City Negotiating on Behalf of Gold Line to Settle Lawsuit as Metro Makes 'Monumental' Deal

The city has engaged in negotiations with a property owner on behalf of the Gold Line Construction Authority (GLCA) in an attempt to settle two lawsuits seeking to stop a $120 million rail maintenance yard project from being built in town.

George Brokate, who owns a strip of property along Evergreen Avenue, against the city and GLCA in an effort to block a planned maintenance facility that is critical for the Gold Line Foothill Extension to progress.

The GLCA would need to purchase Brokate's land or take it via eminent domain as part of the 24-acre rail yard project. But Brokate's attorney said during an Apr. 5 council meeting that his client remains "vigorously opposed" to the project.

Earlier this month, Gold Line officials approached the city of Monrovia and asked city staff to enter into settlement negotiations with Brokate, according to City Manager Scott Ochoa.

Mayor Mary Ann Lutz said Friday that the city has met with Brokate and described the negotiations as "collaborative" but declined to comment on the substance of the talks.

"The Gold Line asked us if we could talk to them on the Gold Line's behalf and so we are having conversations," Lutz said. "I can just tell you that we’ve had discussions with them and we believe those discussions to be collaborative but in the end these are discussions on behalf of the Gold Line and any formality they would have (to handle)."

Brokate's attorneys argue that the city they made with him in 2004 if they sold land to the GLCA, which would then have the authority to seize the land using eminent domain. Brokate is also accusing Gold Line officials of that paved the way for the maintenance yard project.

"We just want to make it clear that the litigation is ongoing and we intend to fight until we have a resolution," Brokate's attorney Christopher Sutton said during the Apr. 5 council meeting.

Meanwhile, an agreement between the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the BNSF Railway that Lutz described as "monumental" was reached Thursday, allowing Metro right-of-way access to a corridor along the extension route.

The agreement ensures that BNSF freight trains will no longer run along the route from Irwindale to Arcadia, securing the route specifically for Gold Line. However, the freight trains would continue to share the route with the Metro as it extends from Arcadia to Montclair, with a planned station in Glendora.

The route is part of the future Metro Gold Line Extension project from Pasadena to Azusa. A second phase of the project will take the Gold Line from the Azusa-Glendora border through to Montclair.

The agreement was reached one year following the approval of full funding for the project in March 2010.

“This agreement, which has been in the works for many years, will allow a significant portion of the Foothill Extension from Pasadena to Azusa to be built as a stand-alone corridor – reducing cost for the project’s construction and future impacts to the community,” said Doug Tessitor, Glendora Mayor and Board Chairman for the Construction Authority.

Before the agreement, a shared-use agreement was executed in the early 1990s, when the then-Los Angeles County Transportation Commission (now Metro) purchased the right-of-way between Pasadena and Claremont from Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (ATSF) in a multi-billion dollar agreement. BNSF then inherited the agreement.

“This has taken a significant effort,” said Construction Authority CEO, Habib F. Balian in a written statement. “Metro staff made this agreement a priority for the agency and committed themselves to seeing it completed in time for the Construction Authority to award a design-build contract this summer for the approximately $450 million Pasadena to Azusa Alignment work.”