, Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority, 8/22/07):

· “the Expo Phase 1 project does in fact meet federal standards. Phase 1 followed the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) process, which is required of all projects seeking federal funding. The Metro Board certified the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) on December 15, 2005 and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) signed a Record of Decision (ROD) on February 27, 2006 for the Exposition Light Rail Transit Project. The ROD indicates that the project has satisfied all NEPA (federal) requirements, thereby completing the environmental clearance of the project. Phase 1 does include some federal funding.

· “The issue as to why the Expo Line project did not receive Federal New Starts funds is not at all related to the environmental clearance, nor is it because the project did not ‘qualify’ for such funds. As part of its funding strategy, Metro opted not to pursue New Starts funding in 2004 but instead decided to fund the project with mostly local and state funds. That decision was primarily driven by the timing of other major construction projects in Los Angeles. In 2004, the Gold Line Eastside Extension project was issued a Full Funding Grant Agreement (FFGA) for construction, which will be completed in 2009. It is quite rare for the FTA to issue two full funding grant agreements for the same region at the same time. Therefore, if Expo had pursued New Starts funding, Expo may have needed to wait until the Eastside project was finished to get an FFGA, which could have delayed the start of construction by four years. Furthermore, the delay by Metro in completing a revised ridership model, which was also required as part of the New Starts process, would have also delayed the project.”