The Santa Cruz County Business Council

Robert Singleton
Executive Director
707.569.4546
robert.singleton@sccbusinesscouncil.com

BUSINESS COUNCIL ENDORSES TRAIL ONLY

The Member Companies of the Santa Cruz County Business Council have voted in favor of a trail only scenario as their preferred use and vision of the rail corridor in Santa Cruz County.

August 14th, 2017—The Santa Cruz County Business Council (SCCBC) has voted to endorse a trail only scenario as the preferred option for the rail corridor in Santa Cruz County, and have issued a position statement to their membership on their website.

In June the SCCBC Board of Directors voted unanimously to endorse the building of a “multi-use, contiguous trail, with separate pedestrian and bike lanes, down the center of the corridor” over the potential future option of having an active rail line, and bike and pedestrian pathway together. This triggered an all member wide vote of the entire Business Council to take a formal position on the preferred use and vision of the existing rail corridor.

The vote followed a 5 month long process during which the SCCBC Board of Directors received presentations from both members of Greenway Santa Cruz and Friends of the Rail Trail, and had 2 Board meetings of open discussion on the information that was presented.

After taking a month to receive ballots from all dues paying members, the Santa Cruz County Business Council Membership voted to endorse the Board of Directors position, with 86 percent of all member companies who participated voting in favor of bike and pedestrian only vision for the rail corridor.

“We followed our process to ensure that we heard from all sides and considered all available information” said Rick Weiss, Board Chair of the SCCBC and Chief Financial Officer for Bay Federal Credit Union. “Given the circumstances we don’t think rail will ever be politically or economically feasible, and therefore we as a community need to move on to the next best scenario.”

The SCCBC has served as the County-wide voice of the Business Community for over 20 years, and represents 70 of the largest employers. You learn more about them by visiting their website at sccbusinesscouncil.com