Sunday, September 26, 1999
Light rail planners to seek input
Public's concerns to be weighed
BY TANYA ALBERT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
People who want a bigger say in the proposed light rail line from Covington to Blue Ash will get their chance.
Light-rail planners will find out what issues concern people who live in communities through which the trains could pass. They will meet with community leaders, talk to groups and mail information to residents and businesses. After a series of public meetings this summer, planners with the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments (OKI) realized many people didn't understand what light rail is or know exactly where it was going. And ultimately, taxpayers at the ballot boxes will decide whether light rail gets built. Voters could be asked as early as spring 2001 to help pay for part of the proposed $743 million line.
“It's a lot of money. It has a huge impact on the way people travel,” Metro General Manager Paul Jablonski said. “It should be a project that the community understands and supports.”
OKI proposes an 18-mile line from 12th Street in Covington to Cornell Road in Blue Ash. It would pass through downtown Cincinnati, the University of Cincinnati area, Norwood and Deer Park.
The concept was first brought up in 1995. In 1998, an 80-member OKI committee chose to study light rail. Public meetings were advertised and held early on, but they were not well attended. That's a common phenomenon in the early stages of projects nationwide. In the past few months, though, more people have attended meetings.
Planners now will try to make a more direct outreach into the communities that would be affected.
“I'm heartened by the public involvement because we feel like we were left out of that process,” said Julie Fay, president of the Merchants of Main Street in Over-the-Rhine.
Planners estimate they're already several months behind the schedule they set for preliminary engineering, the third of five steps to bring light rail to Greater Cincinnati. It is scheduled to be done in about 18 months.
But it was tough to continue with some of the engineering after alignment concerns cropped up this summer in places such as Deer Park. Residents there are worried about the safety of trains running by their neighborhood park, noise and traffic congestion. Many said they didn't realize they were part of the rail plan. Since then, planners have held two meetings with residents to address concerns.
Richard Nau, a consultant on the light rail project, will spend the next month evaluating how the new outreach plan affects the overall timetable, which has light rail opening in 2008.
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