OnTrac Project to Get State Funds

The state budget approved by the governor Monday includes $15.1 million in long-awaited transportation funds for OnTrac, a financially strapped railroad corridor project in downtown Placentia.

City officials said the overdue state money would allow OnTrac to pay off about $12.9 million in debt and provide $2.2 million for planned work at Bradford Avenue, one of 11 railroad crossings slated for improvement.

“This money will help create a solid financial position for the city,” Mayor Scott P. Brady said. “It will give us financial flexibility to consider new projects and to rebuild our reserves.”

Planners say the $460-million project, which would replace railroad crossings throughout the city with overpasses and underpasses, will revitalize the city’s downtown and speed the movement of freight to and from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The project, however, has been stalled for several years by mounting debt and uncertainty over government funding due to state and federal budget deficits. To keep OnTrac afloat, municipal officials have mortgaged city property, auctioned parkland, sold about $22 million in bonds and cut municipal services.

Community activists have questioned OnTrac’s leadership and the project’s almost exclusive reliance on expensive private consultants to manage the work.

City officials say they’d tried to address those complaints by hiring a new public works director to help oversee OnTrac and by tightening spending.

OnTrac has applied for about $225 million in federal funds, a request that’s contained in the massive transportation bill pending before Congress.

Of the $15.1 million contained in the state budget, about $6.9 million will eliminate debt from the city’s acquisition of Office Depot on Placentia Avenue to make way for a proposed overpass.

City officials said an additional $6 million would allow for repayment of municipal loans that financed the Melrose Avenue underpass, an $18-million bridge that opened in January.

The balance of the money will pay for the closure of an old railroad crossing at Bradford Avenue and the construction of a pedestrian bridge over the tracks.

“This is good news for the city,” said Craig Green, a member of Citizens for a Better Placentia, community activists who have been critical of OnTrac’s management. “Let’s hope we can create some financial reserves for the city, pay off some debts and better monitor our expenditures in the future.”