(The North County Times posted the following article by Katherine Marks on its website on May 22.)
SAN MARCOS, Calif. — A coalition campaigning against the east-west commuter line between Escondido and Oceanside wants to ratchet up its defenses by enlisting hired guns.
San Marcos Councilman Mike Preston said Tuesday he’s hired Wendell Cox, an “internationally renowned transportation expert,” to speak at a town hall meeting on the issue May 28 at San Marcos City Hall. Preston, Councilman Lee Thibadeau and a number of San Marcos residents have joined to fight the rail project.
Cox, a critic of many urban rail projects, has also been invited to speak about the rail line to the San Marcos and Vista city councils at separate meetings Tuesday, Preston said.
Cox is a member of the Amtrak Reform Council and has served as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Transportation and public transit authorities across the country, according to his Web site. Calls to Cox were not returned Tuesday afternoon.
Both San Marcos and Vista in recent months have made an about face in their support for the $352 million rail line, which includes a 1.7-mile loop into San Marcos with stops at City Hall and Cal State San Marcos.
Neighbors have held meetings in recent weeks, a lobbyist has been approached and there’s been talk of legal action as well, Preston said. Residents have talked with attorneys, but no one has been retained, Preston said.
San Marcos residents, especially those in Walnut Hills, are waging a last-minute campaign against the rail line that they say will create traffic hazards, pollute the valley and devalue homes. They’ve packed City Council and transit district meetings, blanketed communities with fliers and flooded newspapers with letters to the editor.
The opposition began to swell in April, at about the same time construction started on the line between Oceanside and Escondido. Many of the residents opposed to the project live near the San Marcos loop.
Last week, the North County Transit District board voted 7-2 to proceed with the project after San Marcos had requested that the board reevaluate it.
Preston said the vote was not a setback for San Marcos residents and a growing number of Vista and Oceanside residents who oppose the rail line.
He said defeating the project is still a possibility, but that doing so will involve raising public awareness. That’s where those hired guns come in.
A Web site at www.stoptheloop.com, which was created by residents who oppose the rail line, says residents need to raise $50,000 immediately to hire “professional specialists.”
Preston said either he or the Walnut Hills Homeowners Association would pay for Cox to come to town.
In addition to travel costs, his standard fee is $2,500, according to a brochure on Cox’s Web site www.publicpurpose.com. Articles written by Cox and posted on the Web site argue that rail projects have done little to ease traffic congestion and that most areas are too spread out to benefit from rail projects.
Preston said rail watchers feel that the state budget crisis will put the $80 million in state money for the project in jeopardy.
However, Ellen Roundtree, director of government relations at the transit district, said the state money is not threatened by the budget crisis.
“The funds are there, they’re just not there yet,” she said, explaining that the state has agreed to allocate the money and that while there may be a delay in doing so, there’s no indication the state will back out of the project. One of the reasons the transit district was able to get $152 million in federal funding for the rail project is because of the state’s support of the project, she added.
Even if the state money is delayed, Roundtree said, the transit district will not have to delay the project.
Cox is scheduled to be at the following meetings next week:
— Vista City Council, 2 p.m. Tuesday at Vista City Hall, 600 Eucalyptus Ave.
— San Marcos City Council, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at San Marcos City Hall, 1 Civic Center Dr.
— San Marcos community forum 6 p.m. Wednesday at San Marcos City Hall.