Rail can be "adjusted" to accomodate Dynamo Stadium UPDATED!

Hold on to your wallets...

(from Rad Sallee of the Chron)

The proposed Houston Dynamo soccer stadium site straddles two blocks where Metro's maps now show future light rail tracks. But there are alternative routes that could serve the new stadium along with Minute Maid Park and the George R. Brown Convention Center, a downtown official says.

Bob Eury, president of Central Houston and executive director of the Houston Downtown Management District, said Tuesday that the probable front-running option being considered is to approach downtown's east side on Texas Avenue.

Currently, maps on the Metropolitan Transit Authority Web site show the East End and Southeast lines coming together on Capitol, a block south of Texas, and continuing into downtown on Capitol.

(snip)

Also on the site is a Final Environmental Impact Statement, completed when Metro still intended to use Bus Rapid Transit rather than light rail on the lines, which shows the route split between Capitol and Rusk. The new proposal employs that tactic, Eury said.

By approaching downtown on Texas, he said, the tracks would "pass by the front door" of the soccer stadium between Dowling and Hutchins. Then they would angle south under U.S. 59 toward Avenida de Las Americas.

From there, a westbound track would continue on Capitol, passing a block from Minute Maid Park, while an eastbound track would run on Rusk, passing the convention center. Each would follow the direction of street traffic and cross the current Red Line at Main.

Eury cautioned that "various options are available," and that "none of this is final." Metro, he said, "is going to make the determination." Metro spokeswoman Sandra Salazar would only say that Eury's description was correct "and most importantly, that the plan has not been finalized, as we are working through the Federal Transit Adminstration process."

(snip)

Eury said he did not know how much it would cost to change the rail route to accommodate the soccer stadium, but he said any likely increase might be offset by added ridership the facility could bring.

Anytime appointed "management district" officials start talking using "might" and "could" in their justifications for increasing the scope of a project you know that things are bad. "Not set in stone" and "looking at all of our options" are two more that typically mean that the spending crap is about to hit the proverbial fan. Bob Eury manages to use some variation of all three of those danger phrases which means that the Dynamo soccer specific stadium has now hit for the boondoggle cycle in terms of rhetoric.

And, remember this, the last time Metro made "adjustments" to their plan the FTA didn't approve. You wonder if another change would delay the project even more?

In the accounting and consulting world when a project starts growing wildly we call it "scope creep". That can alter a plan, increase costs and turn something doable (For instance: building the Dynamo a stadium complex in an outlying area using land already owned by the City) into a financial and logistical nightmare (For instance: building the Dynamo a downtown stadium to satisfy the egos and subsidize the incomes of team executives at the expense of the tax revenues, mobility needs, and welfare of the citizens).


UPDATE: The vote was delayed and "scope creep" has officially set in...

(from Carolyn Feibel of the Chron)

Mayor Bill White said he could not rule out the possibility of some public funds being used for the stadium's construction. But he will negotiate for the Dynamo's owners to absorb the entire cost, he said.

The Anschutz Entertainment Group, owner of the Dynamo, has said in the past it would bear most of the costs, but would like city assistance.

"I'm not saying we won't provide any public funds," White said. "What I am saying is we won't use funds that could be used for providing for essential city services, such as solid waste and parks and libraries and things like that, public safety."

Last spring, a mayoral spokesman said White had ruled out using property tax revenues to help finance the stadium, but sales and hotel occupancy taxes could be an option.

White said if public funds were used, they will not come out of the city's general fund or involve new taxes.

The mayor discussed a scenario that would involve property taxes collected by a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, a special district in which rising property tax revenues are funneled back into the zone for infrastructure improvements to attract further development.

For those of you not paying attention the TIRZ is basically a creative way to build something with property taxes without actually having to say you built it using property tax revenue. You see, the property tax revenue used by the TIRZ is effectively lost for use by the rest of the City. It goes OUT of the general fund and into a special fund.

I've said all along that I didn't believe the "tax free" claims even as they tried to sell them under the old funding arrangement. Now they're just using a different shell game to try and hide what it is they are doing.


OTHER EYES:

BlogHouston: Mayor White: Just give me $16 Million for the Soccer Stadium land and don't ask questions.