The Gilroy City Council approved $150,000 in funding Monday for
the California high-speed rail project that could not only split
downtown, but has divided the city in the past.
The Gilroy City Council approved $150,000 in funding Monday for the California high-speed rail project that could not only split downtown, but has divided the city in the past.
In a 6-1 vote, with departing Councilman Craig Gartman voting no on the budget item, the funding will cover rail experts and grant applications for the $45-billion, 800-mile bullet-train system that will have a major stop in the city.
It comes on the heels of the California High-Speed Rail Authority CEO, Roelof van Ark, announcing his Dec. 16 visit to the area after a vote of no confidence was sent Oct. 18 to the CHSRA by the city.
The resolution had critics claiming a small victory after the Council voted 4-3 to tell the CHSRA that it didn’t agree with its policymaking.
The budget item was brought forth by City Administrator Tom Haglund and staff.
The staff is eyeing a $150,000 Community Design in Transportation grant – not to be confused with the amount requested from Council – from the Valley Transportation Authority. It’s meant to help cities in transportation-related planning studies, and requires cities to match the grant by 20 percent.
In Gilroy’s case this means a $30,000 matching fee and $7,000 to pay a bullet-train expert to help draft the 20 to 30-page application. According to the VTA, the deadline is early January.
CEO Van Ark will meet the Gilroy and Morgan Hill joint high-speed rail task force, comprised of Mayor Al Pinheiro, Councilman Perry Woodward and City Administrator Haglund and Morgan Hill representatives – Councilman Greg Sellers, Mayor Steve Tate, and City Manager Ed Tewes – behind closed doors.
Pinheiro and Tate requested CHSRA funds June 30 for an expert to independently review information related to the project before the vote.
According to Haglund, the request has remained unheeded. Gilroy officials have said they will continue to press for funding at the Van Ark meeting for an expert.
But with a January deadline looming for the VTA grant, city staff said the need for money was too urgent to wait for the results of the meeting.
Hence the budget request and vote by Gilroy. The bullet-train is slated for full operation in 2020 with routes from Sacramento to San Diego with connections to the Bay Area.
Gilroy still has to wait for the project-level Environmental Impact Report that the CHSRA said will answer most of Gilroy’s questions.
The CHSRA has narrowed the options to two alignments. It will either align with the current Union Pacific tracks and run through the downtown corridor or cut through the rural area east of U.S. 101. A combination of the two routes is also possible.
