Council Will Support Westside Extension Only If It Avoids High School

The Beverly Hills City Council voted 3-2 Thursday night to approve a resolution making support of the Westside Subway Extension contingent on a tunnel being kept off Beverly Hills High School property.

The resolution also calls for the council to reach out to the Metropolitan Transit Authority to open talks around an alternative location for the tunnel and a proposed subway stop.

Councilmember Nancy Krasne made the motion to bring the resolution to a vote, but only after asking that its language be strengthened to exclude a tunnel anywhere on Beverly Hills High School property, including the athletic fields.

(See a PDFs of the motion as proposed and approved above.)

Former mayor William Brien and Julian Gold cast the opposing votes, despite Mirisch's repeated calls for a "unanimous vote" of support.

Brien said he felt supporting the resolution would undercut "the community that supported the idea of mass transit."

"I support some part of this but I don't support it in total," added Brien, before casting his vote. "I don't like ultimatums."

Gold too said he had to honor overall support for mass transit with a "no" vote.

"But with a little wordsmithing we might have gotten to a place where I could agree with this," he said.

A number of community members and activists spoke in support of the resolution,  including representatives from the Bus Riders Union and the Crenshaw neighborhood, where construction of the Exposition Line has been an issue.

Beverly Hills Unified School District Board member Brian David Goldberg also addressed the council.

He said that "symbols are important" and that having a clear statement from the board would "help match the words we've heard with deeds."

BHUSD filed a lawsuit against Metro in June, claiming the agency violated the California Environmental Quality Act.

Mirisch, who introduced the motion, recently told Beverly Hills Patch that he hoped it would "clarify the city's position" based on recent events including new data from the California Geologic Survey.

Beverly Hills Patch has reached out to Metro for its reaction.