Light rail train service has a new path forward in the South Bay, potentially bringing more stops and attracting new ridership.

Metro’s Board of Directors, in a unanimous decision, selected the Hawthorne Boulevard route for the K-Line Extension Project during their Thursday, Jan. 22 meeting at the Metro Headquarters Building in Los Angeles.

The route will run down the median of Hawthorne Boulevard elevated, bridging the Redondo Beach Station on Marine Avenue with the Torrance Transit Center while possibly creating two stations near the South Bay Galleria and the Torrance Transit Center, according to the Storymap projections on Metro’s Project page.

“We have the option of Hawthorne Boulevard, we should use it in transit where it belongs,” Redondo Beach councilmember Paige Kaluderovic said.

The decision comes after many community concerns arose over the first preferred route the Hybrid Alternative.

The Hybrid Alternative is a route that would have run along Metro-owned property, the Right-of-Way (ROW), and pass close through Lawndale residential areas.

“We have seniors and retirees who live right next to the ROW [Hybrid Alternative]; their health and quality of life will be devastated by years of construction, and toxic dust produced by it within feet of their homes,” Anthony Owens, a Lawndale resident, said during the meeting.

The Hawthorne Boulevard Route is also expected to have an 3% increased ridership than the Hybrid Alternative, according to Metro’s own predictions.

However, the new decision comes with complications that Metro will need to address.

Metro board chair Fernando Dutra raised questions about Caltrans encroachment permits—legal authorizations for work on public property or public rights-of-way—that could create significant delays or stall progress down the line.

Staff responded that if encroachment permits were to be denied, significant redesigns would be necessary, possibly hiking up the overall cost of the project.

With a funding gap of $1.4 billion, Metro’s Board of Directors explored potential solutions to bridging this, including selling its owned-right-of-way property.

If Metro decides to sell the property, there are concerns that the land would simply go to the highest bidder and hurt communities in Lawndale.

“The freight industry might be the highest bidder, and then do to this community what we’re trying to prevent happening,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn said before adding, “I don’t want that to ever be a possibility for the communities that are along the ROW.”

Similar parties share concerns with delays. Kevin Sohn, 19, a geodesign major and research assistant at USC, said “I’m very disappointed, I still think that, no matter what there’s going to be mass delays.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated on Wednesday, Feb. 11 to clarify the third paragraph.

Editor’s note: This story was updated on Wednesday, Feb. 25 to fix a caption technical error.