Agenda - 05-02-2017 - 8-a - Minutes

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12 1 there is the money to do this. She asked the BOCC to live up to its commitments, as well as 2 the vote of its constituents, and continue to support this project. 3 Matt Fajack said he is Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration at the University 4 of North Carolina (UNC), and a resident of Orange County. He said UNC supports the light rail 5 project, and is a partner in Chapel Hill transit. He said this plan is about the next 30 years and 6 beyond, and they need to keep the vision alive in light of the risks that they will overcome. 7 Karen McCall is the Chief Communications Director at UNC Healthcare, which supports 8 light rail and rapid bus transit. 9 Bernadette Pelissier said she wanted to speak on a shared community value: 10 affordability. She said transportation plays a huge part in affordability, and decreasing the cost 11 of transportation can increase affordability. She said public transportation is significantly 12 cheaper than car ownership. 13 David Neal reviewed the following email statement: 14 I am a resident of Hillsborough and I have no plans to regularly commute from Chapel Hill to 15 Durham. Nevertheless, I support public investments in a multi-modal transit plan that can meet 16 the transportation needs of some our most densely traveled and congested roadways. The 17 Durham-Orange Light Rail is a key facet of that plan and deserves your continued support. 18 19 Consistent with the County's commitment to sustainability in the 2030 Comprehensive Plan, the 20 Board of Commissioners have long shown support for the transit plan, including the Durham- 21 Orange Light Rail. When I served on the Orange County Commission for the Environment, we 22 voted unanimously in 2012 to support putting the sales tax referendum in support of public 23 transportation on the ballot. Voters likewise endorsed the plan, passing the additional tax to 24 support light rail, more bus service, and a Hillsborough train station by an overwhelming 59-41 25 margin. The issue of light rail was squarely before the voters, and they endorsed this central 26 component of the plan by a wide margin. 27 28 The Commission for the Environment reaffirmed the importance of alternative transportation in 29 our 2014 State of the Environment report, listing the following as a top sustainability priority for 30 the County: 31 32 We need to do more to improve our air quality, chiefly by making changes that result in less 33 reliance on cars. Locally, this can be achieved by: (1) increased availability and use of transit 34 alternatives, including bus, rail, bicycle, and pedestrian pathways; and (2) town and county 35 planning that fosters denser, walkable communities, reduces sprawl, and allows the clustering 36 of development in urban buffers. 37 38 Light Rail is a key ingredient in making all of those priorities happen. 39 40 Unfortunately, some of the organized opposition to the light rail project is using figures that 41 have the effect of misleading the public. There has been a tendency by light rail opponents to 42 conflate different accounting methods with different price tags for the project. The biggest 43 changes in the project cost for Orange County have come from the General Assembly's 44 decision to cap state funding for the project, which have resulted in an increased local share 45 and higher financing costs. The other increases in the actual cost for the project mostly come 46 from joint development projects and the new stop at NC Central University. But the numbers 47 presented recently by GoTriangle account for the project in year of expenditure dollars, not the 48 2011 dollars that were discussed around the time of the referendum. Much of the opposition 49 believes that it would be easy to find alternatives to the light rail project that would be just as 50 effective and cost a mere fraction of the price of the light rail. As you know, infrastructure