This rail line would get you to the Grove, the Beverly Center and Cedars-Sinai. Is it L.A.’s ‘missing link’?

In the decades since Los Angeles began building a modern rail network, officials have been waiting for the moment the system gets big enough, and goes enough places, that it becomes a viable alternative to driving a car.

To backers, a new Metro plan for a northern extension of the K Line — projected to boost the number of riders on the light rail line up to 100,000 a day — could be a major step toward forging a dynamic mass transit culture in L.A.

The K Line northern extension underground light rail project, which the L.A. County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s board is set to vote on this week, would extend the existing K Line from Crenshaw/Expo to Hollywood.

Metro’s proposed 9.7-mile route from San Vicente to Fairfax would add nine stations and connect Angelenos to major job centers such as Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and popular destinations such West Hollywood, Pacific Design Center and the Grove. A tenth station would be built at the Hollywood Bowl. It would also significantly bolster L.A. County’s broader rail grid network, transit experts say, by linking up with four major rail lines and six of the county’s busiest bus lines.

“It’s really going to change people’s geography of L.A.,” Jacob Wasserman, research program manager at the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies, said of the K Line extension. “It’s creating this nice grid network of rail, so that you can get anywhere in the city with ideally just one transfer at most by rail. … It’ll change people’s mental model of the city where they live or work.”

Los Angeles has spent billions investing in light rail infrastructure over the last four decades, but it is still struggling to get more people to ride. Other line openings have come with hopes and hype, but some view the K Line extension as different, in part because it will connect to a larger network that now includes a key subway through downtown L.A. and, in May, a long-awaited subway that connects Koreatown to the Wilshire/La Cienega area and eventually to Beverly Hills.

A Wilshire/Fairfax Metro station is planned for the D Line.

(Etienne Laurent / Los Angeles Times)

“L.A. is embarking on a kind of grand experiment: Can they rebuild a rail system that serves a metro area that didn’t initially grow up around the car, but expanded around the car?” Wasserman said. “If it works here, it’s a model for Phoenix and Houston and all sorts of other cities in America that are more modern, didn’t grow up around transit, but could fit transit in.”

Metro has already become a national leader over the last few decades in building out rail transit, said Ethan Elkind, author of “Railtown: The Fight for the Los Angeles Metro Rail and the Future of the City.” But the rail network is still struggling to attract a critical mass of new riders and draw drivers out of their cars, in part because the region is so sprawling and key areas, such as West Hollywood, have been left out.

“It’s kind of a missing link in the system, through a fairly densely populated part of the city,” Elkind said of the proposed K Line extension.

But the project, estimated to cost between $11 billion and $15 billion, is far from a done deal.

If the Metro board votes on Thursday in favor of the San Vicente K Line extension, its approval would be contingent on local funding: West Hollywood would have to work with L.A. County to set up an Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District, a public financing mechanism that allows it to dedicate a portion of future growth in existing property tax revenues to support the project, providing at least 25% of the capital cost estimate.

West Hollywood’s leaders are major backers of the K Line northern extension. But not all residents are on board. Some question how the small city of around 35,000 people will raise its share of funds for the project. Others in Mid-City are adamantly opposed to tunnel boring deep under their historic homes.

West Hollywood Mayor John Heilman told The Times the K Line extension would create “unprecedented opportunities” for people across the region and his city is committed to working with Los Angeles and L.A. County to come up with local funding.

At Metro’s Planning and Programming Committee meeting last Wednesday, L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, a former West Hollywood mayor, described the K Line extension as “one of the most transformative rail projects in Metro history.”

Over the last few years, Metro has explored two other possible fully underground routes: Fairfax, a roughly eight-mile route with seven stations, and La Brea, a six-mile route with six stations. But it determined that the longer San Vicente-Fairfax alignment provides the greatest amount of benefits as it connects with the highest numbers of stations, including major job centers such as Cedars-Sinai, as well as regional destinations such as the Grove and the former CBS Television City.

