Editorial: Transit’s unpopular station

Friday, Oct. 28, 2005 | 7:33 a.m.

Plans for a Las Vegas Valley mass transit center, and the millions of dollars in federal grants that go with it, have hit the skids again as North Las Vegas officials decided against selling land to the Regional Transportation Commission for a bus transfer station.

North Las Vegas officials had tentatively agreed to sell the transit agency six of the 18.6 acres the city bought for $6.8 million earlier this month from the Clark County School District. The land is along the Las Vegas Boulevard corridor near downtown North Las Vegas.

City officials had planned to build a park and police substation on the site, near the RTC's proposed 8,000-square-foot bus transfer station.

But the city dropped those plans in September and chose instead to sell the land to Site Four LLC, which plans to build a shopping center. North Las Vegas has been struggling to revitalize its downtown, and a major retail center could be a draw.

City officials asked the developer to consider selling the RTC acreage on that site or an adjacent one that Site Four owns. But the company needed all of the land for its project. The $9 million in federal grants the RTC has set aside for the transfer center could expire before another site is found.

This is the second time in a year that the RTC has faced such a dilemma. In February the Henderson City Council, reacting to residents' opposition, rejected an RTC proposal for a transfer station in that city. The RTC lost a $2.5 million federal grant and the $300,000 it spent studying the site.

North Las Vegas officials have offered to help the RTC find an alternative spot or reimburse the agency the $300,000 spent studying the site. But money isn't the whole issue.

With every rejection, valley residents are losing opportunities to create the type of mass transit system a fast-growing region needs. A transfer center could provide a hub with such amenities as shelter and security for waiting passengers, restrooms, ticket booths and route information, bicycle storage and a bus drivers' lounge.

Hubs encourage people to use transit by giving riders places to easily obtain tickets and transfer from one mode of transit to another -- from buses to a rapid transit system, for example. The RTC is studying rapid transit, such as a light-rail system.

We all need mass transit. Even those who never use it can benefit from freeways and surface streets that are cleared of the thousands of travelers who use mass transit.

For now, another shopping center may serve the community best. But in five years it could mean little to the commuter stuck in traffic. This transit center nobody wants is one that everybody is going to need.

Somehow, we must find the space.