As the March 5 elections get closer and closer, one ballot measure’s prospects at passage seem less and less likely.
Measure HLA would require the city to undertake street and sidewalk improvements that were detailed in the guidelines of the Los Angeles Mobility Plan 2035.
However, it’s the changing of these guidelines to requirements that has some up in arms. Last week, it was firefighters who spoke out, claiming that adding bike lanes and other changes would hurt their response times.
And in a new report, City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo’s analysis of Measure HLA claims it would cost the city $3.1 billion over the next 10 years “without delivering additional transportation funds,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
If HLA is approved by voters, “you will be asked to make offsetting decisions, and potentially not fund other projects and priorities to meet the mandates of this measure,” Szabo wrote.
Supporters of HLA claim Szabo’s analysis is misleading and is intended to hurt the measure at the ballot box.
Supporters of HLA, including Councilmembers Eunisses Hernandez and Bob Blumenfield, said Szabo used flawed methodology, including creating “a wholly artificial 10-year horizon, which seems to inflate the cost,” as Blumenfield said.
Others said the analysis seemed to use the most expensive of options to land on the $3.1 billion number instead of more fiscally responsible project plans.
Szabo, however, defended his findings, which he said were actually “conservative estimates” that were lower than they could have been.
For instance, rising construction costs, if included, would have pushed the figure over $4 billion, Szabo claims.
“Szabo said he selected the 10-year timeline because the Mobility Plan was supposed to run through 2035. If the work takes more than a decade, the overall cost of those transportation projects will increase, he said,” the Times reports.
