Two lawmakers introduced bills on Monday that will remove the 710 Freeway northerly extension project from the state’s Streets and Highways Code, a place it has occupied for six decades.

By removing the reference to a 4.5-mile extension of the Long Beach Freeway from Valley Boulevard in Alhambra through South Pasadena and Pasadena to the 210 Freeway, the lawmakers will have put a stake through the heart of one of the most controversial freeway projects ever proposed in the history of Los Angeles County.

The two pieces of legislation, Assembly Bill 29 by Assemblyman Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, and Senate Bill 7 by State Sen. Anthony Portantino, D-La Canada Flintridge, follow a historic decision by Caltrans on Wednesday to toss out any extension by tunnel.

Instead, the state agency finalized the environmental impact report and endorsed local roadway and transit improvement projects in the corridor to ease gridlock and reduce tailpipe and greenhouse gas emissions. A surface route was defeated 15 years ago.

Too expensive

Caltrans followed a decision by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority to kill the tunnel extension in May 2017, labeling it infeasible and too expensive to build.

A tunnel project, depending on the design, would cost between $5 billion and $7 billion, according to Caltrans’ latest estimates in a revamped report.

Freeway opponents from South Pasadena, La Canada Flintridge and Pasadena see the bills as necessary for keeping the project from being resurrected.

“I think this is necessary so that in the future this idea cannot be bought back again,” said Dr. Bill Sherman, member of the South Pasadena Transportation Committee.

Holden said in a prepared statement that his bill “will bury the tunnel idea once and for all.”

Coby King, president and CEO of High Point Strategies, who formerly worked for the cities of Glendale, Pasadena, La Canada Flintridge, South Pasadena, Sierra Madre and the No 710 group, quoted a line referring to the death of the wicked witch from “The Wizards of Oz” in a Facebook post after the Caltrans decision: “Not only it is merely dead, it’s really most sincerely dead.”

In an interview Monday, King said the legislation is necessary and is not overkill. “The tunnel could never be too dead,” he said.

Both bills will stop the 710 from advancing beyond the 10 Freeway in El Sereno and Alhambra, eliminating any extension. The freeway would stay 23 miles from Long Beach to Alhambra, ending lawsuits, public hearings and wranglings that lasted since 1959.

Other provisions

The bill by Portantino has several other provisions.

SB 7 would help nonprofit groups that lease land from Caltrans along the defunct route to buy properties at affordable prices. These include: the Cottage Co-Op preschool; Waverly and Sequoyah schools; the Ronald McDonald House and Arlington Gardens, Portantino said.

“They are as part of the community as much as anyone else (living in the path),” Portantino said, adding the bill also would expedite sales of rental homes to low-income tenants.

Both freeway stubs — one in Alhambra and the other in Pasadena north of California Boulevard — would be returned to the appropriate city under future language not yet written.

Portantino said once the cities decide on a method, he will insert that into his bill.

Caltrans reported that three of the top 10 bottlenecks in Los Angeles and Ventura counties are in or near the proposed freeway extension study area, basically in the west San Gabriel Valley.

SB 7 has gained support from several co-authors, including: Sen. Jim Beall, D-San Jose, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee; Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo, D- Los Angeles and Assemblywoman Blanca Rubio, D-Baldwin Park.