Building an 18-mile bus rapid transit line between North Hollywood and Pasadena will have to wait a month or even longer.

Without discussion, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board of Directors on Thursday postponed launching an environmental review as recommended by staff, a key step in a $267 million project scheduled for completion in 2024.

The delay is over what route the dedicated busway would take and what routes should be studied in the environmental impact report.

Metro planned a freeway route along the 134 Freeway; a street route along Colorado Boulevard, Glenoaks Boulevard, Olive Avenue, Riverside Drive and Lankershim Boulevard and a freeway-street hybrid route. All would connect Pasadena with Glendale and Burbank — dubbed the San Gabriel-San Fernando Valley busway with an estimated 23,000-30,000 riders per day.

L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, a Metro board member, said before the meeting she asked for the delay because Metro needs to listen to the concerns of the three cities before moving ahead.

“I want to have all three cities sit down and talk with them,” Barger said, “before we invest any more of our money in this.”

Opposition to the so-called “refined street-running alternative,” listed as a preference by Metro, began to build within Pasadena City Hall earlier this month. Several City Council members, including Mayor Terry Tornek, said the project changed and no longer meets the city’s objectives.

Tornek made an unusual appearance before a Metro committee last week, saying he was strongly opposed to an easterly extension along Colorado Boulevard that would add a new busway from the Memorial Park Gold Line Station in Old Pasadena to Pasadena City College at Hill Street and Colorado.

Narrow Colorado Boulevard could not handle 60-foot articulated buses and stations, which would have to be dismantled every Jan. 1 to make way for the Rose Parade floats, he said.

Tornek said he favors the bus rapid transit project but it should end at the Gold Line station, not continue several miles to PCC. By adding the easterly extension, it duplicates service provided by Metro’s Gold Line, Pasadena Transit and Foothill Transit buses, he said in an interview.

The mayor said Metro staff was not listening to Pasadena and was forcing a streets route on the city it opposes. If this route was studied in the EIR, Tornek said it could gain a foothold that could result in more opposition to the project.

He would like to see the project connect with Bob Hope/Burbank Airport, a connection no longer being considered by the route alternatives offered by Metro.

“This has morphed into a service not consistent with our primary objectives,” Tornek said.

Barger and Tornek agree that pausing the project is a good idea. They want to meet with the three cities about the route options. Barger also wants to bring in Foothill Transit, a bus agency that serves the Inland Valley, the San Gabriel Valley and connects to Los Angeles.

“This is not just Pasadena. There are concerns about the preferred alternative in Glendale and Burbank as well,” Tornek said.

About 700,000 people travel daily between the two valleys. Of those, only 2 percent use mass transit.