Board of Commissioners met to discuss light rail project

At the Orange County Board of Commissioners meeting Monday night, the community was especially outspoken about funding for the Durham-Orange County Light Rail Project. 

GoTriangle presented the board with updated information and asked Durham and Orange counties to sign non-binding letters of intent to work to identify sources of funding for the Durham-Orange Light Rail Transit Project. 

The funding gap is about $250 million in year-of-expenditure dollars and includes bus operations, route expansion and funds needed to operate and maintain the light rail. The gap is for the combined Durham and Orange Transit plan — the state's total investment can't exceed 10 percent of the funds, while local sources are expected to come up with 40 percent of funding for the light rail. By adding the North Carolina Central University route and additional joint development costs, the plan would cost between $1.8 billion and $2 billion. 

“We did not anticipate, or I did not anticipate $2 billion, so now I’m wondering, when do we hit three?” said Commissioner Earl McKee.

Jeff Mann, general manager for GoTriangle, said he did not anticipate that happening, as they have two independent cost reviews. 

The projected opening for the project was delayed to 2028 in the report to help minimize funds. In April, GoTriangle said they would bring updated bus and rail investment plans to Orange and Durham County in order to see what local funds are available and to be cleared for the engineering phase.

The board received several comments from members of the community on this issue — some expressed concerns and others highlighted the potential the light rail could bring to the area.

“Light rail will not serve its first customer until 2028 — that’s 11 years from next year,” said Alex Castro, a member of the Orange Unified Transportation advisory board. “And you’re going to sacrifice other programs, so that you can get the first rider in 2028.” 

Olivia Truax, a Chapel Hill resident, addressed her support for the light rail to the board. She said her life has always been intertwined with downtown Durham.

“Not only would light rail connect the existing development in Chapel Hill and Durham, like the hospitals and universities, it has the unique potential to promote the type of mixed-use development, high-density mixed-use development in this area as it continues to grow,” Truax said. 

Commissioner Barry Jacobs said he would like to see greater communication between GoTriangle and county staff, and said the board needed to first set its own priorities for transportation. 

Jacobs addressed the changes in numbers presented by GoTriangle since the September report, namely being that private capital and university spending statement changed from $25 million to $25-50 million, and the plan’s addition of the Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard bus rapid transit. 

“I think we should have greater public forum for discussion of some of these issues — not this kind of public forum, but an actual give-and-take of information between the GoTriangle staff and the two county staffs that the public can observe and submit questions for,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs issued a motion to look into intricacies, finances and benefits of the light rail, and accept the the non-binding memorandum of understanding with GoTriangle. The motion passed 5-2, with McKee and Price dissenting.

The board agreed to add language placing emphasis on clarifying the non-binding aspect of the agreement, drafted by County Attorney John Roberts. The board then voted 7-0 to direct County Manager Bonnie Hammersley to find someone to conduct an independent review of finances and engineering choices, as well as to look into environmental benefits of the project. The Board agreed to first set county-wide transportation goals. 

Notable

In two unanimous votes, the board selected Dorosin to serve as the new chairperson and Price as vice chairperson.

Quotable

“Climate change is accelerating, and there’s not been a lot of talk about the avoided effects of climate change, the air quality, that this project represents — I hope we can find some real data on that as one of the benefits,” said Commissioner Mark Marcoplos. 

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