Regional planning officials Friday will release their second official notice that environmental studies are about to begin for a new route, possibly with a tunnel, to take the railroad tracks off the crumbling coastal bluffs in Del Mar.
The initial “notice of preparation” in June 2024 prompted so much , mostly negative, that the San Diego Association of Governments, the lead agency for the project, stepped back and did a reboot. After more research, they added another possibility to the three alignments being considered.
The fourth option is to leave the railroad in place without a tunnel on the bluffs where stabilization work has been underway for decades. It adds a second set of tracks and more seawalls and other protection to slow the encroaching coastal erosion.
That choice would fail to meet the agency’s long-stated goal of moving about 1.7 miles of track to a new, safer route with a tunnel. However, it would be the least costly option and would avoid widespread community concerns about acquiring private property and boring deep into the earth beneath Del Mar homes and businesses.
“We have a good suite of options here,” said Keith Greer, SANDAG’s deputy director of environmental compliance and climate, on Thursday. “There is no one perfect option.”
The new notice starts another 45-day public comment period. Last year’s notice promoted more than 1,500 written comments, each of which the agency is required to address in the environmental documents.
North County Transit District Chief Executive Officer Shawn Donaghy urged the district’s board at a meeting Thursday to scrutinize the new notice carefully. NCTD owns and operates the railroad from downtown San Diego to the Orange County border, including any new alignment.
“It’s important for all of us to really go through that document … because at the end of the day we have a say about how that goes,” Donaghy said.
Del Mar Mayor Terry Gaasterland also encouraged people to weigh in on the plan.
“It will be critical that all stakeholders provide their concepts and concerns to SANDAG in a formal response,” Gaasterland said Thursday.
A presentation and public hearing will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. May 29 at The Sound event center at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.
Because of the many comments on the first notice, SANDAG did a value analysis study of 16 possible routes.
Among those ruled out as too complicated and costly was a proposal to move the railroad to a new alignment along Interstate 5 from Oceanside to Sorrento at a cost of $34 billion to $45 billion. Another was a suggestion to build tracks for freight trains along Interstate 15 for $118 billion to $158 billion.
The do-over of the notice won’t extend the project’s completion date by much, if at all, Greer said. The alternative route still could be finished by 2035 if construction funding becomes available.
“You go slower to go faster,” he said. “We took a step back and looked at all the options.”
Completion of the draft environmental impact report and then the final EIR will take about three years, Greer said. Once that is finished, the SANDAG board will pick a preferred alternative based on the information.
Enough money for the environmental work is available from a $300 million state grant the agency received in 2022.
“The big, huge nut is construction funding,” Greer said.
Construction is estimated at $1.9 billion to $2.5 billion for double-tracking the bluffs, and from $3.3 billion to $5.1 billion for any of the other three alternatives. And while the outlook for state and federal grants may look bleak for now, that could change by the time SANDAG selects a preferred route.
“The current climate is a short-term thing,” Greer said. “We are fully funded for design and environmental. That’s three years … the current istration won’t be the current istration when we get to the point of seeking construction money.”
The route built in the late 1800s is San Diego’s only rail connection to Orange County, Los Angeles and the rest of the United States.
The San Diego segment of the Los Angeles-San Diego-San Luis Obispo corridor, also known as the LOSSAN corridor, is used by Coaster commuter trains, Amtrak enger trains, and BNSF freight trains. It’s also part of the Defense Department’s nationwide Strategic Rail Corridor Network, which consists of 38,800 miles of track serving 193 military installations.
Along with making the tracks safer, the alternate route is intended to reduce travel times and increase engers and cargo. Planners say a tunnel is the only practical solution because of Del Mar’s steep topography.
The possible new routes are: from the southern end of the San Dieguito railroad bridge to the Interstate 5 knoll; under Crest Canyon to the I-5 knoll; under Camino del Mar to Torrey Pines Road; and the no-tunnel route on the reinforced bluffs.
The California Coastal Commission, which must approve the project, has “serious concerns” about the possibility of keeping the tracks on the bluffs and does not consider that a viable alternative.
“This alternative would add 1.5 miles of new shoreline armoring to the beach in southern Del Mar and, over the long-term, likely result in its permanent loss (of the beach),” states a Feb. 27 letter to SANDAG from Wesley Horn, a Coastal Commission senior environmental scientist.
Seawalls harm coastal resources by reducing sand supplies, public access, recreation and coastal views, Horn said.
One Del Mar group, the Coalition for Safer Trains, wants none of the above and is pushing for its own variation of the San Dieguito bridge to I-5 route.
“Our option will hug the southern edge of the (Del Mar) fairgrounds car park,” said the group’s Angelina Neglia.
“We are trying to be proactive and protect resident’s homes, businesses, our communities and also the fairgrounds,” she said.
Directors of the 22nd District Agricultural Association, which owns the Del Mar Fairgrounds, have said they oppose any route that would affect fairgrounds activities.
All the proposed alternatives could be modified further as plans progress, SANDAG officials have said.
