WCCTAC
West Contra Costa Transportation
Advisory Committee
Minutes
The regular
meeting of the West Contra Costa Transportation Advisory Committee was called
to order at 7:30 a.m. by Chair Brown in the City Council Chambers of the City
of San Pablo, 13831 San Pablo Avenue (at Church Lane), San Pablo,
California.
1. Call to Order and
Self Introductions
PRESENT: Sharon Brown, Chair (San Pablo), Maria Viramontes,
Vice Chair (Richmond), Janet Abelson (El Cerrito), Jerrold Parsons, (WestCAT),
Irma Anderson (Richmond), David Cole (Pinole), Bob Franklin (BART), John Gioia,
(Contra Costa County), Joe Wallace (AC Transit), Tom Butt (Richmond)
STAFF: Lisa Hammon, WCCTAC Managing Director
Linda Young, WCCTAC
Transportation Project Specialist
John Rudolph,
WCCTAC Management Assistant
Nancy Cuneo,
WCCTAC Administrative Analyst
Hisham
Noeimi, CCTA Staff
Bryan Otake, WCCTAC
General Counsel
2. Public Comment
John Rudolph introduced two high school interns. These positions are funded through MTC. The interns are inputting data for the
Guaranteed Ride Home program survey and working on the San Pablo Avenue
project.
Peter Loubal, El Cerrito, stated there was a Negative Declaration issued
with responses due August 1 on the proposed development at Del Norte BART. He felt the proposed housing project was
within the sphere of influence of the WCCTAC Board, as it will heavily impact
traffic flow around the Del Norte BART station.
He urged them to become involved and use their influence to have the
project relocated.
Dave Kurrent, past chair of CAC, agreed the flow of traffic around the
Del Norte BART station is quite bad. He,
as a member of CAC, requested WCCTAC review the flow of traffic movement around
the station. Mr. Kurrent felt there
could be many solutions to increasing the flow of traffic, and he felt this was
a great opportunity to review traffic patterns in light of the proposed
development.
Lisa Hammon stated staff is working closely with the City of El Cerrito
staff and looking at short, medium and long-term solutions to the traffic
flow. She stated she has not seen the
Negative Declaration; however, staff will review and respond prior to the
deadline for comments.
On motion by David Cole, seconded by Joe Wallace and carried unanimously, the Board approved the Consent Calendar as follows:
3. Minutes, Sign-In Sheet, and Meeting Summary
from the June 2006 Meeting and the Special Meeting.
4. Employee Staff Reports from the Managing
Director, the Management Assistant and the Transportation Project Specialist
for July.
5. Received information on Proposed Amendments
to the Measure J Urban Limit Line (ULL) Provisions.
5. (a): Authorized the Chair to sign Amendment #1 to Consulting Services
Agreement between WCCTAC and Dowling Associates for Preparation of the Phased
Transportation Study for Proposed Urban Casinos in West Contra Costa County.
6. Street
WISE Elected Officials Forum and Other Information
Nancy
Baer, Contra Costa Health Services, provided an update on the activities the
CCHS and WCCTAC are working together on as well as funding. She thanked the Board for their support and
commitment to the Street Smarts Project.
Ms. Baer stated other funding has been secured for development of new
pedestrian slogans for the campaign. She
stated it is very important to have WCCTAC as a base of support, which in turn,
brings in other funding support.
The
Project includes a series of workshops on traffic calming, two of which are
complete. The next workshop will take
place September 21st, and the two workshops will take place before
June 2007. Ms. Baer requested the
members fill out a questionnaire on line in preparation for the upcoming elected
officials’ workshops. The responses can
be returned via email.
7. Preparation of the Measure J Strategic Plan
and the Subregional Transportation Mitigation Fee Program (STMP) Strategic Plan
The Managing Director
reported all jurisdictions have adopted the new ordinances for the Developer
Fee Program and collecting fees for 11 projects in the program.
Hisham Noeimi, CCTA,
presented background information on Measure J.
He included funding estimates for the Capital Projects in the Measure J
Expenditure Plan and suggested that 6 programs could be considered “hybrid
programs” and qualify as capital projects due to elements in these 6
programs. For West County, these include
ferry service and additional bus service.
Hisham clarified that programs receive an annual revenue stream based on
set percentages in the Plan; whereas projects categories receive set
earmarks. These earmarks will escalate
based on inflation rates.
John Gioia asked how the
funding would be distributed in the event of a drop in sales tax revenues. Hisham stated the programs would still
receive their annual allocations, and the funding for the projects would be
reduced.
The Authority is committed
to accelerating projects and has agreed to issue $300M in bonds in September
2009 and potentially $150M in bonds in 2012.
The Authority has developed revenue projections, a program of projects,
a cash flow model and guiding policies for the bond debt. Hisham discussed revenue projections and
funding targets through 2015.
The Managing Director
stated it is important to remember that if a project is not going forward with
bond funding, the project cannot get funded until 2016. She stated the TAC is currently working to
identify projects to be funded by the bond, the developer fee program, possibly
by the State Transportation bond, but she will have more information to share
at the August meeting.
The Managing Director
stated the Strategic Plan for the Developer Fee Program has Dowling and
Associates assisting staff in the list of projects to be funded and a cash flow
model for the Program.
