Council Vote Halts Traffic for Trolley at C Street Stops

After six years of debate, the San Diego City Council decided Monday to close C Street permanently at two downtown trolley stops and for a 90-day experiment between 2nd and 6th avenues.

A dozen people in wheelchairs applauded loudly after the 5-3 vote.

The plan approved by the council was the only one of three that would permit platforms wide enough for use by the handicapped at the stations, according to city transportation planners.

Metropolitan Transportation Board President Thomas Larwin was also pleased--especially with the unexpected experimental closing that may turn four blocks of C Street into a pedestrian mall.

“This is a recognition that C Street, at least in the core area, is a people street and something’s got to give,” Larwin said.

By April, 1986, the trolley’s new eastern line will be open and both sets of tracks on C Street will be needed. The street will then be closed to auto traffic between 2nd and 3rd avenues at the busy Civic Center trolley station and at the so-called Gaslamp station between 5th and 6th avenues. The experimental four-block closing could start as early as next month, Larwin said.

In hearings on the trolley line over the years, business groups, including two banks, the San Diego Chamber of Commerce, San Diegans Inc., and the Centre City Development Corp., have vehemently opposed even partial closure of C Street. (At one point, planners discussed closing the street from Kettner Boulevard, near the railroad station, to 8th Avenue but were forced to back off.)

Businessmen have argued that C Street was a significant downtown artery that links the business district with nearby freeways and that it was not good for business to wall off the center of downtown from cars.

Agreeing with them was Councilman Ed Struiksma, who with Dick Murphy and Bill Cleator voted against the closing.

Struiksma attributed the council’s speedy approval on the stations and Councilman Mike Gotch’s proposal for the 90-day test to the fact that by the time of the 5:50 p.m. vote the council was, “somewhat exhausted.”

“I think they made a decision that shouldn’t have been made,” he said, adding that if the four blocks of closed street were to be a pedestrian mall, it would be strange one.

“Are you going to feel comfortable walking around with trolleys going back and forth every few minutes. It’s not conducive to a true transit mall . . . one mistake and the trolley chops off your legs,” he said.

Meanwhile city and MTDB transportation planners claimed Monday that closing C Street would would have little or no effect on downtown traffic patterns. “For many years, C Street has been primarily pedestrian and, since 1981, the major transit spine for the trolley in Centre City,” Deputy City Manager John Fowler and Planning Director Jack Van Cleave wrote in a report to the council.

When trolleys began running from downtown to San Ysidro, C Street was closed to traffic except on a single eastbound lane. The street carries only about 3,500 cars per day compared with 10,000 cars per day on nearby B Street or 20,000 cars per day on Broadway, one block south, Larwin said Monday.

Business groups offered two alternatives to the closings at the Gaslamp and Civic Center stations. Under the so-called “open alternative,” the trolley would run on two tracks beside a 10-foot wide station, three feet of landscaping and a 12-foot automobile lane. That platform would not be wide enough to accommodate handicapped riders, Van Cleave and Fowler said.

The Centre City Development Corp. last month proposed another plan. C Street would remain open to traffic with an 11 1/2-foot eastbound lane. The station platform would be 10 feet and the sidewalk reduced to 10 feet. Van Cleave and Fowler argued that this alternative placed the auto traffic dangerously close to the platform and to the trolley.

The MTDB proposal, which the council adopted, allows for 13-foot sidewalks and a 12-foot station platform--plenty of room for the trolley to operate in two directions, pedestrians to pass safely and handicapped riders to wheel themselves on board, planners said.

The decision to close a full four blocks of C Street for 90 days was unexpected and came after Gotch spoke firmly on the need to close the street and urged fellow council members to “bite the bullet.”

“The only reason we’re still here with this controversy (after many other hearings) is that politically powerful people feel this closure is going to have an adverse effect,” Gotch said. He urged the council to “Close it all the way. Close it all the way out to 7th or 8th or 9th (avenues) and if it doesn’t work, we can always go back” to opening it up to traffic.

On the advice of Larwin, Gotch amended his proposal to include only the blocks between 2nd and 6th.

Ironically, CCDC Executive Director Gerald Trimble, who had advanced the plan that would have kept C Street open to at least one lane of traffic, said the 90-day experimental closure was a good idea. “It gives everybody an opportunity to see what the impact on the downtown streets might be,” Trimble said. “It’s a wise choice.”