Minutes 04-18-2017 - Laserfiche WebLink

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13 Light Rail is a key ingredient in making all of those priorities happen. Unfortunately, some of the organized opposition to the light rail project is using figures that have the effect of misleading the public. There has been a tendency by light rail opponents to conflate different accounting methods with different price tags for the project. The biggest changes in the project cost for Orange County have come from the General Assembly's decision to cap state funding for the project, which have resulted in an increased local share and higher financing costs. The other increases in the actual cost for the project mostly come from joint development projects and the new stop at NC Central University. But the numbers presented recently by GoTriangle account for the project in year of expenditure dollars, not the 2011 dollars that were discussed around the time of the referendum. Much of the opposition believes that it would be easy to find alternatives to the light rail project that would be just as effective and cost a mere fraction of the price of the light rail. As you know, infrastructure projects are complex. The light rail project has cleared significant milestones over the years that place it on track to serve our region in about a decade. Any new alternative would have to start over and would have to undergo engineering, financial, and environmental reviews that the light rail project has completed. Thank you for your thoughtful approach to this complex issue. I hope you will support the transit plan, including the Durham-Orange Light Rail. Tom Farmer provided a hand out. He said he is a Chapel Hill resident and came to live here, in part, for the easy public transportation. He said easy transportation attracts residents and jobs. He said he supports the transit plan and the LRT as it benefits residents, the environment, and the economy. Desiree Goldman said she is against light rail. She said believes in public transit philosophically, but she is a pragmatist and the cost of the LRT is the problem. She said 16.5% cost share may not cover the overruns. She said this light rail is great for Durham, UNC and Duke, but they do not pay taxes. She said there will probably be very little affordable housing on this route, and this plan will continue to increase the rural-urban political divide in the County. She asked if the Board has a contingency plan if Orange County loses all of their impact fees, and the state makes them merge the school districts. She said Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) would make the County more adaptable. Josh Mayo said he is a senior at UNC and a lifelong resident of Orange County, and he supports light rail and more buses. Matt Bailey said he is an Orange County resident, and he supports light rail. Jason Baker said he supports light rail, and asked the Board to continue to support the light rail. He said he works in Raleigh, and rides the GoTriangle CRX bus each day. He said transit is an investment. Brenda McCall reviewed the following email comments: I am a volunteer on behalf of SALT/Project Engage and OCRA. In addition to visiting homebound rural seniors, we refer our clients and others to the volunteer driver program operated by Orange County Department on Aging. We have about 15 drivers who help seniors get to medical appointments and errands in Orange and surrounding counties. We cannot meet the demand. It's disheartening for the many volunteers who work tirelessly to support our transit dependent communities, and then see a $3.3 billion transportation plan that offers no help to us. When we noticed that Wake issued a transit plan that included demand services to rural seniors and