I was always under the impression that the station would move up to
the 800 block section... I like this new location
K Street plan takes heat, gets OK
By Terri Hardy - Bee Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
A portion of struggling K Street Mall will get some much-needed sprucing up under a $4 million beautification plan approved Tuesday by the Sacramento City Council.
Under the plan, designers will come up with a plan to transform K Street from Seventh to 12th streets with new paving, better lighting, street furniture and plantings. Money exists now only to beautify the 700 block of K Street and to pave St. Rose of Lima Park to allow public events and seating.
A controversial part of the beautification plan approved by the council calls for the relocation of the light-rail station at St. Rose of Lima Park to Seventh Street, between K and L streets.
The city, backed by the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, Regional Transit and the Police Department, pushed for the relocation, saying it will spur economic development and make the area safer.
Beverly Scott, RT's top executive, said it will add a needed outgoing station for the Gold Line.
"I believe this is a beginning for near-term improvements that will improve functionality and benefit transit riders," she said.
But members of various transit rider groups and others criticized the station relocation, calling it unnecessary. "We don't need it, we don't need to spend the money," said Alan Miller, president of the Train Riders Association of California.
Miller said the move will make it more inconvenient for riders, who will have to walk around the block to reach the station.
Other critics said it would cause more traffic congestion, could be unsafe and would exacerbate safety worries by putting the station closer to a liquor store and the Greyhound bus station.
Keith Kaplan, a representative of Westfield Corp., owners of the Downtown Plaza, said "we have significant reservations about relocating the RT platform."
Mayor Heather Fargo said she was frustrated that the conversation about the beautification plan, which she believed was an exciting development for downtown, focused almost solely on the station relocation.