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Ogden • At the City Council's urging, stakeholders in a plan to connect the downtown intermodal hub to Weber State University and McKay-Dee Hospital Center agreed Wednesday to put the project on hold while an abandoned route for a streetcar gets another look.
The council has asked GB Arrington, a transit-oriented development expert with PB PlaceMaking, to assess whether an streetcar project would be viable if it ran on 25th Street to Harrison Boulevard, then south on Harrison to WSU and the hospital.
An analysis completed in 2010 by Wilbur Smith Associates, which considered speed and current zoning as key factors, selected a different preferred route, south on Washington Boulevard to 36th Street, east on 36th to Harrison, then south.
Weber County Commissioner Jan Zogmaister supported the delay and a new study.
"I've drug my feet because of the cost, but the streetcar could give the whole thing a face-lift," Zogmaister said.
But Norm Tarbox, vice president of administrative services at WSU, expressed frustration, noting that corridor deliberations date back seven years.
"I don't feel we're any closer today," Tarbox said, adding Ogden, its residents and the Utah Department of Transportation are the stakeholders who need to agree on a plan for the transit corridor to advance.
Mayor Matthew Godfrey voiced skepticism about the streetcar ever receiving funding, since the local match for the $156 million project is estimated at about $60 million, with annual operating expenses of about $3.5 million.
"Let's say that we all come to an agreement and UDOT can make it happen in the Harrison Corridor," Godfrey said. "We still can't pay for it."
Traffic congestion along Harrison has been an ongoing concern for UDOT, and the agency has plans to widen portions of it to seven lanes.
But a growing group of residents — some have organized into a Facebook group called the Historic Trolley District — advocate for the concept on 25th Street.
"I haven't heard a single citizen supporting the 36th Street alignment," said Councilwoman Amy Wicks. "I've had people from all walks of life who never agree on anything come forward and say 25th Street, down Harrison or not at all."
Brandon Bell, part of the Historic Trolley District, views the streetcar as the missing link that would catalyze economic development in Ogden's east-central neighborhoods.
"They would do the zoning so that those nodes of energy and life would happen around the [transit] stops," Bell said.
Dave Hardman, president of the Ogden/Weber Chamber, said the organization was a driving force in getting Weber County's transit tax on the ballot in 2007.
"We believe this is a very important economic-development project," Hardman said, adding that rubber-wheel routes lack the permanence of tracks in the ground.
Council Chairwoman Caitlin Gochnour agreed to get a timeline to stakeholders as soon as possible. She also suggested creating an express bus route to WSU to serve residents now and gauge their interest.
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