The Beverly Hills Unified School District is seeking an injunction against the FTA and Metro over Purple Line extension.
In its ongoing battle over the Purple Line running under Beverly Hills High School, The Beverly Hills Unified School District (BHUSD) filed a new lawsuit against the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and Metro on Jan. 26.
Over the years BHUSD has filed numerous suits against the FTA and Metro over tunneling under Beverly Hills High School for the purple line extension into Century City and Westwood.
In 2016, a Federal judge ordered Metro to do a Supplemental Environmental Impact Report (SEIR), which the FTA and Metro completed at the end of 2017. However, apparently BHUSD has found fault with the SEIR, which has now become the basis for this latest suit.
BHUSD is once again relitigating its contentions from 2016 that FTA and Metro have not taken into account the environmental risks involved in tunneling under the school.
BHUSD released a statement on Jan. 29 that read in part, “The School District alleges that the FTA and Metro violated federal law by conducting a faulty and biased supplemental environmental analysis of the impacts of Metro’s Westside Purple Line Subway Extension Project (the “Project”), which is currently planned to run under the heart of Beverly Hills High School. The School District seeks an injunction requiring the agencies to conduct a proper environmental analysis, evaluate the serious health effects the Project and associated construction next to campus will have on the students, and prohibit the FTA from obligating federal funds to the Project until the agencies have fully complied with federal law.”
Metro spokesperson Dave Sotero issued a statement that read, in part, “Metro is confident that the supplemental environmental work for the tunnel alignment in Beverly Hills and the Century City/Constellation station meets all legal requirements. Metro is already conducting design and pre-construction work for Section 2 through Beverly Hills and Century City. We anticipate breaking ground this spring. Metro is working cooperatively with the City of Beverly Hills on a weekly basis to deliver this critically important transit project to all taxpayers of Los Angeles County.”
