Orange County Commissioners Prepare for Light Rail Vote

After years of debate, the Orange County Transit Plan could be approved at Thursday night’s County Commissioners meeting.

The main piece of the plan is the much-debated Durham-Orange Light Rail Transit line. The 17.7-mile light rail line has a total projected cost of $3.3 billion, including financing, and has split public opinion.

Durham County Commissioners voted to approve the transit plan and the new cost-sharing agreement with Orange County at its Monday night meeting.

The newly negotiated terms bring Orange County’s cost share of the line from 20 percent down to 16.5 percent.

Some Orange County Commissioners appeared more comfortable with the arrangement moving forward under the new terms at a work session last Thursday.

The local cost of the project was originally slated for 25 percent and would be funded by a sales tax increase approved by voters from Orange and Durham counties. Another 25 percent would come from the state and the remaining 50 percent would be funded by the federal government.

That outline changed when the state capped its contribution to light rail projects at 10 percent.

That cost increase led some community members to advocate for increased bus services rather than the light rail line.

UNC Chancellor Carol Folt and UNC Health Care System CEO Dr. William Roper sent a letter to Orange County Commissioners on Wednesday encouraging commissioners to vote to approve the transit plan.

The letter said the light rail line is “essential to our future.” The officials said the transit line was “vital” to ensure the future of the county while remaining a “vibrant and sustainable place to work and live.”

Folt and Roper added UNC had been planning for light rail stations in the master planning process for “more than 15 years.”

The Chapel Hill Town Council also approved a letter of support for the light rail line on Monday night. But the letter also said the council wished “to advocate for increased financial resources for the Chapel Hill Transit system which are necessary to meet future growth demand, to connect riders to station areas and to make essential “last mile” connections.”

The letter also requests Chapel Hill Town Council, as the operator of Chapel Hill Transit, be added “as a signatory to the interlocal Implementation Agreement for the Orange County Transit Plan” while allowing Chapel Hill staff to work on the plan moving forward.

Increased bus service overall was also a request from the council.

Meanwhile, a group of more than 100 Orange County residents – including Chapel Hill Town Council member Nancy Oates – also submitted a letter to commissioners urging the board to oppose the plan.

The letter said the light rail proposal “introduces extraordinary financial risks.” The letter goes on to criticize GoTriangle, saying the organization’s handling of the project “is responsible for the latest abbreviated decision process that is so rushed that there hasn’t been sufficient time for critical public review or reasonable vetting of the project.”

In a letter sent from GoTriangle to the county commissioners on Tuesday, the regional transit organization said it was willing to renegotiate terms of the interlocal agreement between the county, GoTriangle and the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization regarding the allocation of bus revenues.

If approved by commissioners, the plan could then be submitted to the Federal Transit Administration. The FTA could then approve the project to move forward into the engineering phase.

The Orange County Commissioners will meet at seven o’clock Thursday night at the Whitted Building in Hillsborough.