Light-rail alignments divide community

Residents, businesses outline drawbacks

By Andrea Damewood
Columbian Staff Reporter

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

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By Steven Lane

Carolyn Drew converted a 1910 house into her family law offices on McLoughlin. Light rail would cut off her only available on-street parking.

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Photo by Steven Lane

The Columbian

Mike Starks, who owns Soha Signs just off 17th Street, and 17th Street resident Debby Watts oppose putting light rail on 17th Street.

Update

■ Previously: C-Tran and Vancouver city staff have been studying the potential alignment of east-west light-rail travel on either McLoughlin Boulevard or 17th Street. The Vancouver Working Group, a citizens panel involved in the planning, said McLoughlin was the preferred choice in a narrow 9-8 vote. Five people did not attend the vote, and later 11 of the VWG’s 22 members signed a minority report calling for light rail on 17th Street.

■ What’s new: On Monday night, during a city council workshop, C-Tran and city staff gave their recommendations to routing light rail along 17th Street.

■ What’s next: The city council will hear public testimony on the alignment and make a recommendation to the Columbia River Crossing at 7 p.m. March 15 at City Hall, 210 E. 13th St.

The earliest light rail construction in Vancouver could begin is late 2013, but business owners Carolyn Drew and Mike Starks are a few among many who already know they don’t want it on their block.

Their problem is that they are on different blocks — Drew in a historic home-turned-law office on McLoughlin Boulevard and Starks runs Soha Signs just off 17th Street — and one of them is bound to be disappointed.

With either alignment, on-street parking, left-hand turns and some driveway access will be eliminated. And that’s where the two agree: That’s not going to work on their street.

“I would call it a very vibrant thriving business community on this street,” said Drew, standing on McLoughlin. “It doesn’t appear to me that transportation people … have given much thought to the impact the alignment would have on this street.”

Gathered with several neighbors two blocks away, Starks said he doesn’t see the point of putting a train through the more residential neighborhood.

“McLoughlin has always been the larger corridor,” he said, noting there are talks about installing a train crossing gate in the neighborhood. “Every three to seven minutes we’re going to hear auditory alarms.”

A light-rail extension into Vancouver has been embraced by the city council as part of the plan for the Columbia River Crossing — and planners say the trains are going to go on one street or the other.

The drawbacks and positives to putting trains on bustling, commercial McLoughlin versus the more residential but growth-ready 17th Street are almost exactly the same, city staff has said.

But the time to make an official call has come.

After hearing two hours of information on the alignment Monday night, the city council will hear public testimony and make its recommendation to the Columbia River Crossing on Monday. The C-Tran board of directors will then make its call during its April meeting.

“Honestly, council, there is no right or wrong answer,” City Transportation Manager Thayer Rorabaugh told the seven city councilors Monday night, before putting 17th Street forward as city staff and C-Tran planners’ recommendation.

Light rail was approved by the council in 2008 as part of the locally preferred alternative for the overall Columbia River Crossing, the planned new Interstate 5 bridge. The total cost of light-rail construction is estimated to be $900 million, with $750 million expected to come from the federal government and $150 million from Oregon and Washington, CRC Transit Manager Steven Witter said. Voters will likely vote on the operations funding next year as part of a C-Tran 20-year operations levy, he said.

Light rail would run from downtown Portland to Clark College, bringing northbound traffic up Broadway Street and southbound down Washington Street, before putting both eastbound and westbound trains on either McLoughlin Boulevard or 17th Street.

The east-west alignment has left professional planners and involved residents nearly evenly split in their decisions.

The alignment plans for both McLoughlin and 17th Street show the light rail running in the center of the road, meaning all on-street parking will be eliminated, and some driveway access and numerous left turns will be blocked.

The Vancouver Working Group, a citizens panel convened to study light-rail alignment, made McLoughlin the preferred route in a narrow 9-8 vote last fall. But five people did not attend the vote, and later half of the group’s 22 members signed a minority report calling for light rail on 17th Street.

Rorabaugh and C-Tran Executive Director Jeff Hamm outlined the challenges involved with putting trains on both streets.

“The good news is, both alignments will work,” Hamm said, before saying 17th ultimately became his top choice because there is vacant land on which to build a light-rail station in the future.

The cost to build light rail on McLoughlin would be about $3 million more than on 17th, Hamm said.

But because the 17th alignment requires a sharp curve to reach the Interstate 5 underpass to Clark College, it adds seven seconds to the estimated 44-minute trip from downtown Portland — adding about $190,000 a year to the operating costs of the 17th Street route, Witter said.

The council mentioned its concerns about the curve on 17th being a potential hazard to pedestrians, cars and other traffic.

Hamm said that he’s confident signaling and other traffic-control measures would help.

“You run into unique situations you need to design around,” he said. “Would it be as safe as if we put it on McLoughlin? No. But we can mitigate the issue.”

A few councilors, including Pat Campbell and Bart Hansen, indicated their initial approval for the 17th Street alignment Monday.

“It seems like there’s a lot of pride of ownership in (McLoughlin),” Campbell said. “That means a lot to me.”

Debby Watts, who lives on 17th near F Street, left the workshop dejected.

“It seems like it’s a done deal,” she said. “With the noise and the traffic, it doesn’t make any sense. It will change the dynamics of the neighborhood where we’re living.”

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