It looks likely that no light-rail issue &#8212; either to repeal Clay Chastain&#8217;s plan or to approve a new plan &#8212; will go before voters in February.</p><p>Ed Ford, chairman of the Kansas City Council&#8217;s transportation and infrastructure committee, said Friday that council members were beginning to agree that it would be best to wait until November to place a new light-rail plan before voters.</p><p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t expect the council will proceed with a February vote (on a plan),&#8221; Ford said. &#8220;But these things are fluid.&#8221;</p><p>Ford spoke to the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority&#8217;s board of commissioners, which met Friday in a special session on light rail.</p><p>The ATA board approved a resolution accepting the citizens&#8217; task force recommendation for a light-rail starter line and encouraging the City Council to place it before voters no later than November 2008. The resolution also encourages the council to place renewal of a 3/8-cent tax for bus service before voters by November 2008.</p><p>The council last week voted to repeal the Chastain light-rail plan, approved by voters in November 2006. It also voted to place the so-called Nutter initiative on a February ballot in case the council&#8217;s repeal was tied up in legal wrangling. Mortgage broker James B. Nutter last summer led an initiative effort to overturn the Chastain plan. The council can vote to take it off the ballot.</p><p>Ford said a lawsuit filed this week by a Kansas City woman probably wouldn&#8217;t stop the council&#8217;s repeal from becoming final on Tuesday and probably won&#8217;t affect the February ballot.</p><p>Some council members had stated that they wanted a new light-rail plan placed before voters in February to show residents that the council was serious about building a light-rail system.</p><p>Ford said waiting until November would allow the council and Mayor Mark Funkhouser to come together on a light-rail plan. Funkhouser has advocated a regional approach, saying he&#8217;d consider a veto of a starter-line plan on the February ballot.</p><p>Ford said waiting until November shouldn&#8217;t be interpreted as a council balk on light rail. The council already has passed a resolution pledging to place a light-rail plan before voters no later than November 2008. In addition, he said, other steps, such as detailing a time line for developing the new plan, should convince voters that the council is serious about light rail.</p><p>Tom Rule, chairman of the ATA board of commissioners, said: &#8220;I can see the virtues of February. The issue is hot. But we don&#8217;t have all the answers.&#8221;</p><p>Mark Huffer, ATA executive director, agreed that more time would help clarify the costs and details of the citizens&#8217; task force plan. It also would give Ford and others time to explore whether a new plan might be financed with a 1/4-cent sales tax, slightly less than the 3/8-cent tax advocated by the ATA.</p><p>The current plan advocated by the task force would extend a light-rail system of modern streetcars from Vivion Road and North Oak Trafficway in the Northland to 51st Street near the University of Missouri-Kansas City, with a spur east to Prospect Avenue. The exact streets have not yet been chosen.