Homeowners criticize RTC light-rail line study

Stephen Curran

Friday, April 22, 2005 | 9:46 a.m.

Scores of homeowners who may find themselves living near a light-rail line in the next decade sharply criticized the Regional Transportation Commission's plans to study public transportation along the 33-mile route.

Their questions, at times shouted at RTC general manager Jacob Snow, came after a presentation Thursday evening by the agency's regional fixed guideway steering committee detailing an electric light-rail system now in use in Portland, Ore.

During the presentation, committee member Robert Schultz, who represented the Silver Springs Community Association, was largely complimentary to the system, saying it was a popular alternative that had contributed to urban redevelopment in the Pacific Northwest city.

Committee members, who toured the city's light rail system last month, decribed the trains as "unobtrusive" and "very quiet."

The electric light rail, which guides the trains using overhead power lines, is one of four fixed guideway systems under consideration by the committee, which is expected to make a recommendation to the full RTC sometime this summer.

Other alternatives include a diesel passenger train, an electric rubber-tire train and an expansion of existing MAX bus service. Each fits the Federal Transportation Administration's definition of fixed guideway, which includes light rail and buses in a dedicated travel lane.

If approved, the system would likely use 33 miles of little-used rail line between Henderson and North Las Vegas, 10 miles of which would travel through mostly single-family residential neighborhoods.

The system would run from the Nevada State College at Henderson to downtown Las Vegas and could be completed by 2008. A second phase, which officials have previously predicted could be finished by 2014, would extend the route from downtown to a planned UNLV satellite campus in North Las Vegas.

Officials have pegged the cost of a new system at $700 million -- about $20 million a mile -- but have said it could be as much as $2.1 billion, depending on what kind of system RTC members approve. The electric light rail option discussed Thursday is among the more expensive alternatives, Snow said.

It's the kind of prospect Green Valley businesswoman Leslie Bruno promised to fight.

Bruno, whose property sits near where the train would travel past, accused the RTC of trying to push the project despite neighborhood opposition. Like others who attended the meeting at the Henderson Convention Center, she said the post card-like mailers sent by the county agency failed to adequately inform her of the meeting.

She and others have said the RTC have failed to prove earlier statements that being close to fixed-guideway systems has improved property value in other communities.

"The actual residents are not informed," she said, adding that previous questions homeowners have presented have gone unanswered by the RTC. "There's no choice. There's no answers."

Despite sometimes-tense conversations with several homeowners, Snow said the RTC was looking to residents like Bruno to continue attending the meetings.

Snow said he doesn't expect the exchanges to become less heated as the project moves forward.

"I expected to hear more," comments, he said. "I expect we'll hear more."

Bruno's comments and those mumbled in agreement by the roughly 12 other residents who attended the meeting echo an earlier survey by the committee gauging residents' opinions. In it, a small majority -- 54 percent -- saw no benefit to such a system. High on respondents' list of concerns were worries about noise and impact on surrounding property value.