According to Sara Jansen, special assistant with the city of Palmer, the council voted Tuesday to send a resolution to the Alaska Railroad Corporation asking for management of the tracks.
She said the council has heard some community members say that there hasn’t been enough public process on the issue and is therefore going to proceed cautiously with the plan.
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Removing the tracks is one piece of the city’s overall Urban Revitalization Project. The tracks are unused and would need significant repair to allow regular train service. The resolution passed Tuesday cites the revitalization project as one reason for asking for the authority. The others include:
• Providing better access for seniors, strollers and wheelchairs to downtown
• Ending traffic back-ups caused by school buses and trucks required to stop at the tracks
• Creating more space for free parking
• Creating more park space
• Making room for community gardens and recreational activities
• Removing impediments to east-west traffic
• Lowering the grade in the area and “lessening the visual division of the downtown corridor”
At least one councilman opposed the resolution. Richard Best said all the revitalization plan documents he’d seen included leaving the tracks intact.
“My biggest complaint was that I felt that the public had input in the original Downtown Revitalization Plan,” he said.
Taking out the railroad tracks, in his view, goes against what the public signed off on in the first place. He also sees the council, with this move, being hasty. He chalks up their haste to the potential of landing federal stimulus money to help with the revitalization.
Palmer City Manager Bill Allen, “said that the urban revitalization plan with the railroad track in place would not meet the (stimulus funding) criteria,” Best said.
The revitalization plan includes an as-yet conceptual plan to link downtown to the Alaska State Fair with a pedestrian walkway that would run from the fairgrounds to Eagle Street. There’s talk of linking that trail into the Crevasse-Morraine trail system as well and making a Palmer greenbelt in the process. The greenbelt plans, though, are more of a long-term picture. In the short term, the ball is in the railroad’s court.
“Next week I’ll be forwarding this on to the senior management at the railroad and asking them to forward it on to their board of directors,” Jansen said of Tuesday’s resolution.
According to the railroad’s Web site, the next board of directors’ meeting is July 28 at the corporation’s Anchorage headquarters. Jansen said she hopes to get the matter on the board’s agenda for that meeting.
Best said he expects the council’s plan will likely be adopted, as evidenced by testimony from the railroad at Tuesday’s meeting.
“The railroad has full intention of doing whatever it is that the city requests,” Best said, summing up that testimony.
Comments
25 comment(s)Keep the tracks wrote on Jul 14, 2009 5:03 PM:
Surely we can find more important things to spend money on than in tearing things out, and in making changes that most people in Palmer don't even want?
We can make improvements without destorying what we already have. "
offsoapstone wrote on Jul 8, 2009 10:49 AM:
brvak wrote on Jul 7, 2009 10:35 AM:
Wouldn't it be wonderful if all the pavement was gone? No sidewalks, move the fair back into town, turn the Borough building into a charter school....Sarcasm folks. It's nice to think about the old days but don't be afraid to move on. "
jp wrote on Jul 7, 2009 7:53 AM:
that is what you new palmerians want , isn't it?
You people make me want to vomit! "
Some not all wrote on Jul 7, 2009 5:58 AM:
Sometimes wrote on Jul 5, 2009 6:57 PM:
El Guapo wrote on Jul 5, 2009 9:08 AM:
Leave the historical tracks at the Depot and across from the VIsitor Center, but lets use the rest for Parks and Trails. "
El Guapo wrote on Jul 5, 2009 9:01 AM:
To Circus Today.. wrote on Jul 4, 2009 11:58 PM:
Circus todayCircus everyday wrote on Jul 4, 2009 9:03 PM:
Palmer res. wrote on Jul 4, 2009 12:28 PM:
"Leave Palmer alone" "
cottonwood49 wrote on Jul 4, 2009 10:01 AM:
Brittany wrote on Jul 4, 2009 2:26 AM:
Sometimes wrote on Jul 4, 2009 12:52 AM:
give it a break wrote on Jul 4, 2009 12:25 AM:
brvak wrote on Jul 3, 2009 8:28 PM:
Keep them wrote on Jul 3, 2009 6:43 PM:
And, yes, I can see us rebuilding the line to Sutton for coal VERY soon.
The rails add charm to the downtown area. A school bus doesn't stop that long to cause it to become off schedule. What a farce. "
save the tracks wrote on Jul 3, 2009 4:44 PM:
Please keep the tracks wrote on Jul 3, 2009 2:50 PM:
The old railroad depot is a useful and unique community meeting place, and the tracks give it context and authenticity. Build a park, if you like, but please leave the tracks and depot in place.
It would be far better to offer more handicapped parking places, and to erect a removable but safe ramp for wheelchair crossing. Please leave the tracks alone! "
Curious wrote on Jul 3, 2009 10:52 AM:
P Planner wrote on Jul 3, 2009 8:29 AM:
cottonwood49 wrote on Jul 3, 2009 8:05 AM:
Pro Greenbelt. wrote on Jul 2, 2009 11:09 PM:
Rusty wrote on Jul 2, 2009 10:58 PM:
LJ wrote on Jul 2, 2009 9:51 PM: