Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's chief plan to speed traffic in Los Angeles was delayed Monday when a judge ruled that more study, which could take months, was needed before two Westside thoroughfares could be altered to work more like one-way streets.
While still weighing whether to appeal the ruling by Superior Court Judge John Torribio, Villaraigosa said through a spokesman that city officials would press on and try to complete an environmental review as quickly as possible.
Torribio found that city officials had not fully considered complaints that reconfiguring Olympic and Pico boulevards -- in part by removing on-street parking -- would make it harder for shoppers to visit merchants and burden neighborhoods with unwanted cut-through traffic.
In his five-page ruling, Torribio took particular umbrage to a claim by the city that the project didn't need to be studied because it wasn't a major change to how the streets were managed.
"In other words, the very purpose of the project is to expand the use of the existing streets," Torribio wrote. "To claim that the project will not expand the current use and is therefore exempt" from further study "seems inconsistent with the stated purpose."
In court, attorneys for the city had argued that California environmental law gave exemptions to cities to change traffic-light timing and convert parking lanes to traffic lanes without extensive studies. But Torribio said the cumulative impact of the city's actions demanded a more thorough look.
In the war against L.A. traffic, the Westside has become the frontline as more jobs have migrated to that part of town, bringing commuters and their cars with them. But the combination of affluence and political influence has historically made improving roads there a difficult proposition since every plan has its opponents.
Some Westside residents said the Olympic-Pico plan was worth trying -- and that additional study wouldn't tell very much.
"I think that some of the opposition had legitimate concerns about business, but some of it was that we don't want to do anything different because something bad might happen," said Jeff Jacobberger, the transportation chair of the Mid-City West Neighborhood Council. "But that's how we got into this mess."
The first part of the city's plan would involve removing parking along parts of Olympic and Pico during rush hour.
