The final stop on the new eBART line will likely be built near downtown Byron and not in the farmlands to the north, as one supervisor urged.
The Contra Costa County supervisors today are expected to approve the Byron location after discussion turned into a showdown over whether to place the station and accompanying transit village there or along the more rural Marsh Creek Road.
Supervisor Mary Piepho had advocated building the transit center at the Marsh Creek location, which would better serve residents of Discovery Bay. But opponents said it made no sense to place the station in the middle of the agricultural core.
In order to qualify for federal dollars, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission requires cities to erect a minimum of 2,200 housing units within a half-mile of a proposed station. And because the Marsh Creek site is within the agricultural core, housing development there is prohibited.
“I was comfortable with a stand-alone station, but then the transportation folks threw in the ridership plan and the housing plan,” Piepho said. The station, with its many encumbrances and requirements, creates as many problems as it solves, she said.
Byron is the last stop of a $400 million extension that will also speed light-rail trains to Brentwood, Oakley and Antioch as soon as 2010.
Resident and planning groups had pitched as many as five locations for the far East County stop, but ultimately unanimously voted for the north Byron site.
“North Byron was not our first choice, but you know, it’s a trade-off,” said Kathy Leighton of the Byron Municipal Advisory Council. “We had asked for it to be right in the middle of town. But that would use up possible future development ground.”
The site is bounded by the Byron Highway on the east and the Union Pacific railroad tracks on the west. Under the eBART proposal, diesel passenger trains using the Union Pacific line would connect BART riders to the transit system’s Pittsburg-Bay Point station at a cost lower than extending the BART tracks all the way to Brentwood.
In its only expenditure, the county will have to acquire two parcels totaling 7.4 acres — large enough to accommodate 525 parking spaces and additional surface parking.
To fulfill BART’s mission to get cars off the road, the agency is encouraging “transit villages,” including housing, businesses and services, much like Oakland’s Fruitvale station. Walnut Creek has planned 575 new apartments on its BART lot. Similar plans are in the works in Pleasant Hill.
“I spent two years on the initial study on eBART, and never, ever, was Marsh Creek brought up,” said Walter MacVittie, chairman of the East County Regional Planning Commission. “It doesn’t enhance the whole eBART package. We need to get riders on it, and get them off the road. That’s the whole purpose.”
Discussions about where to place the first eBART stations went smoothly, according to Supervisor Mark DeSaulnier, who sits on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. But when the issue rolled into East Contra Costa, sentiments — and rhetoric — heated up.
At one point, proponents of Marsh Creek said placing the station near the Byron middle school would enable child molesters to ride into town and victimize students.
“We don’t want to spend time deliberating this,” said Supervisor Federal Glover, who sits on the transportation committee with Piepho. “The north Byron station is very adequate.”
In the next stage of the process, BART will conduct a thorough study of the environmental impacts of all four proposed East County stations.
