Minutes 05-19-2011 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Triangle Transit's offer to meet one-on-one for more information. She said that the compressed timeframe is making this all more difficult. Chair Pelissier said that the County Commissioners need to focus on the transit plan before they decide to put anything on a ballot. She summarized some of the principles: • Cost sharing between Durham County and Orange County—this is vital to the plan and the concern is whether the cost sharing is reasonable. She feels it is reasonable. • Does this cost sharing give them sufficient monies to do the bus plan in the first three years? • Need feedback on the prioritization of the bus service from the Towns. Chair Pelissier said that she wants to know what needs to be discussed about the plan. This is the homework that they all need to do regardless of when they put the transit item on a ballot. Commissioner Foushee said that she has been part of the process and Chair Pelissier's comments are on point. She said that a lot of the time they have spent in this process so far has been on the bus service. She said that Commissioner Gordon's comments about planning for transit is one of the most crucial points of all. She does not want Orange County to miss out on being part of the solution for regional transportation. She said that right now there is no commitment from Durham or Wake Counties to put this on the ballot in November. However, she would not want to stop the conversation about the future of transit. Commissioner Yuhasz made reference to the number of parking spaces at the rail station and said that 4,000 spaces may not be enough in the long-term. He needs to see the information about how this will all work out. David King said that the information does exist. He said that Triangle Transit has been leading this effort but the land use decisions are made by the jurisdictions themselves. He said that he would be glad to sit down with the County Commissioners and talk through this further. Chair Pelissier said that her peers have different areas of experience with the concept of light rail. She suggested that Board members meet individually with Triangle Transit to learn why they need light rail or at least schedule a work session to learn this information. Commissioner McKee said that he would prefer having this information be presented to the Board versus individually. Commissioner Yuhasz said that he would like a presentation focused on the light rail component and assumptions on the land use. Frank Clifton said that it will be difficult to explain to the public and there will have to be a high level of trust developed between the County and the public over this plan because it will be 15 years before the train runs. Commissioner McKee asked about the rider fee and what percentage of Triangle Transit is fare free. David King said that 100% of the service requires a fare. Chair Pelissier said that this is one of the areas that lack clarity. Chapel Hill Transit is free, but TTA is not free. It is not totally clear how this is going to work with the additional bus hours. She said that the Towns' expectation is that it would be an expansion of Chapel Hill Transit and would be free. Discussion ensued about the assumptions of the Chapel Hill Transit being fare free. Commissioner Yuhasz asked for more information about when the tax is implemented and the light rail comes to fruition. David King said that it is built into the financial model. He clarified that the elected boards decide and TTA implements it. Chair Pelissier said that the one thing not fixed in the plan is the bus route and they still need public comment about it. Over time, the light rail might take ridership off the 54 route, and then there would be dividend hours. The County is responsible, but the Towns are large stakeholders. This is not yet clear. She does not think the Towns really understand what this