Politics & Government

SMART to Consider Delaying Opening of North Novato Station

Funding shortfalls during the passenger rail's start-up process lead the SMART board to consider construction deferments along the route.

A passenger train station on the north side of Novato scheduled to be part of new rail service by 2014 was placed on a list of possible deferments Wednesday during a meeting of the Sonoma-Marin Rail Transit Board of Directors.

The SMART station is scheduled to be built near the corner of Atherton Avenue and San Marin Drive and was part of the package approved by Marin and Sonoma county voters in 2008 that increased sales taxes to pay for the commuter rail system between Larkspur and Cloverdale.

SMART spokesman Chris Coursey said placing the North Novato station on a list of possible deferments, along with almost a dozen other projects, does not mean the station won’t be built.

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“No decisions were made today. It was a just a workshop,” Coursey said Wednesday. “It’s just one thing on the table for the board to discuss.”

SMART is experiencing an estimated funding shortfall of $100 million to get the rail system up and running, Coursey said. The nationwide economic situation has contributed to lower tax revenue figures, meaning less start-up money to buy rail cars and built infrastructure.

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Novato’s representatives on the SMART board — Judy Arnold of the Marin County Board of Supervisors and Carole Dillon-Knutson of the Novato City Council — both spoke up to defend the North Novato station.

“It would be dreadful for Novato to have only one station when we have seven exits on Highway 101,” Dillon-Knutson said. “It would make it very difficult for those of us near the North Novato area to use the train at all.”

The North Novato station at Atherton would be between the Redwood Boulevard and Highway 101 just east of the headquarters on San Marin Drive. Arnold said she was glad Fireman’s Fund legal counsel Doug Martin spoke up about how the insurance firm would be negatively affected by a deferment.

“He talked about how Fireman’s Fund had supported it every time it had been on the ballot and how much their employees had supported it,” Arnold said. “I thought it was compelling when you look at the numbers. Martin said they have 300 employees who commute from Sonoma County and about 60 who come up from the San Rafael area. They were talking about offering a subsidy for their employees to take the train.

“My point is that I understand we want county equity on these deferments, but this would be hurting Sonoma County more than Marin. It is so important to Sonoma County and all of Marin, not just Novato.”

Arnold added that the North Novato station was tentatively placed on the list as the No. 1 item to add back to the projects for priority funding during the system’s start-up phase.

The North Novato station would cost about $5.4 million to construct. A South Novato station is still planned for an undeveloped area of Hamilton between Hamilton Parkway and Main Gate Road, and that station was not placed on the deferred list Wednesday.

Also placed on the list with North Novato was the Corona Station, one of two in Petaluma. No city along the route will get more than two stations. The Novato City Council voted in 2007 to skip a downtown Novato station and instead create stations on the city’s north and south sides.

One advantage cited in favor of delaying the North Novato station’s construction, Coursey said, is that there is not as much housing close to the planned site compared to other stations. “By deferring, that would bring the system average up closer to what they want all along the rail line,” he said.

About 20 bicycling advocates attended Wednesday’s meeting to show support for a multiuse pathway along the train tracks that has been part of the rail authority’s plans but is also in jeopardy. The board proposed to defer one-third of the pathway’s construction — expected to run about $42 million — until a time when more funding is available, Coursey said. The location of the portion that would not be ready by the rail line’s opening day would be determined later, he said.

“People are looking forward to that pathway, and I can understand that,” Dillon-Knutson said. “It will be a great addition, a very positive amenity for our towns. I always favor bike paths and more walking, and as people get more interested in their health they get more interested in this path.”

She said the planned pathway has been a way to attract businesses from outside Novato to consider moving to the city, and she cited Disney as one of those companies that told city leaders that the path was a big attraction to setting up business here. Disney has since shut down its ImageMovers Digital office at Hamilton Landing.

Arnold also noted Wednesday that a deferment of $5 million for train trestle work over Novato Creek would be a bad idea. The trestle runs behind the Century Rowland Plaza theater near shopping center. In 2008, debris problems caused flooding along Novato Boulevard. The North Coast Rail Authority, which is planning on running freight cars on the tracks as soon as April, boosted the height of the trestle by 12 inches, Arnold said, but that won’t be enough.

“If we have a wet winter, not even a flood, the train can’t run there,” she said.

Arnold has suggested that SMART staff get more information on the trestle from the Marin County Department of Public Works as well as engineers with the city of Novato.

Coursey said at some point this year SMART would be considering separate contracts for bridges, stations and rail platforms. The deferment list will come before the board again April 6 in a meeting at the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors chambers in Santa Rosa. The focus of that meeting, he said, would be seeking authorization from the board to issue bonds to raise funds for the infrastructure construction.

“Once we get construction bids back, then we’ll know the real costs of things and that’s when we’ll have to make these hard decisions,” Coursey said.


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