Transit Board Split Over Where to Send Trolley Next

When the Metropolitan Transit Development Board was expanded six months ago to include the transit systems serving East County and South Bay, it was feared that the move would create a series of turf battles between San Diego and neighboring cities instead of the regional consensus on transportation planning that it was designed to promote.

That has not been the case--yet.

But an important test of that harmony will come within a month when directors of the new 15-member MTDB decide which way to expand the San Diego Trolley. MTDB must decide whether the next trolley project should serve the center city development and tourism interests by linking downtown with Old Town, or service East County commuters by extending the East Line from El Cajon to Santee.

Last month, the smaller cities showed they were ready to fight for the Santee extension when they banded together as a bloc but fell one vote shy of knocking the Old Town project from the top of MTDB’s list. A second vote on the matter is expected at either the Dec. 19 or the Jan. 9 meeting of MTDB.

“It might appear, on this issue, that we are all banding together against the monster city, but I think those of us who support the Santee alternative sincerely believe we should serve the daily commuters of the area, rather than the intermittent tourist visiting the city,” said Coronado Councilwoman Lois Ewen, one of the seven new MTDB members.

“I certainly hope that we do not fall into a pattern where the little guys are always fighting Goliath--the City of San Diego,” she said.

New cities in the MTDB are Coronado, Poway, Santee, Chula Vista, El Cajon, Lemon Grove and National City. Original directors include one representative each from the state, county, Imperial Beach and La Mesa, and four members from the San Diego City Council.

Board members representing San Diego interests hope to keep the Old Town route as the top priority because its ridership projections are estimated to be 10,000 passengers a day, compared to estimates of half that number for the proposed Santee extension.

The smaller cities, however, are pushing the Santee extension because they say the 3.3 miles of track required for the new line would cost an estimated $37.1 million, while the Old Town route, to be 3.9 miles long, is expected to carry a $56.4-million price tag.

San Diego’s board members--Mayor Roger Hedgecock, Councilmen Ed Struiksma and William Jones, and former Councilman Bill Mitchell--argued at the Nov. 21 MTDB meeting that the Old Town route should remain the top priority because it would enhance the new convention center and other critical center city interests.

It was at that meeting that the smaller cities barely missed toppling the Old Town project.

“I fully expect to get some hard lobbying on this one,” Ewen said about the impending vote. “But this is the type of tough, regional question the consolidation was designed to work out. Whatever the outcome, I think everyone on the board has the best interests of the entire transportation network in mind.”

One of the incentives for the smaller cities to support a Santee extension is the hope that the new line would spawn more trolley track onward to Poway, said Poway Councilman Bob Emery, also an MTDB board member.

“In the far-off future, there is expansion of the trolley planned for Interstate 15,” Emery said. “I foresee that the charge of the MTDB will be to slowly work toward a truly mass transit system. And if the Santee extension proves that the trolley can take commuters out of their cars, it might help us out when we want funding considered for the I-15 route, which would also be for commuters.”

MTDB board member Jim Bartell, a Santee councilman, predicted that the skirmish over the trolley route priorities could be a harbinger for the future of the expanded transit district.

“This is the first clear-cut division between the interests of downtown and the outlying areas that we have had to deal with, but it won’t be the last,” said Bartell. “It’s only natural for us to work for projects that are critical to our home areas.”

Struiksma, who was a driving force behind the consolidation, said he expects that kind of friction on the expanded board.

“I expect the other cities to square off against San Diego interests from time to time,” he said. “And I appreciate Santee’s position--it stands to benefit greatly from the trolley, and someday the line will go out that far. But all the economic factors--ridership, costs, revenue that will go to other business interests with sending the trolley to Old Town--point to the fact that Old Town should be the first priority. We’re confident the majority of the board will support our position.”

Despite the friction, Struiksma said he believes that it is “absolutely critical to begin planning transportation on a regional basis, and the only way to do that was to give the smaller cities a voice in the decision-making.”

The consolidation resulted in several other changes, including a transfer of ownership of San Diego Transit and the transportation systems serving the smaller cities to MTDB. Transportation funds once controlled individually by each city now are placed into a regional pool that is controlled by the MTDB directors.

This arrangement had been a cause for concern among the smaller cities, whose representatives warned that transit routes through their areas would lose funding to those in the City of San Diego, but those fears have not yet materialized.

“The transition has been extremely smooth,” said MTDB General Manager Tom Larwin. “The various interests that were brought into MTDB have worked together well. The political aspects are working out fine. And this gives us a chance to have a single voice setting priorities 5 and 10 years ahead of our construction timetables. Before the consolidation, there was a sort of voluntary cooperation among the various transportation systems, but that was too fragile to let it continue.”

Ewen said that, despite the current hassle, she doesn’t expect the fighting to continue.

“So far, it doesn’t appear that will happen,” said Ewen. “The new cities on the board have been able to mesh very well with the previous directors.”