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Old Posted Oct 24, 2007, 6:33 PM
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Sacramento officials visit to study streetcar system
Portland Business Journal - by Michael Shaw Business Journal News Service

Portland's streetcars have helped fuel redevelopment, but Sacramento area officials who recently visited the city say financing streetcars in their city might be problematic.

Along the Willamette River, three high-rise towers have sprouted in the past year and a fourth is in mid-climb in the South Waterfront.

Portland officials told their Sacramento counterparts that South Waterfront is booming due in no small part to the city's streetcar system, which opened a new loop past the residential towers in August.

Apologies to San Francisco and its quaint cable cars, but Portland is the streetcar king. The system, once derided by TriMet as a "donkey trolley," has become the model for at least 20 other metro areas across the country, including Sacramento and West Sacramento, which are jointly studying a streetcar proposal.

Sacramento officials here want to know whether streetcars will work as well in Sacramento as they have in Portland.

A junket of Sacramento and West Sacramento officials toured Portland two weeks ago via mass transit, using all-day passes to segue easily from the airport light-rail line to the 7.2-mile streetcar loop, hopping on and off at points of interest. They found brownfields that bear striking resemblance to areas of Sacramento but are experiencing radical transformation through redevelopment.

They also noted significant challenges they would face in emulating Portland's success.

Streetcars are credited not with aiding development in downtown Portland, but with creating it -- foot-traffic studies showed an increase from three pedestrians per hour in one section of town to 938, attributable to the system.

"Is it a better connecting alternative to more light rail and how does it really work?" asked David Spaur, Sacramento's economic development director, as he waited to board the next car. "It looks like it works better than light rail for short distances."

Charlie Hales is a former Portland city commissioner in charge of transportation, an architect of the Portland system and now the manager of the Sacramento-West Sacramento project as a vice president for engineering firm HDR Inc.

Hales says Portland's streetcars were launched without a solid plan for funding while facing opposition from Portland's transit agency, which thought they threatened the existing light-rail system.

"It wasn't our only strategy, but it was the keystone of a set of strategies to bring the type of development we wanted," Hales said while showing a group the massive developments -- grocers, bookstores, five-story underground parking complexes -- that have sprouted since the streetcar system opened in 2001. "We didn't know it would work this well."

A key misunderstanding, Hales said, is how differently the streetcars function from light rail. Unlike light rail, the system isn't designed to move commuters in and out of downtown, but to circulate traffic within. The cost is $25 million to $30 million a mile, about half that of light rail, Hales said.

There are tantalizing parallels between Portland and Sacramento that officials say bode well for a streetcar system in the northern California city.

There's the South Waterfront itself, for one, a brownfield site that a few years ago was reminiscent of West Sacramento's "Triangle" district, where developers want to build high-density housing, offices and shops. Then there is the Pearl District.

A decade ago, it was a railyard like the one in downtown Sacramento. Today, it's a vibrant mixed-use neighborhood with restaurants, mid-rise residential buildings and character, whose success is chalked up to the streetcars running through the heart of the district.

The chief hurdle in Sacramento is paying for the proposed first leg, a $50 million, 2.2-mile line from West Sacramento City Hall to the Sacramento Convention Center. There are hopes for an expanded system that would drive redevelopment throughout the metropolitan area.

"That's what's really going to be the thing -- how do you pay for this?" West Sacramento City Councilman Mark Johannessen said.

Portland initially funded its system through increased parking fees, a tax increment finance district and an assessment district covering businesses within the streetcar zone. There's been so much development that assessments now play a much greater role in funding the system, Hales said. Portland also funds its streetcar through advertising.

In Sacramento, a large burden would fall to developers.

Hales dismisses federal funding as a likely initial source, calling it time-consuming and uncertain because transportation funds are generally awarded to light-rail systems that reduce driving miles more than streetcars do.

Financing aside, Portland's success isn't viewed as a guarantee for Sacramento.

Spaur asked: "Are you coming to the right city to compare with Sacramento?"

Michael Shaw is a staff writer with affiliated publication Sacramento Business Journal. Contact portland@bizjournals.com.
http://portland.bizjournals.com/port...ml?t=printable
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showth...399901&page=22
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