Southern California Transit Advocates, having reviewed the Draft Environmental Impact Report for Phase 2 of the Expo Line, supports Alternative LRT 2 (Expo ROW-Colorado).

In our view, use of the Metro-owned right-of-way is far superior, for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, use of the ROW is considerably less expensive; we note that the grade separations on the Venice Blvd.-Sepulveda Blvd. alignment, coupled with its longer length, would make the project half again more expensive than the ROW alignment. In addition, we believe that the increase in property acquisitions (three times higher) and residential displacements (fifty times higher) needed to use the Venice-Sepulveda alignment would be unacceptably excessive. Public transportation projects need to be both cost-effective and non-disruptive to the communities they serve, to the highest degree possible, and use of the ROW would accomplish this goal.

In supporting the Colorado Ave. routing in Santa Monica, we agree with those in that city who believe that the preservation of the coral trees in the Olympic Blvd. median is desirable. In addition, we feel that the elevated western terminal station that would be required to use the Olympic alignment would be completely out of place in its surroundings. We also note that the City Planning Commission has expressed a preference for the Colorado Ave. route and are completely supportive of their position.

Finally, while we realize that the proposed bikeway paralleling the Expo Line has been separated from the DEIR because of the need to treat it individually for federal funding purposes, we wish to go on record as supporting same, and hope that its construction can be concurrent with the Expo Line itself.