BEVERLY HILLS—The Beverly Hills Unified School District and City of Beverly Hills on July 10 filed requests for summary judgment in their lawsuits against the Federal Transport Authority (FTA), which is providing funding for the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (Metro) Purple Line Extension project to travel through the city of Beverly Hills.

Both the School District and the City are standing by their claims that the FTA did not properly comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and other federal laws, when initial funding for the project was granted.

 

“We believe that the FTA did not properly and independently analyze and mitigate the impacts of this project on our local community, as it is required to do by federal law,” said Beverly Hills City Attorney Larry Wiener.


Court documents from Sara A. Clark filed on July 10, states the following:“This Declaration is submitted for the limited purpose of presenting two documents to the Court that, as discussed below, constitute a summary of voluminous writings and photographs already in the record. I prepared both documents. The City requests that the summaries be admitted into evidence pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 1006 because they will facilitate the Court’s review of certain issues presented by the City’s motion. I have thoroughly reviewed the administrative record lodged by Defendants Federal Transit Administration et al. (FTA) in these consolidated cases and am familiar with its contents. The administrative record consists of: (a) the initial record prepared by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) in the related state court litigation, which is cited in the City’s Memorandum of Points and Authorities as “AR”; (b) FTA’s additional documents (cited as “FTAAR”); and (c) Metro’s supplemental record (cited as “SAR”). See ECF Nos. 24, 90.

 

Based upon the administrative record, and pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 1006, I compiled two summaries annexed hereto as Exhibit 1 and Exhibit 2. Exhibit 1, entitled Century City Area: Hypothesized Faults, Proposed Stations, and Key Properties as of the release of the FEIS, is a map that combines relevant information regarding: (a) the identified locations of the various hypothesized or actual seismic faults and geomorphic features discussed in the administrative record as pertaining to the proposed location of a Century City subway station; (b) the proposed locations for that station; and (c) Beverly Hills High School. The “base” maps that I used for this exhibit appear in the administrative record at AR37106 and 892, and the additional information superimposed on the map appears in the administrative record at AR371 15 and 532.

 

Exhibit 2, entitled Tímeline of Reports/Studies Regarding Seismíc and Tunneling Hazards, contains a chronological list of all of the studies, reports, analyses, and memoranda in the administrative record that I identified as relevant to the seismic and tunneling hazards presented by the various proposed locations for the Century City subway station.”

 

Both the BHUSD and the City of Beverly Hills supports the extension of the Purple Line (the Westside Subway Extension), including the two stops to be constructed throughout the City of BH, but are against the changes of alignment to tunnel the subway underneath Beverly Hills High School as it departs from the City.  

 

“The School District’s papers say that approval of the project was inappropriate because the timing of the environmental analysis and decision was contrary to the NEPA statute,” said Jennifer S. Recine counsel to BHUSD.

 

The Proposed Order Granting Summary Judgment from the motion filed on July 10 states, “There are no genuine issues of material fact as to (1) the claims set forth in the City’s Amended Complaint (ECF No. 30) (Case No. CV 13-1144-GW (SSx)) alleging that the Defendants violated: (a) the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) in approving the Westside Subway Extension Final Environmental Impact Statement dated March 2012 (the “FEIS”) and issuing the Record of Decision on the Westside Subway Extension Project in August 2012 (the “ROD”), (b) Section 4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act with respect to their determinations under Section 4(f) in the FEIS and ROD, (c) Section 176 of the Clean Air Act with respect to their determinations under Section 176 in the FEIS and ROD, and (d) the Administrative Procedure Act with respect to the foregoing; and (2) the claims set forth in the City’s related Complaint (ECF No. 1) (Case No. CV-08621-GW (SSx)) alleging that Defendants violated NEPA by determining not to require the preparation of a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Westside Subway Extension Project. Therefore, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT: The City’s motion for summary judgment is hereby GRANTED as to each of the foregoing claims, and the aforementioned challenged actions and determinations of the Defendants are hereby vacated and annulled.”

 

The motions are expected to be heard by Federal District Court Judge George Wu on December 4, 2014.