Down the stairs from the quiet halls of the Main Detroit Public Library’s first floors, a public hearing on the Woodward Light Rail was underway.

“I want to hear one or two more questions before we wrap it up tonight,” Megan Owens, executive director of Transportation Riders United, said.

As the plan for the Woodward Light Rail continues toward a planned late 2011/early 2012 groundbreaking, it has entered the 45-day public comment phase of the project. The phase follows the drafting of the environmental impact statement conducted by the federal government.

The study found that no residence or business would have to be displaced along any of the alternative routes. It said in some places visual and sound screening walls would have to be placed to minimize sound and light impact.

The study also found a slight effect on historical sites. For example, one of the proposed downtown routes would call for the relocation of the Alexander Macomb Monument located on Washington Avenue. But it reassured that no historical buildings would be destroyed.

For the next two months, the Federal Transit Authority and the Detroit Department of Transportation will hold public meetings to hear concerns from the community. Then they will finalize the federally mandated environmental impact statement.

But, to ensure that as many citizens’ questions are answered as possible, TRU teamed with several community organizations and will hold their own series of hearings.

“We have found that some of the concerns are based on misconceptions,” Owens said.

She said that at one of their first meetings, a mother was concerned about her children crossing the street to go to school with the light rail running up and down the avenue. The mother envisioned the light rail as a slow-to-brake, heavy train. Through the meetings, Owens was able to clear up the mother’s preconceived notions.

“It’s not a big, whole freight train,” Owens said.

This is partly the reason TRU decided to hold the informational meetings. But they are also held to ensure the Federal Transit Administration and the Detroit Department of Transportation do not overlook any adverse side effects to the community. In the past, public comment and evaluations have prevented structures from being built that initially were thought to be beneficial to the city but would wind up being more destructive.

As an example, Owens said this prevented I-375 from extending all the way to the Detroit River.

“By pausing to evaluate the impact, they found it would have a negative impact,” she said. “TRU and the community members weighed in and pointed out major flaws.”

“As a community, you have the right to determine how this thing runs,” Sandra Turner-Handy, community outreach director for the Michigan Environmental Council, said at the DPL meeting. “And this is the time for you to do it.”

Through a community benefits agreement, Turner-Handy said she hopes the light rail will benefit Detroiters through more than just providing a quick ride up and down Woodward Avenue. She said she hopes the agreement will guarantee training for light rail drivers and security guards, thus providing long-term jobs.

“My hope is for the residents to be able to have a cap put on their property taxes and to benefit from the long- and short-term jobs available with the light rail project,” she said in an e-mail days after the meeting.

“I also hope that business along the Woodward Corridor can receive some dollars for beautification of their facades, etc”

As the DPL meeting progressed, several citizens expressed their approval of the planned light rail, but in a city that often has seen adverse side effects of projects labeled as urban improvement, skeptics were also present.

“It’s going to be a freaking nightmare,” Maureen Taylor, state chair of Michigan Welfare Rights, said after the meeting. “I’ve heard it all before.”

Taylor said she fears that construction of the rail would be more destructive to the few small businesses that line Woodward Avenue. She said she believes that a rail system going up and down John R Street would be more useful.

Taylor said she was also concerned that the system would be built to benefit suburbanites coming to the city rather than those living in it.

“Detroiters will be disadvantaged as always,” she said. “And it’s not a black and white issue. It’s a suburban issue.”

Kamea, a blogger who asked for her last name to be withheld, runs a website that is dedicated to stopping the light rail from being built. She lives close to Woodward Avenue and said the light rail would negatively affect her.

At the meeting, Kamea said Phoenix has a similar light rail system that no one uses.

“People are actually revolting against the train because nobody is taking the train,” she said. “No train, no passengers, no income. So who’s paying for it?”

Her website is filled with videos that negatively portray the light rail. One of them is a video of firefighters surrounding a vehicle that was struck by a light rail train.

Critics of the project are not new to Owens.

“There are always a handful that have concerns either about the best way to have this done or if it’s needed at all,” she said.