Photo by Craig Johnson / Downtown Devil
By Tom Blodgett | YourValley
Light rail is doubly dead in Gilbert.
While Valley Metro had no proposal for a line in Gilbert and town officials long had said they were opposed to it for town, the Gilbert Town Council took the extra step of passing an ordinance against it March 7.
The ordinance prohibits any expenditure of town money or resources, including staff time, to further light rail in town. It passed on a 5-1 vote with Mayor Brigette Peterson voting in dissent and Council Member Yung Koprowski abstaining.
“I want to say ‘R.I.P.’ to light rail,” Council Member Scott Anderson said after the vote.
“Now it’s dead even though it never lived,” Peterson said. “I don’t know what more to say about that.”
Peterson, who frequently has voiced opposition to light rail in Gilbert, said she only voted no because she wanted to address light and commuter rail in one ordinance rather than send people to two different ones.
In fact, the ordinance that passed at the March 7 council meeting is silent on commuter rail, the original issue that sparked discontent among residents attending council meetings last summer and fall.
Two ordinance proposals that addressed commuter rail were tabled March 7 with council members asking to have a study session so that they could work on an approach around which members could coalesce, be it an ordinance, policy or council directive.
