Norco, CA: Norco council opposes high-speed train route through city

The Norco City Council, which considers the proposed San Francisco to San Diego high-speed train a threat to the city's animal-keeping lifestyle, approved a resolution Wednesday opposing a route through Norco.

In preliminary studies, the Inland Empire segment would run from Ontario International Airport through March Air Reserve Base near Riverside to a station in Murrieta. Two alternative routes wound send the train through Norco to a station at the Dos Lagos shopping center in southern Corona, and then on to Murrieta, bypassing Riverside.

One Norco route would go down the Hamner Avenue commercial district and another would be in the middle of or adjacent to Interstate 15. A report prepared for the High-Speed Rail Authority's meeting today in Los Angeles proposes dropping the Hamner route because of environmental concerns.

But Councilwoman Kathy Azevedo, who said the train "will take out the city of Norco" when she proposed the resolution, is still concerned.

Running the train down the middle of I-15 would make it impossible to widen the interstate, she said. Running it alongside I-15 would take out Hamner on one side and displace houses on the other.

"We feel that March Air Force Base is much better not only for Norco but the region," Azevedo said. "If they're going through Riverside, there's a much bigger population base."

The Rail Authority today will be asked to approve a list of routes and stations for further study. Rachel Wall, the Rail Authority's press secretary, said by phone on Tuesday the Los Angeles to San Diego routes will be studied for environmental effects for at least the next three years before a choice is made. The route isn't scheduled for completion until 2030.

The Hamner route was recommended for rejection because of a threat to the Delhi Sands flower-loving fly and problems with the right of way, the report said. The authors of the report found some concerns that the Hamner and I-15 routes share: community noise and visual impacts; and effects on equestrian trails and the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve.

Wall said the effects of noise can be lessened by design elements, including sound tunnels such as those that are used in Spain.

Norco's resolution will be forwarded to the Rail Authority, and Azevedo said she will press her case with the Riverside Council of Governments.

The route issue is pitting Azevedo against one of her friends, Corona Councilwoman Karen Spiegel, a proponent of the Corona station and the I-15 route.

"Any time there is progress and change, somebody sees themselves as being the hurt ones," Spiegel said by phone Tuesday. "I do not think it's going to destroy Norco. I think it will change Norco, but so did the 15 freeway."

Countered Azevedo: "How could she know that when the route hasn't been determined?"