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19 <br /> <br /> <br />VOTE: UNANIMOUS <br /> <br />b. Approval of a Planning Framework for Updating the Orange County Transit Plan <br />The Board considered voting to approve a planning framework for updating the Orange <br />County Transit Plan and to appoint two Commissioners to serve as representatives to the Policy <br />Steering Committee. <br /> <br />BACKGROUND: In 2012, the Board of Orange County Commissioners along with the Durham- <br />Chapel Hill Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization and GoTriangle adopted the Orange <br />County’s first comprehensive Transit Plan. This Plan was funded using a newly adopted Article <br />43 Half-Cent Sales Tax, and it included investments in new and expanded bus service, new <br />capital infrastructure projects such as the Chapel Hill North-South Bus Rapid Transit Project, <br />the Hillsborough Train Station, and the Durham-Orange Light Rail Project. The Plan was most <br />recently updated in 2017 to meet federal requirements associated with the Durham-Orange <br />Light Rail Project. <br /> <br />In March 2019, the Durham-Orange Light Rail Transit Project was discontinued. This project <br />was central to the Transit Plan. It was the Plan’s primary investment, represented a critical <br />partnership between Durham and Orange counties, and served as the transit infrastructure <br />around which other transit services and growth strategies were planned. In response to the <br />discontinuation of the light rail project, a staff team began the process of creating a potential <br />planning framework to create a new Orange County Transit Plan that prioritizes investments, <br />funds service improvements, and improves the resiliency of the public transit network. <br /> <br />The proposed planning framework would be led by a Policy Steering Committee composed of <br />two (2) Commissioners serving as Co-Chairs, and one representative each from Chapel Hill, <br />Carrboro, Hillsborough, and Mebane. The County and/or municipal appointees should also <br />represent the interests of GoTriangle and the Durham-Chapel Hill Carrboro Metropolitan <br />Planning Organization (DCHC-MPO). <br /> <br />The Policy Steering Committee would be supported by a staff team which would be led by <br />County staff and include representatives from the same organizations as well as staff support <br />from the Triangle J Council of Governments, the Triangle Area Rural Planning Organization, <br />and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. <br /> <br />Both the Policy Steering Committee and the staff team would provide direction and guidance to <br />a consulting firm responsible for analyzing data, facilitating public input processes, soliciting <br />feedback from specific stakeholders, and drafting the Transit Plan. The new Plan would outline <br />transit investment priorities through 2040. Specific consultant responsibilities detailed within a <br />request for qualifications would include: <br /> Creating an overview of services and capital improvements that have been made <br />possible through prior iterations of the Orange County Transit Plan, <br /> Affirming that recently adopted short range plans provide an appropriate, seamless <br />continuum of bus services, <br /> Establishing a process for how improvements are prioritized, so that priorities are <br />understood and supported by elected officials and residents, <br /> Identifying transit dependent populations in Orange County and strategies to serve <br />these populations,