By Rose Laudicina
Staff Writer
While two members of the Orange County Board of Commissioners are still not convinced light rail is the best option for Orange County, the commissioners voted 5-2 to recommend light rail as the locally preferred alternative (LPA) for the county.
Orange County is the last member of the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization (DCHC MPO) to make a decision regarding the LPA, with all three other members supporting light rail.
Triangle Transit Authority senior transportation planner Patrick McDonough gave a presentation to the commissioners in which he reminded them that while in approving the LPA they were stating the type of technology, endpoints and alignment of service they preferred, there were still many ways to alter the ultimate plans.
“I am trying to communicate to you how much control you really do have within the plan and how it is funded,†McDonough said.
Also included in their decision to pursue light rail that would start at UNC Hospitals and travel 17.4 miles to Alston Avenue, just east of Duke University, is the commissioners’ preference for one of two proposed rail routes.
Durham, Chapel Hill and Carrboro have all endorsed looking into both the C1 and C2 routes; however, they have expressed their preference for C2, and the commissioners followed suit.
Commissioners Earl McKee and Steve Yuhasz cast the two dissenting votes against recommending light rail, expressing serious reservations about the plan.
Yuhasz said in looking at the benefits for Orange County and all of its residents, he did not believe light rail was the best option. Instead, he said he preferred looking into increased regional bus transit.
“Bus regional transit meets the same criteria for light-rail transit,†Yuhasz said, in terms of ridership and transit time. “Looking at the locality I represent, I cannot prefer light-rail transit.â€
McKee voiced his concerns not only about the preferred method of transit but also how it would be funded, specifically with a possible half-cent transit tax.
“Our vote tonight will set us on a path for endorsing light rail without proper consideration,†he said. “I am at an impasse.â€
At a previous commissioner meeting on Jan. 24, the board asked McDonough and Wib Gulley, the general counsel for TTA, to look into the possibility of siting a light-rail route near U.S. 15-501.
Gulley and McDonough said the idea of building a route along 15-501 is not out of the question for the future, and that a separate study could be done for that corridor, but that doing so now would push the whole process back.
“I don’t want to just throw out 15-501, but I want to study it separately,†Commissioner Pam Hemminger said.
In the approved motion, the commissioners stated that they would like their representative on the DCHC MPO board, Commissioner Alice Gordon, to express their desire to explore a route along 15-501.
“Tonight we are just making a motion to ask Commissioner Gordon to vote on our behalf,†Hemminger reminded the board. “This motion is not committing us to putting this on the ballot or spending millions of dollars at this point.â€