CenterLine Route Gets Its Final OK

Orange County transit leaders on Monday finalized a 9.3-mile route for the CenterLine light-rail project that includes a spur to Santa Ana College and a short underground passage near South Coast Plaza.

The Orange County Transportation Authority directors voted 9 to 2 on the route for the $1-billion streetcar system, which will run almost entirely in Costa Mesa and Santa Ana. The route would involve widening Bristol Street and condemning as many as 500 pieces of property.

Although unresolved issues remain, supporters said light rail would be necessary to help meet the transportation demands of a growing and aging population.

The vote is seen as a milestone for a project that was shelved once and downsized several times because of political opposition. The original CenterLine route plan was 28 miles long and went through Anaheim’s entertainment district.

“This is not the best project in the world, and we don’t have all the answers yet,” said Shirley McCracken, an OCTA board member who is an Anaheim City Council member. “But we have to get started.”

OCTA board members Chris Norby and William Campbell, both of whom are county supervisors, voted against the route.

Increased bus service, Campbell believes, would be cheaper and more effective than a billion-dollar light-rail line that does not link major residential and employment centers.

Norby says CenterLine is little more than a trolley that will lumber along at 17 mph. A bus, he said, would be nearly as efficient.

“I support modern, rapid rail,” Norby said. “This is not it.”

Approval of the route clears the way for further planning, final environmental impact studies and stepped-up efforts to secure state and federal funding for about half the project.

As now envisioned, CenterLine would begin at John Wayne Airport and go through the South Coast Metro and South Coast Plaza areas of Costa Mesa.

The route 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. The last stop would be the Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center.

A spur of less than a mile would travel up Bristol Street to Santa Ana College, which has about 35,000 students and staff. Transit planners view them as potential riders.

Except for the underground section and a short street-level stretch, the line would be elevated about 25 feet from John Wayne Airport to Warner Avenue.

“Maybe today we don’t need light rail, but in the future we will,” said Art Brown, an OCTA board member and Buena Park councilman.

The line still faces unresolved issues, including the elevated route and station at John Wayne Airport, which must be approved by the Board of Supervisors and the Federal Aviation Administration.

Airport officials are concerned that the rail line would disrupt airport access, eliminate parking spots and interfere with runway approach lights and instrument landing system.

In addition, some project supporters complained about OCTA’s decision to run CenterLine underground through Costa Mesa, with only one track in the 1,100-foot section.

OCTA had wanted an elevated route on Anton and Bristol streets, but ran into opposition from business leaders and elected officials.

Critics said the concessions to Costa Mesa leaders, including C. J. Segerstrom & Sons, owner of South Coast Plaza, was a compromise that could lead to head-on crashes and bottlenecks in the underground section. “The Costa Mesa detour is a technically inferior route,” said Roy Shahbazian, a member of Rail Advocates of Orange County, which supports CenterLine.

Without the underground section, OCTA faced the potential loss of support for CenterLine on the Costa Mesa City Council. Arthur T. Leahy, OCTA’s chief executive officer, said trains would be timed and safety measures installed to prevent collisions.