Officials: Closing San Bruno Station Would Be 'Shortsighted Decision'

The city sent some strong words to Caltrain today, opposing the transit agency’s proposal to close the San Bruno station as it weights drastic service cuts to close a $30 million budget gap.

In a letter to Caltrain, Mayor Jim Ruane said Caltrain’s sudden move to try to suspend service at the station—along with closing seven other Bay Area stations—was “surprising” and “disappointing,” especially since Caltrain recently got started with the city’s . The anchor of that project is supposed to be a new elevated train station, which is expected to transform downtown.

“I would have to question the wisdom of continuing to spend millions of taxpayer dollars and putting San Bruno residents through thousands of hours of construction for a train station that never opens,” Ruane said in the letter (see attached).

To many, Caltrain’s proposed cuts sound all too familiar. But, for San Bruno especially, too much hinges on keeping the train station open for the city to let the matter go without a fight, officials said.

Officials said that while Caltrain is holding a series of public hearing on the possible station closure, they want to remind the transit agency of the partnership that has been built between San Bruno and Caltrain over the years.

It took a decade to get the grade separation project off the ground, and the city has put in place plans that were geared toward increasing pedestrian traffic in the downtown area—all plans that were meant to increase ridership on Caltrain, Community Development Director Aaron Aknin said at today’s council meeting.

“So a train station closure in San Bruno would obviously be a shortsighted decision,” Aknin said. “It would be one that would not benefit Caltrain in the long run and would not benefit San Bruno residents in the long run.”

Caltrain is holding another hearing on the possible cuts on March 3 at 10am at the Caltrain headquarters, 1250 San Carlos Ave., in San Carlos.

In other action, the council approved $4.3 million in capital improvement projects to be started this fiscal year after the approval of the projects was delayed because of the Sept. 9 fire. Some of the projects will include designing a climate action plan for the city to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, replacing the well at and designing a reconstruction plan to rebuild much of the public infrastructure that was damaged by the Crestmoor disaster.

The council also approved contracts pledging $119 million in redevelopment funds for projects that were promised by the city's Redevelopment Agency. Although City Manager Connie Jackson said at the last council meeting that Gov. Jerry Brown's budget proposal to  across the state won't have an impact on the redevelopment agreements already in place, the city approved the contracts now anyway.

The contracts include five new affordable housing projects at the following locations:

• a proposed 42-unit affordable housing development at 850 El Camino Real;
• a proposed 28-unit affordable housing development at the former bank building at the corner of San Bruno and Huntington avenues; and
• and the 48-unit affordable housing development planned for the site of the former El Camino Theater.