Cyrus Ramsey
10-16-2006, 11:17 AM
From the Kansas City Star
LIGHT-RAIL PLAN | $975-million proposal that would extend sales tax is on Nov. 7 ballot
Chastain back for another try
His proposal calls for a line from the zoo to the airport. Opponents say details are lacking.
By LYNN HORSLEY
The Kansas City Star
For the seventh time in nine years, Clay Chastain has gathered sufficient signatures to place a transit proposal before Kansas City voters.
All his previous plans have failed at the ballot box, and critics are so confident that this light-rail plan will fail, too, that they aren’t mounting much of a campaign to defeat it.
Nor is Chastain mounting an aggressive campaign to pass it. He believes it will succeed with voters on its own merits in the Nov. 7 election.
“The world is a different place than it was when we voted on this before,” Chastain said in a telephone interview from his home in Bedford, Va. “The truth needs no financial campaign.”
Higher gasoline prices, improved light-rail technology, a looming global-warming threat, and the need for a more livable city are all factors that Chastain believes will persuade voters to approve this measure where others have failed.
“It’s crucial to this city, the vitality of its future,” he said.
Opponents respond that Chastain’s plan lacks sufficient detail and that his assumptions about costs and funding are unrealistic.
“The plan is preposterous,” said Mark Huffer, Area Transportation Authority general manager. “I don’t see any way it gets legs.”
Chastain’s first initiative sought to restore Union Station as a transit hub. Subsequent Chastain proposals in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002 and 2003 envisioned light-rail trains running through the city, along with other enhancements. All of those ideas (plus a city-sponsored light-rail plan in 2001) went down to defeat.
This year’s $975-million proposal calls for:
•A 27-mile line from the Kansas City Zoo to Kansas City International Airport, with multiple stops in between. Chastain estimates the line would cost $945 million ($35 million per mile). He included Swope Park because it is a major city destination. He says a light-rail station there would serve the large East Side work force that could use the trains to get to jobs.
•A fleet of 60 electric shuttle buses, costing about $20 million, to carry about 25 passengers each and connect commuters from various destinations to the light-rail line.
•A $10-million aerial gondola tram connecting Union Station, Liberty Memorial and Penn Valley Park.
To pay the local portion of these improvements, Chastain is seeking voter approval to extend for 25 years an existing 3/8- cent sales tax that currently goes to the local bus system. That tax generates about $24 million annually, or about $37 per year for every resident, employee or visitor in Kansas City. The tax is currently scheduled to expire in 2009.
Chastain’s plan also assumes that about half the light-rail funding will come from the federal government, along with some money from the state, although he acknowledges that neither is guaranteed. But he says that without a local match, Kansas City will never qualify for federal transit funding and it’s time for Kansas City to take the light-rail leap forward, as other progressive cities have.
“There isn’t any light-rail plan (from the establishment) on the drawing table,” he said. “This is the only one out there. Why wait any longer?”
Besides the Area Transportation Authority, opponents include the Regional Transit Alliance, which advocates for an efficient metropolitan transit system.
Chastain’s adversaries are concerned that his estimates on the light-rail system are too low based on costs of some recent systems. They also say it is highly unlikely that $473 million will be available from the federal government to help pay the costs.
The ATA and other transit supporters have been pushing a different approach, called Smart Moves. It would consist mainly of expanded rapid bus service, not just in Kansas City but throughout surrounding suburbs. Funding would come from a new regional transit sales tax.
Chastain believes rapid buses are a poor substitute for light rail. “The insider process is not producing the correct plan, because it’s leaving out light rail,” he said.
Some people wonder why Chastain, who moved away from Kansas City several years ago, doesn’t concentrate on transit plans for his new home of Bedford. He concedes that he’s stymied there because Bedford doesn’t have a process allowing citizens to initiate ballot measures, as Kansas City does.
“There’s no petition process available,” he said. “That cools my jets here” in Bedford.
But Chastain pointed out that his mother, sister and a daughter live in Kansas City and he still feels compelled to try to make it a better city.
“It’s a town that I have a great love for,” he said.
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Clay Chastain gathered more than 2,626 valid petition signatures to put a proposal for light rail, electric shuttle buses and a gondola tram on the Nov. 7 ballot in Kansas City. He says it will help the city environmentally, economically and aesthetically. Opponents say the plan lacks sufficient detail or citywide planning and is unrealistic.
