A future high-speed rail station in Gilroy would likely require
a 6,300-car parking area as well as revised roadway plans, but
would not come with financing help from the high-speed rail
authority. That’s an expense the city can’t afford, Gilroy and
Morgan Hill city officials said.
A future high-speed rail station in Gilroy would likely require a 6,300-car parking area as well as revised roadway plans, but would not come with financing help from the high-speed rail authority. That’s an expense the city can’t afford, Gilroy and Morgan Hill city officials said.
At the same time, the city hopes to attract a high-speed rail facilities yard to the area in hopes of bring in local jobs. It all constitutes a balancing act, minimizing problems and maximizing benefits for a project that will likely change the face of Gilroy.
“The high-speed rail authority seems very committed to come through this area,” City Administrator Tom Haglund said last week. “I can’t say that it is inevitable, but it is more likely than not that it will come through here. We need to best position ourselves.”
Gilroy has sought to be a stop on the 790-mile California High-Speed Rail system, which is expected to be fully operational by 2020 and is slated to have routes from San Diego to Sacramento and the Bay Area, transporting passengers at speeds up to 220 mph. A station in town could be a boon for business, Gilroy city officials have said. However, officials recently learned that the station comes with a one big catch: The high-speed rail commission will not fund the parking to accommodate the rail’s passengers. In Gilroy, this would entail creating 6,300 parking spaces, in a garage or otherwise.
Costs and dimensions for a future parking area have yet to be determined, according to California High-Speed Rail officials. However, the average cost of a 145,000-square-foot, 10-story parking garage in the United States is $7.9 million, according to Georgia-based Reed Construction Data.
By contrast to the 6,300 spaces required for Gilroy, HP Pavilion in San Jose has about 1,500 on-site parking spaces and Candlestick Park in San Francisco has about 8,000 parking spots for cars as well as parking for buses, RVs and limousines.
“We’re not in a position to be footing the bill for things such as rail stations and garages and all that,” Mayor Al Pinheiro said.
As a result, officials are pounding the pavement, meeting with state legislators and scheduling forums with high-speed rail officials in an attempt to get their voices heard.
The mayors and city administrators from Gilroy and Morgan Hill met with Sen. Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria) in Sacramento on April 14 and with Sen. Elaine Alquist (D-Santa Clara) recently. They plan to meet more extensively with Alquist and Assemblywoman Anna Caballero (D-Salinas) at a later date.
Although Pinheiro said legislators seemed supportive, no promises were made to the cities.
“They haven’t written a check yet,” Pinheiro said.
Private industry will provide financing for the parking, while the high-speed rail authority will work with local governments to make sure parking garages are built in the best locations, said Carrie Pourvahidi, interim executive director of the California High Speed Rail Authority.
City officials still want financial support from the state for any requirements the rail might bring, such as expenses for consultants to help the cities of Morgan Hill and Gilroy with planning the project.
“Gilroy hasn’t designed a rail system before, let alone a high-speed rail system,” Haglund said.
Possible rail routes near Gilroy would either parallel U.S. 101 east of Gilroy or follow the Union Pacific tracks through downtown Gilroy.
Regardless of whether a future railway station ends up going downtown or in eastern Gilroy behind Wal-Mart and Premium Outlets, it will have a major impact on traffic circulation, Haglund said. Other unknown questions about high-speed rail are what will happen when the rail line crosses current roadways and how that scenario would impact residents’ access to emergency services, Haglund said.
City Council members also have questioned the noise impacts of a train zipping through town at 220 mph if tracks are elevated.
Despite such concerns, city leaders also have expressed hopes that the high-speed rail project could offer some economic benefits to the city. For instance, council members have told the rail commission that they want a station to be placed downtown – if tracks were put underground – in part because they see the project as an economic development boost.
In addition, the city sees a maintenance yard as a potential source of jobs, Haglund said. A “maintenance of way” facility would require 17 to 18 acres including roadways and parking, high-speed rail commission officials say.
In addition to Gilroy, high-speed rail officials hope to build maintenance yards near Merced, Visalia, Bakersfield and Palmdale during the first phase of the project and possibly Stockton, City of Industry and Temecula once the project is entirely built out. Locally, a maintenance yard could be placed near the South County Regional WasteWater Authority treatment plant, which is shared by the cities of Gilroy and Morgan Hill, or on the east side of Gilroy, Haglund said.
The high-speed rail authority will build and maintain “maintenance of way” facilities, as they are being created for track and operations purposes, Pourvahidi said.
Unlike most project developers with projects in Gilroy, the high-speed rail authority does not have to adhere to city codes when building the project.
However, the city does not think flouting the city’s rules would be “very neighborly,” Haglund said.
Gilroy’s City Council has declared that they would prefer for the high-speed rail project either to be trenched downtown or to run east of town if high-speed rail officials will not pay for trenching. However, rural Gilroy residents showed up in droves during a City Council meeting Feb. 1 and made it clear they did not support the latter proposal.
The council will discuss high-speed rail during a study session before its regular council meeting Monday. That discussion will include updates on route options for the San Jose-to-Merced portion of the project and the project’s revised environmental impact report. In addition, project representatives will discuss “context-sensitive solutions,” in which those who are going to be impacted by a project can have a say in decisions that are made.
