In general, the San Fernando Valley lives up to the myths about Southern Californian sprawl and decentralization. It's made up of a constellation of small towns set in a suburban sea with no dominant urban focal point. Its most centralized city, Glendale, lies too far east and is too geographically contained to exert any significant centralizing pull on the rest of the Valley. Meanwhile, nestled at the western foot of the Verdugo mountains, Burbank has an elegant pattern of radial streets that nonetheless fail to exert any significant pull upon its surroundings. To the southwest, the northern opening to the Cahuenga Pass acts as a funnel for traffic headed into and out of Central Los Angeles. But right at the mouth of the pass, like a boulder in a stream, sits the monolithic Universal City obstructing centralization at an otherwise ideal site.
Downtown LA exerts the ultimate pull, however weak, upon the Southeastern San Fernando Valley. That pull is logically strongest at the neck of the Valley just west of Glendale and at the mouth of the Cahuenga Pass, but it is negated by the dissipating cityscape to the north and west. What little centralization that exists in the San Fernando Valley is concentrated in the southeastern area, and that is where transit infrastructure needs to be developed.
EXTENSION OVERVIEW
The Orange Line BRT stretches west from Lankershim Boulevard to Warner Center, reaching deep into areas of the San Fernando Valley that are farthest from downtown LA or even the more urbanized parts of the Valley itself. As a result, the Orange Line serves mainly as a commuter line for residents of LA's low-density outskirts. As such, it enables sprawling, low-density development rather than facilitating compact, centralized, high-density land usage.
Rather than spreading our transit resources thin to subsidize sprawl, we should instead be using transit to promote centralized development and strengthen the urban core. In the San Fernando Valley, this means focusing transit investment in its southeastern corner.
The Orange line should be extended from its current eastern terminus at North Hollywood, through Burbank's Media District and along the foot of Griffith Park, to downtown Glendale. Between Van Nuys and Glendale, the Orange Line should be converted to light-rail. West of Van Nuys it should remain as Bus Rapid Transit for now since this is a peripheral route and since rail service beyond Van Nuys would dilute service to the southeastern "core" and encourage further decentralized development.
SEGMENTS AND STATIONS
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North Hollywood/Media District Tunnel
From its present terminus at North Hollywood, the Orange line would enter a tunnel and head south underneath Lankershim Boulevard, east underneath Riverside Avenue and Alameda Boulevard, and south underneath Buena Vista. The Tunnel would be approximately 4 miles long, include 5 stations (Lankershim/Riverside, Riverside/Cahuenga, Alameda/Hollywood Way, Alameda/Olive, and Alameda/Buena Vista), and emerge on the south side of the Ventura Freeway. Lankershim/Riverside would also be the site of a new Red Line Station.
South of Los Angeles River (SOLAR) segment.
From the portal on the south side of the Ventura Freeway, the Orange line would cross the LA river and run at grade along the southern edges of the river and the freeway, roughly parallel to Zoo Drive. This segment would be approximately 3 miles long, include a station at the Los Angeles Zoo, and cross the LA River into Glendale at Doran Street.
Ventura Freeway/Downtown Glendale segment
Between the LA River and Central Avenue in Glendale, the Orange Line would run at grade down the center of the Ventura Freeway, which may need to be widened in places to accommodate a rail bed. At Central Avenue, it would go underground and head south below the freeway (similar to the way the Gold Line submerges below the freeway just north of Memorial Park station in Pasadena). It would reemerge onto Orange Street and run at street level from Doran to Broadway (its new eastern terminus). Orange Street would be devoted exclusively to Orange Line Light Rail traffic. This segment would be approximately 2 miles long and include 3 stations (Ventura Freeway/Pacific, Milford/Orange, and Broadway/Orange).
DEVELOPMENT
Burbank Media District
Improved transit access from the east, west, and south would enable more intensive development of the Media District, allowing it to develop similarly to close-in suburbs of Washington, DC, like Bethesda and Silver Spring, MD.
Lankershim Corridor
The Orange Line, with its new stations on Riverside Drive at Lankershim and Cahuenga, would link Universal City, North Hollywood, and West Toluca Lake as a continuous urban corridor similar to the Rosslyn-Balston Corridor in Northern Virginia. All four stations of the Lankershim Corridor would have direct transit connections to the Burbank Media District, Downtown Glendale, and Van Nuys, while three stations would have direct connections to Hollywood and Downtown LA. Furthermore, the Lankershim Corridor would become (via the Red Line) the primary connection for traffic between the Valley and Central Los Angeles.
Downtown Glendale
In addition to unlocking valuable downtown land for more intensive use, the Orange Line would establish a stronger connection between Glendale and the rest of the San Fernando Valley, thereby expanding Glendale's transit hinterland. In particular, the improved connection between the Glendale's business district and the Burbank Media District (as well as Universal Studios) would amplify their collective regional competitiveness. This northern business corridor, eventually extending to Pasadena, could potentially become a northern counterpart to the Westside.
Fremont Park, Glendale
The Ventura Freeway/Pacific Ave. station would allow the intensive development of Glendale's Fremont Park neighborhood. This neighborhood has numerous assets that make it ripe for more high intensity development. It is already an area of multi-family housing, is half a mile from downtown Glendale, and is served by a park which could serve as a community focal point. The Orange Line station would add extensive rapid transit connections to this list of assets, unlocking this neighborhood's currently suppressed potential.
Los Angeles Zoo/Griffith Park
The Orange Line would also improve access to the Los Angeles Zoo and to Griffith Park.
FURTHER AFIELD
Centralization in the southeastern San Fernando Valley would bring people within closer reach of other destinations not served directly by the Orange Line, such as:
Downtown Burbank
Burbank Airport
Studio City/Valley Village
Van Nuys/Sherman Oaks
Hollywood
