Overview
- Lawmakers inserted late-session language into a budget trailer bill that passed both chambers and was sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday, putting the measure on his desk for signature or veto.
- The added language would bar reducing vehicle travel lanes on any street that provides the only access to two or more adjacent cemeteries in a city of 2 million or more without a public hearing plus City Council and mayoral approval.
- The lane-reduction plan for a one-mile stretch of Forest Lawn Drive — which city records show has had more than 95 crashes and four fatalities since 2013 — was already paused earlier this year while Mayor Karen Bass asked city departments to redesign it.
- Mayor Bass’s office says alternative designs that keep driving lanes and add safety measures have been proposed, but Councilmember Nithya Raman and safety groups warn those alternatives may not deliver the crash reduction engineers tied to the lane removal.
- Public records show substantial paid lobbying by the cemeteries and their representatives, including six-figure payments to firms, and critics say the midnight amendment shows how targeted spending can change local projects and set a precedent for Sacramento intervention.