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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTrans 2011-08-15 Item 3D - SCATBd - 7/19/11 Meeting Summary and 8/16/11 Meeting AgendaSOUTH COUNTY AREA TRANSPORTATION BOARD (SCATBd) July 19, 2011 MEETING SUMMARY Members Councilmember Wayne Snoey Brian Ziegler Michael Drollinger Kelly McGourty Grant Fredricks Mayor Bart Taylor Mayor Suzette Cooke Mayor Noel Gerken Councilmember Marcie Palmer Chris Arkills Councilmember Joan Hernandez Councilmember Clarke Brant Larry Blanchard Councilmember Jeannie Burbidge Councilmember Lynda Osborn Stacy Trussler Mayor Pete Lewis Councilmember Ralph Shape I. June 21, 2011 Meeting Summary The June 21, 2011 meeting summary was approved. II. Reports: City of Covington (Chair) Pierce County Port of Seattle (Alternate) PSRC (Alternate) City of Des Moines (Alternate) City of Milton City of Kent (Alternate) City of Maple Valley City of Renton King County Executive (Alternate) City of Tukwila City of Normandy Park City of Burien (Alternate) City of Federal Way City of Algona (Alternate) WSDOT City of Auburn City of SeaTac Chair Snoey reviewed the new subarea population totals that were sent out to Boardmembers. The new population numbers are based on the 2010 census information. He noted that the SCATBd subarea still had the largest percentage of population out of the three subareas represented by SeaShore, ETP and SCATBd. Chair Snoey also reported that he had attended a Regional Access Mobility Partnership (RAMP) meeting. The RAMP group was briefed on Pierce Transit service reductions and on the Tacoma Tideflats Area Transportation Plan. The study identifies future transportation needs for the growth of freight related traffic to and from the Tacoma Tideflats area. The biggest obstacle to implementing the plan is a lack of money for the proposed projects. Chair Snoey reported on the action of the PSRC Executive Board to change the status of WSDOT's SR 99, South King to Roy Street Central Waterfront Viaduct Replacement projects from its current status of "conditionally approved for design build" to "conditionally approve." This change in status will allow construction money to be programmed into the regional transportation improvement program. 21 SCATBd Meeting Minutes July 19, 2011 Page 2 111. Representative Judy Clibborn, Looking Ahead to the 2012 Legislative Session Chair Snoey reported that he had discussed with Rep. Clibborn, SCATBd's priorities which included funding for the major regional projects in the South County area, local funding issues, and the street maintenance utility (SMU) legislation. Chair Snoey noted that the SMU legislation did not serve the needs of every city, that there were cities like Algona and Covington that had a high degree of pass through traffic that impacted local roads. In such cases, Chair Snoey noted, there needs to be a regional effort to address the preservation concerns of those cities. Rep. Clibborn first explained that she felt that it was her job to educate the people on the transportation issues facing the public and hoped that SCATBd members would use some of the information that she was presenting in their talking points. Representative Clibborn briefly described the bipartisan atmosphere that the House and Senate used to address that last transportation budget. She said that the last transportation budget passed in the House 89 to 6, and that she will be listening to everyone as the legislature moves forward on addressing transportation funding issues. She reviewed the projects that the State has been working since the passage of the Nickel and Transportation Partnership account gas taxes. She noted that the Mega projects were soaking up a lot of dollars, and said the next big project she expects to move forward will be the Columbia River Crossing. As the big projects get closer to completion, the Nickel and Transportation Partnership gas tax will be used to pay off the construction bonds for the next 25 years. Rep. Clibborn noted that of the 37.5 cents per gallon gas tax, 14.5 cents are dedicated to Nickel and TPA projects, 11 cents supports cities and counties local road projects, 4 cents support debt service to reduce bond debt that funded past highway and ferry projects. That leaves just 8 cents for maintenance and operations and for preservation, safety and new congestion relief projects. She said that is another reason why we need to find new revenue sources for transportation. Representative Clibborn also talked about the impact of fuel efficient vehicles now being introduced into the market, which will result in reducing the buying power of the gas tax. Rep. Clibborn talked about the work that the Transportation Partnership was doing to support transportation financing. The Transportation Partnership is a coalition of business, labor, local government and environmental representatives from around the state who are working to find new revenue sources to address our transportation needs. The group wanted the state legislature to develop a transportation package. Based on this request the Governor formed the Connecting Washington Task Force that is charged with developing a transportation funding package. Rep. Clibborn also said that she did not think the task force will develop list of projects but will develop a criteria that will be used to eventually develop and prioritize a project list. She said that she would like to see a transportation package that was multimodal