Merced mayor calls for change in plan for HSR stop location

In what he called his “parting words” as the city’s top official, Mayor Stan Thurston urged future leaders to rethink plans for the positioning of the state high-speed rail stop.

The City Council should move the stop planned along 16th Street near downtown to south of the Merced Cemetery, where there is more open space and less of an ill effect on Main Street, Thurston said. Supporters of the train have said putting the stop in the heart of downtown has the potential of breathing new life into the business sector there.

Thurston pointed to what some “insiders” see as problematic financial prospects for the $68 billion project, which may have become even more difficult with Republicans soon to be in control of Washington, D.C..

“The bottom line to me is if we’re going to build a station in Merced, put it in a place that won’t cause economic damage while we wait, maybe forever, for a high-speed rail system to the Bay Area,” Thurston said during Monday’s City Council meeting.

The mayor, whose time in office is a few weeks from its end, has been a vocal skeptic of the state’s plans for the 520-mile rail system set to be finished in 2028. The California High-Speed Rail Authority has adopted plans that put Merced as the starting point of the Central Valley section that would end in Wasco, instead of Shafter, near Bakersfield.

Thurston argued that putting the station in the area of 16th Street at Martin Luther King Jr. Way or R Street, two current ideas, would inevitably close down space for businesses in downtown.

The cemetery is at Childs Avenue and B Street.

“There’s plenty of room out there – well underutilized property,” he said.

Councilman Josh Pedrozo said moving the station away from downtown doesn’t make sense.

“We’re so far along in the process, I think what the mayor’s doing is trying to do anything he can to kill it before it’s actually able to happen,” he said, noting Thurston’s skepticism about the train.

“Definitely, it would negatively affect the city of Merced,” he said. “The whole idea of putting the station downtown was to rejuvenate downtown.”

The city and its high-speed rail consultant, Hatch Mott MacDonald, have already begun to expand the area being studied during the planning process, according to Frank Quintero, the city’s economic development director. The stop’s location is not set in stone.

“The one thing I’ve learned about high-speed rail and listening to their staff is that everything’s dynamic and subject to change,” he said.

Councilman Mike Murphy, who is likely to be the city’s next mayor, said he’ll hold off on giving his opinion until after the city and its consultant finish their study.

“We’ll make a decision once we have all the input,” he said.

This story was originally published November 23, 2016 at 2:07 PM with the headline "Merced mayor calls for change in plan for HSR stop location."