Meeting_Body
CONSTRUCTION COMMITTEE
OCTOBER 14, 2026
Preamble
Motion by:
DIRECTORS RICHARDSON, HAHN, AND BASS
Pilot Program to Centralize Permitting Along the Southeast Gateway Line Motion
Background on the Southeast Gateway Line:
The Southeast Gateway Line (SGL) is the 14.5-mile light rail priority project that will bring high-quality rail service to communities in Southeast Los Angeles County that have historically lacked comparable investment in the region’s rail system. While the initial operating section will connect Artesia to the A line, ultimately a one seat ride will connect all the cities and communities along the corridor to Downtown LA. The project area of the SGL is home to 1.4 million residents, and will connect them to jobs, health care, school and countless other services.
In the modern era of LA Metro, there hasn’t been a significant investment to the Southeast cities. The Blue/A Line pre-dated the creation of what we know today as LA Metro, making the SGL an important project for the entire agency to move forward.
Navigating the SGL:
Delivering the project, however, requires navigating an exceptionally complex network of jurisdictions, agencies, property owners, and other stakeholders. The project will cross multiple jurisdictions and require coordination with 11 cities, seven public agencies, 28 utility owners, more than 300 property owners, and major regional partners including the Port of Los Angeles, Port of Long Beach, Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority, Caltrans, and Union Pacific Railroad.
This level of complexity makes effective coordination essential-but it also creates a risk that multiple layers of local review and permitting can sometimes result in duplicative processes, inconsistent requirements, extended approval timelines, and additional project costs. Delays do not simply affect the schedule, they mean higher construction costs, particularly as Metro works to manage construction cost escalation and demonstrate to state and federal funding partners that major infrastructure investments can be delivered on schedule and within budget.
Centralized Permitting Pilot Program:
An independent review by Metro’s Office of Inspector General compared Metro’s standard design criteria with approximately 5,000 requirements applicable to the SGL corridor cities and the City and County of Los Angeles. The review identified only 21 differences-approximately 0.5 percent of the requirements examined. Importantly, a difference does not necessarily mean that Metro’s standard is less stringent. In some cases, Metro’s rail-specific standards are more stringent than local requirements; in others, Metro standards address conditions for which a local jurisdiction does not have a comparable standard.
The findings demonstrate a high degree of consistency between Metro’s standards and those of the jurisdictions along the SGL corridor and identified opportunities to improve project delivery to reduce costs and mitigate schedule delays through an alternative approach to permitting without compromising safety. The consistency in standards presents a clear opportunity to eliminate duplicative design and review processes and varying permit process while maintaining the technical rigor, safety, transparency, and local coordination that communities and public agencies expect. A centralized permitting process does not eliminate coordination with local governments, but rather streamlines the process, minimizing delays and additional costs.
Establishing a clear and predictable process would allow local agencies to remain informed, engaged, while avoiding unnecessary administrative requirements. At the same time, this could save this project from potential added costs for every month of delay, incurred from a variety of impacts including change orders, labor and material escalation and other overhead costs.
A Collaborative Foundation:
Metro and the corridor cities have been working the past 12 months to develop an efficient process that delivers value for the SGL project.
Part of the Solution:
The Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles plan to collaborate with Metro to explore opportunities to identify efficiencies in the process for the SGL project. With 6 miles of right-of-way along the SGL alignment being owned jointly by the Ports, LA and Long Beach hold a sizeable piece of the puzzle needed to build this project.
The SGL project provides an opportunity to establish a more effective model for delivering major transportation infrastructure across multiple jurisdictions-one that preserves safety, engineering rigor, transparency, and collaboration with local governments while eliminating administrative processes that unnecessarily add time, cost, and uncertainty. Centralizing permitting where Metro has the legal authority to do so would provide greater certainty while preserving the meaningful coordination that remains essential to successful project delivery.
Subject
SUBJECT: PILOT PROGRAM TO CENTRALIZE PERMITTING ALONG THE SOUTHEAST GATEWAY LINE MOTION
Heading
RECOMMENDATION
Title
APPROVE Motion by Richardson, Hahn, and Bass that the Board direct the Chief Executive Officer to:
A. Establish the Southeast Gateway Line Streamlined Approval and Permitting Process Pilot Program to reduce permitting and duplicative review requirements, expedite required approvals, and reduce permitting-related cost and schedule risks. Metro shall continue to coordinate collaboratively with affected jurisdictions and to provide plans and specifications for review and comment, while maintaining responsibility for the final project design and delivery. Metro and the corridor cities should work collaboratively to develop a pilot program;
B. For local jurisdiction permits and approvals, work with corridor jurisdictions to establish a centralized and expedited process with clear responsibilities, predictable review timelines, concurrent reviews where feasible, and a process to quickly resolve issues that threaten project cost or schedule;
C. Establish clear accountability and performance measures for the pilot program, including tracking required permits and reviews, processing times, schedule impacts, permitting-related project costs, with the goal of demonstrating measurable improvements in project delivery; and
D. Report back to the Board within 120 days on implementation of the pilot program, the status of the final agreement with corridor cities, participation by corridor jurisdictions, including the Ports, feedback from corridor cities on the collaborative process, identified barriers, initial results, and recommendations for applying successful elements of the model to other Metro capital projects.