OGDEN -- Should an Ogden streetcar system serve as a regional people-mover, reducing traffic congestion and getting travelers from Point A to Point B as quickly as possible?
Or should its primary goal be transit doubling as an economic engine to drive the revitalization of the city's lowest-income neighborhood?
That's the disconnect between the Utah Transit Authority and a community group advocating a 25th Street-Harrison Boulevard route for the proposed Ogden streetcar project.
In its bid for federal dollars to fund the project, UTA planners and project consultant Wilbur Smith Associates prefer a Washington Boulvevard-36th Street path to connect downtown and move riders to McKay-Dee Hospital and Weber State University.
UTA planners recently held a neighborhood meeting with the Trolley District Citizens Advocacy Network, which presented its argument for reconsideration of the 25th Street alignment.
UTA spokesman Gerry Carpenter said he is impressed with the amount of homework and energy the Trolley District group put in and believes the group has worthy goals, but it may be coming to the table too late.
The "purpose and need" for the project was previously defined by a stakeholder group including area governments, Weber State, McKay-Dee, UTA and Utah Department of Transportation. Being crystal-clear about purpose and need is key to approaching the federal government for project funding, Carpenter said.
The neighborhood meeting was "a wonderful opportunity for us to be able to come back in to this process and bring some options to the table that may have been looked at early on but they were prematurely discarded," Trolley District member Shalae Larsen said, and some options that should be priorities were overlooked.
There is little public buy-in for a 36th Street option, Trolley District presenters said, while also debating cost projections and questioning some of the underlying decisions UTA made, such as rejecting Harrison Boulevard as a mixed-flow route with trolleys sharing the road with automobiles.
One compelling reason to use 25th Street or adjacent routes is to reach a group that has both the highest density population and the lowest income in the city, the demographic that could benefit most from mass transit, group members said.
"A streetcar ideally will also offset traffic," Larsen said. "If you could hop on a streetcar and 15 minutes later be at Weber State, that really opens up our portion of the community for people to live in the Trolley District and work or go to school at Weber State."
The two sides may have found some common ground on one point, with the Trolley District group working through possible outcomes including the possibility that UTA's current project could be considered the first stage of an eventual streetcar system tying together both routes. In terms of bidding for federal aid, the projects would be considered separately, though future phases would be designed to interconnect.
"From UTA's perspective, we really view what we've talked about as two separate projects," Carpenter said. "We are willing to partner with this neighborhood to try and help them come up with a project that works for them, but we really need to view it as two separate projects. We want to avoid muddying the waters. We want to be clear when we're going to the FTA what it is we're trying to accomplish. UTA, as a partner in this process, we're not willing to sacrifice the goals of the region to meet the objectives of the East Central neighborhood."
UTA project manager G.J. LaBonty said he would encourage Ogden and the City Council to hold a full public meeting on the transit project to gather input from other groups in addition to the Trolley District proponents.
"Ultimately, this is the city council's decision to make," LaBonty said. "I heard a comment in there that we, meaning the project team, will force a decision from the stakeholders. That's not the way this works at all. (UTA) doesn't care which way this goes, frankly. I know you do. But from my perspective, I'm trying to put the best project forward that I know from experience that FTA will look at and consider as a valid, fundable project."
The Trolley District is bounded by Washington and Harrison boulevards, 30th Street and the Ogden River.
For more information go to: www.rideuta.com/projects/OgdenWSU or www.trolleydistrict.org.
Comments