The settlement agreement requires the Authority to create a $4 million agricultural land mitigation fund to protect farmland and to allow local farm groups to collaborate with the Authority for agricultural mitigation.  The resolution of this suit along with three other environmental suits settled earlier this year will allow the Authority to finally move forward with construction on the first segment of the $86 billion project.  

See the Authority’s press release for more details.

Co-authored by Michael N. Mills and Juliet H. Cho.

Many of Fresno’s citizens have fiercely opposed the Project and argued that the proposed alternative will negatively impact California’s prime farmland.  Thursday’s meeting was no exception:  the five-hour meeting devoted two hours to public comments.

The final environmental impact for the Fresno-to-Bakersfield route is expected to be published in October 2013, at which time the route will be set.  This will require the Authority to gain rights-of-ways from landowners along the route and trigger eminent domain proceedings that will affect landowners’ rights to their property.

For more information regarding this update or the Authority’s planned condemnation proceedings for the Project’s right-of-way, please contact Mike Mills at mnmills@stoel.com or Juliet Cho at jhcho@stoel.com.

Co-authored by Michael N. Mills and Juliet H. Cho.

For more information, please contact Mike Mills. 

            The CHSRA has stated that, while the starter segment initially could not support high- speed trains, the track could be used for conventional rail transportation.  The Plaintiffs in the Kings County suit, however, claim that Proposition 1A mandates that the initial starter segment be able to support high-speed trains.  The Hanford Sentinel reported on the lawsuit yesterday afternoon.  A copy of that story may be found here.

            Although the filing of the lawsuit is not surprising, and is probably just one of many to come around the bend challenging the legality of the CHSRA’s actions, in the short term the CHSRA continues to find itself on the litigation fast track.

In addition to approving the RFP, this is the first time the Authority has met since the Draft Environmental Impact Reports/Environmental Impact Statements (“DEIR/DEIS”) for the Fresno to Bakersfield and Merced to Fresno routes have been released.  After some admitted technical glitches and multiple extension-of-time requests, the Authority’s CEO, Roelof van Ark, announced the Authority’s decision to formally extend the public comment period on the DEIR/DEIS an additional 15 days, giving the public until October 13, 2011 to submit comments.  However, the public hearings on the draft environmental documents are still scheduled to be held between September 20 – 22, 2011 

It was evident throughout the meeting that getting an immediate start on the project is a top priority, even with the stark reality that there will be insufficient federal funding to complete an “Initial Operating Section” or “IOS.”  KPMG, one of the Authority’s many hired consultants, gave a critical update on the High Speed Rail’s much-anticipated Business Plan, which is required to be submitted to the State Legislature by January 1, 2012.  KPMG’s report highlighted the fact that the Authority has secured $3.33 billion in Federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds for the ICS.  However, currently there is no federal funding to complete one of two planned IOS’s, either the IOS-North (extending from the northern end of the ICS to Merced and San Jose), or the IOS-South (extending from the southern end of the ICS to the San Fernando Valley).  Because the total cost for the project is anticipated to be $3-4 billion per year for the next 15+ years, with major funding needed from the federal government, some members of Authority’s Board expressed concern that the rest of the project would be left unfinished after the ICS is built. Given the rancor over the federal budget deficit in Washington and recent Congressional agreements to implement far-reaching budget cutting actions over the next several years, these concerns are appear quite valid.

Despite these concerns, however, the Authority’s strategy seems to be that it ought to move quickly to complete the ICS, as it will likely be more difficult to pull the plug on a project that has broken ground than a project that is only in its planning stages.  The draft 2012 Business Plan will be available for public review and comment in October.  Authority Vice-Chair Lynn Schenk remarked that the 2012 Business Plan will be critical in changing the public’s perception about the project.  That being said, the Authority has its work cut out for it for the remainder of the year.

Despite these criticisms, the CHSRA board appears to be satisfied maintaining the status quo.  At last Thursday’s board meeting, the annual elections for chairman and vice-chair revealed that the board will not be taking any major changes in direction.  Thomas Umberg, the current vice-chair and a Los Angeles attorney, was elected chairman and Lynn Schenk, a close ally of the current chair Curt Pringle and Thomas Umberg, elected vice-chairmen together with Tom Richards.

Umberg has been heavily involved with the board in the past year and has been particularly supportive of Curt Pringle’s leadership as chairman.  During the nominations, Mr. Umberg suggested that two vice chair positions be created in anticipation of next year’s heavy workload and subsequently nominated Lynn Schenk and Tom Richards for those positions.  Umberg acknowledged that Richards’ involvement will be crucial, as he resides in Fresno, a city whose residents have recently raised concerns regarding CHSRA’s proposed alignment, which will impact their properties. 

Although the Authority had hoped to secure enough funds to extend the first phase of construction from Merced to Bakersfield, the new funding will be used to extend the segment north of Fresno to Chowchilla with hopes of extending to Merced if more funding is secured.  This initial phase is currently undergoing an environmental review process and the draft environmental impact report (“DEIR”) is scheduled for release by the end of June 2011.  The DEIR will make the ultimate determination as to how many miles the tracks will extend past Fresno to the north.  

The Operations Committee presented a proposal to study the Grapevine as a concept in place of the Palmdale route from Bakersfield to Los Angeles.  It was emphasized that this was merely a proposal and not a recommendation and the cost of the study would not preclude the current analysis of the Palmdale route.  The rationale behind the proposal was the potential lower cost of the Grapevine route and the time savings to riders from Los Angeles to San Francisco.  Further, there are seismic concerns and opposition to the Palmdale route that has encouraged the committee to evaluate this proposal.  The board voted unanimously to approve this study.

Staff then presented the implementation approach of a San Francisco to San Jose alternative section and discussed at length the letters received from legislators demanding a restricted alternatives analysis that would benefit CalTrain.  That combined with strong citizen opposition within the Peninsula communities vigorously opposing the construction of a high speed rail system, many board members stated would consider realigning the Authority’s priorities to expedite the construction of the Los Angeles to San Diego section, and defer further study or analysis of the San Francisco to San Jose segment.  This question was left to be further examined at the next board meeting.   

The next few agenda items were presentations of the supplemental alternatives analysis reports for San Jose to Merced, Merced to Fresno and Fresno to Bakersfield.  The project manager for each section presented the alternatives and the board voted unanimously to approve the proposed alignment changes and station alternatives.