Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit passed a significant milestone at the end of last month to secure the remaining commitment of funds to expand service and the adjacent 8.8-mile bike and pedestrian path from Windsor to Healdsburg.

But that required a balance in how local transportation officials balance projects and funding. And it disappointed some advocates by ending SMART’s two-decade plan to ferry passengers to Cloverdale, completing the agency’s plan for 70 miles of tracks and trails connecting northern Sonoma County to the Bay Ferry system. from San Francisco.

James Cameron, executive director of the Sonoma County Transportation Authority, confirmed that the SMART extension from Windsor to Healdsburg has been modified to become the latest version of the Bay Area’s transportation and land use plan.

“The SCTA board has been consistently supportive and is very happy to see SMART to Healdsburg in the plan,” said James Cameron, executive director of the Sonoma County Transportation Authority, one of eight county agencies participating in the plan. advocate for SMART to Cloverdale to be included as well.”

The Healdsburg extension was approved unanimously on October 23 by a amendment to the Bay Area 2050+ Plan that also eliminated two other Sonoma County projects to clear the fiscal path for the SMART project.

“There are a lot of advantages to being on the plan,” Cameron said. “This makes you much more competitive in (federal funding for) your projects if you’re part of Plan Bay Area.”

October 23 was also the day a state transportation agency prize SMART awarded an $81 million grant for the Healdsburg project, combining with another $188 million in state and federal commitments to raise funds to cover the estimated $269 million cost.

Construction on the segment is now scheduled to begin early next year and be completed sometime in 2028. And the first half of 2025 is also the time for the planned opening of the extension from the line’s current northern terminus near Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County. Airport to Windsor. The amendment to the regional plan also reduced the estimated cost of the Windsor extension from $142 million to $70 million.

As the region continues to grapple with transportation funding challenges, the SCTA will likely continue to advocate for the inclusion of the Healdsburg to Cloverdale extension in future iterations of the regional plan, Cameron said.

The latest plan for the Windsor to Healdsburg segment is to build a track and road 3.3 miles north of the Healdsburg Depot station, leaving 13.2 miles remaining to be built to reach Cloverdale.

The last cost estimate for the northernmost section was in 2019, at $308 million, according to a SMART spokesperson. That estimate will be updated with the latest construction pricing and cost control efforts.

A key approach to help finance the Cloverdale segment is Transit 2050+a subset of the Bay Area 2050+ Plan update that will be considered next year. The Cloverdale stretch was in MTC’s regional transportation plan, a predecessor planning document, before 2012 and has been submitted for inclusion in every cycle since then, according to a SMART spokesperson.

But some public comments to MTC about the Healdsburg segment noted that residents in far northern Sonoma County have been paying for a train that hasn’t arrived yet.

“We have been paying the SMARTrain tax for almost two decades and our city has already completed its train depot. We’ve been waiting a long time for the train to come to Cloverdale, but your 2050 plan does NOT include the final leg of SMARTrain, from Healdsburg to Cloverdale…why not? wrote Victor Aiuto, a self-described Cloverdale resident, during the MTC comment period on the amendment in August and September.

The city of Cloverdale built the station in 1998. Voters in Marin and Sonoma counties in 2008 approved Measure Q, a quarter-cent sales and use tax expected to provide 41% of the $121 millions of SMART. fiscal budget 2025. The trains first began running in August 2017.

The tax is set to expire in 2029, and SMART’s attempt in 2020 to secure a 30-year renewal for favorable funding failed to get the necessary two-thirds vote. Lack of service to Windsor, Healdsburg and Cloverdale, as well as a fully connected road, have been among the main objections to the tax in recent years.

SMART is working with the city of Cloverdale and Sonoma County on federal grants to complete planning for the remaining segment, according to a SMART spokesperson.

“It is planned to resubmit the partnership application in early 2025,” Julia González, communications and marketing manager, wrote in an email. “If funded, SMART could advance environmental clearance, engineering and permitting so the project is ready and eligible to receive federal funding. Federal funding prioritizes rural investments in disadvantaged communities, with Healdsburg north of the city limit designated as rural and Cloverdale and Mendocino County having a federal disadvantaged designation.”