Neighborhood Council Asks Universal to Reconsider ‘Horrendous’ Pedestrian Bridge

The l unanimously asked to reconsider a large pedestrian bridge planned over Lankershim Boulevard and go back to their previous plans for an underground tunnel.

“It is a horrendous bridge,” said Lisa Sarkin, vice president of the council as plans were being passed around for the bridge proposal.

Transportation committee chairman Ben Di Benedetto, who brought the motion to the council, said, “The bridge they’re planning is God-awful.”

The biggest concern is about how the bridge that would link the Metro Rail Red Line to Universal Studios would overshadow the historic —the site of the beginnings of California. The museum is in the parking lot of the Metro station, and the outline of the original buildings is mapped along the street to show the historic location.

 “They have painted over some of the borders of the former place on the street and it would completely overshadow the Campo,” said Barry Johnson, who is on the council’s Transportation committee.

Johnson said the MTA offered a plan in February of 2002 to build a subterranean tunnel from the station underneath the road and to the hill that heads up to Universal Studios and CityWalk. About five feet of tunnel was completed when work stopped.

Johnson pointed to the underground tunnels leading to buses underneath Highland Avenue at the Hollywood Bowl as examples of what was originally planned for Universal.

The motion asked that the discussions be reopened to allow for community input and that they better consider the impact on the historic Campo de Cahuenga. They are asked to look back at the previously-agreed-upon plan.

“I would like to know how they got this bridge idea approved and no one knew about it,” Di Benedetto said. “We do not want to kill this idea or this project, but they need to respect the Campo and get community input. They bypassed us again.”