[CouvScott]

Friday, December 28, 2007
GREGG HERRINGTON Columbian staff

Maybe.

Probably.

Almost certainly.

Pick one of those three choices to fill in the blank in this sentence:

_________ you can forget the arguments about where a Max light-rail line from Portland would go if it comes to Vancouver because political momentum is building for a relatively modest, unintrusive and financially easy route that would terminate near Clark College.

Local elected officials, whose political careers depend largely on their ability to distinguish between dreams and the doable, are looking with increasing favor at the so-called "Minimum Operating Segment" - a plan that might leave the civil engineers, transportation-policy wonks and shoot-for-the-moon crowd saying, "Is that all there is?"



Kiggins Bowl plan fading fast

But it should (would?) leave residents of Vancouver's Arnada, Lincoln, Carter Park and Shumway neighborhoods angst-free. The same can probably be said of members of the First Presbyterian Church at 43rd and Main Streets. Under the plan, notions of a light-rail terminus and park and ride lot in the Lincoln area near the church and Kiggins Bowl are toast.

The MOS has the support of the Clark County Board of Commissioners, and on Jan. 8 could win the backing of the C-Tran Board of Directors. C-Tran Board Chairman Tim Leavitt of the Vancouver City Council says the board, at a recent retreat, made clear its preference for a route that (1) would not be anathema to business owners on upper Main Street and residents in the Lincoln-Kiggins Bowl area and (2) would use only federal funds for construction.

Steve Stuart, chairman of the Clark County Board of Commissioners and a C-Tran Board member, says the emerging plan is good, although not perfect from the standpoint of creating a light-rail system that would serve the most people as fast as possible. But he hastens to cite this version of Voltaire's quote: "The perfect is the enemy of the good."

To those dreamers who might hold out for a more extensive or "perfect" initial light-rail line, as well as those who might oppose any light rail service into Vancouver under any circumstances, Voltaire also said, "Common sense is not so common."

The Clark College route is enthusiastically touted by Stuart and more tangentially and cautiously by Leavitt, who stresses that any plan must get a public airing and an environmental OK. But they seem to agree that the idea could be acceptable to the public while offering relief to I-5 commuters.



Details of the deal

Here's how it would work:

Light-rail tracks would run from the north end of Tri-Met's Yellow Line at the Expo Center (three-fourths of a mile south of the Columbia) across the river on or adjacent to a new I-5 vehicle bridge. The line would run north, probably up Washington Street, to McLoughlin Boulevard. There, it would turn east, cross Main Street and continue another seven blocks and pass under I-5. (Washington Street is especially wide, having been the route of the old Highway 99 before I-5 was built in the early 1950s.)

Then, opposite the Marshall center, it would turn left into a terminus and park-and-ride lot west of Clark College.

Avoiding neighborhood disruption is just one reason, according to Stuart and Leavitt, that this plan has gained support on the C-Tran Board. The other is that it could be built without tapping local governments or taxpayers for cash. Enough money to do this much has been promised by the Federal Transit Administration. Vancouver residents might be asked to approve a small sales tax increase for operation and maintenance, however.

For those who wish something more far-reaching, the advantages of incrementalism ought not be overlooked. If this gets built and gains public acceptance, the community might then think about extending it north to Fourth Plain Boulevard or state Highway 500, east to Interstate 205 and then to PDX and Portland light-rail connections.

Stuart obviously wants light rail to happen here, but is cognizant of the realities. "If you bite off more than you can chew," he says, "you choke."

Gregg Herrington 's column of personal opinion appears on the Other Opinions page each Friday. Reach him at