Agency Makes CenterLine Eligible for Federal Funds

Orange County’s proposed CenterLine light-rail project took a major step forward Tuesday when it was recommended for eventual funding by the Federal Transit Administration.

Coming just three weeks after the Orange County Transportation Authority’s approval of the project’s 9.3-mile route connecting several points in Costa Mesa and Santa Ana, the “recommended” rating by the FTA is an important step toward realization, officials said.

“This is a milestone action signaling the [federal government’s] support,” OCTA spokesman Ted Nguyen said. “This is a green light to go forward.”

Added Greg Winterbottom, chairman of OCTA’s board of directors: “It’s great news for us. If you don’t get recommended, there isn’t much hope. This is our partner -- the federal government -- saying to Congress that we have a good project and it should move forward.”

Tuesday’s action makes the Orange County project -- which experts estimate could cost up to $1 billion to complete -- eligible for a portion of about $1.5 billion in federal funding available for 34 new transit programs nationwide.

Besides light rail, the recommended projects include heavy rail, commuter rail and bus. The proposed CenterLine, officials said, is one of only 10 approved projects still in the early stages of preliminary engineering.

Because of that, said Robert Jamison, the FTA’s deputy administrator, the project should not expect any funding immediately. “Since they are early in project development,” he said, “they would not be receiving funding out of new starts.”

First, Jamison said, the FTA must analyze the project’s recently approved reconfigured alignment in light of new cost and ridership figures. “We are looking forward to seeing how the new preferred alternative route ranks,” he said.

Indeed, OCTA officials admit, getting actual money for the project may still be an uphill battle. “We have to work with our congressional delegation,” Winterbottom said Tuesday. “Money doesn’t grow on trees.”

Current plans, Nguyen said, call for about half of the funding to come from the federal government, with the rest from a combination of state and local voter-approved sources.

The federal portion, he said, “could come from future funds. It could be one portion this year, then another portion next year. We won’t go into construction until 2006 so there are several cycles of federal funding that we could compete for.”

At least one member of the agency’s congressional delegation, however, said he has no plans to help.

“I think I’ve made myself clear in the past,” Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) said after the FTA’s action Tuesday. “I’m not going to do anything to promote the expenditures of taxpayer dollars for this project.

“You have people who are obsessed with developing a rail system in Southern California, but that is not consistent with my view of what is the best way to meet our transportation need,” he said. “I believe that my skepticism over this rail project is shared by other members of the delegation -- I don’t believe that the people of our county want it, and I know I don’t.”

Under the plan approved in January, CenterLine would begin at John Wayne Airport and go through the South Coast Metro and South Coast Plaza areas of Costa Mesa. It would run along Anton Street and turn right on Avenue of the Arts, where it would go underground for about 1,100 feet, then surface. It would turn left onto Sunflower Avenue, then right onto Bristol Street.

At Santa Ana Boulevard, the line would turn right and loop around the Santa Ana Civic Center, making its last stop at the Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center.

A small spur of the line would travel up Bristol Street to Santa Ana College.

As now envisioned, the line covers only a fraction of its original proposed 28-mile route through Anaheim’s entertainment district. The project has been shelved once and downsized repeatedly because of political opposition.

OCTA officials say they hope to have it completed and operational by 2009.

The Federal Transit Administration is an agency within the Department of Transportation.

Times staff writer Kurt Streeter contributed to this report.