MTDB OKs Compromise on Trolley Line : Transit: Route to Old Town will run the track under two streets and over another.

A proposed trolley route, running from the Santa Fe Depot to Old Town, won final approval Thursday after the Metropolitan Transit Development Board agreed to adopt a controversial under-and-over alignment through the Harbor View and Little Italy neighborhoods.

The board’s unanimous vote ended months of wrangling between neighborhood groups and former State Sen. James R. Mills, the chairman of MTDB. Residents and property owners had favored running the tracks at street level through the neighborhoods, two of the city’s oldest.

Mills had called that proposal ridiculous, saying it would lead to massive gridlock on streets leading to and from Lindbergh Field. In late 1990, MTDB voted to elevate 16 blocks of tracks between Cedar and Sassafras streets, and budgeted the $16 million necessary to do so.

The ensuing outcry focused on residents and property owners saying their bayfront views would be gone for good and that the trolley would destroy the neighborhoods aesthetically. The street-level proponents won the backing of, among others, the San Diego City Council.

The $32-million compromise solution, worked out during months of behind-the-scenes negotiations, calls for placing the tracks underground at Grape and Hawthorn streets and elevating them at Laurel Street, all key arteries serving the airport.

The City Council recently agreed to pay $8 million of the cost from its hotel-motel tax. The San Diego Unified Port District has agreed to pay $8 million. The remaining $16 million will come from monies already budgeted by MTDB.

The proposed alignment will follow the route of the existing Santa Fe railroad right of way. Construction is scheduled to begin this summer, and the line is scheduled to open in September, 1995.

Design engineer William C. Lorenz said the new route will have five stations: Santa Fe Depot, Cedar Street (serving Little Italy and the County Administration Center), Sassafras Street, Washington Street and Taylor Street in Old Town.

Lorenz called Thursday’s vote an “excellent compromise” and said, “Finally, we’re ready to proceed.”

It became obvious at Thursday’s meeting, however, that not all the members of MTDB were happy with the outcome. Chula Vista City Councilman Jerry Rindone termed the compromise solution the “largest, greatest roller-coaster ride in America, opening in 1995.”

Board member and County Supervisor Leon Williams said he had “serious reservations” about “taking taxpayers’ money” to come up “with this kind of compromise.”

But Mills, who, at times was bitterly at odds with neighborhood opponents, said Thursday he was “pleased with the resolution. I think you all know how upset I was with those who thought at-grade (street-level) was the only alternative.”

Mills noted that 60% of vehicle traffic to and from Lindbergh Field traverses Grape and Hawthorn streets, and said the San Diego Assn. of Governments “recently predicted a 200% increase in traffic on those streets by the year 2005.

“So, I’m pleased we resolved the problem the best way we could.”

Board member and San Diego Councilman Ron Roberts called the debate over the line “the most divisive we’ve faced” but noted that, “when it looked like we had reached our lowest point, we got together and worked it out.”

Roberts, who helped engineer the compromise, said he hoped the Harbor View-Little Italy experience helped ease brewing conflicts over proposed lines in other parts of the city, such as La Jolla and University City.

James Robinson, a spokesman for the American Institute of Architects, which bitterly opposed the elevated solution, showed up to offer Mills a bouquet of orchids. Months earlier, the architects’ group had given MTDB an onion as a symbol of its vehement opposition.

Robinson said the board had taken a volatile issue and “transformed an onion into an orchid,” but Mills declined the bouquet, saying he wanted Councilman Roberts to have it instead.