Committee Advances Streetcar Zoning

Still racing to meet a March 19th deadline for federal grant applications, a city council committee has endorsed rezoning the area around a proposed downtown streetcar system.

Councilman Jim Glover believes the city has a good chance of getting a grant for transportation more eco-friendly than masses of cars... and that there's more involved than just moving people from point A to point B.

Glover says because it runs on rails that can't be easily moved, a streetcar system encourages development better than buses.

The Planning, Zoning and Economic Development committee endorsed allowing greater density of work and residential population in the zone with lessened requirements for parking that presumably would not be needed with people riding streetcars.