Light-Rail Line For City Gains Ballast Transportation Boards Vote To Begin Design; Public Vote On Horizon

Transportation officials decided Thursday to plunge ahead with the concept of building a light-rail line in the Spokane area despite uncertainty about raising money to pay for it.

At a joint meeting, the boards of both the Spokane Transit Authority and the Spokane Regional Transportation Council voted unanimously to recruit engineering firms to begin designing the project, which is estimated to cost a total of $300 million.

When about 30 percent of the design work is finished, the boards will ask local voters whether they are willing to tax themselves to help pay for the line, which is proposed to run initially between downtown Spokane and Liberty Lake.

That vote could come as soon as November 2001.

“By then, we should be able to see enough of it, feel enough of it and show enough of it for people to make a decision,” transportation council manager Glenn Miles said.

Just getting to that point is expected to cost as much as $7 million, with no guarantee that voters will agree to push ahead, Miles said.

Miles compared the investment to earnest money prospective home buyers put down on a house so that negotiations on price and financing can begin.

“This is kind of the earnest money down on a very large project,” he said.

Local transportation officials hope to pay for most of the initial design costs with federal and state money earmarked for the project. Nearly $1.4 million in local money will be spent.

STA and SRTC board members agreed the investment was needed.

“I just think this is good and we ought to move,” said County Commissioner Kate McCaslin, a member of both boards.

Spokane City Councilman Steve Eugster agreed, although he said he was more inclined to support a line running from Coeur d’Alene to Spokane International Airport.

“Downtown to Liberty Lake doesn’t inspire a great deal. Coeur d’Alene to the airport does,” Eugster said.

Plans call for extending the line east to Coeur d’Alene and west to the airport, but only if the “starter line” is shown to be viable, Miles said.

Local transportation officials still must find money to pay for construction costs.

They had hoped to use equal amounts of state, federal and local money to finance the project, but it is unclear if the state money will be available.

Initiative 695, the car-tab measure approved by voters last year, took a large bite out of transit accounts this year. Another proposed transportation measure, Initiative 745, may further hurt transit funding, Miles said.

If the state can’t come through with its $100 million share, the project could stall.

Transportation officials see light rail as a way to reduce traffic congestion on Interstate 90. That would both ease traffic flow and reduce air pollution.