Longtime Canoga Park Firm Forced to Relocate From Busway By SLAV KANDYBA Staff Reporter A longtime Canoga Park business and a neighboring company are being forced to relocate because they are in the way of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Orange Line, the busway currently under construction that will run from North Hollywood to Woodland Hills when completed. Both Jacobi Building Materials and Green Scene, businesses near the corner of Canoga Avenue and Vanowen Street, are being forced to relocate because the land that they lease is MTA-owned, according to their owners and the MTA. MTA needs the property to build a parking lot for the western terminus of the Orange Line and, although it’s not official yet, is seeking to reclaim the land. “We were highly criticized when we opened the Red Line” that there wasn’t enough parking,” said Rick Jagger, an MTA spokesman. “The (MTA Board of Directors) felt it was important to have extra parking.” MTA is currently in negotiations with Boeing Co. regarding purchase of land from that company’s Rocketdyne Propulsion and Power plant at Canoga Avenue and Victory Boulevard for parking, Jagger said. He did not disclose the status of those negotiations. The MTA Board of Directors, which is made up of the five Los Angeles County Supervisors, among other members, has postponed a vote on the matter until September, at the earliest, Jagger said. The MTA overseeing body may not take up the issue until November, he added. According to a letter from the MTA sent to Robert Jacobi, owner of Jacobi Building Materials, and obtained by the Business Journal, “MTA does not expect to issue an official ‘notice of termination’ until September 1, 2004.” The notice would give Jacobi a 90-day period to relocate. Assistance offered Although the MTA has offered relocation assistance, Jacobi said, he is running into problems finding another location and is facing a costly move. He also has asked, but was not told, how much assistance the MTA would give. “We have probably close to 200 semi loads that have to be moved,” Jacobi said. “I don’t have the type of inventory that you can put in a van and just move it down the street.” Zoning laws are also making a relocation search tough, he said. MTA has not offered suggestions about other locations, and the closest suitable location is in Oxnard. But Oxnard is too far, because most of Jacobi’s customers are near Canoga Park and the business would face competition at the remote location. “The problem we face is if we don’t stay in our customer base, it’s like starting a brand new business,” Jacobi said. “We’d have to rebuild and we’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars.” Jacobi has attempted to call on government officials on the local, state and even federal level for help and has set up a Web site asking for the public’s support. “We collected close to 1,000 signatures of support,” Jacobi said. So far, no government official has come to Jacobi’s support and he is not too optimistic that that will happen. Michael Besem, district director for L.A. City Councilman Dennis Zine, told Jacobi that the land was county property and referred him to a county supervisor. Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky’s office sent Jacobi a letter stating the matter would be referred to the MTA. Besem, wasn’t available when called at press time. Councilman Zine said he wasn’t aware that Jacobi was trying to reach him, but said he was willing to meet with him. Jacobi’s business and Green Scene, which is next door, occupy a total of 1.5 acres of MTA land, on which they have a month-to-month lease, Jacobi said. Jacobi’s business was founded by Robert’s father in 1959, employs 12, and has been at the same location since the beginning. The land was owned by Southern Pacific railroad but bought by MTA in 1989. October deadline Green Scene, a landscape design and construction firm that employs 60, is looking for a place to relocate because MTA wants it out by October, said Green Scene’s General Manager Dave Bender. “They (MTA) are not helping us relocate, as far as I know,” Bender said. Green Scene and Jacobi are not the only businesses affected by the Orange Line construction. Red Barn Saddlery in Tarzana was in the path of the bus way, but because the land did not belong to MTA, the business was able to avert having to relocate. “It was a fairly easy fix to avoid,” MTA’s Jagger said. “We a minor modification the caviat here is that Red Barn was not located on our ‘right of way.'”