Business and property owners who could be uprooted by a mass transit project planned in the eastern San Fernando Valley are organizing in an effort to stay put.

The 9.2-mile East San Fernando Valley Transit Corridor project would connect the Metro Orange Line in Van Nuys to the Sylmar/San Fernando Metrolink Station through busy Van Nuys Boulevard, which has the second-highest transit boardings in the Valley following the Metro Orange Line. There are two alternatives for a bus rapid transit service and two for a light rail service, along with other federal- and state-required alternatives.

While the project wouldn’t break ground until 2021, Valley business interests are already concerned about the project’s potential impacts – mainly a possible maintenance yard and storage facility they say could force businesses to move.

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Kenn Phillips, president and chief executive officer of the Valley Economic Alliance, said one of the rail options, dubbed Option A, would displace more than 180 businesses for the potential maintenance yard, which would be located south of the Metro Orange Line just west of Van Nuys Boulevard, according to Metro.

“One thing you cannot replace is these 186 businesses that are co-located and have these relationships for decades,” Phillips said. “You can’t replace the synergy and the leveraging that they have by working together after all these decades.”

That option would affect hundreds of families, most of whom currently walk to work or take the bus, he said.

Peter Scholz, owner of Showcase Cabinets Inc., said he’s concerned about the possible relocation of his 30-year business, which has been his dream.

“I’m too young to retire and too old to start over,” the 53-year-old said. “There are no proper (light manufacturing) -zoned buildings in our area, which would require us to move as far as Sunland or (downtown) L.A.”

Scholz has clients, designers and architects who work on the other side of the hill, including Malibu and Beverly Hills, but who are willing to travel to Van Nuys to work with him, he said. If he moves farther out, he believes it will be too much trouble for them to come to his shop.

“I will be displaced, to say the least, and basically starting over,” he said.

The concerns have prompted Metro to organize an informational session on Oct. 10 for property owners and businesses who could be displaced. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, as the agency is formally known, is also extending its public comment period for the project through Oct. 30.

The Oct. 10 session will address questions from those who have been notified that the property they own or lease is under consideration for possible acquisition by the

Federal Transit Administration and Metro, said Karen Swift, Metro’s community relations manager for the San Fernando Valley. These owners would only be affected if the Metro Board of Directors voted to choose light rail for the project. That decision could be made early next year.

“We have notified all these people of a need for a maintenance and storage facility for light rail,” Swift said. “If we are moving to a potential rail project, we need somewhere to house those cars, take care of those cars, clean those cars every night…That’s the purpose of having a storage facility.”

A petition opposing Option A has garnered some 180 signatures from people who would be affected in some way, Scholz said. He also launched an online petition on Wednesday of this week.

Metro’s Option B would place the maintenance yard near Van Nuys Boulevard and Keswick Street, just south of the Metrolink right-of-way. Option C would place it west of Van Nuys Boulevard on the northern side of the Metrolink right-of-way. It was not immediately clear how many businesses would be affected by these options.

“I will be displaced, to say the least, and basically starting over.” – Peter Scholz, owner of Showcase Inc., on the impact of a massive Metro transit project in the Valley.

Scholz and Phillips are among those who are asking Metro to consider another option that they have dubbed Option D. It would place the yard east of Van Nuys Boulevard and would partly be located at 7600 Tyrone Street. That 17-acre site is currently owned by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. If they add a neighboring parcel of 55 acres, it would potentially affect only one business, which is a storage yard for cars, Phillips said.

Metro has said they need up to 30 acres for the maintenance and storage yard and that ideally it would be within a quarter mile of the proposed alignment. That leaves more than 40 acres for other assets, such as green space or housing for the homeless, Phillips said.

Metro said the agency plans to discuss this informal option at the Oct. 10 meeting.

“Maybe that will impact fewer people, if we can make it work,” said Kimberly Upton, a Metro spokeswoman.

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Meanwhile, Garrett Marks, co-owner of Mustangs, Etc., called Option A “really stupid.” He said he has three buildings that would be affected, including their main shop on Bessemer Street.

The company, which was started by his father in 1976, specializes in repairs, restorations, parts for classic Mustangs and Fords.

“I don’t know where we would move to; they say they would help us relocate and stuff but a cursory look at Loopnet (shows) there is nothing available that we would be able to afford probably within L.A. County,” Marks said.

He noted that a lot of his customers also live far away.

“If we move to Chatsworth or Palmdale, then we’ll lose all these customers and we wouldn’t survive,” Marks said.

The Oct. 10 informational session, which is open to the public, will be held from 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Van Nuys State Building Auditorium. Free parking is available at the Metro Orange Line Van Nuys Station.

During recent public hearings on the draft environmental report, there wasn’t an opportunity for a group question-and-answer session, Swift said.

“We found folks had the same questions; we were answering them one at a time,” Swift said. “We wanted to bring these folks together to answer all these questions and have a more informal meeting, allow them to get all the information they need.”

The project is expected to begin construction in 2021, with an opening date between 2027-29.

It’s funded by Measure M, a half-cent sales tax measure, which Los Angeles County voters approved in November, earmarking about $1.3 billion to build either an at-grade light rail transit or bus rapid transit project in the east San Fernando Valley.