Maitland wants to move SunRail station south

Maitland wants to move its SunRail station closer to its downtown center, but the city has a tough battle ahead of it.

Such a move would halt development of the entire SunRail system, which will run 61 miles through Greater Orlando between DeLand and Poinciana, Florida Department of Transportation officials said Monday.

“All work on the SunRail system would stop until the impact of moving or deleting the Maitland station was assessed,” FDOT stated.

Maitland will have a special meeting with FDOT at noon Monday, Sept. 2 at City Hall to go over its options.

FDOT District 5 secretary Noranne Downs did not return a request for comment. Congressman John Mica was unavailable to comment, but his office emailed the following statement:

“Any change at this stage may be difficult since all parties — federal, state and local — have finalized their agreements. We will work with Maitland to explore any viable options.”

Downtown success

Maitland Mayor Howard Schieferdecker said that moving the SunRail station from the Parker Lumber property on the north side of the city closer to the heart of downtown — behind the First Presbyterian Church of Maitland on George Avenue — would be “fabulous”. But he doesn’t want his city to hold up the project.

“My understanding is the FTA (Federal Transit Administration) would stop the whole line, which would then hold up the other cities,” Schieferdecker said. “That to me is not fair. If we can work around that that would be great.”

DOT officials told Maitland on Monday that relocating the station to the church site would necessitate a revision to the federal funding grant, halting the system and causing costly contract delays. DOT would also have to construct an additional track from north of Sybelia Parkway to Ventris Avenue and make crossing improvements to five cross streets. It would also have to perform an environmental study, which would take nine months to a year.

Design changes

Maitland City Council members were not disheartened by the DOT’s list of requirements that were presented during Monday’s regular meeting. All agreed that the relocation is something they want to pursue.

“I can’t express enough how sad I would be if we could have moved the station closer to our downtown and didn’t,” Councilman Phil Bonus said.

When Council approved the SunRail station location in 2007, it was their only option because design guidelines mandated that stations had to have at least 1,000 feet of straight track. That number was revised in January to 800 feet, Schieferdecker said, qualifying the lot behind the church property. Gov. Rick Scott didn’t validate the new rule for another six months.

But Wallace said that DOT told him the church location still comes up short of that new number — by about 200 feet — because of a curve coming out of George onto Horatio Avenue.

“We have a lot of hurdles to go over … we have to hear the whole thing out and then go from there,” Schieferdecker said.

Former Maitland City Councilman and First Presbyterian Church member Jeff Flowers said Council’s dream has always been to have the station in the new downtown and now that could be possible.

“These people (DOT) need to get on board a positive course instead of a negative one,” Flowers said. “If we can get Mica to come to our rescue, we could really pull this off.”

He said the station would also benefit the 130-year-old 750-member First Presbyterian Church, whose preschool is celebrating its 50th anniversary this weekend.

“This would be the new front door of the church,” Flowers said.

Ron Smith, pastor of First Presbyterian Church, agreed that it would offer a great opportunity for outreach to the community. “We could more effectively deliver healing and help to folks,” he said.

The church would also get to share parking with the SunRail garage.

Smith said that moving the station makes sense for the city, SunRail and the church.

“It maximizes assets for everybody concerned,” Smith said. “It’s a win-win-win situation.”