Post by article on Aug 2, 2007 13:38:24 GMT -8
House snub won't derail Gold Line
Funds for extension will be requested later, officials say
By Fred Ortega Staff Writer
Pasadena Star-News
Article Launched:07/31/2007 11:50:38 PM PDT
The House of Representative's refusal last week to include funding for the Gold Line Foothill extension in this year's transportation bill is a minor bump in the road to completion of the $1.37billion project, officials said Tuesday.
The money lost in the bill amounted to just over $1 million for a study of transit-oriented developments along the proposed 24-mile route from East Pasadena to Montclair, said Habib Balian, CEO of the Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority.
Balian added that the authority was not even prepared to request funds to begin construction on the light rail extension this year.
"This is not devastating by any stretch of the imagination," he said.
The authority still has to get approval from the Federal Transit Administration of the project's environmental impact study, as well as permission from the government to enter preliminary engineering and final design before it can ask for federal funds.
Balian hopes to have the approvals in time to submit a $400 million federal funding request next year.
That would complete the first leg of the rail line to the proposed Citrus station, on the border of Azusa and Glendora.
"I am abundantly confident that the project will happen; when it will happen is out of our control," Balian said, adding that if the FTA grants all the necessary approvals, construction on the first phase can begin as early as December 2008. "That is a factor we have to leave to the leadership in Congress."
But a spokeswoman for Rep. David Dreier, R-San Dimas, a longtime Gold Line supporter, said the decision to not include funding for the project in this year's transportation bill does not bode well for future requests.
"With no federal dollars this year to help continue its progress, it will be doubly hard to get funding next year," said Alisa Do, Dreier's legislative director, who accused the Democratic leadership in Congress of ignoring the needs of San Gabriel Valley and Inland Empire residents. "Folks can't afford to waste more time and gas getting nowhere."
Balian noted that more than $1 million was already secured by Congress in 2006 for the transportation development study, which he expects to be completed by the end of this year.
"We really were not relying on a second allocation; $1 million is a lot of money for a study," he said.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, another Gold Line advocate in Congress, said that the loss of funding, while disappointing, was anything but a death knell for the project.
"It was a small study that would have demonstrated the development benefits of mass transit, but has nothing to do with whether the project will be constructed," he said.
Even without a study, cities from Azusa to Monrovia are moving forward with their own transportation-related developments, with the Gold Line as a centerpiece.
Monrovia is hoping to break ground on the first phase of a massive transit village anchored by the old Monrovia train depot, which is slated to become a Gold Line station, by next year, said city spokesman Dick Singer. The project would eventually include commercial and office space, in addition to between 1,400 and 2,800 homes.
"We assume the Gold Line is coming, but it doesn't matter when it gets here," Singer said, adding that the city has already constructed the first component of the so-called Station Square project: a park-and-ride lot that is already being used as a transit center for Metro, Foothill Transit and Monrovia Transit buses.
Singer said the project is not only meant to improve residents' access to mass transit, but to also extend the city's commercial Old Town center south along Myrtle to the new development. The project has already secured $500,000 in federal funding.
"This will not only make a difference for businesses that feed off that area, but for Old Town and the local economy," he said. "The Gold Line is more than transportation for us; it is the whole engine for this."
Schiff said his top priority is to make sure local and state agenciesput up as little matching funds as possible to guarantee federal money for the project. He added that he has already inserted language in the Transportation Technical Corrections Bill that would require only 20 percent local funding to secure the remaining 80 percent from the FTA, which has already passed in the House and Senate. But he wants to strengthen that language before it is signed by the president.
"What is going to be required more than anything else to make this happen is for the whole Southern California (congressional) delegation to work together and not point fingers at each other," Schiff said. "We are ultimately talking about a lot of dollars for Gold Line funding, and we need to work together in a bipartisan way."
www.pasadenastarnews.com/news/ci_6513415
Funds for extension will be requested later, officials say
By Fred Ortega Staff Writer
Pasadena Star-News
Article Launched:07/31/2007 11:50:38 PM PDT
The House of Representative's refusal last week to include funding for the Gold Line Foothill extension in this year's transportation bill is a minor bump in the road to completion of the $1.37billion project, officials said Tuesday.
The money lost in the bill amounted to just over $1 million for a study of transit-oriented developments along the proposed 24-mile route from East Pasadena to Montclair, said Habib Balian, CEO of the Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority.
Balian added that the authority was not even prepared to request funds to begin construction on the light rail extension this year.
"This is not devastating by any stretch of the imagination," he said.
The authority still has to get approval from the Federal Transit Administration of the project's environmental impact study, as well as permission from the government to enter preliminary engineering and final design before it can ask for federal funds.
Balian hopes to have the approvals in time to submit a $400 million federal funding request next year.
That would complete the first leg of the rail line to the proposed Citrus station, on the border of Azusa and Glendora.
"I am abundantly confident that the project will happen; when it will happen is out of our control," Balian said, adding that if the FTA grants all the necessary approvals, construction on the first phase can begin as early as December 2008. "That is a factor we have to leave to the leadership in Congress."
But a spokeswoman for Rep. David Dreier, R-San Dimas, a longtime Gold Line supporter, said the decision to not include funding for the project in this year's transportation bill does not bode well for future requests.
"With no federal dollars this year to help continue its progress, it will be doubly hard to get funding next year," said Alisa Do, Dreier's legislative director, who accused the Democratic leadership in Congress of ignoring the needs of San Gabriel Valley and Inland Empire residents. "Folks can't afford to waste more time and gas getting nowhere."
Balian noted that more than $1 million was already secured by Congress in 2006 for the transportation development study, which he expects to be completed by the end of this year.
"We really were not relying on a second allocation; $1 million is a lot of money for a study," he said.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, another Gold Line advocate in Congress, said that the loss of funding, while disappointing, was anything but a death knell for the project.
"It was a small study that would have demonstrated the development benefits of mass transit, but has nothing to do with whether the project will be constructed," he said.
Even without a study, cities from Azusa to Monrovia are moving forward with their own transportation-related developments, with the Gold Line as a centerpiece.
Monrovia is hoping to break ground on the first phase of a massive transit village anchored by the old Monrovia train depot, which is slated to become a Gold Line station, by next year, said city spokesman Dick Singer. The project would eventually include commercial and office space, in addition to between 1,400 and 2,800 homes.
"We assume the Gold Line is coming, but it doesn't matter when it gets here," Singer said, adding that the city has already constructed the first component of the so-called Station Square project: a park-and-ride lot that is already being used as a transit center for Metro, Foothill Transit and Monrovia Transit buses.
Singer said the project is not only meant to improve residents' access to mass transit, but to also extend the city's commercial Old Town center south along Myrtle to the new development. The project has already secured $500,000 in federal funding.
"This will not only make a difference for businesses that feed off that area, but for Old Town and the local economy," he said. "The Gold Line is more than transportation for us; it is the whole engine for this."
Schiff said his top priority is to make sure local and state agenciesput up as little matching funds as possible to guarantee federal money for the project. He added that he has already inserted language in the Transportation Technical Corrections Bill that would require only 20 percent local funding to secure the remaining 80 percent from the FTA, which has already passed in the House and Senate. But he wants to strengthen that language before it is signed by the president.
"What is going to be required more than anything else to make this happen is for the whole Southern California (congressional) delegation to work together and not point fingers at each other," Schiff said. "We are ultimately talking about a lot of dollars for Gold Line funding, and we need to work together in a bipartisan way."
www.pasadenastarnews.com/news/ci_6513415