This week the Metro board Planning and Programming Committee approved final plans for the North Hollywood to Pasadena Bus Rapid Transit project. The item [staff report] goes to the full Metro board for approval at its meeting next Thursday, April 28, at 10 a.m.

The committee action was to certify the project’s environmental studies (Final Environmental Impact Report – Final EIR) under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

Metro’s planned North Hollywood to Pasadena BRT project will be a new ~18-mile-long 22-station bus line spanning four cities: Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena, and the Los Angeles City neighborhoods of Eagle Rock and North Hollywood.

In Metro’s Measure M sales tax plan, voters approved $267 million for the BRT line, with an anticipated groundbreaking in 2020. In Eagle Rock and Burbank, the project faced some criticism over proposed bus-only lanes.

In Eagle Rock, opponents claimed that Metro planned to manufacture gridlock. Pro-transit Eagle Rock folks gathered broad support for a Beautiful Boulevard proposal which balanced road space for transit, driving, bicycling, walking, parking, and landscaping. Metro soon incorporated nearly all of the community’s plan into its project plans, which were ultimately supported by the local L.A. City Councilmember Kevin de León. The final plan approved by committee this week features the Beautiful Boulevard’s “one lane” configuration.

Given earlier acrimony, this week’s approval was relatively low-key. Thirteen public commenters weighed in, more than two-to-one in favor of Beautiful Boulevard. After a short discussion confirming a few aspects of the Eagle Rock portion of the project, the committee voted unanimous approval.