President of Fort Worth South, Inc. Responds to Star-Telegram Editorial

Paul Paine, president of Fort Worth South, Inc., responds to the most recent anti-streetcar editorial by Star-Telegram writer Mike Norman.

It is no surprise that Mike Norman attacked all five mayoral candidates on streetcars and their stated position that the City Council should have voted to “continue the study” (“Mayoral candidates should know better about streetcars,” April 22).

Norman has consistently been very vocal against streetcars. However, he bases his criticism of the candidates’ position on false information.

In the next to last paragraph of Norman’s column, he wrote, “The FTA wanted an answer. ‘Continue the study’ would have meant committing the city to building the streetcar route without yet having its $63 million share pinned down. That wasn’t acceptable, and the mayoral candidates should know it.”
Norman is only partly correct – and he should know it, because it is a public record.

The Federal Transit Administration did want an answer about Fort Worth’s plan for a $25 million streetcar grant, and continuing the study would have meant paying consultant HDR Engineering another $1 million ($100,000 from the Fort Worth Transportation Authority, $800,000 from the Regional Transportation Council and $100,000 from the city of Fort Worth, not $1 million from the city of Fort Worth).

But completing the study would not commit the city to building the streetcar route. It couldn’t, because the grant can only be awarded in response to an application from a transportation authority, not a municipality.

The council’s Dec. 7 vote was on continuing the study so the city could finalize a financial plan and prepare preliminary engineering plans and environmental documents that meet FTA requirements. The decision to request the Fort Worth Transportation authority to apply for and accept the grant, thus committing the city to building the streetcar, would not be made until the third phase of the study was complete – and then only if the results of the study justified moving forward with an acceptable plan.

These facts were clearly communicated in the resolution the city staff asked the council to approve. The amended recommendation by city staff specifically stated that “upon completion of an acceptable financial plan, preliminary engineering plans and environmental documents that meet FTA requirements, the City Council will urge the T to apply for and accept the Urban Circulator grant.”

Thus, a vote on Dec. 7 to complete the study would not have committed the city to build the streetcar route without yet having its $63 million share pinned down. All five mayoral candidates understand that, and all five reached the logical conclusion that the study should have been continued so the city could make an informed decision on whether to support the T’s application for the urban circulator grant.

Paul Paine of Fort Worth is a member of the city’s Modern Streetcar Task Force and is president of Fort Worth South Inc.