Gearing up for EmX fight.

Byline: Jeff Wright The Register-Guard

The way Lane Transit District sees it, the popular EmX bus rapid transit line along Franklin Boulevard is a great advertisement for what eventually can be offered to traffic-clogged west Eugene.

But the way Ilona Koleszar sees it, the EmX is a "scary" thing to behold. "There's a lot of concrete involved and a lot of construction involved and a lot of widening involved," she said.

Koleszar, who lives along a residential stretch of West 11th Avenue, is among a group of neighbors that have banded together to voice concerns about EmX expanding into west Eugene - never mind that LTD's best-case scenario doesn't envision such a route until 2015.

The neighbors, calling themselves Residents for Responsible Rapid Transit, or 3RT, became active after the Eugene City Council in October commissioned a study to look at expanding EmX service into the West 11th Avenue corridor - as opposed to Coburg Road to the north. LTD also has begun a study on how to extend EmX to west Eugene.

LTD officials have said they aren't beholden to a particular route, with a future EmX line possibly extending to west Eugene via 13th Avenue, or the extension of 10th Avenue, as opposed to 11th Avenue.

But none of those options are satisfactory to many Jefferson-Westside residents, who fear that an EmX line through or along any portion of their tree-lined neighborhood would be ruinous, Koleszar said.

"If you degrade the edge of a neighborhood, it can affect the rest of the neighborhood," she said.

Koleszar and other neighbors say they want to be part of the solution, not the problem. They suggest that it makes better sense to extend EmX to west Eugene via Sixth and Seventh avenues and out Highway 99. Another option they propose is to first extend EmX in the other direction - to Thurston in east Springfield - to allow more time to work out a suitable route for west Eugene.

The inaugural EmX line, which links the Eugene and Springfield downtowns, has exceeded projected ridership since its January debut.

LTD hopes to have its second EmX leg along Springfield's Pioneer Parkway, carrying riders to Gateway Mall and PeaceHealth's new RiverBend hospital, operational in 2010.

Tom Schwetz, LTD's director of planning and development, said the transit district remains open to exploring alternatives for west Eugene. LTD has changed the name of its study from "West 11th" to "West Eugene," and Schwetz and other transit officials have accepted an offer to meet with 3RT members this week.

But Schwetz cautioned that a lot of interest exists for extending EmX somewhere in the West 11th corridor, especially after hopes for building the proposed West Eugene Parkway fizzled last year.

"I think the expectation on both the part of the LTD Board and the Eugene City Council is that EmX is being looked at as a possible part of the solution package for West 11th," he said.

One thing everyone agrees on is that time is of the essence. That's because LTD must apply for federal transportation funds, which are awarded on a six-year cycle, by October 2008.

"We need (to agree on) something in the next 17 months that gives us enough specificity to provide a cost estimate," Schwetz said. LTD is eager "to roll out the system as quickly as we can," he added, so that the public can see and benefit from a multipronged EmX grid.

In response to alternative proposals floated by the citizen group, Schwetz said it's hard to imagine how an EmX route out Sixth and Seventh avenues can directly address the needs of those traveling in the West 11th corridor. Extending EmX to Thurston would make the system "Springfield-centric" and, given federal funding cycles, would mean no EmX presence in west Eugene for at least 12 years, he said.

But Charles Snyder, a 3RT member, said extending EmX along West 11th makes little sense if the city is serious about promoting "nodal development" - contained residential and commercial areas - rather than continued sprawl.

Snyder said bus rapid transit systems require infrastructure that is inappropriate for residential areas, resulting in a loss of street trees and parking, which lowers property values.

He said the residential portion of West 11th Avenue - the blocks directly east of roughly Garfield Street - would essentially serve as a "pass-through" to the arterial's long commercial strip to the west. Neighbors actually would experience reduced bus service, he said, because EmX offers fewer station stops than do regular buses.

"I think the bottom line is, putting EmX through a residential street is not a good idea," he said.