Minutes 06-18-19 Regular Meeting

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21 BACKGROUND: The Town of Chapel Hill/Chapel Hill Transit initiated the North South BRT project in 2014. The project was accepted into the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) Project Development in November 2016. The project expands on previous planning work to identify a locally-preferred transit investment in the corridor that facilitates safe, efficient and expanded levels of mobility and improves connectivity between the corridor and the region. This includes connections to regional routes serving Hillsborough, Durham, Raleigh and Greensboro. The project is guided by a Technical and Policy Committee that includes representatives from Orange County. The project is currently embarking on 30% design and environmental work. The Town is also planning to request a project ranking from Federal Transit Administration (FTA) by September 1, 2019 as it moves forward with pursuing a full-funding grant agreement. It is critical for the project rating process for the Town to be able to demonstrate at least 50-percent of the non- federal match ($14M) is allocated to the project in an adopted financial plan. The current cost estimate for the North South BRT project is $140M, which requires $28M in non-federal match. Only $6.1 M is currently allocated in the Orange County Transit Plan. To assist in this effort, the Town submitted a request to Durham-Orange Joint Staff Working Group (SWG) to increase the Orange County Transit Plan funding level from $6.1 M to $14.1 M (Attachment 2 — Request from Town of Chapel Hill). During the June 10, 2019 SWG meeting the SWG approved recommending to the governing bodies of the Interlocal Agreement for the Orange County Transit Plan (Orange County, GoTriangle Board and DCHC MPO Board) approval of the request to dedicate $1 million in FY20, $1.5 million in FY21, $1.5 million in FY22, and $4 million in FY23. The Town of Chapel Hill will also be seeking offsetting project funds through the North Carolina Department of Transportation's Strategic Prioritization Process (SPOT 6.0). The proposed Transit Plan amendment stipulates that any outside funds received for the project will be applied to reduce the financial obligations contained in the Amended Orange County Transit Plan, up to $8 million. SPOT 6.0 awards are expected to be announced in November 2019. The funding request is considered a material change to the Transit Plan which requires approval by the governing bodies. The SWG recommendation and funding request will be considered by the governing boards on the following schedule: • Orange County Board of County Commissioners — June 18, 2019 • GoTriangle Board — June 26, 2019 • DCHC MPO Board —August 14, 2019 If approved by the governing bodies, this amendment would allow the Town to submit a rating request to FTA by September 1, 2019. A delay in the schedule would mean that 2020 would be the earliest a rating request for the project would be considered by FTA. The project website is www.nsbrt.org. FINANCIAL IMPACT: The adopted Orange County Transit Plan currently allocates $6.1 M to the North South BRT project. The proposed amendment (Attachment 1)would dedicate an additional $81VI to the project in fiscal years FY2020 through FY2023. Sufficient dedicated transit revenues are available to fund this addition. The lowest Transit Plan fund balance during this scheduled draw down of dedicated transit revenues would occur in FY2022 when the balance is estimated to be $929,500 under current assumptions.