LA Metro is suing Burbank over construction permits for a regional transit project

Los Angeles Metro is suing Burbank over its refusal to grant construction permits for the local portion of a rapid bus route from North Hollywood to Pasadena.

The Burbank City Council only learned about the lawsuit halfway through a six-hour meeting about the bus on May 20. After the revelation, council members wondered aloud if Metro was watching the live stream and questioned what the purpose of the meeting was if they were now, apparently, in active litigation.

The special meeting was called to update the public over staff’s concerns about how a new state housing law could affect zoning around the long-planned bus stops along Olive Avenue.

“It turned out the update was more than we thought,” Burbank City Attorney Joseph McDougall said during the meeting. McDougall said the city hadn’t yet been served as of Wednesday evening.

According to a copy of the complaint filed on May 19 in L.A. County Superior Court, Metro argues that Burbank doesn’t have the authority to refuse the construction permits under the California Environmental Quality Act and an agreement forged between the countywide transportation agency and the city.

Metro is asking the court to direct Burbank to “cease conditioning issuance, approval, or processing” of project permits on any of the city’s issues with the design of the bus route.

Fast facts about the project

In 2022, Metro’s Board gave final approval for a 19 mile-long bus rapid transit route that features 22 stops through North Hollywood, Burbank, Glendale, Eagle Rock and Pasadena.

Bus rapid transit projects are those that typically feature dedicated bus lanes, signal priority and enhanced stations. Think of a bus rapid transit as a light rail on wheels instead of tracks.

The bus rapid transit project is funded in part with nearly $270 million of local sales taxes collected through Measure M, which county voters approved in 2016.

Metro is looking to break ground in July 2026 so the bus is operational in time for the 2028 Olympic Games.

The center of the ongoing battle between Burbank and Metro is the section of yellow in the Burbank portion of the bus rapid transit route showing that the countywide transportation agency wants to construct side-running dedicated bus lanes.

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L.A. Metro

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Competing perspectives on the bus lanes

The city of Burbank has been resolute through the bus route’s design process that it doesn’t want dedicated lanes along Olive Avenue. The city’s position is that dedicated bus lanes would leave only one driving lane in each direction on the arterial street, causing congestion and spillover traffic on smaller, neighboring streets.

It has instead advocated for the bus to run with other traffic to preserve all the driving lanes.

Metro’s position, according to the lawsuit, is that removing dedicated bus lanes would “materially increase travel time and reduce reliability and ridership … undermining the premium transit service that justified the public investment under Measure M.”

What does housing have to do with this?

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 79 in 2025, which establishes regulations that allow for higher and more-dense housing around specific kinds of transit stops than what local zoning rules would otherwise permit.

The qualifying transit stops in the region have yet to be determined. Still, David Kriske, Burbank’s assistant community development director for transportation, said the bus rapid transit could trigger the law since the five of the six stops in the city would be serviced by buses traveling along full-time, dedicated lanes.

In January, Burbank requested Metro do an additional environmental impact review of the project, specifically on any new land use impacts in light of the bill’s passage.

In a March letter to the city, Ray Sosa, Metro’s chief planning officer, said “the adoption of statewide legislation that could potentially result in development or redevelopment of parcels near project stops does not require Metro to re-open an environmental review concluded nearly four years ago.”

At Wednesday’s meeting, city officials displayed a poster board showing the potential areas that could be upzoned around the planned bus stops. One incensed public commenter pointed at the map and said it looked like “detonation zones and blast radiuses from Metro into Burbank.”

Metro's Board voted earlier this year to oppose implementation of the law.

This image displayed on a poster board facing the public at the May 20 shows where the city of Burbank thinks SB79 would apply because of Metro's bus rapid transit project.

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City of Burbank

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More on the lawsuit

Metro’s legal action isn’t entirely surprising. According to a letter to the city attorney attached to the lawsuit, Metro’s outside counsel had presented a draft of the complaint to the city on May 8.

Metro said in a statement that it “had little choice but to file a suit” since Burbank has “decided to withhold all permits unless Metro removes dedicated bus lanes or conducts additional environmental review because of the passage of SB 79.”

The countywide transportation agency’s lawsuit says it has spent nearly $44 million so far on design and pre-construction of the bus route and that “each day of delay increases Metro’s damages and threatens its ability to deliver the project” by the 2028 Games.

Jonathan Jones, communications manager for Burbank, said the city won't comment on pending litigation.