3 Mayors Seek to Revive Altered Light-Rail Plan

Mayors from three of Orange County’s largest cities are trying to revive a proposed $2.3-billion light-rail system halted this year after community and political support crumbled.

Irvine’s Larry Agran, Santa Ana’s Miguel A. Pulido and Costa Mesa’s Libby Cowan want the Orange County Transportation Authority to resume studying a possible route through their cities for the controversial CenterLine project.

The line, once seen as a cross-county rail network, would connect the commercial, recreation and government districts in the three neighboring cities. The cost, presumed to be less than the original rail line, is not known.

“This could be a new beginning,” said Agran, an advocate of light rail who supported the original CenterLine concept. “A tri-city effort could get the analysis underway again. If the system is built, that would be terrific.”

Art Leahy, OCTA’s chief executive officer, shelved the project in February, citing growing opposition from cities, businesses and residents along a proposed alignment that would have stretched 30 miles from Anaheim to Irvine.

Community groups and municipal officials complained that the rail line would destroy neighborhoods, waste tax dollars and do little to reduce air pollution and traffic congestion.

A federally mandated study in 1997 also indicated that light rail is among the least effective transportation modes, prompting some critics, such as longtime community activist Shirley Grindle, to call CenterLine “a boondoggle.”

In their proposal, the mayors envision a largely elevated line that starts at the Irvine Transportation Center and moves west along the San Diego Creek Channel to the South Coast Metro area in Costa Mesa. The route would proceed along Anton Boulevard before cutting north on Bristol Street.

At Civic Center Drive, the line would bend east and end at the Santa Ana Transportation Center. The plan includes an optional link to UC Irvine.

If CenterLine is built, the mayors said they hoped other Orange County cities, including those in the original proposal such as Anaheim, Fullerton and Orange, would join the network.

“Rail is effective and an important component in addressing our growing transportation problems,” Agran said.

He plans to ask his council colleagues Tuesday to send OCTA a letter requesting that the authority study a light-rail line for Irvine, Costa Mesa and Santa Ana.

He also wants the council to support the suggested route and the construction of a parking structure at the Irvine Civic Center to accommodate a potential train station.

Pulido and Cowan said they are planning to address CenterLine at upcoming council meetings.

Costa Mesa “is a small but critical piece of what we see as a good first operating segment for the line,” Cowan said. “This is an essential component of our transportation system.”

Agran initiated discussions with Pulido and Cowan several months ago to see how the three cities might work together on the project. After several meetings, they approached OCTA with their ideas.

“This is a major breakthrough,” said Leahy, who halted the CenterLine project as one of his first acts in office. “The fact that they came to us is very illuminating. We don’t want to do a project that our partners are not happy with.”

Except for reservations about trains running through the community of Woodbridge, Irvine officials have supported the CenterLine concept. The Costa Mesa City Council has also backed the original proposal.

In Santa Ana, the City Council voted 7-0 against the initial project. Some neighborhood opposition surfaced in the northern part of the city, and business owners were not happy with an earlier route that would have taken trains along Main Street.

Pulido said the new plan should alleviate those concerns because Bristol--not Main--will be used and the route no longer passes through neighborhoods to the north.

“There are some significant differences to what was proposed earlier,” Pulido said. “The alignment works a lot better, and it includes some things I have been saying all along--that it should go to the transit center.”

Light-rail critics contend the new proposal could be just as big a waste of money as the original idea. They contend the real motivation for resurrecting the light-rail study is a $125-million state grant, money that will be lost if the project doesn’t get rolling.

“All the real studying has been done, and it shows light rail is a loser,” said Wayne King, a longtime community activist who favors more bus service over a new train system. “But Larry Agran isn’t going to let this go easily.”

The $125 million in state money was set aside for a people mover in Irvine in 1990. But that plan stalled and Irvine indicated it wanted the money to go to OCTA’s CenterLine project. The state will get back the money if the project doesn’t proceed.

Agran denied the revived interest in the line is motivated by the possibility of losing state funds. The mayor said he hoped resumption of the study will rebuff the critics and lead to the line’s construction.

“This will address the questions of our critics and provide us answers as policymakers,” Agran said. “A study does not lock us into construction if it shows more problems than benefits. But I feel the findings will be affirmative.”