Chamber Takes Position on Metro Station

Metro is planning a new light-rail line that is planned to serve the entire valley from sherman oaks to San Fernando coming up Van Nuys Blvd. This light rail will be the first in a century to be built in the valley and is serving areas that include the county courthouse and valley City-Center, through Pacoima, Arleta, and Panorama City.

Metro had envisioned this line ending at the current Metro Line station in Sylmar. However its two primary proposals for this station included options that were almost impossible for our community to manage. First option was no station at all, the line would end at San Fernando Road and Van Nuys. Second option was a Sylmar station, but with as many as 27 train crossings each day, one every 7 min. This would have in effect cut our City in half. The City Council voted against both plans and the Chamber disaproved as well.

However seeing the once-in-a-lifetime investment in our comunity, the Chamber chose to meet with Metro and their representatives to see just what was being proposed. During that meeting our reps proposed a third option, Bring a station to the city and stop at Wolfskill, near Recreation Park. Here the residents and business have direct access to this transportation hub, without the city-wide disruption.

Today we are continuing the effort to bringt this proposal to Metro and ask that they consider our “Cesar Chavez Station at San Fernando” option as viable and workable for our community. We are asking for support from local businesses, SF Chamber members and the residents of San Fernando to bring the single largest investment in our town to a positive conclusion.

If you want to help us out, please sign our on-line petition here and let Metro know how you feel.

You can also download our position paper here to read more on the plans we have presented.