Planned Inglewood transit connector stop moved

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The Inglewood Transit Connector Joint Powers Authority held its first meeting of the new year on Jan. 11.

The meeting discussed a variety of things that the public hasn’t been made aware of.

At the top of the agenda was to continue meeting remotely under provisions of AB 361. These meetings are NEVER promoted to the public for their participation on any of the city of Inglewood’s social media channels. This author found out about the meeting on Twitter.

The first revelation was the city council received a preferred project alternative in November which changed the alignment of where the transit connector stops will be located.

The stop was eliminated from Prairie & Pincay and moved to Prairie & Manchester where a Raising Cane’s was in the works. The meeting minutes detail the City completed the acquisition of the land last month at of cost of approx. $20 million. No discussion took place as to whether Inglewood taxpayers footed the bill while the City waits to be reimbursed from Metro.

Related: Inglewood seeks $407 million from state surplus for transit connector project

Secondly, it was noted the city applied for $407 million from the state’s surplus under the Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program (TIRCP) program on Dec. 6.

“The funding is critical to ensuring that the Project has the required 50% non-federal match to the Capital Investment New Starts program being pursued through the Federal Transit Administration, and moreover, fully funding the project.”

Related: CA High-Speed Rail, Metro Express Lanes project denied federal MEGA grant funds

When the project was first announced the initial price tag was $1.4 billion. The city has assembled nearly a third of the projected cost amount which doesn’t take into consideration inflation, high-interest rates, and a country heading into a recession. Several local transit projects were recently rejected for federal grant funding citing the lack of capacity to build.

The next steps are to begin permanent full and permanent temporary acquisition of parcels along the route.

Notification of funding awards is expected by Jan. 31.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has released his proposed budget for the upcoming year which projects a nearly $22 billion shortfall after having a nearly identical “historic surplus” this year.

An email was sent to the office of Inglewood Asm. Tina McKinnor to inquire if the proposed budget included the $407 million the city is seeking. Her office provided links to the breakdown of the proposed spending which earmarks $20 billion for transportation related projects.

“If it is not included, I will be leading advocacy efforts to seek funding through existing competitive transportation funding sources,” said McKinnor.

During public comment I asked ITCJPA Chair Mike Bohlke, twice, if Inglewood residents would be taxed for this project, why aren’t the meetings publicized to residents, and when the next meeting was scheduled and he declined to answer.

To view the ITCJPA board meeting minutes from November click here.