Traffic & Transit
Supes Approve Study For Another Sonoma County SMART Station
The cost of the new station and a parking lot is currently estimated at $11 million.
SONOMA COUNTY, CA— The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved spending $50,000 for a feasibility study on a possible Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit train station in Fulton. The money would come from the county's general fund budget, but SMART would conduct the study.
The cost of the new station and a parking lot in the west county currently is estimated at $11 million. There currently are six SMART train stations in the county.
The board approved the Fulton station study by a 4-1 vote, and decided against identifying a second SMART station location for SMART to conduct a feasibility study.
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Supervisor Shirlee Zane had suggested locating another station in the Roseland area of Santa Rosa, and Supervisors James Gore and Lynda Hopkins favored the Fulton proposal.
Board Chair David Rabbitt voted for the Fulton location study, but he wondered where the money for an $11 million station will come from.
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"I'm skeptical it will ever come to fruition," Rabbitt said.
He said there is a two-thirds chance that the Fulton station won't be built in the next 20-30 years.
Supervisor Susan Gorin, whose district includes Sonoma Valley and parts of east Santa Rosa, voted against the Fulton study. She said the constituents in her district are not served by the train, and a study on how to connect the east and west areas of the county to the rail line is needed more.
The SMART Board of Directors is considering putting a measure on the March 2020 ballot that would renew the quarter-cent sales tax for SMART'S operations until 2049. Voters in Marin and Sonoma counties approved the tax in 2008. It is scheduled to expire in 2028.
Gorin said she believes voters in her district will vote against the tax renewal. She said she supported a broader study on the location of a second station, and she suggested the board table the discussion on the Fulton station.
"Where are the people who will use the train most? That's important to renew the tax," Gorin said.
—Bay City News Service
