Virginia Beach Light Rail Vote Again
November 04, 2016 | Greg Rogers
November 4, 2016
Next week Virginia Beach volition vote on a $243.ane meg project to build 3.5 miles of light rails that connects with neighboring Norfolk's starter line, The Tide.
The story is allegorical of the abiding button-pull of politics and policy in shaping local transportation projects. It stretches back across 3 decades of Virginia'south largest city oscillating between lukewarm enthusiasm and outright rejection of light rail proposals – a long cord of advances and setbacks attributed to fluctuating public opinion, divisions amidst local leaders, and one critical, incremental step that finally led the mode forrad.
In 1989, the Virginia Beach City Council voted vi-5 against a proposed light rail projection. 10 years later, 56% of residents voted confronting yet another iteration in a 1999 referendum.
Another decade after voters rejected the referendum, the city council took a different tack by purchasing a x.6-mile rail corridor owned by Norfolk Southern. The purchase was funded past a $20 1000000 state grant, $10 million from the urban center, $5 million from Hampton Roads Transit Authority, and $5 1000000 through a Dominion Virginia Power Plan easement that will be worth $100,000 annually in rent.
Suddenly, the project became much more tangible.
Source: Hampton Roads Transit
In 2011, shortly afterward Norfolk opened The Tide, Virginia Embankment voted developing the newly acquired land to extend the starter runway line through its urban center limits. The plebiscite passed with 63% in favor of the city council using "all reasonable efforts. . . to support [its] financing and development."
On Tuesday, residents will accept the (ostensibly) terminal step of voting on a referendum asking whether local funds should exist used to extend The Tide into Virginia Beach, establishing a 10.9-mile rail network betwixt the two cities.
Financing
The $243.1 million Virginia Beach line would be financed through a combination of local, country, and federal funds. The urban center is estimated to spend $59.3 million without contingencies or $88.1 one thousand thousand with contingencies.
Project Cost Judge Based on Preliminary Engineering (2017 Dollars)
| CATEGORY | ESTIMATED Price (MILLIONS) |
| Design-Builder Calorie-free Rail Approximate | $157.sixty |
| Major Utility Relocations | $12.00 |
| Right of Fashion | $24.80 |
| Rails & Support Vehicles | $21.00 |
| Professional Services | $27.70 |
| Estimated Full Project Cost | $243.10 |
The urban center'southward portion is funded in office by a 1.8-cent real manor tax increase passed in May 2015 by its city council. This amounts to a $45 increase for a $250,000 home, covering construction and the cost of functioning, which is nigh ii million annually.
The remaining $155 one thousand thousand will be paid by the state, which has set aside $155 million for the projection.
Plebiscite
While the referendum is non-binding, the urban center quango will use it to ensure that public opinion nonetheless favors the project. According to the Virginian-Pilot, the local newspaper, a majority of the urban center council plans to vote in accordance with the outcome.
Simply The Tide's performance in Norfolk is casting meaning doubt. In 2014, the starter line was the second-most subsidized system per ride in the country according to the FTA National Transit Database. Weekday ridership is slowing. The Wall Street Journal ran an op-ed criticizing the "Tide-tanic" just two weeks earlier Election Day.
The opposition is led past John Atkinson, the city'south treasurer, who argues that the prior 2011 referendum was non clear plenty in its diction. Last year, Atkinson galvanized resistance by taking out a one-half-folio newspaper ad that criticized The Tide'southward performance in Norfolk and stated:
". . .the Virginia Beach Extension won't movement many people, won't eliminate traffic jams, and information technology won't create much economical growth. It volition move Virginia Beach closer to becoming a core city, and with the bug associated with a core city. I wish I could vote no. How near you lot?"
Source: No Lite Rail in Virginia Embankment
Although a referendum was not scheduled prior to Atkinson'due south advert, he managed to collect 32,000 signatures from local residents afterward to place the question on this month's ballot. The Virginia Beach Tea Political party and City Councilman John Moss have joined Atkinson'south opposition, hosting a light rail forum on Wed night in conjunction with the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.
An early October poll found that residents' stance of the project largely correlates with the presidential candidate they support: 63% of Trump voters opposed the line, while 64% of Clinton voters supported information technology. With a 4.v% margin of error, the effect was 49% opposed and 48% in favor (3% were undecided).
If the measure passes and the city council votes in favor, the City of Virginia Beach volition proceed with designing and building the light rails line using metropolis funds and financial support from the state. The city will lodge 3 light rail vehicles to allow the Tide to maintain the same operating schedule on its extended route, and then select contractors and award contracts past April 2017.
If the mensurate does non pass, the state'due south $155 1000000 contribution volition be returned to the statewide transportation pot. The metropolis's $59.3-88.1 meg contribution was earmarked for the project, and it is non readily apparent where the funds volition exist returned.
Source: https://www.enotrans.org/article/virginia-beach-vote-light-rail-project/
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