City fights BART squeeze City fights BART squeeze (March 26, 2004)

Council members say giant S.J. transit job will trump local projects

By Grace Rauh

If the Valley Transportation Authority funds a BART extension to San Jose and Santa Clara, Mountain View officials say local transit plans will collect dust for the next 25 years.

The Mountain View City Council, along with councils from Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Palo Alto and Sunnyvale, recently signed a joint letter urging the VTA board of directors to give higher priority to North County transit projects in the Valley Transportation Plan 2030.

"If all the other cities worked together, we might get some changes," said council member Greg Perry. North County officials are speaking out against the BART extension, but the VTA board of directors gave little indication at a March 19 workshop, that any significant changes will be made to their funding priorities through 2030. The board did not make any decisions on project priorities. They are expected to adopt a final plan in August. Alternate board member and Los Altos Hills Town Council member Breene Kerr said pressure from North County cities is "having a positive effect." "You just want to bring some reality into the decision making process," Kerr said. "I think we've got more projects now than we've got the money for. ... We can only afford to do so many trophy projects for San Jose."

The Mountain View council fears the proposed BART extension will suck funds from other transit projects planned for the North County, including Caltrain upgrades, bus transit improvements, rebuilding the Dumbarton Rail to again bring trains across the San Francisco Bay, a new transit center in downtown Palo Alto and electrifying Caltrain's tracks.

All projects under VTA consideration will be primarily funded with money from Measure A, a half-cent sales tax increase approved by county voters in 2000 that is projected to raise $3.8 billion over the next 25 years. Voters were told that Measure A funds would be used for local transit projects, in addition to big ticket items like BART. Nearly $2.5 billion of the $3.8 billion from Measure A would go towards BART, a project that is expected to cost an estimated $4.1 billion.

The 2030 funding plan was recently amended to put more North County projects on the "proposed allocation" list for funding, but Perry believes the changes are superficial. A line previously dividing the projects has disappeared, lumping 14 projects into the same funding pile. But North County projects still receive lower priority than the BART extension, which means they won't get off the ground, according to Perry. "You can erase a line with an eraser. That doesn't destroy the facts behind it," he said to VTA board members at last week's workshop. Public comment on the VTA 2030 plan was taken at the end of the meeting after several board members had departed. "They aren't interested in hearing what anybody has to say," Perry said. Kerr is more optimistic. "I think there's a way to move forward on BART without starving every other project," he said, adding that the board hasn't found a solution yet. Santa Clara County alternate board member Blanca Alvarado asked why the board hadn't considered a phase-in approach to BART as a way to build the extension while funding other projects. If nothing changes "I don't see how we could possibly build any of those," she said.

The board is expected to adopt project lists to submit to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission on April 23. They will be reviewing the final draft of the VTP 2030 plan in May and June before adopting a final plan in August. To learn more about the VTA's future plans, visit www.vtp2030.org.

E-mail Grace Rauh at grauh@mv-voice.com

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