By Ashley McLeod, Staff Writer
Oct 21, 2015, 14:13
COLONIAL HEIGHTS — City Council voted Tuesday night in support of building a Tri-Cities Multimodal Station off of Boulevard for inclusion in the Southeast High-Speed Rail Corridor Project.
In a vote of 6-1, with Councilman John Wood voting against, the Council agreed that Colonial Heights was an ideal site for the new station, which could bring high-speed rail to the area.
Planning for the high-speed rail service has been in the works for a few years. As of now, three sites for the station are being considered. This number has been narrowed down from 13 sites initially, of which five were chosen, and then the three: in Colonial Heights off of Boulevard, in Petersburg at Collier Yard, and the existing station in Ettrick, which would be revamped.
The Crater Planning District Commission hired Michael Baker International to coordinate and review an environmental study, which is required under the National Environmental Policy Act.
The Crater Planning District and the Department of Rail and Public Transit have been working together since the beginning of the year to get the project moving and to find which location is a better fit.
A public workshop was held in September in order to inform citizens of the localities of the possible choices for the location of the station, and also to receive public comment on the planning.
According to Scott Davis, the Colonial Heights Director of Planning and Urban Development, there is now a study-working group, who is compiling data and information in order to decide on which location would be the best for the new station.
“It (the group) was formed by those who represent the localities and entities at the state level and representatives from the Crater Planning District and DRPT (Department of Rail and Public Transit),” said Davis.
The group will review the data produced from the environmental assessment and the public comment, and then rank the three locations using five criteria including ease of access and transit-oriented development potential
“What the study-working group has to do is actually rank them by the five criteria by location, first second and third, for each of the five criteria, and then overall. You might have access as the best at Boulevard, and second Collier and third best is Ettrick. For land use, you might have Ettrick as number one, Collier as second and Boulevard third. These are just examples,” said Davis.
The final draft of the EA will be published around Nov. 30. After the decision is made as to the location of the station, the design will be figured out, and construction will begin.
Along with construction on a new station, there are also plans to bring what is called ‘transit-oriented development’ for the area surrounding the station. This would include buildings such as small medical centers, restaurants, and shops so that when people get on and off the train, they are able to take care of different needs within walking distance to the station. This would bring new businesses and will have a positive fiscal impact on the locality that is chosen.
Councilman W. Joe Green, Jr. said in the meeting on Tuesday that the Boulevard location was the favorable location for the new train station.
“It’s the only of the three primary sites that does not require major road improvements, it would be no closer to the elementary school or the ball fields than the current tracks are and we also have the desirability in that they want businesses within walking distance of the station for the commuters,” said Green.
Green added that having the station built would be “advantageous to encouraging the population of small businesses” in the city.
Councilman John Wood was the only vote against supporting the station being built in Colonial Heights, with his main reasoning being that there was no funding for the project as of now.
“I need to emphasize, and it needs to be emphasized repeatedly, that this process, although it seems to be going forward, has no funding stream,” said Wood. ”To construct an entirely new facility will not likely be possible without local participation and how much contribution the locality will be willing to make.”
Wood also stated that whether they agreed or disagreed with the building of the station, it would most likely not impact the decision of where the station would be.
“What we say, what anybody says, will probably carry no weight because the final decision, their decision, is largely on the basis of cost,” said Wood. “They want to have a station that can be constructed to serve the most people most efficiently at the least cost. To construct an entirely new facility will not likely be possible without local participation and how much contribution the locality will be willing to make.”
With no source of funding for the project, there are concerns raised that the city would have to contribute in order to construct the new station.
No matter the decision of where the station will be built, the source for funding is still up in the air although the station has been in planning for years.
Once the location is decided and the station is built, the high-speed rail will allow passengers to travel from Richmond all the way to Raleigh, North Carolina, and will increase ridership possibly up to 100,000 people, compared to the 20,000 now.
