By GARRET JAROS/YachatsNews
YACHATS – Maybe there is such a thing as a free ride. At least if the impromptu show of hands during a community meeting Wednesday evening in support of pursuing efforts to bring a tourist-style trolley to Yachats is any indication of broader sentiment.
“I was quite surprised by it,” said Bobbi Price, executive director of the Yachats Area Chamber of Commerce. “I wasn’t planning on doing the raising of hands for people who were supportive or not supportive, but there wasn’t a single person who raised their hand in opposition.”
Forty residents and business owners attended the meeting to ask questions and give feedback about a proposal by the chamber of commerce to use grants and transient lodging taxes to purchase a 14-passenger trolley that would provide free transit to locals and visitors.
The hybrid gas-electric trolley would service a 12-stop loop from Tillicum Beach Motel north of Yachats to Cape Perpetua to the south. The idea is to offer visitors and locals a way travel about town and to nearby sites from homes and hotels and motels while also helping to ease traffic congestion and parking issues.
Initial plans envision the trolley completing 45-minute round trips from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday through Monday year-round — at least at first — with no stops on U.S. Highway 101.
Price opened the meeting with a presentation that included operational plans and funding sources, answers to concerns received from the public prior to the meeting and letters of support from several sources including the Adobe Resort, Overleaf Lodge & Spa and the Cape Perpetua Collaborative.
Some comments on social media prior to the meeting suggested the $230,000 price of the trolley and any additional operational costs would be better spent on providing affordable housing. But neither the grants sought from Travel Oregon nor transient lodging taxes earmarked for investment in tourism, are allowed to be used for affordable housing.
Another comment on Facebook suggested using a regular transit bus instead of a trolley. Price shared information from Pacific City that showed when they switched from a regular bus to the more charming-looking trolley, ridership doubled and then tripled.
One attendee at the meeting voiced concerns that ongoing funds to support the trolley may end up coming from local taxpayers. Another asked about purchasing a used vehicle and seeing how it goes during a test period before buying something new.
Price clarified that no money would come from Yachats taxpayers. And she said the chamber is looking into used trolleys but has yet to find any suitable options. She also addressed misconceptions that the vehicle would not be able to drive at highway speed. It can.
“When I first heard about this, my initial knee-jerk reaction was we don’t need this,” said Jesse Dolin, the central coast director of the Oregon Coast Visitors Association who lives just north of Yachats, near the end of the hour-long meeting. The association is one of six regional arms of Travel Oregon, the state’s tourism agency.
Dolan equated enticing tourists with a trolley to inviting even more people to a favored and once secret fishing hole.
“But whether I like it or not, Yachats has become everyone’s little secret and we need to get ahead of the ball and do something about congestion issues in town and raise the bar for the tourist experience,” he said.
Dolin also likes the idea of being able to walk to town on the beach to go grocery shopping and then taking the trolley home, or hike the local trails one direction and then hitching a ride back on the trolley.
“I think a lot of local folks would take advantage of that and warm up to the idea of a trolley while also getting to enjoy more that the town has to offer,” Dolin concluded.
The chamber of commerce has been gauging public opinion about the trolley through a survey that has garnered 286 responses as of Thursday morning.
Seventy-one percent of survey respondents “agreed” or “strongly agreed” it would be beneficial to visitors and 65 percent agreed or strongly agreed it would relieve pressure on parking created by visitors. Fifty-seven percent agreed or strongly agreed it would benefit locals. And 64 percent said it would add to the charm of Yachats.
“There were a lot of very good questions raised,” Price said of the meeting. “And ultimately, I would like to create a work group or steering committee out of some of those people to look at it from a pro and con perspective to really dial in the route and the service and logistics.
“One win I thought, was that one of the people who had been in opposition on Facebook posts, made a separate post last night saying that she had attended the presentation and that she is almost convinced,” Price said.
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To see Price’s Power Point presentation, go here
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Have thoughts about a tourist trolley for Yachats? Take the public survey here
Great idea for trolley. One major hurdle will be traffic speed management. North Yachats speed is far too fast for turn into the coffee drive through place as well as Dollar General. People speed up too early in the area. They are also going too fast coming into Yachats for the area. This is a major problem area that needs to be addressed.
This $100,000 start up and $150,0000/year ongoing boondoggle may reduce a little traffic, but seems to be of little benefit to the residents of Yachats. The bus holds 14 people which means, if there are 3 people in each car…5 cars for every 14 people on the bus. Use part of the field behind City Hall to create 30 more parking spaces and spend the money on fixing the park and dredging the pond. This looks to me to be a big waste of money.
Is parking an issue? I live at the end of West Third Street and walk the area twice a day. There is always parking available on Fourth street and on the west side of the Lions Club, except on Sundays during the Farmers Market it gets a bit busy. I do not think there is a “parking issue”, rather a lack of signs directing tourists to available parking. Tourists look for the closest parking, because that is what they see and the Market and Post Office are easy targets. These would be good locations to post signs directing them to other available parking areas. Use a little of the field behind City Hall to create 30 more spots and put meters on them to pay for creating the spots. Is this trolley idea being suggested by the hotels for the benefit of its patrons and businesses downtown to encourage more business?
I am strongly in favor of this concept. Reduced parking issues, more ADA compliance (love the ramp leading to the door) free rides to shops and hotels, and the “mind’s image” of the first time one visited San Francisco and rode the trolley. Their scenery is no match for ours, of course, but the image of traveling fun is a strong connection.
Question: Does the proposed route include Yachats Ocean Road? Don’t see it there. Too narrow? Would this be the time to make Yachats Ocean Road one-way?
Looks like time to move on to the next unspoiled place after almost 17 years here. I don’t want to live in a theme park. And don’t get me started on traffic delineators.