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In a mail-in special election that concluded tonight, Downtown voters approved an $85 million bond to help pay for a streetcar line through the neighborhood. Advocates had worked to greatly increase voter registration within a community facilities district formed to pay for the streetcar project. The strategy worked, with 19% of the district's voters (or 2,066 people) sending in ballots. The bond measure needed a two-thirds majority and received 73 percent in the preliminary count, according to the office of Councilman Jose Huizar, who pushed the streetcar.
Property owners within the community facilities district will pay for the bond based on square footage and distance from the streetcar line. Organizers say that the median cost to condo owners in the district will be $60 a year. Large property holders such as AEG would pay much more. The streetcar would circulate on Broadway, 11th, Figueroa, 7th & Hill Streets.
In order to be built, the streetcar project still needs to secure about $62 million in federal funding.
