Quick Take
In a 7-5 vote, the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission approved a proposal by Commissioners Manu Koenig and Fred Keeley to build three segments of the Coastal Rail Trail over the railroad tracks in a change of plans for the major project. The plan had previously included the trail running alongside the tracks. Staff will also continue to seek funding for the environmental work necessary for passenger rail.
In a long Thursday meeting, the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) narrowly passed Manu Koenig and Fred Keeley’s “peace deal” proposal to build Coastal Rail Trail Segments 9, 10 and 11 on top of the railroad tracks, rather than next to the tracks as has been planned for years, in order to build the project within its budget and time constraints. Segment 8 will remain on course for construction next to the rail line as planned. The commission also voted to have staff return within two months with a proposal to build this option.
The move currently does not change the work in progress on the passenger rail project, as the commission accepted the final project concept report for the ambitious $4.3 billion passenger rail project. The commission approved a resolution of support for future rail, and moved to earmark $1 million of future state funding allocated at its November meeting for the passenger rail project’s environmental impact report. Staff will continue to seek funding for the necessary environmental and preliminary engineering work.
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“The premise that we can build the trail and keep the rail exactly as it is today is false,” said Koenig, adding that he doesn’t want to fund rail whatsoever anymore, but would accept doing so if it meant moving ahead with his plan. “We have to use the space where the tracks are if we are going to deliver a trail.”
Santa Cruz mayor Keeley said that although he and fellow RTC commissioner Koenig – District 1 county supervisor – have historically disagreed on the vision for the trail and future passenger rail service, the two do agree that the county cannot afford to lose a $96 million grant that the state awarded to the project — the largest active transportation grant in state history. A failure to break ground on trail Segments 8 through 11, from the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf to State Park Drive in Aptos, by June 2027 could end in the state taking away that grant.
The segments’ price tag has ballooned to $228 million due to a myriad of factors, including inflation and escalating construction and material costs. Even after the RTC gave the project over $8 million in funding in November, that section of the trail still faces a shortfall of more than $70 million, which has been the main holdup for these segments.
At the request of Commissioner Andy Schiffrin, alternate for District 3 County Supervisor Justin Cummings, the motion also included amendments that staff invite a representative of state agency Caltrans to give a presentation on the Corridor ID Program — a Federal Railroad Administration program that provides the RTC with rail planning and design services — and for staff to include an option for Segments 9 through 11 that does not require removing the railroad tracks when they return to the commission in two months. Commissioner and Capitola City Councilmember Gerry Jensen made another amendment to ask staff to look for ways to retrofit the Capitola trestle bridge for bicycle and pedestrian use either in this project or as a separate future project.
Schiffrin had also previously offered his own substitute motion that included requesting the state to allow the RTC to build just a part of the stretch of trail in its original configuration while keeping the entire grant, and pushing state representatives to request the same in addition to his two requests included in the motion that ultimately passed. His substitute was rejected.
The motion passed by a 7-5 vote. The “no” votes were Commissioner Lowell Hurst, alternate for District 4 Supervisor Felipe Hernandez; Commissioner Larry Pageler, alternate for District 5 Supervisor Monica Martinez; Commissioner Vanessa Quiroz-Carter, Commissioner Fabian Leonor and Schiffrin.
Building the trail on top of the tracks is a design known as the “interim trail,” while the design that involves building the trail next to the tracks is called the “ultimate trail.” Although both options have seen their respective environmental impact reports cleared, the former has been tied to a legal process called railbanking, which takes a rail line out of service while theoretically preserving the rail corridor for possible future train use.
The commission held an informational discussion on railbanking during the meeting, as commissioner and Scotts Valley City Councilmember Steve Clark requested in September. The issue has been controversial locally, with many rail advocates arguing that, even if the process preserves the corridor and the RTC’s easements, it’s extremely rare for railbanked rail lines ever to see service again. Keeley acknowledged this, and said he believes his and Koenig’s proposal charts another way forward.
“If I thought that this was railbanking the way it has always been talked about, I would not be signing onto this,” he said. “For me, railbanking is the white flag of surrender on the rail component of the promise that was made. I don’t believe that’s the tool we are selecting here as a commission.”
Although the commission has not chosen a specific process to deal with the rail line, Koenig and Keeley’s plan seeks to have the commission use another bureaucratic maneuver — processes with names like embargo, discontinuance, or affirmative order — that essentially allow the RTC to take part of the rail line out of service temporarily, even if it is in place well into the future.
Public comment was largely split on the Keeley-Koenig proposal. Supporters said it is the best way to build a trail with the money and time available while preserving the state grant.
“Your own planners have been clear that rail’s not feasible for at least 20 years, but trail funding is available now,” said Aptos resident Jack Brown, a trail advocate. “The largest active transportation program award in California is at risk if we don’t build the trail on schedule. Keeley and Koenig’s ‘peace deal’ solves this and lets us build the trail over the existing track now without forfeiting the corridor.”
Detractors said they believed there was not enough time to review the proposal prior to the vote, that it will still lead to the eventual death of passenger rail, and that it goes against the will of the voters. County voters resoundingly rejected 2022’s Measure D, which would have included plans for a trail without rail service in the county’s general plan.
“I feel like there’s a great desire with this commission to remove the tracks, that somehow that would make everything easier, but what I feel like you’re asking for is the removal of infrastructure,” said Santa Cruz resident Eva Brunner. “All we have is Highway 1 and the rail corridor. To take that away is taking away an option for a lot of people. Preserving the tracks is extraordinarily important for our community.”
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