The Glendale City Council withdrew from plans for a light-rail route to downtown Glendale in a 5-2 vote Tuesday night.

The decision comes nearly two months after the council directed city staff against moving forward on the 7-mile route, which had been projected to open in 2026.

Mayor Jerry Weiers, Vice Mayor Ian Hugh and Council members Ray Malnar, Joyce Clark and Lauren Tolmachoff voted to walk away from future planning. Council members Bart Turner and Jamie Aldama cast the two dissenting votes.

The vote reverses a 2016 council decision that directed planners to identify design details and cost estimates, which then narrowly passed by a 4-3 vote.

Clark, a vocal light-rail opponent who ousted former Councilman Sammy Chavira last year, was one council member who helped tip the scale the other way this year. Tolmachoff also reversed her 2016 vote.

Citizen support, opposition

Former Glendale Councilman Gary Sherwood said the council's desire to step away from light rail confused him, as he cited economic success Phoenix has enjoyed since light rail arrived in December 2008.

"We're not spending any funds on this project for the next year, so why hurry?" Sherwood asked.

Tom Schmidt, chairman of Glendale's Citizens Transportation Oversight Commission, asked the council to reconsider its decision as well, asking for more time to study the issue before a formal vote was made.

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Former Vice Mayor Tom Eggleston was the rare dissenter during public comments, saying the money that would go toward light rail would be better spent elsewhere.

Resident Bryce Alexander said light rail gentrified once-dangerous areas in Phoenix and contended that a light-rail route to Glendale could do the same. Alexander suggested that the city monetize land it had acquired over the year to help fund light-rail development.

Councilman Bart Turner said he commissioned a telephone survey that gathered opinions from 715 respondents. Of those, 60 percent of respondents supported a light-rail route to Glendale, Turner said.

Benefits vs. costs

Arguments over light rail often break down into whether the convenience and economic growth light rail brings is worth the high infrastructure costs.

Light-rail routes can range in price from $80 million to $130 million per mile. Cost estimates from Valley Metro put a downtown Glendale route at $810 million, or roughly $127 million per mile. Glendale's share of the cost would have been $114.4 million — $8.6 million more than what the city's model reflected. Phoenix, Maricopa County and the federal government would have paid the remainder.

Turner outlined light rail's value in an op-ed, arguing the long-term benefits would outweigh the short-term costs. A route to downtown Glendale, Turner wrote, would cultivate new economic growth while connecting the city to Phoenix and the southeast Valley.

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Councilman Ray Malnar admitted light rail could spur growth but said economic studies couldn't guarantee the majority of development would come from rail. He said he had enough facts from other sources to make an informed decision.

"I know the facts," Malnar said. "I know where I stand on this issue and it's not going to change at this point."

Turner also argued the decision to not pursue light rail ignored Glendale voters who approved a sales-tax increase in 2001 called Proposition 402, which directed funding for various transportation projects that included light rail.

Clark argued Prop. 402 didn't require money to go toward light rail, saying she believed a ballot measure for light rail would "go down in flaming defeat."

What's next?

The council's vote doesn't doom an eventual light-rail route to downtown Glendale.

City Manager Kevin Phelps said the council eventually could reverse its decision, but he noted Valley Metro would halt plans for a downtown Glendale route until that happened.

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