The 18-mile corridor would connect North Hollywood, Burbank, Glendale, and Pasadena

A presentation from the November 4 meeting of Metro’s San Fernando Valley Service Council offers an update on plans for a new bus rapid transit (BRT) line connecting the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys.

The project, which is currently in its environmental review period, covers an approximately 18-mile corridor which spans the communities of North Hollywood, Burbank, Glendale, Eagle Rock, and Pasadena.  An estimated 700,000 daily trips occur within the project area, which includes the SR-134 freeway.

Metro is studying several potential alignments for the project which would make use of right-of-way along corridors such as Colorado Boulevard, Glenoaks Boulevard, Olive Avenue, Riverside Drive, and Lankershim Boulevard.  Various alternatives could route buses along Union or Green Streets in Pasadena, Broadway in Glendale, and Vineland Avenue in North Hollywood.

Buses would operate in within either side-running or center-median lanes, save for within the City of Pasadena, which opposed consideration of bus-only lanes in the 1.5-mile area between the Gold Line and proposed eastern terminus at Pasadena City College.  The new bus lanes, in addition to serving the North Hollywood-Pasadena line, would also be open for use by other Metro and municipal bus lines.

The completed BRT Line is expected to offer an end-to-end trip time of 66 minutes – a nearly 50 percent reduction from the current 2 hour travel time for buses along the corridor.  Buses would run at 10-minute headways on weekdays and on 15-to-30-minute headways during off-peak hours.  Metro is planning between 21 and 23 stations, depending on the chosen alignment, and anticipates 30,000 daily riders upon opening.

Metro has secured approximately $267 million in funding for the project to date between state and local sources.  A preliminary cost estimate contained within the project’s draft environmental impact report estimates that the total cost for the BRT line is approximately $297 million.

Construction is scheduled to begin in 2024, according to the Measure M expenditure plan.

The North Hollywood-Pasadena line will overlap with several other planned Metro projects, including a second BRT corridor planned between North Hollywood Station and Chatsworth and speed enhancements to the G Line busway.  Additionally, Metro has engaged with private developers to build a $1-billion office, housing, and retail complex on the parking lots which flank North Hollywood Station.

Original article written by Steven Sharp, Nov. 10, 2020

A presentation posted by the Encino Neighborhood Council unveils plans for a new Marriott-branded hotel on Ventura Boulevard.

The proposed hotel, which would be called the Sherman Oaks AC Hotel by Marriott, is slated for a property at 15485 Ventura Boulevard.  Plans call for razing an existing 1960s-era development – the 70-room Sherman Hotel – to make way for the construction of a six-story building featuring 159 guest rooms above street-level commercial space and semi-subterranean parking.

Renderings of the project depict a contemporary podium-type building, rising approximately 75 feet in height.  A second-level setback would be used to create a pool deck for guests, wrapped by additional indoor amenities.  The building’s upper floor would include a bar with outdoor seating overlooking Ventura Boulevard.

The project is being designed by WATG.  The developer of the proposed AC Hotel, Irvine-based DKN Hotels, owns a dozen properties in the Los Angeles area, including a second AC Hotel planned in Downtown Burbank.

The development site sits less than a half-mile southwest of the intersection of Sepulveda Boulevard and Camarillo Street, where developer IMT Residential is planning a mixed-use apartment complex featuring more than 300 residential units.

Original article written by Steven Sharp on Oct 14, 2020 http://urbanize.la/post/ac-hotel-planned-ventura-boulevard 

Part of $19.5-million street safety project.

Construction is scheduled to begin this month for a $19.5-million project which will bring new pedestrian and bicycle safety infrastructure to one of the San Fernando Valley’s key north-south thoroughfares.

The planned improvements, which are being implemented by the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT), encompass a 2.9-mile stretch of Reseda Boulevard between Victory Boulevard in the south and Parthenia Street in the north.  In addition to resurfacing the corridor, the project will also include:

• high-visibility crosswalks;
• 11 bus boarding islands at 9 intersections;
• protected bike lanes separated from automobile traffic by vertical bollards and concrete islands;
• new loading zones and curb ramps;
• new left turn arrows at 8 intersections;
• 13 bioswales;
• new shade trees;
• pedestrian lighting at bus stops; and
• a crosswalk with flashing beacons at Napa Street with a median pedestrian island.

The new infrastructure will feed into an existing one-mile stretch of protected bike lanes running from Parthenia to Plummer Street – just west of the Cal State Northridge campus.

Implementation of the Reseda Boulevard plan will reduce the number of on-street parking spaces along the corridor from 707 to 465.  The spaces slated for elimination are located near driveways – where parked cars impede visibility – or along narrow sections of the street.

Construction is anticipated to occur over approximately 28 months, with completion of all elements of the project expected in April 2023.

The project area, which connects the Reseda community with Northridge, is a busy corridor frequented by approximately 5,000 bus riders on an average weekday.  However, it has also been identified as a particularly dangerous stretch of road.  According to LADOT, 110 people were either killed or severely injured along the 2.9-mile section of Reseda between 2009 and 2019.

Original article written on Oct 8, 2020 by Steven Sharp https://urbanize.la/post/new-protected-bike-lanes-coming-reseda-boulevard