Lastly, Hisham discussed
the 90% expenditure cap proposal. The
cap would apply to certain project categories whether advanced by bonds or
not. These caps would allow funds to be
set aside to recover debt service bonds in 2009 and 2012; pay for Program
Management costs; and cushion against downturn in revenues. These caps would not apply to Programs except
for TLC and Ped/Bike programs. Updates
to the caps will be done every 2 years.
The Authority’s tentative
schedule has final RTPC submittal of final priorities ranked in order due by
October 16, 2006, with a finalized Strategic Plan by June 7, 2007.
Janet Abelson stated
funding that was to be set aside for access at the Del Norte BART station now
appears to be an enhancement to a development.
The Managing Director stated that was not the Board’s intent for the
funding. She stated once the Strategic
Plan for the Developer Fee Program is submitted; Janet would have a much better
idea of what would be funded. This is
currently under discussion at the TAC.
Maria Viramontes stated it
is critical to be in the first group for funding under the bond because the
next funding opportunity is so far in the future. The Managing Director stated the Hercules
Rail Station is project ready and fully funded.
The interchange improvements are close to project ready, with the TAC
looking at ways to have them fully funded.
The Richmond Parkway is somewhat problematic because the funding
estimate is unclear. Currently $50M has
been identified. The Managing Director
stated the Board authorized a Project Study Report to flesh out details and
costs for projects to be ready and developed in the 3 years following the
issuance of the bonds. There is no
update on this report at this time.
Maria Viramontes supported
all the projects outlined by the Managing Director. However, some City of Richmond City Council
members were concerned with the project list and Richmond paying over half the
developer fees, yet Richmond has only one project and is competing for
others. Chair Brown and Irma Anderson
both cited examples of the West County cities working collaboratively to
improve the region. Chair Brown stated
the Richmond Parkway was the only project funded 100% from Measure C, and it
was also first on the list of projects.
Irma Anderson and Maria Viramontes will communicate this with their
council.
The Managing Director
submitted the TAC recommendation on the Measure J and STMP Strategic Plans and
the November Infrastructure Bond:
1. Recommend adoption of the project
prioritization criteria fro the Measure J and STMP Strategic Plans as follows:
Tier 1 – High state of
project readiness and fully funding for the project/usable segment.
Tier 2 – Congestion relief
in the I-80 corridor or resolving a safety issue(s).
2. Direct the TAC to have all Project Fact
Sheets prepared for the Measure J and STMP Projects prior to the August 10th
TAC meeting.
3. Request the TAC forward a recommendation to
the Board at the August 25th meeting regarding the West County
projects that would receive funds from the Measure J bond proceeds
(approximately $49 million) and request the TAC continue to work on
prioritizing STMP projects.
4. Request that the TAC continue to provide
input to BART staff regarding “high priority” BART capital projects for bond
and developer free funding; and request that BART staff and El Cerrito staff
work together on developing a funding strategy for projects at the El Cerrito
Del Norte and El Cerrito Plaza stations (including both BART funding in Measure
J and the STMP and the El Cerrito Del Norte Transit Oriented Development
project funding in the STMP).
5. Request that Dowling Associates/Cambridge Systematics
discuss cash flow information and creative funding mechanisms to meet STMP
project shortfalls at the August 22nd TAC meeting.
6. Request the TAC have a detailed discussion of
the State Infrastructure Bond (SIB) for Transportation and the SIB’s
relationship to Measure J funding and STMP funding at the August 10th
meeting. Additionally, that the TAC
review exiting data and studies on the I-80 corridor and forward a
recommendation regarding the “Corridor Mobility Improvement Account” (and other
appropriate funding categories in the SIB) to the WCCTAC Board in August,
taking into account: (1) the project/needs of other counties along the I-80
corridor, and (2) technical assistance required.
On motion by Irma Anderson,
seconded by David Cole and carried unanimously, the Board approved the TAC
recommendations on Measure J and STMP Strategic Plans and the November
Infrastructure Bond as outlined above #1 through #6.
Deidre Heitman, BART, assured the Board that BART is working very hard to develop a project list. BART is very focused on getting this list of projects to the committees, but staff would like to move forward projects that have no other funding source.
9. Initial
Discussion of High Occupancy/Toll (HOT) Lanes
The Managing Director stated there will be further
discussion of the HOT Lanes, as well as ramp metering in August. These ideas are being discussed for I-80 and
other corridors where there is no opportunity to build anything more. There are various technology improvements
being reviewed. MTC is conducting a HOT
Study, and the Sunol Grade will be the pilot area. There are also two locations in Santa Clara
that could potentially be pilots for HOT Lanes.
The map for Proposed HOT Network in the Bay Area has I-80 in Tier
1. The Managing Director has some
questions and will arrange for MTC and Caltrans staff to come for a HOT lane
and ramp metering discussion. She would
like to be sure WCCTAC has the opportunity to weigh in on the idea of HOT
lanes.
10. Correspondence/Other Information:
Newspaper/Internet
Articles (all articles from West County Times unless stated otherwise):
“Some
Residents Cry Foul Over Railroad Deal;” July 9, 2006.
“Board Adds Three Days of Free Rides;” July 13,
2006.
“Parchester Residents to Address Richmond Council on
Crossing’” July 13, 2006.
“City Mulls Transfer of Ferry Services;” July 18,
2006.
“Officials to Alter Measure;” July 19, 2006.
Conferences:
“Place Matters: A Creative Planning Collaborative
for Sustainable Communities;” October 19 to 21 in Denver.
11. Board
Member Comments/Reports
None.
12. Other Business