in nature. She said that the transportation package should not be limited to what would be allowed under the eighteenth amendment, that it could address multimodal concerns including transit, rail and 22 SCATBd Meeting Minutes July 19, 2011 Page 3 stormwater management. She also said that the list of projects that will be eventually developed should represent a 10 year time -frame. She felt that local needs and preservation projects were short changed during the Nickel and Transportation Partnership gas tax debate. She also said that one of the most important project selection criteria for this region would include linking the impact of a transportation projects to economic vitality, jobs, and freight mobility. She also said that projects that have tolling dollars as part of its revenue package should compete well for matching state dollars. Brian Ziegler asked if local projects will be line itemed in the new revenue package. Rep. Clibbom said she did not envision this new transportation package listing local projects but the need for more local funding will be specifically addressed in a new transportation package (i.e. TIB or CRAB programs). She said she expects local governments will be a bigger player in this transportation funding debate. Mayor Cooke asked about how the legislature will address the negative public impression on the value of HOT lanes and cited the limited length of SR 167 HOT lane system as an example. Rep. Clibbom said that she is not in favor of removing the SR 167 HOT lanes, because it would be a heavy political lift to re- establish HOT Lanes in the corridor. She said the Washington State Transportation Commission will be managing an independent study to look at the feasibility of HOT lanes in the I -405 corridor, and that study result will determine the future course of the HOT lane project in I -405. Councilmember Lynda Osborn delivered a letter regarding the City of Algona's view on the SMU. Chair Snoey summarized the letter's position explaining that while the SMU worked for some cities, it did not work well for some smaller cities with significant pass through traffic on their streets. He said that in those cases there needs to be a regional solution to address those issues of pass through traffic for small cities which do not have the tax base to support a SMU. Representative Clibborn again stressed the importance of maintaining connectivity of a local arterial system, and this need for connectivity should be used to support the need for more regional funds for local preservation needs. Mayor Lewis noted that funding sources for local streets have been drying up and was one of the reasons local cities were looking into a street maintenance utility as a local funding option. He noted from state's perspective, the freight corridors ended at the freeway ramp. He said that we have to link people and business to the freeways in order to get economy moving again. Mayor Lewis noted that his constituency responded positively to preservation projects over new construction projects. Mayor Cooke voiced her concern about the peanut butter approach when funding project at the local level, that projects received some funding but not enough to complete the projects. She said that local jurisdictions find that they lack the snatching funds to 23 SCATBd Meeting Minutes July 19, 2011 Page 4 complete the projects. She asked that consideration be given to look at funding local scenarios where enough funds can be identified so that projects can be completed. Chris Arkills noted that there were competing needs between freeway and road capital dollars, and transit operation needs. He asked Representative Clibborn how she viewed how these needs will be addressed by the Connecting Washington Task Force. Representative Clibborn said that there will be support for transit, and the discussion will focus on whether transit needs would be supported through a local option tax or as part of the new package. Larry Blanchard asked what needs to be done in order to get the SMU passed during the next legislative session. Representative Clibborn said that she didn't see a lot of political backing for the SMU in the last session, and there was strong SMU opposition from the business community. It was noted that the SMU legislation passed out of the House during the last legislative session, and Representative Clibborn said SMU supporters should review the level of support for the SMU legislation in the Senate. Stacy Trussler asked Representative Clibborn about her views on I- 1125. Representative Clibborn said that she was concerned about I -1125 impacts to transportation financing if toll and fare setting responsibility is put into the hands of the legislature and bypass the Transportation Commission. She said the passage of I -1125 would create higher financing costs and higher tolls. Chair Snoey asked how SCATBd could help with the Task Force in their work. Representative Clibborn said that they did rely on the high priority local project list that PSRC developed with local county and city help. She also said that SCATBd should highlight the importance of freight corridors, and they should keep hammering this point in their discussion with legislators. Chair Snoey asked if SCATBd's legislative agenda that highlights the Board's project priorities was helpful to her. Representative Clibborn said the SCATBd legislative agenda was helpful to her and said that if projects are not on a list they will not get