Draft of Impact Study Reveals Drawbacks in O.C. Rail Plan : Train: Proposed line would force residents and businesses to move, add noise and reduce parking, research by county and federal officials shows.

A 28-mile rail system proposed for Orange County would displace homes and businesses along the possible paths of the train, decrease on-street parking and create noise, according to the first in-depth report on the likely effects of the project.

The report, to be released today, is a draft of an environmental impact study required by federal law. It gives county residents their first detailed look at how the Fullerton-Irvine line would affect their neighborhoods. Its release precedes a series of public meetings on the rail system, leading up to the selection this fall of a final route for the train.

In December, county transit officials are scheduled to vote on whether to keep pursuing urban rail at a price of $30 million for the initial design and engineering of the system.

The urban rail system--projected to cost at least $1.3 billion--has been the subject of increasing scrutiny and criticism in recent months. Popular with some city officials and citizens, the proposal has its critics, including the Orange County Grand Jury, which issued a scathing report in May criticizing the Orange County Transportation Authority for promoting the project rather than studying it.

Transit officials, though, say they were mandated by voters to explore urban rail for the county when Measure M, passed in 1990, allocated $340 million for urban rail. And studying the downside, they say, has always been planned as part of the process.

“The whole purpose of this report is to disclose every possible effect so people can make an objective decision about rail,” Orange County Transportation Authority spokesman John Standiford said Thursday. “It’s very thorough, as it has to be.”

The environmental draft, prepared by OCTA and the Federal Transit Administration, studies the impact of an elevated train as well as two street-level alternatives. The report also addresses the likely effects of not building any rail system in the county.

An elevated train would offer the fastest travel for commuters and also would draw the most riders--about 75,000 daily, according to the report. All 26 stations would be above ground if such a system were used and would give more choices of technology: a light rail, monorail or automated guideway transit.

But the report also says the elevated option would be the loudest and most visible, causing severe or moderate noise problems for more than 300 homes, hotels and businesses. It also would be the most expensive by far, costing an estimated $1.8 billion.

The street-level alternatives would raise slightly different issues, according to the report. The first alternative would run from downtown Fullerton along Anaheim Boulevard, crossing to Main Street once it passed Edison Field in Anaheim and cutting back to Bristol Street through Santa Ana. The second alternative would follow Main Street south from the MainPlace/Santa Ana mall. Both street-level options run roughly parallel with the San Diego Freeway to the Irvine Transportation Center.

Either way, a street-level train would likely slow auto traffic, the report states, as well as wipe out a substantial number of on-street parking spaces.

The route down Main Street, while more direct, also would cause the greatest loss of property, displacing nine homes and 141 businesses, and requiring the acquisition of more than 100 properties along its route, the report states. Santa Ana would be most affected by this route.

All three routes also would negatively affect registered historical districts and buildings. The report suggests that soundproofing measures and new parking areas near the rail line could be used to mitigate some of those ill effects.

The need for transportation choices as roads grow more congested is cited in the document among the main reasons to build the so-called CenterLine project.

At a debate on urban rail sponsored last month by the county transit agency, critics of the rail proposal argued that trains would do little to get Orange County residents out of their cars and would have no effect at all on traffic congestion.

But pro-rail speakers at the session, which drew more than 300 people, countered that more choices make sense in a county where many freeways have already been widened to capacity. The final route selected could be any of the three proposed, or possibly a hybrid of the choices, Standiford said.

The two-volume report will be available to the public today at 15 libraries countywide as well as on the OCTA Web site (https://www.octa.net) It also will be available for purchase on CD-ROM for $5 at OCTA headquarters, 550 S. Main St., Orange. For more information, call the CenterLine Hotline at (714) 560-5598.