City and county officials celebrated the opening of the Culver City station, the first one the Westside and the last stop in the first stage of the light rail that will eventually go to Santa Monica.
But for a group of east Culver City homeowners, the potential of the light rail to improve the lives of Westside residents has had the opposite effect on them.
“I’ve always said it’s a great thing if it’s done right,” said Vincent Motyl, an east Culver City homeowner whose neighbors are dealing with the unpleasant side of the light rail train. “I think that we were sold a bill of goods (on how quiet the train would be).”
Liz Weiner, who lives two houses away from Motyl on Fay Avenue, says she has lost sleep due to noise from the train since the station opened 20. “There are times when the train operator makes an announcement that the train is coming into Culver City on the loudspeaker after midnight,” recalled Weiner, a teacher with the Los Angeles Unified School District. “ And there are times in the morning when it comes by really fast and wakes me up.”
City Manager John Nachbar said that the city has heard from angry residents regarding squealing and other disturbances from the light rail line.
“We’re in the midst of contracting for a noise analysis to determine if the project is exceeding noise limits specified in the environmental impact report,” Nachbar told the News.
The city manager was referring to the environmental analysis that was signed by the Culver City Council in 2005.
Ron Gilbert lives approximately 75 feet from the rail tracks. “The worst part is when the trains switch and there is this clacking noise, like a dump truck,” said Gilbert, who lives on Shelbourne Drive. “I can feel the vibrations all the way in my house.”
Many of the residents who talked to the News are hoping for some form of sound mitigation and an analysis of the train’s decibel levels. Expo built a sound wall that encompasses a portion of Fay but does not offer much in the way of deflecting train noise, says Weiner.
“I’m don’t open my windows at all,” she said. “But what am I going to do as the summer moves on, when it normally gets hotter?”
Weiner said due to the train noise, there are times when she is forced to sleep in another room because her bedroom is closer to the train tracks.
Culver City Public Works Senior Management Analyst John Rivera is the liaison between Culver City and the Expo Construction Authority, the entity that is in charge of building the Expo Line.
Rivera said Metro officials have been informed about the complaints from Culver City residents.
“We have been advised that Expo has retained an independent third-party to perform noise measurements/analysis. Their report should be available sometime before the end of July,” Rivera said. “ The city is also contracting for a separate independent third-party analysis of the noise and vibration impacts, which will include a complete review of all the project’s noise analysis and the new Expo contracted analysis, inspection of the constructed mitigation measures and performing separate noise and vibration measurements.
“We hope to have the city consultant under contract in the next week or two.”
In the meantime, residents of east Culver City are trying a variety of different methods to improve their situation.
Weiner and her husband have planted fir trees in an effort to make their back yard, where the sound wall has been installed, a little more aesthetically pleasing.
Several of trees were removed to build the wall.
What are going to happen to our property values?” she asked.
Motyl, a mortgage broker and a former Culver City Civil Service commissioner, said he has only seen one city leader who has expressed any interest in what he and his neighbors are faced with on a daily basis.
“(Councilman) Jim Clarke is the only one who has been over here,” he said. “We had much better leadership when (former city councilmen) Alan (Corlin) and Scott (Malsin) were our representatives with Metro.”
The current Culver City representative on the Expo Construction Authority board is Councilman Micheál O’Leary.
Culver City’s representative is a non-voting member of the board.
