Port District Funds Held Key to Trolley Accord : Transportation: Putting tracks underground in Little Italy-Harbor View will cost $16 million.

The issue is a hotly disputed San Diego Trolley alignment through Harbor View and Little Italy. A compromise is on the table. The problem is it costs $16 million, and no one wants to pay for it.

The Metropolitan Transit Development Board met once again Thursday to consider issues surrounding the alignment along the route, which will run 3 1/2 miles from the Santa Fe Depot to Old Town along an existing railroad right of way.

Afterward, the only question seemed to be: Will the San Diego Unified Port District pay all or part of the $16 million needed to put the tracks underground at two crossings--Grape and Hawthorn streets?

“It seems the port commissioners have left us in a little bit of a box,” said Ron Roberts, a San Diego City Councilman and transit board member.

James R. Mills, the chairman of transit board, said the Harbor View-Little Italy controversy could be put to rest as early as Oct. 24, when the transit board next meets, if only the port would say yes and fork over the money.

“But, from what I hear,” Mills said, “that isn’t likely to happen.”

Only Assistant Port Director Don Hillman was available from his agency Thursday. Port Director Don Nay and most of the commissioners were on what Hillman called a trade mission to the Orient.

“That matter hasn’t been formally presented to the board,” Hillman said of the $16-million solution, which MTDB and city officials say only the affluent port can afford.

But Mills said he was told recently by one commissioner that the port is unlikely to pay for putting two sections of the trolley extension underground “because it hasn’t been placed on the city’s ‘wish list.’ And therefore, I was told, we shouldn’t expect the port to put up the money.

“In other words, if the city doesn’t want it, the port isn’t likely to pay for it,” Mills said.

The money would pay for putting tracks underground at heavily traveled Grape and Hawthorn streets and putting them on a bridge over Laurel Street. All three streets are key routes linking Interstate 5 with Lindbergh Field, which is owned by the Unified Port District.

Mills favors elevating the tracks along a nine-block stretch from Cedar Street to a point just north of Laurel. Residents and property owners in Harbor View and Little Italy neighborhoods vehemently oppose such an alignment.

They argue that it would destroy their community aesthetically and psychologically, robbing them of the one thing that makes their neighborhood desirable, a panoramic view of San Diego Bay.

They favor having the tracks at ground level throughout the area. Mills angrily opposes that idea, saying it would lead to gridlock of apocalyptic proportions as trolley volume increases. The underground solution at Grape and Hawthorn satisfies both sides--if they can get the money.

Mills said the reason the port might be unwilling to fund such an alignment is that no request has been forthcoming from the city--namely, Mayor Maureen O’Connor.

“She’s made no pitch for it and won’t” because of the cost, said Paul Downey, O’Connor’s spokesman. “She is committed to keeping the tracks at grade throughout Little Italy.”

Downey confirmed that the mayor recently told an ad hoc committee meeting of port commissioners that her notion of what ought to be funded with Port money is a new central public library at the foot of Broadway.

“Yes, the mayor has gone to the port, but her highest priority--the dream with which she’d like to leave office--is the new library at the Lane Field site” at the foot of Broadway, Downey said. “Her feeling is that, if (the transit board) wants those tracks below grade at Grape and Hawthorn, then they ought to go (to the Port) and request it themselves.”

But Councilman Roberts said the city should support the compromise alignment, and that he intends to push for it because it is of greater necessity than a bayfront library.

Roberts said the port has been meeting with representatives of cities along the bay about what extra amenities they might like. But the trolley should not fall within those city discussions, he said, because it’s not an amenity but a vital transportation link that “serves the port directly--it’s like an apron on the runway.

“The library falls in a different category, whereas this is hardly an elective matter. The city of San Diego is paying 100% of the cost of elevating the tracks at Laurel Street, and let’s face it, most of that is port traffic.

“We haven’t asked for one penny for that. The port should acknowledge that it’s a partner in this thing and share their portion of the cost.”

But, Roberts said, should the port balk at paying even a penny, a showdown is likely at the next transit board meeting Oct. 24.