Sign the Streetcar Corridor Alignment Petition

Let the UTA bureaucrats know that the lumpencitizens of Emerald City WILL NOT SETTLE for a hokey 36th Street streetcar alignment

For those following current developments in the ongoing UTA Ogden Streetcar study, please take note that one of our gentle readers has furnished a copy of a draft of the UTA Project Team's streetcar corridor alignment recommendation:

• Ogden-WSU Transit Corridors AA-EIS Project Status, Conclusions and Recommendations

In a nutshell, it turns out that Mr. Wilson's 11/10/09 Standard-Examiner letter, (which we highlighted in our own 11/11/09 WCF article) proves to be most prophetic. It seems indeed that the UTA Project Team has "rolled up the maps, folded up the (public) comments, and apparently thrown them in the trash." From page 11 of the above-linked draft recommendation:

The recommended alignment would run east from the Intermodal Center along 23rd Street to Washington Boulevard and then southbound on Washington Boulevard to 36th Street. All operations on 23rd Street and the segments of Washington Boulevard between 23rd and 25th Streets would be mixed flow. Operations would employ centerrunning dedicated lanes from 25th Street until 36th Street on Washington Boulevard. Operations along 36th Street would be mixed flow with a queue jump lane at Monroe Street. Upon reaching Harrison Boulevard, the alignment would either turn east into the campus on Dixon and Edvalson Dr. and operate in a dedicated guideway through the campus or continue south on Harrison Blvd. The line would have a stop at the Dee Events Center park-and-ride lot and also cross Harrison Blvd. at 4400 South, with the end-of-line at the McKay Dee Hospital campus.

The "next step" in this process is described on page 14:

Continuation of the project requires concurrence or all project sponsor and stakeholders with the recommended alignment and mode. The Project Team will be holding a joint meeting of the Management and Policy Committees on Thursday November 19th 2009 at the Weber County Municipal Offices in Ogden. At this meeting the Project Team will present the recommended Locally Preferred Alternative along with the supporting data used in determining that recommendation. The Project Team will work with all of the members of both committees to come to a general consensus on the recommendation in order to move forward with the next steps in the study.
Once a general consensus has been reached the Project Team will proceed with the
final publication of the Alternatives Analysis and begin with environmental analysis work on the recommended alternative.
If no consensus can be reached among the committee members, a plan of action will
need to be established to determine whether or not the project will continue.

With this crucial meeting coming up on November 19th, those of us who see a 25th Street east-west alignment as essential to the economic development and revitalization of our central city have our work cut out for us; and we're operating on a tight timeline. In that connection we once again urge our readers to navigate to the Ogden Trolley District website and sign the online petition.

As set forth above, it's the Management and Policy Committees (and NOT the UTA bureaucrats) who will have the ultimate say regarding the final proposed alignment. Let's not sit on our thumbs in this matter. Let's all put our names on the petition and let the Management and Policy Committees know that a centrally situated east-west streetcar corridor is what the lumpencitizens demand, and that we WILL NOT SETTLE for a hokey 36th Street alignment.

Once again, folks... let's get crackin'. If you haven't yet signed the petition... please do so now.