Citizens won’t stop here

Neighborhood groups who opposed a railroad right-of-way south of Ellis Avenue and Gothard Street as part of an Orange County Transportation Authority-funded study of transit connections to Anaheim have won a victory, but leaders say they won’t stop there.

City officials called the ruling out of the right-of-way for the study the end of a controversy; however, Citizens for Responsible Transportation, a group of residents and real estate agents that packed council meetings until city staff ruled out the section of rail, plan to continue their role.

A letter from Deputy Public Works Director David Webb that appeared on the city’s website April 4 said the area south of Ellis Avenue has been ruled out for any mass-transit use in the study.

Webb said in an interview that staff always had strong reservations about putting the rail there, and that they saw no easy way to get to the beach after that point.

“It would probably be one of the weaker choices,” he said. “Why not study the stronger options on the table?”

Councilwoman Debbie Cook said she was glad of an end to the point of controversy.

“That’s one headache gone away so we can move on,” she said. “I have a completely open mind to whatever comes up from the study.”

Citizens for Responsible Transportation leader Shari Noriega said she also hopes to avoid any use of the rail further north to Center Street, with the system possibly connecting to a trolley or bus system down Beach Boulevard.

“We are not done,” said Noriega, a resident and real estate agent with Star Real Estate. “We will continue to stay involved, and we will continue to make recommendations.”

Noriega said she worried about a focus on rail in the transportation corridor. Rail lines through residential areas can make a community deteriorate and drive down property values, she said.

Webb said traditional light rail on the existing rail right-of-way north of Ellis Avenue was only one of many options. He fears earlier city presentations were taken the wrong way.

“I feel really bad some people made assumptions,” he said. “You hear it’s a very focused study, but we haven’t determined the route or the mode yet. The problem is, we displayed the lowest form of the route — we displayed a diesel train car going down an existing right-of-way, and we said, ‘The simplest thing you could do is this.’ ”

Before staff removed the right-of-way south of Ellis from the future study, many council members had said they didn’t see the right-of-way as a realistic choice for rail transit but saw no way to exclude the option before a consultant-run study began.

Councilman Keith Bohr said he applauded the city’s move to limit the study ahead of time.

“I thought it was inconceivable that we would do anything south of Ellis,” Bohr said. “From a logical standpoint, we’re not going to go through people’s yards. If Public Works has found a way to do that, that’s fine by me.”