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Diana Clock/Daily Journal Burlingame Mayor Cathy Baylock at a city study session on high-speed rail. Baylock made it clear she wants the train to be underground and not placed on an elevated platform that has the potential to divide her city.

The Burlingame City Council is forming an action plan to help give it a stronger voice when it comes to determining how high-speed rail trains will go through the city.

Mayor Cathy Baylock’s preference is to have the system run completely underground or as Vice Mayor Terry Nagel would say, “invisible.”

A consultant may be hired to wage a public relations campaign to sell the city’s point-of-view on the project to the California High Speed Rail Authority, state lawmakers and the public that Baylock wants to be paid for out of federal stimulus money.

The council held a special study session on the topic last night with about 40 people in attendance where it tackled the issues of eminent domain, declining property values, eucalyptus trees that would be threatened by rail construction and the impression that Burlingame councilmembers are being called NIMBYs.

One of the council’s guiding principles on the topic is that high-speed trains should not create a physical divide through the community. The council has also made it clear that an underground tunnel option is its preferred solution.

Going into last night’s study session, the council had 27 suggested draft action plan items on its list. It added many more to the list that caused Councilman Jerry Deal to say, “we can’t do all of this.”

Deal and Nagel represent Burlingame on the Peninsula Cities Consortium, a five-city body consisting of elected leaders from Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Atherton, Belmont and Burlingame.

Menlo Park, Atherton and Palo Alto sued the rail authority to have it look again at running the high-speed line over the Altamont Pass and Dumbarton Bridge, an idea some councilmembers at last night’s study session supported.

The council decided last night to do an analysis on the negative economic impact on the city if the rail authority built the line on an elevated platform.

The rail authority intends to release its alternatives analysis for the section of track between San Jose and San Francisco March 4.

Some councilmembers want to see the line end in San Jose and have Caltrain shuttle riders to San Francisco. 

Burlingame resident Charles Voltz told the council the project has the risk of not being completed.

“There are three options,” Voltz said. “Build fast while the money lasts. No build, have it end in San Jose. Or, do it right.”

Voltz said the section between San Jose and San Francisco should be the last section the rail authority builds on the complete system.

While the council tried to set its own priorities on how to communicate its desires about the rail system, some of its members took shots at neighboring cities for not communicating enough. 

“I’m not convinced San Mateo’s city manager cares about this,” Deal said. 

Councilman Michael Brownrigg wants to reach out more to San Mateo councilmembers to build solidarity.

“We should be bearhugging San Mateo,” Brownrigg said.

One of the council’s stated objectives is to work with state officials to appoint a Peninsula representative to the high-speed rail board.

Brownrigg called a recent KQED television interview with Quentin Kopp, a member of the rail authority board, on the subject of the Peninsula section of the tracks as “pathetic.”

Brownrigg also questioned whether Millbrae shared the same interest in the project that Burlingame does. Millbrae is slated to be a stop on the high-speed rail line.

One of Baylock’s goals is to bring other cities together that share Burlingame’s interests so that a united voice can be presented to the rail authority and state lawmakers.

“This individual meeting is wasting our times,” Councilwoman Ann Keighran said last night. Keighran suggested that similar study sessions like the one Burlingame held last night should be conducted with several other cities at once to accomplish more.

The council will spend some more time finalizing its action plan before it decides whether to hire a consultant or form a citizen’s advisory group comprised of a couple councilmembers and a few Burlingame residents.