Agenda 09-03-19 Item 8-a - Minutes

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21 1 The Board considered voting to approve an amendment to the Orange County Transit 2 Plan to increase funding for the Chapel Hill Transit North South Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project 3 from $6.1 M to $14.1 M. The funding would be provided using Dedicated Transit Revenues. 4 5 Travis Myren presented this item: 6 7 PURPOSE: To consider an amendment to the Orange County Transit Plan to increase funding 8 for the Chapel Hill Transit North South Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project from $6.1 M to $14.1 M. 9 The funding would be provided using Dedicated Transit Revenues. 10 11 BACKGROUND: The Town of Chapel Hill/Chapel Hill Transit initiated the North South BRT 12 project in 2014. The project was accepted into the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) 13 Project Development in November 2016. The project expands on previous planning work to 14 identify a locally-preferred transit investment in the corridor that facilitates safe, efficient and 15 expanded levels of mobility and improves connectivity between the corridor and the region. This 16 includes connections to regional routes serving Hillsborough, Durham, Raleigh and Greensboro. 17 The project is guided by a Technical and Policy Committee that includes representatives from 18 Orange County. 19 20 The project is currently embarking on 30% design and environmental work. The Town is also 21 planning to request a project ranking from Federal Transit Administration (FTA) by September 1, 22 2019 as it moves forward with pursuing a full-funding grant agreement. It is critical for the 23 project rating process for the Town to be able to demonstrate at least 50-percent of the non- 24 federal match ($14M) is allocated to the project in an adopted financial plan. The current cost 25 estimate for the North South BRT project is $140M, which requires $28M in non-federal match. 26 Only $6.1 M is currently allocated in the Orange County Transit Plan. 27 28 To assist in this effort, the Town submitted a request to Durham-Orange Joint Staff Working 29 Group (SWG) to increase the Orange County Transit Plan funding level from $6.1 M to $14.1 M 30 (Attachment 2 — Request from Town of Chapel Hill). During the June 10, 2019 SWG meeting 31 the SWG approved recommending to the governing bodies of the Interlocal Agreement for the 32 Orange County Transit Plan (Orange County, GoTriangle Board and DCHC MPO Board) 33 approval of the request to dedicate $1 million in FY20, $1.5 million in FY21, $1.5 million in 34 FY22, and $4 million in FY23. 35 36 The Town of Chapel Hill will also be seeking offsetting project funds through the North Carolina 37 Department of Transportation's Strategic Prioritization Process (SPOT 6.0). The proposed 38 Transit Plan amendment stipulates that any outside funds received for the project will be applied 39 to reduce the financial obligations contained in the Amended Orange County Transit Plan, up to 40 $8 million. SPOT 6.0 awards are expected to be announced in November 2019. 41 The funding request is considered a material change to the Transit Plan which requires 42 approval by the governing bodies. The SWG recommendation and funding request will be 43 considered by the governing boards on the following schedule: 44 . Orange County Board of County Commissioners — June 18, 2019 45 • GoTriangle Board — June 26, 2019 46 • DCHC MPO Board —August 14, 2019 47 48 If approved by the governing bodies, this amendment would allow the Town to submit a rating 49 request to FTA by September 1, 2019. A delay in the schedule would mean that 2020 would be 50 the earliest a rating request for the project would be considered by FTA. 51 The project website is www.nsbrt.org.