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Is rail rescue off the track?

County planners decide not to fund a detailed study of a light rail system to the beach, the latest setback to ambitious monorail plans aimed at easing traffic.

By AARON SHAROCKMAN
Published March 12, 2006

	[Special to the Times]
	This rendering shows what a people mover system might look like between downtown and the beach. The 2-mile-long monorail could cost $60-million or more. The beach rail could have been the showpiece that signaled a new future for mass transit, Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard said.

The on-again, off-again plans for a monorail in Pinellas County are, well, off again, Clearwater officials say.

For at least the fourth time in 30 years, local elected leaders have said a light rail system seems impractical and too expensive for this car-loving county.

The latest proposal, a guideway to Clearwater Beach, potentially derailed last week when county planning officials decided not to spend $900,000 in federal transportation dollars for a detailed engineering study of the system. Clearwater was willing to pay an additional $500,000 for the study.

The decision of the county Metropolitan Planning Organization Wednesday reversed the recommendation of the Pinellas Mobility Initiative, a countywide steering committee also studying the area's transportation needs.

The money would not have come close to paying for the 2-mile-long monorail - which could cost $60-million or more, though no one knows for sure - but the lack of a financial kick-start is crippling, said Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard, a strong proponent of the monorail plan. He said the monorail is likely dead.

"Sadly, what's going to happen is all of this light rail will get shelved for another 10 or 15 years until the pain is so excruciating, and we have no other solutions, and the prices have tripled, that we finally say "Uncle,' " Hibbard said. "And the people who sit in these seats will say, didn't those people (back then) have the foresight to start finding alternatives?"

The beach rail could have been the showpiece that signaled a new future for mass transit, Hibbard said.

But pinned to spiraling costs and an unknown ridership base, a mass-rail system may never work, many county leaders believe.

"You can buy a cab and a driver for everybody that would use (light rail) and it would be cheaper," said George Greer, who as a county commissioner questioned a larger monorail proposal in the 1980s. "The bottom line is, there's no cost benefit to leaving your car at home in Pinellas County. None."

A monorail between downtown Clearwater and Clearwater Beach could draw as many as 3.6-million riders annually and eliminate 1.8-million vehicular trips to and from the beach each year, according to a Clearwater study.

Hibbard, who sits on both the Metropolitan Planning Organization and Pinellas Mobility Initiative boards, also said the beach monorail could help introduce light rail to the entire county.

Other MPO members were less convinced. They passed up funding the monorail study, instead agreeing to spend $2.3-million in federal dollars to plan a faster bus service through downtown St. Petersburg. More money will be allocated to study further enhancements to the county's bus service.

The monorail study could receive some funding, MPO members said, if there's money left over from the about $4-million in federal grants.

Dunedin City Commissioner and MPO member Dave Eggers said it's about priorities. Not enough is known about the cost to construct the system and about the number of riders who would use it, Eggers said.

"It all sounds good, and it seems to me, if a system would work, this might be the spot," Eggers said. "But frankly, I don't think we have any good numbers to tell us if it's a viable option at this point."

In contrast, Pinellas County Commissioner and MPO board member Bob Stewart said the cost of the rapid bus system in St. Petersburg "seems reasonable."

"And the time frame is achievable," Stewart said.

Chris Arbutine, mayor of Belleair Bluffs, and Largo Mayor-elect Pat Gerard voted with Hibbard to fund the monorail study, while eight MPO members voted against the plan. Arbutine said he's not even sure if he would support the construction of a monorail, but after spending $5-million to $10-million on rail studies already, it's at least appropriate to take the next step.

"It's owed its due process," Arbutine said. "Before you kill something, you have to gather the data to make an informed decision."

Pinellas County Commissioner Ronnie Duncan, an MPO member who voted against the funding but says he supports the concept, said he does not believe the beach monorail is defunct. He could not support funding the study because not enough was known about the scope of the work.

"It is not dead," Duncan said. "The city of Clearwater absolutely needs to have that fixed guide rail or something going; otherwise, it's going to impede growth in the future, which I don't want to see."

The idea of building a monorail system to mitigate Pinellas County's congested road system is nothing new. Rejecting the concept isn't new either.

In the early 1980s, former Clearwater city Commissioner and Pinch-a-Penny pool founder Fred Thomas dreamed up a monorail system to link the east and west sides of Clearwater along Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard. Part of a much larger $1.7-billion redevelopment plan dubbed CEPCOT - Clearwater Environmentally Planned Community of Today - the monorail would have had several stations and reached all the way to Clearwater Beach. That plan went nowhere.

Then in the late '80s, county leaders considered a 53-mile light-rail network to link large parts of Pinellas. Construction cost estimates ran to $900-million.

That idea died when leaders, including Greer, were not sure the investment could ever match the public interest in the system.

"You have two state policies on a collision course with each other," said Greer, now a Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court judge. "The first one is mass transit. The other is growth management. You build this million-square-foot office building that employs 15,000 people, and you're required to provide parking for 15,000 people. Given that option, people are going to bring their car to work.

"This isn't New York," Greer said. "You don't have to pay $1,500 a month to park a car."

Robert Obering, who was St. Petersburg's city manager in the 1980s, believed elected leaders missed an opportunity by not committing funding to the light-rail system earlier.

"We certainly can use it now," said Obering, who lives in Sarasota but visits often. "It was too far out for anyone to think about."

The money was not the problem. For instance, the county's 1-cent sales tax increase has generated more than $1.5-billion since it was implemented in 1990.

The cost of a modified 38-mile system is now that same price, $1.5-billion, according to the latest estimates. But the political will seems stagnant.

"The fixed rail or the guide rail, whatever you call it, is certainly possible, but I don't think it's probable," said Stewart, a former St. Petersburg City Council member who has sat on the County Commission since 1994. "I think the cost, which will continue to escalate, will always make it difficult."

Hibbard expressed frustration at what he called a "short-sighted" decision. He said it's not a parochial, Clearwater-first issue.

"Unless we down-zone the entire county and take care of the incoming traffic, we're going to have to do something," Hibbard said. "And I think sometimes our response needs to be to look far down the road and try to create solutions.

"What are we going to do when we can't build any more lanes, and gas prices continue to rise and construction costs continue to increase and right of way costs increase and reverse condemnation lawsuits continue?"

Aaron Sharockman can be reached at 727 445-4160 or asharockman@sptimes.com

[Last modified March 12, 2006, 01:18:21]