Beverly Hills school district files lawsuit to halt Purple Line extension

The Beverly Hills Unified School District filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Friday to halt Purple Line extension’s construction.

The district is concerned that construction could potentially harm Beverly Hills High School and its students’ health and safety and is calling on Metro to properly analyze the environmental impacts of the Purple Line extension before construction begins, according to a press release. Metro plans to run the line, which will run through Westwood, under Beverly Hills High School.

The extension is estimated to be completed in 2026 and would have two stations in Westwood: one near UCLA and the other near the Veterans Affairs hospital.

A court decision last February required Metro to complete additional environmental analysis for the Purple Line extension’s construction. However, the decision did not impede early construction or design work, according to a court release.

The district is seeking an injunction to halt construction of the Purple Line extension because it thinks the supplemental environmental analysis Metro completed in December was faulty as it did not fairly consider the effects of the line’s impact on students’ health, according to a press release.

Metro communications manager Dave Sotero said he does not think the lawsuit will cause any delays in construction and said Metro conducted the proper environmental analysis.

“We did a massive report looking at this area and then we did an additional supplemental report,” he said. “The environmental work that we have done confirms that we can safely construct the line underneath the high school.”

Construction of the line’s first section, between Koreatown and La Cienega Boulevard, is currently underway and Metro plans to break ground for the second section in Beverly Hills this spring, Sotero added.