Lawsuit alleges Metro violated law in OKing Crenshaw light rail

Less than two weeks after President Obama highlighted the coming Crenshaw Line as one of 14 national infrastructure projects to be fast-tracked for approval, the job now faces potential delays after a community group filed suit over environmental and civil rights issues tied to the rail effort. 

The lawsuit was filed last week in Los Angeles County Superior Court and designated under the California Environmental Quality Act. The petitioner, listed as the nonprofit Crenshaw Subway Coalition, is partially spearheaded by transit activist Damien Goodmon, who earned the ire of some at the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority over his role in previous protests against the agency during construction of the Expo Line.

The legal complaint names Metro (called MTA in the suit) and the Federal Transit Administration as defendants and alleges the following: "In approving the project, the MTA violated the provisions of CEQA Public Resources ... failed to comply with the information disclosure provisions of CEQA and failed to adequately analyze project environmental impacts. MTA also failed to require all feasible mitigation and failed to consider an adequate range of alternatives. MTA failed to ensure that mitigation was certain and enforceable and failed to consider feasible alternatives, in particular grade separation of the rail line, proposed by the public," among others.

The Crenshaw Line was approved as an 8.5-mile light rail line that will run from the Expo Line at Exposition Boulevard, through South Los Angeles and Inglewood to the Green Line near Los Angeles International Airport.