The City Council today heard a very brief statement from the City Manager regarding a citizen’s initiative submitted a few weeks ago that looks to create a Transportation Benefit District and bring streetcars back to Tacoma.
What’d he say? Well … Let’s start with the press release:
Citizens Initiative Submitted To Build Tacoma Streetcar System
(Tacoma, WA)- On February 11, a group calling itself The Committee to Build the Streetcar submitted a citizens petition to the City of Tacoma. The petition was written by longtime streetcar advocates Chris Karnes and Morgan Alexander. Among the goals of the petition are an expanded Tacoma LINK line up Sixth Avenue, the purchase and restoration of an original streetcar that once ran in Tacoma, and the creation of a Transit Commission to help the city make the plan happen.
Funding for the plan would come from a relatively new mechanism called a Transportation Benefit District. Funding would come from a .2 cents per $10 dollar purchase sales tax within the Transportation Benefit District. Currently, Tacoma does not have a Transportation Benefit District.
In 2008, Tacoma residents approved the Sound Transit ST2 ballot measure, which provides over $80 million in matching funds for expanding Tacoma LINK. Those funds have been accumulating for about a year.
The organizers of Tacoma’s “Build the Streetcar!” initiative hope their effort will result in a similar success. “There are a lot of different pieces in play right now,” said Alexander. “There’s ST2, Pierce Transit doing some major introspection, and the City Manager has been busy lining up partners and funding. We feel the time is right for city residents to get involved and help create something amazing for Tacoma’s future.
The organizers will need to gather over 4,000 signatures by the end of summer. An organizing kick-off party is planned for late March.
Those seeing to help gather signatures should contact the organizers: Chris Karnes at 253-267-3754 or Morgan Alexander at 253-228-7271. Or visit their website www.BuildTheStreetcar.com
That took some significant work … However, what we heard in today’s meeting is that the legality of the initiative is very much in question. What’s at issue? Two things came up in our brief hallway conversations:
1) Transportation Benefit Districts can only be created by the legislative authority of a county or city.
2) Without knowing the specifics ourselves, it was stated that the initiative imparts powers to the City Council that it can’t be given.
This Council is one of the most transportation progressive councils Tacoma has ever seen. Maybe there’s another way to get there … We’ll see where this goes next.


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