Mesa spending $800K for streetcar study

Mar. 8—Mesa City Council unanimously approved spending $800,000 toward a $2 million study to identify a locally preferred route to extend Tempe's new streetcar system into Mesa.

Tempe is contributing $1.2 million toward the study, which also includes preliminary design work such as lane configuration and station locations. The split is based on the route length in each city.

A staff report stated the funds would be coming from Mesa Transit Services' current budget.

The study, called "alternatives analysis," is the next step toward regional leaders' vision to link Tempe hotspots like Mill Avenue with Mesa hubs like Sloan Park, Mesa Riverview, Banner Desert Medical Center and the Asian District.

Mesa Transit Services Director Jodi Sorrell told council the joint analysis "will not commit us to anything other than council identifying this is the corridor we want."

Tempe's streetcar system opened last May after 10 years of planning.

The $200 million price tag was covered by $92 million in federal funding, $13 million from a public-private partnership involving Tempe, ASU and private entities along the streetcar line, and the balance from Prop 400 regional transportation sales tax dollars.

Streetcars are smaller than light rail cars, and unlike rail cars, typically share lanes with automobiles and bikes.

Tempe's system currently runs from Tempe Town Lake to the intersection of Dorsey and Apache Boulevard, which becomes Main Street in Mesa.

Sorrell said that Mesa has been discussing the streetcar extension almost from the start of Tempe's project.

In 2020, Valley Metro completed a feasibility study for a Mesa extension using a federal Transit-Oriented Development grant.

The top-scored route from this study was a 4.4-mile corridor beginning at Marina Heights at Tempe Town Lake running east via Rio Salado Parkway into Mesa until hitting Dobson, then turning south on Dobson to Main Street.

The feasibility study stated there is currently no transit service along the Rio Salado corridor, but there is potential for high ridership due to planned mixed-use and multi-family developments near Rio Salado Parkway.

The Rio Salado route was added to the Regional Transportation Plan after the study, and Mesa is now calling the project the "Rio East/Dobson Streetcar Extension."

Mesa's new agreement with Tempe and Valley Metro Rail calls for VMR to evaluate eight route options within this corridor and also identify opportunities for federal funding.

The study is slated for completion in June 2025.

Sorrell presented evidence that there's an appetite for enhanced public transit in the West Mesa study area.

She said the Fiesta District BUZZ circulator, a bus route launched in October connecting the Fiesta District, Asian District and Mesa Riverview, has grown in ridership each month.

In just four months, Sorrell told the council, the Fiesta BUZZ's ridership has risen to the level of the Downtown BUZZ, a more established route.

"That bodes very well for the future," Sorrell said.

The project may face hurdles getting beyond the study phase.

Tempe and Mesa will be angling for federal dollars, but as with Tempe's first phase of the streetcar system, regional transportation dollars will likely be needed in the funding mix.

With the Prop 400 transportation tax set to expire at the end of 2025, regional funding for a Tempe-Mesa streetcar is in jeopardy.

Last year, former Gov. Doug Ducey vetoed a bill calling an election to ask voters for a 25-year extension of the Prop 400 sales tax.

The current Republican leadership in the Legislature — which must vote to put a tax extension on the ballot — has said it will only do so if mass transit funding is forbidden.

A Prop 400 extension bill sponsored by Sen. David Farnsworth (R-Mesa) would have renewed the tax for 20 years but prohibited communities from spending the money generated on commuter rail, light rail, street cars or trollies.

In Farnworth's extension bill, 95% of the transportation dollars would have to go to roads and the rest for buses and dial-a-ride services.

Mayor John Giles, who led the development of the Maricopa Association of Governments' current master transportation plan, staunchly opposes a Prop 400 renewal with such limitations.

The Senate Transportation and Technology Committee voted down Farnsworth's modified bill Feb. 13.

Vice Mayor Francisco Heredia, who represents Mesa on the Valley Metro Board of Directors, said the expansion of Mekong Plaza in the Asian District showed the importance of Prop 400 funding for public transit.

"We need to further enhance our transportation system to connect more people to areas like this, that we are working so hard to invest in as a destination," Heredia said.