Quick Take
Two more Coastal Rail Trail and passenger rail information sessions are coming up this week. The first focuses on the Santa Cruz County passenger rail project as a whole, while the second focuses on issues specific to Capitola, including a heavily debated section of trail that the Capitola City Council delayed a vote on in mid-February.
Two public meetings on the Coastal Rail Trail and plans for a countywide passenger train are happening this week, with the second of the two focusing on the heavily debated issues within Capitola.
The first information session, a virtual meeting hosted by the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (RTC), is slated for Tuesday from 6 to 7:15 p.m. It will focus on the passenger rail project, offering an overview of the path a train could take through the county. That will also include an early look at travel times, station locations, possible vehicle types and information about the effort to pursue intercity rail service from Santa Cruz to Pajaro on the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line, which transportation officials hope will qualify for federal funding
The second meeting, slated for Wednesday, will cover Capitola-specific issues, including a particularly contentious discussion over where a 0.7-mile stretch of the trail should run near Park Avenue.
Last month, the Capitola City Council delayed a vote on an RTC plan that envisioned the trail deviating from the rail line in the area and running onto Park Avenue within the city of Capitola. RTC and county staff said constructing a separated path adjacent to the road would be cheaper than building it on the coastal side of the tracks, where it was first proposed. The city council requested that the RTC provide more details to residents and government officials before a formal vote, especially with two new councilmembers on the dais.
Why is the Park Avenue proposal so hotly debated among community members? It depends who you ask, said county planner Rob Tidmore. He said that it likely can be traced back to a tug-of-war between the “interim” and the “ultimate” trail designs. The former implies ripping out the rails and laying the trail over it, while the latter involves building the trail alongside the existing train tracks.
“What I heard from a decent number of people is that they don’t like [the Park Avenue option] because it’s out of the rail corridor, but they also don’t want the coastal alignment,” he said, adding that he sees many of these concerns as people trying to get back to the “interim” trail design. “We’re trying to educate people on how infeasible that is in the short term,” given the lengthy process of railbanking and abandoning the rail line in order to actually build the trail over where the tracks currently lie.
The debate goes all the way back to 2022’s Measure D, which aimed to scrap plans for passenger rail and exclusively pursue a paved bike and walking path along the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line, while banking sections of the corridor for possible future rail use. The measure was rejected by 73% of county voters.
The issue of routing the trail onto city streets and sidewalks through Capitola was also the subject of Measure L, a 2018 city ballot measure that sought to prevent the city from diverting the trail off of the trestle bridge and through Capitola Village. The measure, sponsored by Greenway, the group that spearheaded 2022’s Measure D, passed with 52% of the vote.
Tidmore said that even some community members supportive of the “ultimate” trail design have raised concerns about shifting the trail onto Park Avenue because it would mean the trail would be much closer to vehicular traffic. Others, he said, are fine with the trail running along Park Avenue. Tidmore said that the county will address safety concerns in greater detail during final final design with Capitola city staff and city council, should the alignment ultimately be approved.
RTC spokesperson Shannon Munz said the agency has not yet heard of a specific date for when the Capitola City Council will revisit the Park Avenue trail options for a formal vote, but that it’s possible the council will set a date for a vote following Wednesday’s town hall.
The in-person town hall will include much of the same information laid out in an open house-style meeting in early March. That included the Capitola trestle, the Park Avenue realignment and mobile home encroachments along the rail line, on both sides of where a segment of the Coastal Rail Trail is planned. That segment runs from 17th Avenue in Live Oak to 47th Avenue in Capitola.
The City of Capitola is hosting the meeting in collaboration with the RTC and the county.
Munz said that, even though the information will be very similar to what was shown in early March, residents wanted to have another chance to raise questions directly to officials. Wednesday’s meeting will include a full presentation by Capitola city staff, the RTC and county staff.
“We heard that for a lot of people, it was their first time really hearing about all of these projects and proposals,” said Munz. “I think people really wanted an avenue where they could ask more questions and hear their neighbors’ questions.”
The meeting will take place at New Brighton Middle School’s Performing Arts Center from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Anyone wanting to submit questions ahead of time can do so on the City of Capitola website.
Latest news
Check out our Carmageddon road project list here. This week, pay particular attention to:
- Striping work will prompt overnight closures of northbound and southbound Highway 1 off-ramps at Park Avenue, Bay Avenue/Porter Street and State Park Drive between 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. from Sunday through Friday.
- Striping work will cause overnight closures of northbound and southbound Highway 1 between Bay Avenue and State Park Drive from Sunday through Friday between 9 p.m. and 6:30 a.m.
- An emergency sewer project in Soquel Village will cause intermittent lane closures and potential turn restrictions at the intersection of Daubenbiss Avenue and Soquel Drive on weekdays between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. The project is slated for completion on April 11.
- Tree work, slope repair, and vegetation control will close down sections of Highway 9 from Monday through Thursday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Those sections are between Clear Creek/Pacific Street and Irwin Way, Prospect Avenue and Lorenzo Avenue, Mitchell Drive and Greenvale Drive, Teilh Drive and Greenvale Drive, and Saratoga Toll Road and Watermans Gap Junction.
- In Watsonville, a single lane on Green Valley Road from Holohan Road to Casserly Road is closed for the Multi-Use Trail Improvement Project. Lane closures occur from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Additionally, a single lane is closed on Buena Vista Drive and Ranport Road for overhead tree trimming on weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., causing potential delays.
—
FOR THE RECORD: This story has been updated with additional information from county planner Rob Tidmore, including clarifications on the proposed Park Avenue design.
—
Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.