Ogden weighs streetcar placement

OGDEN — Imagine stepping onto a streetcar and whizzing around the old neighborhoods of Ogden — the Arts and Crafts-style houses, such as the bungalow built by the family of John Browning, mixed with impressive Victorians, such as the castle-like home of Bertha Eccles.

That picture, actually, reflects Ogden's past and future.

The electric trolley cars from the 1880s to 1930s are planned to roll into modern-day Ogden. At issue, however, is where to run the streetcars. The streetcars must connect the Ogden Transit Center, a station for buses and FrontRunner commuter rail, as well as Weber State University and McKay-Dee Hospital.

A stakeholders committee of city and county elected officials and representatives from the Utah Transit Authority, Weber State, the Wasatch Front Regional Council and the Utah Department of Transportation recommends an alignment along 36th Street. As an alternative, they recommend an alignment along 30th Street, which has a freeway exit. They have eliminated a third alternative along 25th Street, which frustrates some residents in that area of the city.

The stakeholders recommend "a Washington Boulevard-to-36th Street alignment because it is has the best economic development potential and the fewest impacts on property and traffic operations," said Gerry Carpenter, UTA spokesman. "In addition, compared to the greater impacts of the other proposed alternatives, this is the only one likely to qualify for federal funding."

The cost to build rail for the proposed routes and buy streetcars, which are smaller than light-rail vehicles, is roughly $156 million, regardless of the alternative, Carpenter said.

UTA, Ogden, Weber State and Intermountain Healthcare have spent about a combined $750,000 hiring consultants Wilbur Smith Associates, based in Columbia, S.C., with Utah offices, to consider the alignments.

But Ogden Central Bench Historic District residents, who have renamed the area the Trolley District, want streetcars along 25th Street. The alignment would include their neighborhood and the houses of Ogden's famous families — firearms innovator John Browning and lumber and banking capitalist David Eccles — and the independent art galleries, shops and eateries on 25th Street between Washington Boulevard and Wall Avenue.

"They completely ignored what the public wants," said Trolley District resident Shalae Larsen, who believes the 25th Street alignment is more likely to get federal funding based on public support. "The whole public process is a farce. There is no public process."