The K Line extension would connect commuters to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, a major job center in the region.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Georgia Sheridan, senior director in Metro’s Countywide Planning and Special Projects, said last week that tunnels would be constructed in three sections using boring machines 40 to 120 feet below ground, with the first section connecting the E line to the D line. Each section would take eight to 12 years to construct.

Sheridan assured residents that Metro’s tunnel safety report found that modern tunnel construction techniques were “very safe and successful.” Under Mid-City’s historic neighborhoods, she said, the tunnels would be 80 to 100 feet underground.

The K Line extension would also run near the Grove shopping center.

(Caruso)

“At these depths, there would not be noise and vibration,” Sheridan said, noting that Metro had tunneled in similar soil conditions at similar depths without settlement problems. “We have not had property damage.”

But still, some residents spoke against the project.

“I’m in support of public transportation,” one Lafayette Square resident said, “but not in support of any tunneling under our historically-preserved neighborhood and easements that will affect our homes and disrupt the quality of life in this area.”

After public comments, Metro’s Planning and Programming Committee, which was scheduled to vote on whether to approve the project, did not take a vote. Instead, it passed the decision to the Metro board for a final vote on Thursday.

Jonathan Finestone, president of the West Hollywood West Residents Assn., told The Times that the project was backed by developers and unions and came about with little public consultation. He feared that as soon as Metro announced new stations, the landmark Senate Bill 79 housing bill passed last year that overrides local zoning laws to expand high-density housing near transit hubs would trigger massive “over-development and over-densification” of West Hollywood.

He also asked how West Hollywood, which has an annual budget of $202 million, would fund its share of the project.

“They’re going to have to tax people,” Finestone said.

David Fenn, senior planner for West Hollywood, told The Times that the city is not considering a sales tax increase. He also said West Hollywood would not pay anything like $4 billion, or a quarter of the project cost. The 25% local funding, he said, would not be the responsibility of West Hollywood alone and would likely involve a combination of contributions from regional partners, such as the Westside Cities Council of Governments, L.A. County and the city of L.A..

Advocates for the project say the San Vicente-Fairfax route would be a lifeline not just for West Hollywood residents but for low-income Angelenos across the region. About two-thirds of daily projected trips on the proposed K Line northern extension would be made by low-income individuals, many of whom do not have a car.

Metro’s goal, Horvath told The Times, is to build out a system that people will actually use and prioritize residents who rely on it as their primary form of transportation. Cedars-Sinai, she noted, is a regional destination — not only for workers, but for many residents of South L.A. who rely on it for healthcare and will only make appointments if they have reliable transit.

“This connects communities that were previously divided by redlining, and helps to connect communities that were divided through those historic wrongs to job opportunities, to healthcare centers and support,” Horvath said.

The K Line expansion is part of a massive wave of investment in L.A’s light rail system. Last June, Metro opened the LAX/Metro transit center, which brings the C and K lines closer to the airport. And more is on its way. In January, Metro approved a plan to extend the K Line south to Torrance. In May, Metro will open the first phase of the D Line subway expansion spanning 5.1 miles between downtown Los Angeles and Koreatown.

But while some of L.A.’s transit plans are being accelerated to enhance the region’s transit infrastructure in time for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, others will not happen for years. The Southeast Gateway Line, a new 14.5-mile light rail line connecting the A line to Artesia that will serve largely working-class Latino communities across southeast L.A. County, is not scheduled to open until 2035. Groundbreaking on the first phase of the K Line northern extension is not expected until 2041.

Elkind said there was no doubt the K Line northern extension would have high ridership and that it would provide a vital north-south connection in an area underserved for decades.

But the project’s ability to really transform L.A., he said, depends on how land is developed around stations.

“Whether or not it really makes a big difference, I think, depends on what happens to land use around the station. … If you just build rail, but you squelch any possibility of developing transit-friendly development around the rail stations, you’re not getting the benefit of rail.”