INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Joining with Vero Beach and Sebastian, the Board of County Commissioners voted Tuesday to appeal to the Federal Rail Administration to become a “Cooperating Agency” with regard to a federal review of the proposed high-speed rail project set to run through Indian River County.
The term “cooperating” would denote that the County would be an area impacted by the project, not necessarily that it endorses or supports All Aboard Florida.
To the contrary, Commissioners have expressed a desire to closely monitor the All Aboard Florida proposal and to oppose any taxpayer dollars being spent to help pay for the tracks, infrastructure, quiet zones or any other part of the project.
The company planning the All Aboard Florida project applied for federal loan funds, precipitating a mandatory Environmental Impact Study (EIS) to be completed by the Federal Rail Administration along the communities from Miami to Cocoa Beach and west to the Orlando International Airport where the train will terminate.
All Aboard Florida plans to run 32 passenger trains per day between Miami and Orlando at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour through Vero, Sebastian and the unincorporated county.
The closest local stop on the route planned would be West Palm Beach to the south or Orlando to the northwest. Fort Lauderdale will also have a station where passengers can get on and off the train.
Local governments have sent correspondence to the FRA asking for more time to review the EIS when it’s published and for an Indian River County venue for a public hearing of the results. Fifteen more days was granted for a total of 75 days’ review and the County has been told that there will be a meeting in Indian River County, the date, time and place to be determined.
Chairman Peter O’Bryan explained that newly appointed Sebastian Development Director Frank Watanabe told the Sebastian City Council that the city should apply to be named a Cooperating Agency on the application to be in the loop on its status.
“Frank has vast experience with Federal Rail Administration” from working with them previously, O’Bryan said, and Watanabe told Sebastian that it should have applied for this status a while back.
O’Bryan said he heard that the City of Vero Beach also applied for this status already.
As a Cooperating Agency, O’Bryan said, the Board could “get a peek” at the results of the EIS before they are finalized and published.
The county’s Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) unanimously recommended the move and it passed the Board 5-0, with only a short discussion as the Board had set a goal of having a one-hour meeting and adjourning by 10 a.m., which they achieved.
MPO Director Phil Matson added that a Cooperating Agency is required to have some regulatory authority over the project, or special insight into it. Matson said the Board and the County staff possess a “unique historic insight” into the corridor and community surrounding the proposed project.
“I don’t know if we’ll get approved in time (for the June 1 expected release of the EIS) or it will have any significant effect,” O’Bryan said. “But it might give us a little more of an inside door. It doesn’t cost us anything, don’t think it can hurt us to apply.”
County Attorney Dylan Reingold was instructed to draft a cover letter and work with Matson to basically duplicate, with appropriate adjustments for the County, the document submitted by the City of Sebastian, to save time and get the document off to the FRA quickly.
