Agenda 11-07-19 Item 6-b - Approval of a Planning Framework for Updating the Orange County Transit Plan

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2 The Policy Steering Committee would be supported by a staff team which would be led by County staff and include representatives from the same organizations as well as staff support from the Triangle J Council of Governments, the Triangle Area Rural Planning Organization, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Both the Policy Steering Committee and the staff team would provide direction and guidance to a consulting firm responsible for analyzing data, facilitating public input processes, soliciting feedback from specific stakeholders, and drafting the Transit Plan. The new Plan would outline transit investment priorities through 2040. Specific consultant responsibilities detailed within a request for qualifications would include: • Creating an overview of services and capital improvements that have been made possible through prior iterations of the Orange County Transit Plan, • Affirming that recently adopted short range plans provide an appropriate, seamless continuum of bus services, • Establishing a process for how improvements are prioritized, so that priorities are understood and supported by elected officials and residents, • Identifying transit dependent populations in Orange County and strategies to serve these populations, • Reporting on public preferences regarding transit services and future investments, • Creating performance measurement criteria that can explain how different existing and planned services meet community goals and preferences, • Creating a Regional Connections Opportunities assessment that examines: o NCDOT studies and projects underway that could be modified to include a transit component o Remnant sections of the Durham-Orange Light Rail alignment that might still be used as high-capacity transit corridors o Travel market needs that link Orange County with Durham County's resident and business needs to build, expand, and support cross-county line transit networks. The Plan should also examine emerging transit needs and opportunities that cross into Alamance and Chatham counties, • Proposing year-by-year implementation recommendations for transit investments through 2040, • Creating a risk assessment to identify potential implementation barriers for new transit projects, • Examining transit recommendations through a racial and social justice lens, establishing agreed upon benchmarks through which to achieve equitable outcomes, • Preparing a financially sound plan that considers the costs and benefits of debt financing using a 20 year financial model, • Preparing all necessary maps and exhibits, and