Santa Cruz County releases Greenway Initiative report, could go to voters
SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, Calif. (KION-TV) Back in October, an electric passenger streetcar was placed on the unused tracks of Santa Cruz County to demonstrate a transit option for the coastal rail corridor. It was met with enthusiasm and opposition. Now what to do with the 32-mile stretch of tracks could be up to the voters.
Next Tuesday, March 8th, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors is required to either adopt a Greenway Initiative as a county ordinance or order the initiative to be placed on the next ballot.
Greenway, a group who would like to see an interim trail on the railbed of the rail corridor, from the San Lorenzo Bridge in Santa Cruz to Lee Road in Watsonville, handed over a "Yes Greenway" petition to the Santa Cruz County Clerk's office with more than 16,000 signatures.
"It was an amazing effort. 170 volunteers, nobody was paid to collect the signature. We went all through the county and, you know, got that record number of signatures. So in the end, we had over 13,000 validated signatures,” said Jack Brown, Spokesman for Yes Greenway.
The petition offers voters the opportunity to amend Santa Cruz County’s General Plan. After nearly 3 months, a report on the proposed voter initiative will be presented to the Board of Supervisors next week.
“Greenways plan is to eliminate passenger rail from ever happening in Santa Cruz County," Mark Mesiti-Miller, No Way Greenway Co-Chair.
The current plan is to use the tracks for a clean energy, public transportation line with a walking and biking trail running alongside it. Which No Way Greenway is in favor of, saying the measure from Yes Greenway "would kill that plan.”
"What they've done is they've effectively created a plan that calls for removing the track in the middle of the county between Santa Cruz and Watsonville, and eliminating all rail transit planning from the county's general plan, making sure that rail transit will not occur in Santa Cruz County for the foreseeable future,” added Mesiti-Miller.
Not only would Yes Greenway like to see a safe, continuous, bike and pedestrian trail over a light rail system, the group thinks its better to work with existing public transit systems, like METRO. For example, opening up the shoulders of Highway 1 so it can be an exclusive route for buses.
"That's the same infrastructure, the same busses, the same mechanics, the same bus depots that you have today. Just because the train tracks there, you still have to find people who can work on a train to find a place to park the train, you to find train some parking for the train stops. It's a whole new infrastructure,” continued Brown.
But No Way Greenway says, adding passenger rail to the county’s bus system would actually be a bonus.
"It will increase the number of people using public transit from about 13,000 today to about 34,000 went after rail was put in. And we have an integrated public transit system that's 20000 extra cars not being driven. That's how we're going to beat climate change,” mentioned Mesiti-Miller.
The full report, which covers 8 topic areas, can be found at santacruzcounty.us.
