This article was posted on Lookout, authored by Ryan Coonerty, 3rd District Supervisor. Please note that this is an opinion piece that HAS NOT been fact-checked. For the facts, see RTC Update

A meteor will destroy our planet in an hour.

People are in the street hugging, crying, saying final goodbyes. I’m about to walk out my door and join them, when a new message pops up on my phone. I pause to read it, hoping that the government’s last-minute mission to destroy the meteor worked.

Instead, I see an email urging me to support Greenway. Within seconds, I get another one, asking me to vote No on D.

I set down my phone, walk outside, and welcome the meteor as it pierces the atmosphere, content that I will never have to talk about the rail trail again.

When I wake from my dream, I’m grateful that, at least for now, there is no meteor. There are, however, dozens of messages in my inbox vociferously supporting and opposing Measure D.

For the approximately 1,000 people who really, really care about this issue and who have been engaged in a multiyear campaign to win over their fellow Santa Cruzans, you can skip the next paragraph. For the 284,000 other county residents who are wondering why the width of a bike trail has become the singular issue in our community and why they should care, here is a quick primer.

Ten years ago, the Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) purchased the rail line, a 32-mile corridor from Watsonville to Davenport, for $14.2 million. Since then, county and city leaders, planners and citizens have spent untold hours — and hundreds of thousands of dollars (potentially millions, depending on how you count) — studying transportation options in the corridor. Segments of the trail are finished and well-used. Other segments remain unbuilt. The RTC has piloted numerous transit prototypes. We’ve exhaustively debated whether to provide transit and a trail or to cover the tracks, as Measure D proposes, to build a larger trail.

Debates like this happen in local government all the time. We hash out competing needs and values through complicated decision-making processes. Regardless of my position on a particular issue, I think it is a good sign when rooms full of people argue and, most important, care about the future of our community.

But, the Greenway vs. rail-trail debate is different. It has become vitriolic and personal, damaging relationships between people I consider friends. It is painful to watch the debate spin out of control — especially when one understands how little will change regardless of the outcome of Measure D.

As both sides pour hundreds of thousands of dollars in ads in coming weeks, let’s consider the likely outcomes of the election.

The first scenario is that Greenway wins convincingly and, most important, in every jurisdiction — Santa Cruz, Watsonville, Capitola, Scotts Valley and the unincorporated areas. In this scenario, the RTC may move forward in the rail banking process.

I say may because Measure D doesn’t obligate the RTC to do so and, even if all 12 members vote to railbank (they are currently deadlocked 6-6), they don’t get final say. The ultimate decision rests with federal and state regulatory agencies.

The “Greenway wins big” scenario also has another problem: Roaring Camp Railroad, rail-trail advocates and others will likely argue that Measure D misled voters, and they will cite environmental and business reasons to maintain the tracks. They will tie up railbanking in those regulatory processes as well as the courts for decades. It took the City of Santa Cruz more than 20 years of controversy and litigation to build the Arana Gulch 1.1-mile bike path. Imagine the future battles over a 32-mile project.