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<br />ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br /> <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br /> Meeting Date: June 18, 2019 <br /> Action Agenda <br /> Item No. 6-d <br /> <br />SUBJECT: Amendment to the Orange County Transit Plan to Increase Funding for the <br />Chapel Hill Transit North South Bus Rapid Transit (NSBRT) Project <br /> <br />DEPARTMENT: County Manager’s Office <br /> <br /> <br />ATTACHMENT(S): <br />Attachment 1: Proposed Amendment to <br />the Orange County Transit <br />Plan <br />Attachment 2: NSBRT Funding Request <br />Letter from the Town of <br />Chapel Hill <br />Attachment 3: Chapel Hill NSBRT <br />Presentation - Joint Board <br />Meeting <br />INFORMATION CONTACT: <br /> Travis Myren, 919-245-2300 <br /> Brian Litchfield, 919-969-4908 <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />PURPOSE: To consider an amendment to the Orange County Transit Plan to increase funding <br />for the Chapel Hill Transit North South Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project from $6.1M to $14.1M. <br />The funding would be provided using Dedicated Transit Revenues. <br /> <br />BACKGROUND: The Town of Chapel Hill/Chapel Hill Transit initiated the North South BRT <br />project in 2014. The project was accepted into the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) <br />Project Development in November 2016. The project expands on previous planning work to <br />identify a locally-preferred transit investment in the corridor that facilitates safe, efficient and <br />expanded levels of mobility and improves connectivity between the corridor and the region. This <br />includes connections to regional routes serving Hillsborough, Durham, Raleigh and Greensboro. <br /> <br />The project is guided by a Technical and Policy Committee that includes representatives from <br />Orange County. <br /> <br />The project is currently embarking on 30% design and environmental work. The Town is also <br />planning to request a project ranking from Federal Transit Administration (FTA) by September 1, <br />2019 as it moves forward with pursuing a full-funding grant agreement. It is critical for the <br />project rating process for the Town to be able to demonstrate at least 50-percent of the non- <br />federal match ($14M) is allocated to the project in an adopted financial plan. The current cost <br />estimate for the North South BRT project is $140M, which requires $28M in non-federal match. <br />Only $6.1M is currently allocated in the Orange County Transit Plan. <br /> <br />To assist in this effort, the Town submitted a request to Durham-Orange Joint Staff Working <br />Group (SWG) to increase the Orange County Transit Plan funding level from $6.1M to $14.1M <br />(Attachment 2 – Request from Town of Chapel Hill). During the June 10, 2019 SWG meeting, <br />1