Regarding the article “New East Valley Metro Plan Unleashes Unease” in the Jan. 1 issue of the Business Journal, I want to correct misinformation in the story and personally address how Metro is working to be a good neighbor and support local businesses. The East San Fernando Valley Light Rail is the backbone of a network of improvements that Metro is delivering to greatly improve mobility and foster economic vitality in the area.
Still, construction projects can cause significant impacts to businesses and the community, and we understand why community members might be concerned. That’s why we are applying lessons learned from other projects and implementing aggressive and proven strategies to ensure that San Fernando Valley communities thrive during the construction period and come out on the other side more connected.
Some of the ways we are supporting businesses impacted by construction include:
• Business Interruption Fund of up to $60,000 annually per qualifying business to offset revenue loss during progressive and heavy construction. This fund started in 2015 as a pilot program and, based on its success in supporting businesses along the K Line, as well as the Regional Connector project, where more than 94% of businesses, remained in operation post-grant award. In fact, for the K Line, 74% of small businesses that received a BIF grant were still in operation when the Line opened in 2022 after eight years of construction and a pandemic. As a result, the Metro board expanded it to include the East San Fernando Valley project as well. To date, it has awarded just under $40 million, and measures of its effectiveness can be seen at businesses along the K line, Purple Line extensions and the Regional Connector stations.
• Business Solution Center partners with local community-based organizations to provide business-support services, such as website development/enhancements, business planning, legal services, accounting assistance and help with internal operations to small businesses impacted during construction.
• Loss of Goodwill and Relocation Funds of up to approximately $37 million to persons and businesses displaced by the project so they can continue to thrive. Metro will guide displaced businesses through the relocation process and explain how to claim relocation and loss of goodwill funding.
• Eat, Shop, Play supports local businesses with marketing and/or resources to mitigate construction impacts. This is a no-cost program, and businesses may apply at metro.net/eat-shop-play. Metro works with individual businesses by reviewing their operations and developing a plan for how best to help them maintain awareness of their businesses and the services they provide. Some of this support may include helping them refine business practices and/or helping them with advertising, social media training and other marketing-related business services or skills.
We’re committing to building strong relationships with those who live and work in the San Fernando Valley. Some of the ways we are doing this are:
• Activating our Community Leadership Council, an advisory group comprised of community leaders who will advise on and support outreach and engagement efforts throughout the construction of the project. The members of the Community Leadership Council were selected after a multimonth application/interview process. And those selected to join the CLC represent an array of active community leaders from community-based organizations (such as Holos Communities, Valley Economic Alliance, Neighborhood Legal Services, MEND and others), small-business representatives, area residents and members of the area neighborhood councils.
• Hosting Community Meetings in multiple languages throughout the construction period led by the dedicated Construction Relations Team. Meetings are conducted both virtually and in-person, with in-person meetings featuring an accompanying open-house segment.
• Demonstrating Cultural Competency, a first-of-its-kind Metro mandate to ensure consideration of race, ethnicity, gender, immigration status, languages spoken, socioeconomics and public transportation dependency. In working with San Fernando Transit Contractors, this joint-venture team has identified at least 20 CBOs to engage as part of the preconstruction design-build process, with a particular focus on Spanish-language outreach.
Metro is committed to being a trusted community partner. We are proud that we are bringing a historic level of investment of $3.5 billion into this community, while also implementing a robust local-hire program, which prioritizes hiring residents from the community.
And we are excited about what’s to come with the new 6.7-mile light-rail line that will connect the communities of Van Nuys, Panorama City, Arleta and Pacoima along Van Nuys Boulevard, one of the Valley’s busiest corridors.
In addition to the light rail, we’re bringing speed and safety improvements to our main bus line, adding bus priority lanes to Roscoe, partnering with the city of Los Angeles on transit signal priority and shade structures, and increasing the frequency of North Valley buses to 10 minutes or better by 2025.
We look forward to seeing you in the community. Our next construction update meeting is online on Feb. 29 at 6 p.m. (https://bit.ly/esfvmtg). For more information about the East San Fernando Valley Light Rail Transit Project, and other Metro programs, please visit www.metro.net/projects/east-sfv/
Thank you for the opportunity to elaborate on our efforts to be a good neighbor and partner. I look forward to supporting the local community as this project gets underway.
Stephanie Wiggins is chief executive of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.