Hudson Street Depot Confirmed as City’s SMART Station

The long-percolating movement to change the chosen location of a SMART rail platform from the historic Depot on Hudson Street to a downtown Vine Street location, just a long block’s walk to the Plaza, may have finally been put to rest.

At the Feb. 20 meeting of the Healdsburg City Council, at least three and possibly four of the five members were clearly in favor of the Hudson Street Depot, as much because advocates of the alternative Vine Street location failed to show adequate reasons for changing the decision made almost 30 years ago by an earlier city council.

“There’s not enough solid data to say, ‘It’s not going to be Hudson,’” said Mayor David Hagele. “I don’t have enough [information] to switch from the existing location.”

Only Councilmember Ariel Kelley thought it might be worth doing further research on the demographics of riders and the possible impact of a downtown station on Healdsburg’s long-range future.

The discussion at the Tuesday meeting, which technically did not require a vote, found the city’s Public Works director, Larry Zimmer, outlining the reasons for considering the Vine Street location. In addition, SMART General Manager Eddy Cumings presented a number of reasons why the regional transportation agency was looking favorably upon it.

Zimmer’s presentation touched on the advantages of a downtown location, and while some of the disadvantages of a station between the Foss Creek Trail and the West Plaza parking lot were brought up, so too were its advantages as a potential “transit hub.” Sonoma County Transit bus No. 60 could be rerouted from Healdsburg Avenue to Vine and Grove to service the station, and the twice-daily AMTRAK buses could stop there as well. “If you were looking for a transit hub, the Vine Street station is the better option,” Zimmer said.

Another factor was that an expanded two-track station at the downtown location could mean the loss of a number of parking spaces in the West Plaza lot, spaces that are within the SMART easement or right-of-way.

Cumings announced additional recent funding for the rail service, which puts the Healdsburg station—and, potentially, the Cloverdale station—closer to final funding. “I believe downtown is the better option,” he stated. “SMART is a parking solution, not a parking problem.”

Future-Proof?

While he threw cold water on the idea there could be a second station in Healdsburg, he called the downtown location “future-proof.” Like Zimmer, he discounted the impact of 38 train trips a day (19 in each direction) on the roundabout intersection, though it would need to be retrofitted with new signs and gates to assure the safe passage of the train through the intersection of Mill Street, Vine Street and Healdsburg Avenue.

Outlining the alternatives before the city council in the evening’s discussion, City Manager Jeff Kay said, “What a great dilemma we have—SMART is coming to Healdsburg!” That opened the doors for the sitting members of the council, although Vice Mayor Evelyn Mitchell was attending remotely from Hawaii, to offer their perspectives and preferences on the location question.

The council was presented with two “alternatives”: Alternative 1, to proceed with the pre-existing decision to construct the station near the current historic depot along Hudson Street; or Alternative 2, for the council to request additional information prior to deciding.

“Additional studies would require time and funding and should be evaluated as to their weight in the decision-making process,” the council was cautioned.

Public Reaction

Even from the outset, though, the proposal for a downtown location was greeted skeptically. Mitchell, for instance, questioned the assumption that the city would lose the approximately 30 West Plaza Park parking spots that lie within SMART’s legal right of way if the rail did not need to expand with a second line and station.

Councilmember Ron Edwards pointed out that it would be less disruptive to move the SC Transit bus stop farther north on Healdsburg Avenue, which would place it closer to the Depot location, than to reroute the bus line altogether.

Councilmember Chris Herrod questioned SMART’s argument that a Hudson Street location would be beyond a supposed quarter-mile limit that commuters prefer to walk, and the repeated comparison with the one-third-mile gap between the Larkspur station and the ferry terminal, which commuters found too far.

“You’re at your destination when you get off the train,” he said. “Additional study won’t shift the scale.”

If the council leaned toward Hudson Street, the attending public embraced it. Nineteen people arose to speak for their allotted three minutes, of which four were open to further research for a downtown station, while 15 were clearly in favor of the historic Depot.

These included Holly Hoods, executive director of the Healdsburg Museum, who said she was at the meeting not in that capacity, but “as a private citizen interested in history.” Her point was that the location of the Depot had been established in 1871, and it was intentionally put on the outskirts of the downtown core even though Healdsburg was, then as now, a walkable town.

Mark McMullen, head of a Healdsburg 2040 work group, stated their preference for the Depot location. He recounted that in 1997 a local committee appointed by the city had spent months researching a location for a commuter train (SMART was not yet in existence), and it had overwhelmingly “concluded that the Depot location was the best choice.” To discount or revisit that well-researched decision “should not be ignored,” he said.

Valerie White, another member of that same work group, enumerated the disadvantages of building a new station downtown.

“It will be extremely disruptive and unsafe for the thousands of people who live and shop in Healdsburg,” she said, citing the impact on roundabout traffic, congestion at Vineyard Center (where Safeway is located), the reduction in public parking and the construction period itself, which could overlap the construction of the Foley Pavilion on North and Vine.

Former city council member Joe Naujokas, widely remembered as having suggested a downtown SMART station in the first place, announced his own position. “Hudson Street is the ideal location,” he said.

“Finally, this topic has been discussed for months,” White concluded. “I encourage you to put it to rest tonight and vote to place the station at Hudson Street.”

End of the Line

And that’s pretty much what the council did. Without adequate reason or incentive to require further study of the downtown alternative, and the clear consensus of at least three if not four of the five members of council, the pre-existing decision to locate the SMART station at the historic depot was accepted.

However, there was no vote, and White was not the only one to wonder why not. Did it mean that SMART might continue to try to change the council’s collective mind behind-the-scenes, since the downtown location was its stated favorite?

Kay reiterated that no vote was necessary, as no change to city policy was made or requested, because “the council direction last night just affirmed a number of previous decisions to locate the station at the Depot on Hudson St. That was the status quo option, so they essentially provided direction that it wasn’t necessary to explore the alternative option further.”

Even without a formal vote, the city apparently decided with its residents—and its history—that once a train depot, always a train depot. The SMART station will go on Hudson Street.