The Columbian
The CRC's demise also leaves in its wake
a set of unfinished financial and legal proceedings that likely won't
be resolved as cleanly.
Last fall, C-Tran and TriMet inked an
agreement spelling out how the two agencies would operate light rail in
Vancouver as part of the CRC. The swiftly approved contract sparked
outrage among CRC opponents, who said the agreement represented a bad
deal for Clark County, as it advanced a bad project.
But the
contract only applies if the CRC materializes. With no project, the
agreement isn't active, said C-Tran community outreach manager Katy
Belokonny. And while the two agencies could agree to terminate the
contract, no conversations to that effect have happened, she said.
Last
year, the CRC also signed mitigation deals to pay three large
manufacturing companies who would be hurt financially by the project's
bridge height. Officials agreed to pay a combined $86.4 million to
Thompson Metal Fab, Oregon Iron Works and Greenberry Industrial, which
all operate facilities at Vancouver's Columbia Business Center.
Like
the light rail contract, those deals only apply if CRC construction
actually happens. They can be terminated by the manufacturers after
2016, or by the states at any time. But no further work is planned on
those agreements, said CRC spokeswoman Mandy Putney.
At least two
lawsuits also remain in limbo. Oregon Iron Works challenged its
mitigation payout after details of all three were publicly released;
Portland neighborhood groups and others challenged the project's
environmental review as inadequate.
"We thought that the project
was going to be a disaster economically and fiscally," said Steve Cole,
acting president of the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods, one of the
plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
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