EVERETT — Mayor Ray Stephanson wants to put the kibosh on any attempts to spend more city money on streetcar studies.
City Council members disagree.
The mayor’s stance comes three months after a feasibility study forecast the price tag for a five-mile streetcar line at more than $150 million. It would cost millions of dollars more each year to run the system.
“I’ve thought a lot about this,” Stephanson said last week. “It’s important given this economic climate that we don’t make decisions on spending until we fully understand the long-term financial implications.”
Stephanson said the project would take away from other city priorities, such as Everett Riverfront, a major mixed-use redevelopment project planned along the Snohomish River. He said he would consider vetoing any attempt by the council to fund more studies.
Some council members meanwhile contend streetcars could attract private development and revitalize areas of the city. They say building a system will require years of advanced planning and time to figure out a funding strategy that works.
“This is the first brush stroke. It is by no means a painting yet,” Councilwoman Brenda Stonecipher said of the $112,700 feasibility study.
Released in December by San Francisco transportation consultants Nelson\Nygaard, the study looked at rail alignments between downtown, Everett Community College, Everett Riverfront and a now-stalled mixed-use project on Port Gardner. About 3,000 condominiums and homes are in various stages of planning and development along the proposed routes.
During its annual retreat last month, council members said they want more study of how to pay for streetcars.
Such a study would take a closer look at available federal, state and city funding sources.
Stonecipher, an advocate of streetcars, said city leaders should look at more than just costs and also weigh the benefits of a rail system.
After building a streetcar line in the Pearl District, Portland, Ore., saw $3 billion in economic development, as old warehouses were replaced with 6,000 residential units and more than 4 million square feet of commercial space, according to the Nelson\Nygaard study.
City Councilman Mark Olson, chairman of the council transportation committee, said Stephanson’s opposition hasn’t convinced him to remove streetcars from the table.
Olson last week asked Everett Transit Director Tom Hingson to research a streetcar system in Kenosha, Wis., a city of 90,000 people on the shores of Lake Michigan.
Kenosha is seen as a better comparison for Everett, population 101,800, than Seattle, Portland and other larger cities with streetcars.
Stephanson’s opposition is fueled by a possible citywide sales tax increase — one of several ways other cities have paid for streetcar systems.
The consultant’s report projects that as much as $92 million could be raised through a transit sales tax increase.
“For us to ask our citizens to raise taxes for an investment like this is ill-advised,” Stephanson said.
The city is contemplating asking voters to support a parks bond. No one has proposed raising sales taxes for a streetcar line.
“The mayor was premature,” Olson said. “None of us are willing to raise taxes, at least at this point, to make this happen. There are other ways of funding streetcars. To just draw a line in the sand all of a sudden saying ‘we’re not going to spend money,’ after we have spent money, isn’t the right approach.”
The city could generate as much as $60 million from the Federal Transit Administration’s Small Starts program, according to the Nelson\Nygaard study.
Seeking federal funding, however, would trigger extra requirements and likely add years to the project. It would enter a competitive arena with other projects like Community Transit’s rapid-transit bus line on Highway 99.
Other communities around the country have cobbled together a patchwork of funding sources to make their projects happen.
For example, Sound Transit’s 1.6-mile Link system in downtown Tacoma between the Theater District and the Tacoma Dome was funded mostly through federal and state dollars. Just 5 percent of the cost was borne by the city.
More than half the cost of Seattle’s new South Lake Union Streetcar is being paid though a special tax collected from property owners along the 1.3-mile route.
Councilman Arlan Hatloe said he largely agrees with Stephanson.
“I think it’s a unique project and a good project but I would be reluctant to put a burden on taxpayers,” he said. “I’m a former businessman and I am acutely aware of the pressures on businesses.”
City Councilman Paul Roberts, a Sound Transit Board member, said a lot will ride on Everett’s success on landing a University of Washington branch campus at Everett Station, east of downtown.
The proposed streetcar line would stretch from the proposed university site to downtown attractions, including Comcast Arena at the Everett Events Center.
“I think the idea should stay alive,” Roberts said. “It does have merit as something we should explore.”
Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.
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