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<br /> <br /> <br />TOWN OF CHAPEL HILL <br />Office of the Manager <br />405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. <br />Chapel Hill, NC 27514-5705 <br />phone (919) 968-2743 fax (919) 969-2063 <br />www.townofchapelhill.org <br /> <br />May 23, 2019 <br /> <br />Mr. Jeff Mann <br />President and CEO <br />GoTriangle <br />PO Box 13787 <br />Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 <br /> <br />Re: Request for Funding for North South Bus Rapid Transit Project through Orange County <br />Transit Plan <br /> <br />Dear Mr. Mann: <br />I am writing on behalf of the Town of Chapel Hill and our Chapel Hill Transit Funding <br />Partners (Town of Carrboro and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) to request additional <br />funding for the North South Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Project in support of the project moving <br />forward in the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Small Starts Process. This critical transit <br />project was approved to enter FTA’s Project Development phase in November of 2016 and we <br />anticipate requesting a project ranking from FTA in September 2019 as we move forward with <br />pursuing a full-funding grant agreement. <br />As you are aware local funding commitments play a key role in the project rating process <br />and being able to demonstrate that around 50-percent of the non-federal match is allocated to <br />the project could help the North South BRT project significantly in the rating process. The current <br />cost estimate for the North South BRT project is $140M, which requires $28M in non-federal <br />match. The current Orange County Transit Plan allocates $6.1M of the non-federal match for the <br />project and we are pursuing the difference through the State’s SPOT 6.0 process. However, SPOT <br />funding will not be awarded in time for us to submit a rating request to FTA in September 2019. <br />To assist us with this effort, we are asking that the Orange County Transit Plan allocate an <br />additional $8M to the North South BRT project by August of 2019 and we would agree to revisit <br />the project’s fiscal needs after SPOT 6.0 awards are announced in November 2019. The additional <br />funds for the North South BRT project could be reallocated from capital revenues in the plan <br />previously dedicated to the D-O LRT project. <br />We believe this request is reasonable considering that the D-O LRT project has been <br />discontinued and the North South BRT project remains as one of the key transit investments <br />identified in the Orange County Transit Plan. Additionally, the North South BRT project, despite <br />5