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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTrans 2014-11-10 Item 3C - SCATBd - 9/16/14 Meeting Summary / 10/21/14 Meeting AgendaSOUTH COUNTY AREA TRANSPORTATION BOARD (SCATBd) September 16, 2014 MEETING SUMMARY Members Councilmember Marcie Palmer (Chair) City of Renton Councilmember Bill Peloza (Vice-Chair) City of Auburn Councilmember Barry Ladenburg City of SeaTac Councilmember Carol Benson City of Black Diamond Councilmember Dana Ralph City of Kent Councilmember Wayne Snoey City of Covington Rick Perez City of Federal Way (Alternate) Charles Prestrud WSDOT (Alternate) Councilmember Stacia Jenkins City of Normandy Park Peter Stackpole Sound Transit Mayor Dave Kaplan City of Des Moines Chelsea Levy Sound Transit Councilmember Linda Johnson City of Maple Valley Councilmember Jerry Robison City of Burien Elizabeth Leavitt Port of Seattle Councilmember Jeanette Burrage City of Des Moines Commissioner Don Meyer Port of Tacoma Chris Arkills King County (Alternate) I. Open Meeting After opening comments and introductions the Board adopted the meeting summary of their July 15, 2014 meeting. II. Reports, Communications and Citizens Requests to Comment 46:00 Vice-Chair Bill Peloza reported on the National League of Cities (NLC) progress on a resolution regarding the movement of hazardous waste materials which includes crude oil. He said the draft resolution will go to transportation and public safety committees for review. The next step is a review by the NLC Board of Directors and then final approval. Councilmember Dana Ralph reported on the release of a Safe Energy Leadership Alliance draft letter asking for an emergency order establishing a near-term timeline for prohibiting the shipment of Bakken oil and other highly flammable materials in rail cars known as DOT-111 tank cars. Mayor Dave Kaplan reported on meeting Seattle Mayor Murray on the ballot measure to supplement the loss of transit funding. The group discussed regional opportunities for partnership with other cities to retain transit service. Mayor Kaplan mentioned that there is still public support for expanding transit but felt the $60 car tab was the wrong approach. Councilmember Wayne Snoey reported that Representative Sullivan and Senator Fain will attend the October 21 SCATBd meeting to discuss a possible transportation package in the 2015 Legislature. Debbie Wagner, representing the “Flight Pattern Kids”, addressed the Board about the health problems of people who grew up around the SeaTac Airport. She asked the Board to send a letter to Governor Inslee asking for a study on impacts of ultra-fine particles from jet fuel 13 on health of surrounding population. She also asked that cities affected by SeaTac Airport’s flight path to contribute to and to another small study to understand the impacts of the airport on the health of children growing up around the airport. A point of order was made regarding this Flight Pattern Kids public comment item and asked the Chair to decide if this is a more appropriate agenda item for a future meeting, the Chaired agreed. Paul Takamine informed the Board on the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) proposed regulations regarding enhanced tank car standards and operational controls for high-hazard flammable trains. He said comments on the proposed regulations were due to PHMSA by September 30, 2014. III. PSRC’s Pacific Gate Way (Coal) Terminal Economic Impact Study – Sean Ardussi, PSRC Sean Ardussi, PSRC Senior Planner, presented the PSRC’s study of the Economic Impacts of the Gateway Pacific Terminal. SSA Marine is proposing to develop the Gateway Pacific Terminal in Cherry Point, Washington into a dry bulk commodity export-import facility to handle coal trains. At full build out, the terminal’s total export capacity would be approximately 54 million metric tons of dry bulk commodities per year which would make it the largest facility of its type on the west coast. This would add a total of 18 new coal trains per day (9 to the terminal and 9 from the terminal). The major findings of the economic impact study included: • Development and operation of the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal would lead to new jobs, mostly during the construction phase and mostly in Whatcom County. • The proposed Terminal may have an impact on rail capacity in the central Puget Sound region. • Rail freight traffic is already projected to double by 2035 in Washington State. • The most direct economic impacts on the central Puget Sound region will be due to increased rail traffic through cities and counties where there are at-grade crossings and where an increase in coal train rail traffic could affect land use, land value and access. Mitigation is possible in most if not all cases, but may be costly. Federal, State, and local authorities determined that an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was required for the development of the terminal. Drafting the EIS began in 2013 and will require approximately two years. Permitting decisions will not be finalized until the EIS is completed. IV. Sound Transit/King County Metro Integration Initiative – Chris OClaire (KC Metro), Racheal Smith (Sound Transit) Rachel Smith, Sound Transit and Chris OClaire, King County Metro, briefed the Board on the transit integration report that was released to the public in September, 2014. They reported that King County Executive Constantine, as head King County Metro Transit and as appointed Sound Transit Board Chair, initiated an effort to bring together transit agencies in the Puget Sound Region to better integrate their collective projects and services. The report summarizes implementation work done over the past three months, is focused on services in King County, and introduces a blueprint for next steps. Sound Transit and Metro have identified short- and long-term actions to increase integration of planned and new services and to ensure new facilities are built to provide the best service to both 14 rail and bus passengers. The report identified areas with immediate benefit