CITY OF SANTA CLARITA

KHTS SACRAMENTO ROAD TRIP 2015

California High-Speed Rail Authority Project

Palmdale to Burbank Project Section

Background:

The California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) project is a high-speed rail system approved by voters in 2008. The estimated $68 billion project will run from San Francisco to Los Angeles at speeds of over 200 miles per hour, eventually extending to Sacramento and San Diego.

In 2012, the CHSRA Board of Directors designated two surface alignments through the City of Santa Clarita, as part of the Palmdale to Burbank project section. These two alignments are designated within the CHSRA’s State Route (SR) 14 Corridor.

In 2014, the CHSRA Board, in response to a request from the Santa Clarita City Council, refined the SR 14 Corridor to eliminate one of the two proposed surface alignments and include a new alternate alignment that extends a tunnel under neighborhoods in eastern Santa Clarita.

In addition, acting on a request from Los Angeles County Mayor Mike Antonovich, which is supported by the Santa Clarita City Council, the CHSRA agreed to consider potential alignments within East Corridor, providing a more direct route between proposed high-speed rail stations in Palmdale and Burbank. The East Corridor alignments are undergoing refinement and propose to tunnel under the Angeles National Forest. The two corridors are depicted on the map on the reverse side of this page.

The Santa Clarita City Council has taken a formal position in support of an East Corridor direct alignment, as the desired preferred alternative, since the alignment will bypass the City of Santa Clarita. An East Corridor alignment would eliminate risks to Sulphur Springs Elementary School, Pinecrest Elementary School, Church of the Canyons, homes in the Sand Canyon neighborhood, and the mixed-use Vista Canyon Project, which remain vulnerable to the surface and tunnel alignments. A more direct alignment will also enable the high-speed train to reduce travel time between Palmdale and Burbank.

In recent weeks, there has been a desire expressed by some residents in the northeast San Fernando Valley that the East Corridor alignments should be eliminated from further consideration. If the technically feasible alternatives in the East Corridor are eliminated for purely political reasons, the only remaining alternatives will be those within the SR 14 Corridor. The CHSRA Board is expected to determine the specific alignments to be advanced to the environmental review phase in June 2015.

KEY MESSAGE:

It is critical that the East Corridor alignments proposed by the CHSRA are advanced through the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)/Environmental Impact Report (EIR) phase. The East Corridor alignments should be studied concurrently with the SR 14 Corridor alignments to ensure that all of the technically feasible alignments are fully studied and appropriately evaluated.