(rshsdepot) North Hollywood, CA

[I95BERNIEW_@_aol.com]

From today's Los Angeles Daily News.
 
Bernie Wagenblast
 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Depot rehab price escalates 

By Lisa Mascaro, Staff  Writer
LA Daily News 

NORTH HOLLYWOOD - After years of false  starts, the MTA is finally advancing 
plans to renovate the historic Lankershim  train depot for $3.6 million - 
triple the original estimate. 
But history  buffs, who have criticized the Metropolitan Transportation 
Authority for  delaying the face-lift, now worry that the latest plan fails to 
guarantee the  1896 structure will remain at Lankershim and Chandler boulevards. 
They have  protested proposals to relocate the structure. 
 
"They haven't done anything. They've really let it deteriorate," said  
preservationist Guy Weddington McCreary, whose family has lived in the San  Fernando 
Valley for generations. 
 
"It's crazy - $1.2 million; then it jumped to $2 million. Now they're  
talking about $3.6 million. By the end of 2003 they were supposed to have the  thing 
rehabilitated." 
 
The MTA plans to spend $3.6 million to refurbish the dilapidated structure  
with a new foundation, architectural flourishes and fresh paint. 
 
Eventually MTA officials plan to establish a customer-service center at the  
110-year-old depot to replace the San Fernando Valley facility that was closed 
 last year. 
 
But they also want to maintain flexibility in what has become a prime  
redevelopment area by allowing the depot to be moved to a nearby site if a  
developer chooses. 
 
"We wanted to get this thing reconstructed, stabilized. We decided just to  
go ahead and fix it all up," said the MTA's Kathleen Sanchez. "We'll ask the  
developers to incorporate it in the design, keep it in the same block." 
 
The MTA and the Community Redevelopment Agency have been working since 2001  
to renovate the depot, which served as a stop for the Red Car and Southern  
Pacific lines a century ago. 
 
The CRA approved work in 2003, but canceled the project a year later after  
MTA officials decided to explore the possibility of relocating the station as  
had been suggested by developers. 
 
The delays have proved costly. The price tag skyrocketed along with  
construction expenses to the new estimate of $3.6 million. 
 
The depot parcel is a target for developers as properties around the subway  
and busway stations become sites for mixed-use housing and retail 
construction. 
 
In the past, various uses - from a restaurant to a bicycle shop - had been  
considered for the structure, but now MTA officials are focusing on the 
customer  center, which would be funded separately. 
 
But proposals to move the station - even to the edge of the block with  
Tujunga Avenue - have stirred outrage in McCreary and the preservation group  Save 
the Depot, who fear it will lose prominence and historical accuracy. 
 
McCreary, whose family has owned a nearby parcel for generations, is  
additionally concerned that the building will continue to deteriorate as the  project 
drags. 
 
MTA officials plan to get proposals from builders in coming months and  start 
construction next year. The project would take two years to complete. 
 
Transit advocate Kymberleigh Richards is among those who have pushed the  MTA 
to put a customer center at the site after the agency shuttered the Van Nuys  
office that sold bus passes and tokens and gave out bus maps for decades. 
 
Richards serves on the MTA's Valley governance council, which has asked the  
MTA to make putting a customer center there a priority. 
 
But she said getting the depot fixed is the first priority. 
 
"We've got to worry about rehabbing the depot," she said. "We've got to fix  
the structural problems." 
 
Lisa Mascaro, (818) 713-3761 

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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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