A proposed Santa Ana streetcar route, to run from downtown to the edge of Garden Grove, could become the first leg of a countywide rail system that would change how residents get around.
It also could highlight a long-running argument about how best to run local mass transit – by bus or streetcar.
For now, supporters of the 4.15-mile Santa Ana streetcar are happy to be part of what they see as a potentially regional project.
“It’s a game-changer for Santa Ana and ultimately for the county,” said Miguel Pulido, mayor of Santa Ana and a member of the Orange County Transportation Authority.
“It think it will grow,” he added. “But crawl, walk, run; you’ve got to take the first step. And this is the first step.”
The streetcar, as planned, will run through areas with existing bus services, with 10 stops in each direction concentrated in Santa Ana’s Civic Center area and the eastern edge of Garden Grove.
The project, planned to cost $289 million when built, has received environmental clearance, entered the project development phase and is under consideration for $144 million in federal funds. It could get full funding by 2017 and start running in 2019, according to OCTA.
But Pulido sees his city’s streetcar as the hub of a light-rail system that could connect the county’s core. And the currently planned route, in Santa Ana, sparks ideas about where it could go if expanded.
From its westernmost stop, at Harbor Boulevard and Westminster Avenue in Garden Grove, Pulido pictures a leg to Harbor Boulevard and Katella Avenue in Anaheim at the doorstep of Disneyland. From there, he believes, the line could run north to the Fullerton Transportation Center.
From the project’s mid-point, a stop at Bristol Street and Santa Ana Boulevard, the mayor anticipates a leg extending south toward John Wayne Airport.
It’s a concept Pulido is all too familiar with. About a decade ago, he was part of the CenterLine transportation project, a 9.3-mile light rail route that got strong local support but died from lack of federal funding. That idea would have served Costa Mesa, Irvine and Santa Ana and cost about $1 billion.
The potential for expansion beyond Santa Ana is one reason why, even now, the city project has a name that evokes the entire county: OC Streetcar.
Short-term, OC Streetcar could boost Santa Ana’s bustling Fourth Street district and improve economic development at the western end of the route. Of special interest is the Pacific Electric Right of Way, the areas where Red Cars used to run from Santa Ana to Los Angeles.
“You can see that, unfortunately, right now, it’s a 100-foot-wide abandoned street,” Pulido said. “We will be able to open it back up, and have landscaping and bike trails potentially, and pedestrian walkways and some greenery.
“It’s very different than a bus,” Pulido added. “Bus routes can change.”
On that, many people agree.
What they don’t agree on is whether streetcars or buses are the best way to move lots of people around the county. And their differences might make it tough for Santa Ana’s streetcar to expand beyond the city limits.
“Even in the best-case scenario, (the streetcar) will require a huge amount of local money,” said Tom Tait, mayor of Anaheim and, like Pulido, a board member of the Orange County Transporation Authority.
“I would rather see (that money) go to transit that we get a much bigger bang for the buck.” Buses, Tait added, “could do the exact route for the streetcar and add more routes in the county.”
In August, Tait was the one member of the OCTA board to vote against pledging $56 million in county taxes toward the Santa Ana streetcar project, a pledge that passed anyway and gives the project a better chance at getting federal dollars.
And even though his city also has a streetcar project in the works, Tait is a fan of rubber-tire buses. He voted against his city’s streetcar, too.
In December, he was also part of an ad-hoc committee that submitted a report to OCTA indicating Anaheim should scrap its proposed 3.2-mile streetcar route and, instead, consider an enhanced bus system that would connect the ARTIC transit hub to Disneyland Resort and Anaheim Convention Center. But the board voted to move Anaheim’s streetcar forward.
Pulido and others believe the $318-million streetcar project in Anaheim — called Anaheim Rapid Connection — eventually could link up with the proposed streetcars in Santa Ana.
For now, it’s not certain that either project will get built. Federal regulators figure to say yeah or nay to the Santa Ana streetcar in 2017. That’s when OCTA anticipates breaking ground on construction, a long-term project that might hurt, until it helps, local businesses.
Three commercial properties in Santa Ana will need to be be acquired for the project, and 120 parking spaces would be removed during construction.
Some downtown Santa Ana merchants, resigned to accepting the streetcar (many had advocated for a route along Third or Fifth streets instead of Fourth Street) now just hope construction will have minimal impact on their business.
“It’s like the saying, ‘hoping for the best and preparing for the worst,’” said Claudia Arellanes, owner of Mega Furniture Superstore.
At 62, Arellanes has run her store, at the corner of Fourth and French streets, for 27 years. She noted that most Fourth Street stores and restaurants are open during the daytime, and said that if construction doesn’t take place by sections or at night, “it could kill the downtown.”
“They say this is going to help a lot and it’s going to be incredible, that where there’s a transit system people use it,” she said in Spanish.
“Hopefully that will be the case.”
Contact the writer: 714-796-7762, jkwong@ocregister.com or on Twitter: @JessicaGKwong
