DEL MAR, Calif. (KGTV) - Dozens of Del Mar residents on Monday night sat down to listen, learn and voice their concerns about where the train tracks on the Del Mar bluffs will be relocated to in the future.
“I just thought it was really important that we, all the neighbors and residents of Del Mar, get involved,” said resident Wendy Ramb.
“The first one I went to, they only had two options, and now they’re saying they have five options. So at least we’ve got more to choose from at this point in time; feel really good about that,” resident Ben Landman added.
As ABC 10News has previously reported, the tracks are moving off the bluffs due to erosion, with the possible plan to move the tracks into a tunnel. This has raised some concerns from the community.
SANDAG has held other previous in-person meetings about plans for the tracks, with the Monday meeting being the fourth workshop thus far.
“This workshop is going to allow people to actually put pencil to paper and give us ideas in terms of where they think it should be,” said Ray Major, the Deputy CEO of SANDAG. “And then, we will take that back; we take all the comments. We’ll analyze them and we’ll try to come up with the best alignment for the region.”
Some feel their voices are being heard but skeptical about if taken into account.
“I don’t know what they’re going to do with it. I’ve got a feeling that they’ve got a direction that they’re going to go in anyway. But they want to hear from us. That could be wrong, I could be right. I don’t know,” Landman said.
“I think this is just an exercise in futility. I think the SANDAG, I think their minds are made up as to where the track is going to be moved to,” Ramb said.
But SANDAG said otherwise.
“This decision has not been made. I want to be absolutely clear that there’s been no final decision that’s been made in terms of the alignment,” Major said. “Tunneling is the easiest way to do this but there are other options that we are looking at also. And so, what we are looking at right now is the feedback from the community; what can we do to move this tunnel.”
Major added they want to hear from everybody. If people feel like their voices aren’t being heard, they can continue to come to the workshops and contact them through their website.
SANDAG plans on hold another workshop meeting in-person next week at a local middle school’s library.
