Minutes 05-19-2011 - Laserfiche WebLink

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sales tax not be removed until sales tax revenues have recovered from the recessionary levels. She thanked the County Commissioners for their past support. She hopes that the County Commissioners will fund a continuation budget for CHCCS. NON-PUBLIC HEARING ITEM 4. Oranqe County Transit Plan: Draft Financial Plan for Rail and Bus Investment Chair Pelissier said that Triangle Transit would be on their way shortly. Chair Pelissier said that in the meantime, she gave the Board a summary of the recent Orange County Leadership Transit meetings to discuss the Orange County Transit Plan. The goal is to develop a financial plan to be brought back to the individual elected boards. She said that they have discussed this issue and the bus plan. She said that there will be a cost-sharing with Durham County and Orange County that is agreed upon by both counties. They are having this work session because the timeline has been sped up, since Durham County has decided to put both a '/4-cent sales tax and a %2-cent transit tax on the ballot in the fall. She wanted Orange County to have the same discussion. One of the issues that came up this week at their meeting is that with the %2-cent transit tax, Durham County was to make their decision before the end of June, but then it got changed to the end of July. The Board has received some information in the packets that was briefly discussed on Tuesday. There are some general plans for the light rail. Chair Pelissier suggested talking about the bus plan until Triangle Transit representatives arrive. The bus plan was just presented to the Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday and none of this information has been presented to the Towns in Orange County. The Towns would have to buy in before moving forward. Planning Director Craig Benedict said that about a year ago, Orange County took a stronger role in the Orange County Transit Plan. He showed some maps of the Triangle region. It has been decided that there would be two systems — one from UNC to Alston Avenue and then another system in Wake County that would go from Cary to North Raleigh. More recently, a commuter route element has come about that would connect the dots between the light rail. There is an idea in the group that maybe Orange County should pay for 20% of the line between UNC and Duke and maybe Durham County could pay the remainder. Regarding a fair share financially, Triangle J was hired to do an analysis of what they called a Shared Benefit Area, and Craig Benedict showed this area on a map. They finally came to the conclusion that Durham County would pay for the parts that are in Durham County. The scenario discussed tonight is suggesting that Orange County pay for portions of light rail within Durham County, but within the Chapel Hill Town Limits. He went through Attachment 4 which was the Durham-Orange Triangle Regional Transit Program Financial Plan Draft. He said that staff of Hillsborough, Mebane, Carrboro, Orange County, Chapel Hill, Triangle Transit, and UNC met on a regular basis for about six months to determine which bus routes need to be augmented to provide better service. The group came up with goals and priorities. David King, Executive Director of Triangle Transit, made a PowerPoint presentation. The Orange County Bus and Rail Investment Plan Maps of peak hour volumes (red is bad, yellow is getting bad, and green is ok)