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LIGHT-RAIL PLAN | $975-million proposal that would extend sales tax is on Nov. 7 ballot
Chastain back for another try
His proposal calls for a line from the zoo to the airport. Opponents say details are lacking.
By LYNN HORSLEY
The Kansas City Star
For the seventh time in nine years, Clay Chastain has gathered sufficient signatures to place a transit proposal before Kansas City voters.
All his previous plans have failed at the ballot box, and critics are so confident that this light-rail plan will fail, too, that they aren’t mounting much of a campaign to defeat it.
Nor is Chastain mounting an aggressive campaign to pass it. He believes it will succeed with voters on its own merits in the Nov. 7 election.
“The world is a different place than it was when we voted on this before,” Chastain said in a telephone interview from his home in Bedford, Va. “The truth needs no financial campaign.”
Higher gasoline prices, improved light-rail technology, a looming global-warming threat, and the need for a more livable city are all factors that Chastain believes will persuade voters to approve this measure where others have failed.
“It’s crucial to this city, the vitality of its future,” he said.
Opponents respond that Chastain’s plan lacks sufficient detail and that his assumptions about costs and funding are unrealistic.
“The plan is preposterous,” said Mark Huffer, Area Transportation Authority general manager. “I don’t see any way it gets legs.”
Chastain’s first initiative sought to restore Union Station as a transit hub. Subsequent Chastain proposals in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002 and 2003 envisioned light-rail trains running through the city, along with other enhancements. All of those ideas (plus a city-sponsored light-rail plan in 2001) went down to defeat.
This year’s $975-million proposal calls for:
•A 27-mile line from the Kansas City Zoo to Kansas City International Airport, with multiple stops in between. Chastain estimates the line would cost $945 million ($35 million per mile). He included Swope Park because it is a major city destination. He says a light-rail station there would serve the large East Side work force that could use the trains to get to jobs.
•A fleet of 60 electric shuttle buses, costing about $20 million, to carry about 25 passengers each and connect commuters from various destinations to the light-rail line.
•A $10-million aerial gondola tram connecting Union Station, Liberty Memorial and Penn Valley Park.
To pay the local portion of these improvements, Chastain is seeking voter approval to extend for 25 years an existing 3/8- cent sales tax that currently goes to the local bus system. That tax generates about $24 million annually, or about $37 per year for every resident, employee or visitor in Kansas City. The tax is currently scheduled to expire in 2009.
Chastain’s plan also assumes that about half the light-rail funding will come from the federal government, along with some money from the state, although he acknowledges that neither is guaranteed. But he says that without a local match, Kansas City will never qualify for federal transit funding and it’s time for Kansas City to take the light-rail leap forward, as other progressive cities have.
“There isn’t any light-rail plan (from the establishment) on the drawing table,” he said. “This is the only one out there. Why wait any longer?”
Besides the Area Transportation Authority, opponents include the Regional Transit Alliance, which advocates for an efficient metropolitan transit system.
Chastain’s adversaries are concerned that his estimates on the light-rail system are too low based on costs of some recent systems. They also say it is highly unlikely that $473 million will be available from the federal government to help pay the costs.
The ATA and other transit supporters have been pushing a different approach, called Smart Moves. It would consist mainly of expanded rapid bus service, not just in Kansas City but throughout surrounding suburbs. Funding would come from a new regional transit sales tax.
Chastain believes rapid buses are a poor substitute for light rail. “The insider process is not producing the correct plan, because it’s leaving out light rail,” he said.
Some people wonder why Chastain, who moved away from Kansas City several years ago, doesn’t concentrate on transit plans for his new home of Bedford. He concedes that he’s stymied there because Bedford doesn’t have a process allowing citizens to initiate ballot measures, as Kansas City does.
“There’s no petition process available,” he said. “That cools my jets here” in Bedford.
But Chastain pointed out that his mother, sister and a daughter live in Kansas City and he still feels compelled to try to make it a better city.
“It’s a town that I have a great love for,” he said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clay Chastain gathered more than 2,626 valid petition signatures to put a proposal for light rail, electric shuttle buses and a gondola tram on the Nov. 7 ballot in Kansas City. He says it will help the city environmentally, economically and aesthetically. Opponents say the plan lacks sufficient detail or citywide planning and is unrealistic.
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