and where more work is needed to fully achieve potential benefits. These areas include: • Immediate steps to provide transit options for riders affected by impending cutbacks in Metro service; short- and long-term planning to ensure existing light rail and RapidRide bus services leverage as much integration and efficiency as possible, maximizing transportation choices for the region; • Bus and rail integration with the opening of Link light rail to the University District and Angle Lake Station in SeaTac in 2016; to Northgate in 2021; and to the Eastside, Lynnwood, and Kent/Des Moines in 2023; linking long-range planning efforts underway at both agencies to ensure they are integrated and complement one another; • Study of additional integrated bus/rail networks in system planning for a likely future Sound Transit ballot measure, customer-focused initiatives to make all transit service in the region easier to understand and use; and exploration of potential operational efficiency in areas such as security and public safety. They said they will be broadening this transit integration work in the months ahead to include all the partner agencies, including the state. Ms. OClaire said the Executive’s 2015/2015 budget includes funding to develop a long range plan that will include a long-term integration with Sound Transit services. Other Attendees: Jason Brown, King County Council Tom Gut, SeaTac Bob Lindskov, Covington Rachel Smith, Sound Transit Chris OClaire, King County Metro Councilmember Janie Edelman, Black Diamond Andrew Merges, Des Moines Monica Whitman, Kent Paul Takamine, King County Debbie Wagner, Flight Pattern Kids Sean Ardussi, PSRC 15 Who Are We? The South (King) County Area Transportation Board (SCATBd) is a collaborative effort of local elected officials who are committed to improving the regional transportation system. SCATBd represents an area that encompasses: 15 Cities Portions of Two Counties Three Transit Agencies The Ports of Seattle & Tacoma 9 State Legislative Districts. 691,600 People 36% of County Population Over 300,000 Jobs The largest freight, manufacturing and industrial center in the Pacific Northwest! 0) Membership VOTING MEMBERS: Algona Auburn Black Diamond Burien Covington Des Moines Enumclaw Federal Way Kent King County Executive King County Council (2) Maple Valley Muckleshoot Tribe Normandy Park Pacific Pierce County Renton SeaTac Tukwila NON - VOTING MEMBERS: Pierce Transit Port of Seattle Port of Tacoma Puget Sound Regional Council South Sound Chambers Coalition Sound Transit Transportation Improvement Board WA State Department of Transportation WA State Transportation Commission MS: KSC -TR -0814 201 South Jackson Street Seattle, WA 98104 -3856 206 - 684 -1417 Vi Renton `-�. King County Biack= Diamond Fund Major Projects for an Integrated Transportation Grid: The following projects are necessary to cre- ate a fully functional and integrated trans- portation grid to move people and freight in the South Sound Region. Transit, all types of vehicular transportation choices and air qual- ity will benefit! • Completion of I -5 /SR 509 through SeaTac to Federal Way. • Completion of SR 167 from Puyallup to SR 509 in Tacoma. • Completion of the I- 405 /SR 167 Inter- change and increasing capacity in the 1 -405 Renton to Bellevue corridor. • Completion of the I -5 /SR 18 /SR 161 Interchange (Triangle Project). • Properly connecting SR 18 to SR 167. • Completion of SR 18 from Hobart/ Issaquah Road to 1 -90 at Snoqualmie. • Expansion of the Stampede Pass Rail Line & N/S Main Line improvements. Create Better Funding Tools for Preservation of Local Systems: Available local financing tools do not allow local jurisdictions to maintain, operate and preserve their existing systems. In South King County alone, the estimated cost to preserve roads over the next 30 years is over $2 billion. Further, local transit fund- ing is not sufficient to maintain existing transit services. We request that the Legislature: • Provide funding for expansion and maintenance of local streets used for regional freight and vehicle mobility. • Authorize new local options for fund- ing local transportation maintenance. One of these potential funding sources showing promise is the Street Mainte- nance Utility legislation. • Support a more diverse and stable funding source to maintain transit service, This is important to provide travel options for our diverse communi- ties in the South County Area. Provide Funding for Local Government GMA Needs: For many years, local governments have been accepting growth consistent with the requirements of the Growth Management Act. However, revenues have not been suf- ficient to provide the infrastructure neces- sary to support this growth. We are short hundreds of millions of dollars to provide street and transit improvements. New funding sources must be provided to finance growth! Invest Now to Keep /Grow Jobs: Competition from Canadian ports and the expansion of the Panama Canal has the po- tential to relocate thousands of jobs from our region. We must improve freight mobility in and out of our region! Jobs provide security and a stable community. Long commute times take away from family time and stalled traffic creates air pollution. Cutbacks in transit service cause more traffic and green- house gas. The time is NOW to invest in regional transportation improvements! SOUTH COUNTY AREA TRANSPORTATION BOARD (SCATBd) MEETING Tuesday, October 21, 2014 9:00 – 11:00 a.m. SeaTac City Hall 4800 South 188th Street SeaTac Agenda 1. Open Meeting • Introductions • Approve summary of September 16, 2014 SCATBd Meeting Summary (Attachment A) Action 9:00 a.m. 2. 2015 Transportation Legislation Discussion with Majority Floor Leader Senator Joe Fain and Majority Leader Representative Pat Sullivan Discussion 9:10 a.m. 3. Reports, Communications and Citizen Requests to Comment • Chair or Vice Chair • Participant Updates from RTC and Other Regional Committees • Public Comment Reports and Discussion 10:10 a.m. 4. SCATBd 2015 Legislative Agenda (see attached SCATBd 2014 Legislative Message) Report and Discussion 10:20 a.m. 18