noticed. III. Metro Transit Congestion Reduction Charge Chair Snoey noted that the SeaShore group had a support letter for the Congestion Relief Charge (CRC) that was now under consideration by the King County Council. ETP was considering a support letter but was not ready to send one to the Council. Chair Snoey wanted to know if the Board wanted to send a CRC support letter. He asked the members present if their respective councils had taken a position on the CRC. The Board concluded that they were not ready to sign on to a SCATBd CRC support letter. Chair Snoey said that he expects that the Board will want to consider a letter of support for the CRC if it is put on the ballot for a public vote. 24 SCATBd Meeting Minutes July 19, 2011 Page 5 IV. PSRC Project Prioritization Update Kelly McGourty first reported that the PSRC had received an additional $36.8 million in funds as a result of higher -than estimated Federal Highway Administration funds coming to the Puget Sound region. There was also an additional $5.1 million of returned STP /CMAQ funds from PSRC's project tracking program. The total amount of funds available for distribution to the approved contingency lists is therefore $41.9 million. These additional funds were proposed to be distributed to projects on adopted contingency lists developed for these types of circumstances. Ms. McGourty briefed the Board on the status of the PSRC's project priority process. She said that the region's transportation plan, Transportation 2040, includes a commitment for PSRC to develop a prioritization process for projects and programs within the plan or those seeking admittance into the plan. Ms. McGourty said that they are planning to develop recommendations and release them for public comments in December of 2011 and have the General Assembly adopt a project priority process in the Spring of 2012. Ms. McGourty said that there were five key outcomes expected from the region's growth management plan, Vision 2040 they are Mobility, Community Character, Prosperous Economy, Social Responsibility and Equity, and Sustainable Environment. In order to achieve the five outcomes, the PSRC spent the last few months developing measures to put weights on these five outcomes. PSRC staff and PSRC working groups are currently testing two evaluation methods to determine how to proceed with the prioritization process. The first method is called the Hybrid approach, which is a detailed exercise using the transportation model. The second approach is the Scorecard approach; it takes the same outcomes and measures but uses a qualitative and subjective approach to weight the outcomes. Ms. McGourty reported that regardless of method used people weighted the five outcomes similarly. Mobility and prosperous economy received the highest weight under both approaches. She reported on lessons learned from the two approach exercise which included: Outcomes results were comparable for the two approaches Understanding of questions can affect weighting results Weighting exercise was too complex there is a request to simplify process Consolidate measures (reduce from 17 to 10 measures) There was general support for the Scorecard approach Need for more detailed project information. Next steps include developing a prioritization process recommendation by November 2011, public comment on the recommendation by December 2011, the Transportation 25 SCATBd Meeting Minutes July 19, 2011 Page 6 Policy Board forwards its comments Executive Board by February 2012, and the General Assembly taking action on the project prioritization process in the Spring 2012. Iti. Preparing for the 2012 Legislative Session Chair Snoey discussed the preparation of the 2012 legislative agenda. He reminded the Board about last year's short and long version of the agenda. The long version of the agenda was used to inform the large number of new members to the legislature. This year he recommended the Board developing a shorter version of a SCATBd 2012 legislative agenda. He said the agenda's message might focus on preservation and maintenance. Mayor Gerken reported that the City of Maple Valley was voted top 10 cities for families by the Family Circle Magazine. The Board noted that this was a great honor for a local city. Other Attendees: Cathy Mooney, City of Kent Bob Giberson, City of Tukwila Rick Perez, City of Federal Way Pete Stewart, Transportation Choices Coalition Dennis Dowdy, City of Auburn Deborah Miller, AECOM Jim Seitz, City of Renton Doug Levy, Kent /Fed Way /Renton Carolyn Robertson, City of Auburn Paul Takamine, King County DOT Jim Seitz, City of Renton Monica Whitman, Suburban Cities Assoc .Glenn Akramoff, City of Covington 26 SOUTH COUNTY AREA TRANSPORTATION BOARD (SCATBd) MEETING Tuesday, August 16, 2011 9:00 11:00 a.m. SeaTac City Hall 4800 South 188 Street SeaTac AGENDA 1. Open Meeting Action Introductions Approve summary of July 19, 2011 SCATBd Meeting* 2. Reports, Communications and Citizen Requests to Comment Reports and Chair or Vice Chair Discussion Participant Updates from TPB, RTC, PSRC Boards, Other Citizen Comment 3. Metro Transit Update Congestion Reduction Charge RapidRide F Line Update RapidRide A Line Ridership Update 4. Sound Transit Briefing Rachael Smith 5. PSRC Growing Transit Communities Briefing 6. SCATBd 2012 Legislative Message *Attachment to agenda Report and Discussion Report and Discussion Report and Discussion 9:00 a.m. 9:10 a.m. 9:30 a.m. 10:00 a.m. 10:20 a.m. Discussion 10:40 a.m. 27