Light Rail Faces Big Obstacles Region Lacks Housing Density, Unified Support For Project

Second of two parts

Carla Carnegie is sick of Spokane traffic.

There’s freeway construction in the summertime and clogged roads throughout the Spokane Valley.

Forget buses, she said.

“It takes too long to get anywhere, and it goes nowhere,” said the travel agent, who now works out of her Spokane Valley home. “To me, light rail is the future. I’ve been to Europe and England a number of times. You can take a bus or a train anywhere you need to go.”

Supporters of a proposed $300 million light-rail line between downtown and Liberty Lake are counting on people like Carnegie to make the project successful.

But this isn’t Europe.

In Spokane, it takes an average of 15 minutes to get to work, and most people drive alone.

Years of sprawl have overtaken the Valley and North Side, where some families choose homes on half- to quarter-acre lots rather than the higher-density developments that light rail encourages.

Mass transit isn’t as popular here as in bigger cities.

So is light rail in Spokane really viable?

Consider these obstacles:

The project would have to be financed equally with federal, state and local money. That means voters inside the Spokane Transit Authority’s taxing district would have to agree to pay their share - about $100 million - for the project to go ahead.

The plan still needs approval from the Federal Transit Administration at two more stages at least.

Land-use planners and transportation experts say the only way for light rail to work is if higher-density clusters of homes, stores, offices and recreational areas are developed close to rail stops.

Still, transportation officials say light rail in the Spokane Valley has a lot going for it.

The county already owns the land needed for the light rail. And the Spokane Valley is expected to grow by 13,000 households in the next 20 years.

County Commissioner Kate McCaslin believes light rail could be operating in just a few years.

Compare that to the North Spokane Freeway, which may take decades to complete, or the eventual widening of Interstate 90 to six lanes all the way to the Idaho border, she says.

“By the time we get lanes built on the freeway, number one, it will cost a lot. Number two, the day we cut the ribbon it will be backed up. I don’t think we can just focus on (freeways).”

Tough questions about money

Spokane’s light rail proposal is on a list of 200 projects across the country that the Federal Transit Administration may consider for funding.

But to receive federal money Spokane must show the project is cost-effective, promotes economic development, alleviates congestion and has local financial support, said FTA spokesman Bruce Frame.

“Local communities know their needs best. We’re here to help them, but we’re not going to force it down their throats,” Frame said.

Local transportation officials are considering asking voters for a .1 to .2 percent sales tax increase. The ballot issue could go before voters in the fall of 2000.

Questions about cost and engineering details must be answered first, said Glenn Miles, transportation manager with the Spokane Regional Transportation Council.

There is speculation whether voters in north Spokane would support higher taxes for a rail line serving downtown and the Valley.

“The tough one is going to be the people on the North Side,” said City Councilman Rob Higgins. “They might say, `Yes, you do need more money, (but) for roads.”’

But transportation officials point out that land is currently being dedicated to potential light rail as part of the North Spokane Freeway project.

Others question whether the money will be in the bank when the time comes.

“My major concern is the funding flow,” said Spokane Valley state Rep. Lynn Schindler. “I don’t think the state can be looked to for a solid funding source and as a long-term funding source. So often, when we get federal funds suddenly they dry up and the state gets stuck doing it.”

Still, local transportation officials remain hopeful.

They say the plan should be viewed from a regional perspective, possibly gaining support because in the future it could link Spokane to Coeur d’Alene.

A 1996 transportation survey showed that at least 15 percent of traffic from Spokane County heading eastbound from the Spokane Valley was destined for North Idaho.

Officials hope that one day light rail might extend from Coeur d’Alene all the way to Spokane International Airport.

But there’s another obstacle:

Idaho has history of not funding any public transit systems in the state.

A light rail mentality?

There are people who contend light rail isn’t the solution for Spokane’s traffic problems.

“It’s 100-year-old technology,” said County Commissioner Phil Harris. “I think we’re being too anxious … just because the money is available and they’re waving dollars in our faces.”

Harris questions if people in Spokane will ride light rail when “at any one time from anywhere in the county you’re 20 minutes from downtown.”

Also, most Valley residents would have to drive to park-and-ride lots to catch a train. “People are not going to drive from the south Valley 18 blocks to a light-rail station to go downtown,” Harris said.

A better solution would be an above-ground, high-speed monorail that would zip people between downtown and the Valley, rather than a light rail system that might only travel as fast as a car, Harris said.

And, he added, the Northwest has a different mentality than cities on the East Coast.

“People in the Northwest, especially in this area, love their automobiles,” he said. “Out here, we’re wide-open people.”

Planning experts say the future of light rail in any city depends on how land is developed around a light-rail system.

Cities that want light rail to work must encourage pockets of growth - like condominiums mixed with stores and offices near transit stations - rather than single-family homes on acres of land, said Martha Bianco, assistant professor at Portland State University’s School of Urban Studies and Planning.

In Portland, which has been held up as the model for land-use planning, planners have done just that.

Setting the stage for Valley growth

There’s already a dense population pocket in the Spokane Valley around the University City shopping center at the corner of Sprague and University. Developers are giving the aging shopping center a million-dollar face lift largely because of that fact.

But there are no plans for condominiums or townhomes at the shopping center. It is being anchored by a large grocery store and looks much like many of the strip malls already scattered throughout the Valley.

Light-rail supporters, though, believe that could change in the future.

By 2018, most of the central parts of the Valley are expected to become even more densely populated, and employment is expected to grow along Sprague Avenue, just north of the proposed light rail line.

County planners are considering transit centers at University City, Liberty Lake and the Spokane County Fairgrounds.

But the county won’t have enough population or employment growth in the next 20 years to support high-density developments at any of the other 13 planned stations running from downtown to Liberty Lake, said Zimmerman Volk Associates, a New Jersey consulting firm hired by the regional transportation council.

Experts envision the fairgrounds becoming a sports and entertainment draw that would revive the industrial area.

“I think people have to look at it as what it does for the broader community,” said Miles of the Spokane Regional Transportation Council, “rather than just what it does for the people who are riding it.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: COMING UP Awaiting Word Local transportation officials expect to hear this week from the Federal Transit Administration whether they can proceed with preliminary engineering for a downtown to Liberty Lake light rail system. If this stage of the project is approved, the Spokane Regional Transportation Council would put the engineering and design work out to bid. That work could take at least a year and would include public meetings. Local transportation officials say they are considering a .1 to .2 percent sales tax increase. That ballot issue could go before voters living within the Spokane Transit Authority’s service area district in the fall of 2000. Construction could begin in 2003. Supporters hope a light rail line would open by 2006.