November 22, 2022
The Honorable Ara Najarian
Chair of the Board
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority One Gateway Plaza
Los Angeles, CA 90012
RE: SUPPORT OF STATE TRANSPORTATION FUNDING FOR WEST SANTA ANA BRANCH Dear Chair Najarian and the Metro Board of Directors:
On behalf of the City of Commerce we request your support in allocating $500,000,000 of State Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program, or TIRCP, funds apportioned for Southern California for the West Santa Ana Branch, for utility relocation and associated work necessary to advance the project toward heavy construction. Along with anticipated Federal funding for this project - Metro’s top priority for funding through the US Department of Transportation’s Capital Investment Grant program - an allocation of $500,000,000 of TIRCP funding in this cycle would nearly fully-fund the first segment of the West Santa Ana Branch, from Artesia to Slauson. We fully agree with the important point Senator Lena Gonzalez made in her October letter to the Metro Board regarding support for prioritization of the WSAB and the legislative objective of augmenting the TIRCP program: “A major focus of this action was to leverage federal transportation funding included in the Infrastructure and Jobs Act, (P.L. 117-58)” This project will be the State’s most important transit project to be constructed this decade, providing equity and transit accessibility in some of the State’s lowest-income and most transit-dependent communities, consistent with President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative and Executive Order 14008 as well as Metro’s Equity Platform Framework.
Once fully completed, the West Santa Ana Branch will be a 19-mile light-rail line, connecting a dozen Southeast Los Angeles communities with Downtown Los Angeles and access to hundreds of thousands of jobs. Nearly the entire alignment for this light-rail line is located within the CalEnviroScreen’s SB 535-defined “Disadvantaged Communities,” facing some of the worst air pollution anywhere in the State. For generations, the people along the West Santa Ana Branch project corridor have been under-served by transit and heavily impacted by industrial pollution and traffic congestion, and they deserve this long-overdue project.
This project is set to begin early utility relocation work in 2023, and our cities are working in collaboration with Metro to accelerate the project at every opportunity. A $500,000,000 allocation of TIRCP funding in this grant cycle would secure the resources necessary to advance the project’s utility relocation and associated works and ensure that it remains on schedule for completion in 2033-2035.
We therefore respectfully urge you to support this request to make the West Santa Ana Branch a reality. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Oralia Y. Rebollo
Mayor
City of Commerce
CITY OF COMMERCE
Oralia Rebollo Hugo Argumedo
Mayor Mayor Pro Tem
Mireya Garcia Ivan Altamirano Kevin Lainez Councilmember Councilmember Councilmember 2535 Commerce Way • Commerce, California 90040 • (323) 722-4805 • FAX (323) 726-6231