Fight Brewing Despite Encinitas’ Rebuff of Bus Terminal

A confrontation is brewing over whether the North County Transit District can proceed with a combination bus and commuter rail station in downtown Encinitas now that the City Council has rejected it.

While officials are still talking about compromise and working together, there exists a fundamental difference between the city’s position and that of transit officials.

After more than three hours of public testimony, the Encinitas council Tuesday night voted 3-2 (with John Davis and Anne Omsted opposed) to call for the elimination of the bus terminal from the project, which is located behind the La Paloma Theater on Vulcan Avenue. Locals view the bus aspect of the station as unnecessary, cumbersome and dangerous for the 0.8-acre site.

But transit officials say the bus terminal is essential to the area transit plan.

“We still think the plan is the correct thing to do,” NCTD spokesman Pete Aadland said. “It makes no sense to have the buses separate from the trains.”

According to transit officials, the buses will keep cars off the road and link the commuter rail system to the community. But activists argue that locals won’t use the buses and that people will still get in their cars to reach the station, clogging narrow roads in the area.

The opposition might be moot. Two years ago, the Encinitas council approved the concept of a bus-transfer station, and now they should only be overseeing its design, transit officials say.

“At this time we have a signed contract to build a combined bus-rail station facility at the site,” Aadland said. It is not clear if the NCTD has the authority to force the project on Encinitas.

“That is basically a question for lawyers,” said Betty Laurs, marketing manager for the NCTD. “We have certain jurisdictional authority, and the decision to exercise that authority is a decision of the board.”

Although many agencies are involved in planning, NCTD is the agency charged with spearheading the project. The NCTD board of directors, which decides the NCTD’s policy, consists of nine members, one elected official from each community.

In the past, NCTD usually has followed the wishes of individual communities, according to Pam Slater, Encinitas’ representative on the board who had supported the bus transfer station concept until hearing the public testimony Tuesday night.

Now that the planning is more advanced, the board might balk at making fundamental changes. Residents in Carlsbad also are objecting to one of the two commuter rail stations NCTD wants to build in their city.

“I think this will be a test of NCTD’s resolve of what they plan to do and how to deal with community problems,” Slater said.

The NCTD board will have a completely different look after Tuesday’s election. Three members are leaving or already have left the board--Kris Murphy of Escondido and Nancy Wade of Vista are not running for reelection to their city councils and Slater is running for county supervisor. Four other board members are running for reelection in their communities.

Opponents of the bus station in Encinitas speculate that the new board will be more responsive to Encinitas residents than the old one.

“It’s looking really good,” said Virginia Cartwright, who helped form Transit Reform Coalition, which opposes the transfer station.

The plan transit officials presented to council Tuesday night is a slightly revised version of one presented for review earlier in the year. Instead of eight bus bays, it calls for spaces for six buses, additional landscaping and security during operating hours.

It also cut the number of daily bus trips in the area from 208 to 151, which is fewer trips than currently travel on area roads, NCTD said.

But the Old Encinitas Community Advisory Board opposed the plan--just as it had the first plan.

After the Planning Commission deadlocked at 2-2, NCTD opted to take the plan to the City Council, where more than 80 people filed requests to speak about the project Tuesday night.

Mayor Maura Wiegand, who was considered a swing vote on the council, said she voted against the the bus terminal because it wasn’t “appropriate” for the small site, adding that she is not convinced that it is needed.

“Once trains are running, we can see how many are using buses and then try to accommodate them,” Wiegand said.

Aadland and Laurs refused to speculate about the how the Encinitas vote will affect the board’s resolve.

“I will say that the staff recommendation probably won’t change,” Laurs said.

The next NCTD board meeting is scheduled for Nov. 12. Laurs said the board won’t consider the Encinitas vote until it is formally notified in writing of Encinitas’ objections to the bus plan.