San Clemente Homes for Sale

BY KELLY ZHOU / STAFF WRITER

The Dana Point City Council unanimously awarded a contract for trolley service to Professional Parking, which will operate a summer weekend trolley along Pacific Coast Highway, in Dana Point.

The PCH trolley would connect with Laguna Beach’s trolleys and run from the Ritz-Carlton in  Laguna Niguel, to the St. Regis Monarch Bay, the Town Center, Dana Point Harbor, Doheny State Beach, Beach Road, Palisades Drive and Doheny Village.

A Laguna Beach trolley travels along Laguna Canyon Road at South Coast Highway. Dana Point's trolley plan calls for shuttles to travel along Pacific Coast Highway and the harbor. It's set to start this summer. SAM GANGWER, FILE PHOTO

It would run noon to 10 p.m. on Fridays, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturdays and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sundays. Shuttles also will run during various events, starting with the Festival of Whales in March.

OCTA will fund the seven-year project to the tune of about $2.5 million, and the city will fund $913,000, for a total of $3.4 million, wow!

Four trolleys would run along PCH. During the first year, at least 10 people must board the trolley per hour per vehicle, or a total of 500 riders a day for the summer, in order to keep the OCTA grant funding.

“It is a challenge, but I think we are up for it,” Public Works Director Brad Fowler said at the Feb. 3 council meeting.

The goal in following years would be to run the trolley seven days a week during the summer.

The standard shuttle will cost $62 an hour during the service’s first year or $83 an hour if they are wrapped to look like trolleys. The recommendation is to wrap the shuttles so that they are more attractive, Fowler said. The standard shuttles would run $155,000 for the first year, according to Professional Parking’s proposal. If the first year is successful, following years would use new, actual trolleys instead of shuttles.

“There are literally years going into this project; it’s had a lot of frustrating stops and starts,” Councilman Scott Schoeffel said. “It’s come to fruition. ... I think it’s a very exciting mobility solution.”

A plan to run a summer weekend harbor shuttle from Dana Hills High School to the harbor will be pushed to year two of the project, since substantial construction to harbor parking lots won’t start until after this summer, Fowler said.