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 As part of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) requirement for the Small Starts program, a locally preferred alternative (LPA) must be selected. In 2004, the LPA that was identified and adopted by the Riverside County Transportation Commission, incorporated part of the Union Pacific (UP) line in Riverside at Rustin Avenue. As the Federal Environmental process proceeded and input from the public was received, the need to select another LPA to benefit the stakeholders and decrease the impacts to the community was necessary. On April 9, 2008, the Commission adopted a new LPA which is on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) line at Citrus Avenue.
The benefits to the new LPA include, minimizing the impacts to the community by reducing business relocations, eliminating noise impacts to a mobile home park adjacent to the UP line, eliminating Spruce Station which was located too close to the University of California, Riverside (UCR) Station, and increasing the cost effectiveness by decreasing the right of way acquisitions and decreasing the initial year of expenditures by 2.7%. Finally, the BNSF line allowed for the inclusion of the Palmyrita Station which is near Hunter Park/Hunter Technology Center and the Highgrove Community..
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