State Supreme Court Ruling Could Cost Gold Line Millions

A state supreme court ruling last week could delay a deal between the Gold Line Construction Authority and the city of Monrovia for months and increase the cost the Gold Line project by millions of dollars, a GLCA spokeswoman said Monday.

The California Supreme Court ruling prevents city redevelopment agencies from entering into transactions until a lawsuit against the state is resolved. A until the case is ruled on, which is expected to happen some time in January, according to City Manager Scott Ochoa.

GLCA spokeswoman Lisa Levy Buch said Monday that the accepted by a contractor would expire before January if a deal can't be completed with Monrovia, forcing the agency to restart the bidding process.

"It has to do with the delay and how much the delay will cost the project and we’re talking millions of dollars," Buch said. "If we’re not able to use the current bids, we’d have to re-procure the whole project and that delay would cause the increased costs."

Buch has said the increased costs could potentially be "devastating" for the project.

The GLCA needs Monrovia's land for a maintenance facility required by Metro for the Foothill Extension to progress. The without acquiring half of the land needed for the maintenance yard.

In July, for $56 million to be used in the authority's maintenance facility project. But the city could not officially execute the deal when the state passed a law barring redevelopment agencies from making transactions unless they made millions in cash payments to the state.

The City Council and thus keep its redevelopment agency alive. But the law didn't take effect until this month, shortly after the California Supreme Court issued a stay order that keeps redevelopment agencies from making deals.

The stay order was issued by the high court as the result of a lawsuit filed by the California Redevelopment Association (CRA) and League of California Cities against the state in response to the redevelopment elimination law. Last week, the court denied a motion to lift the stay it imposed, effectively freezing the Monrovia-GLCA deal.

The city hired lobbyists earlier this month and is .

Buch said her agency is also looking at other options that would allow it to move forward with the deal but she declined to identify what those options are.