Agenda - 06-07-2022; 8-a - Minutes

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13 1 In March 2019, the DO-LRT Project was discontinued. This project was central to the Transit 2 Plan, was the Plan's primary investment, represented a critical partnership between Durham 3 and Orange counties, and served as the transit infrastructure around which other transit 4 services and growth strategies were planned. In response to the discontinuation of the light rail 5 project, a staff team began the process of creating a potential planning framework to create a 6 new Orange County Transit Plan that prioritizes investments, funds service improvements, and 7 improves the resiliency of the public transit network. 8 9 At its November 17, 2019 meeting, the Orange County BOCC approved the planning framework 10 for updating the Orange County Transit Plan. The framework included a Policy Steering 11 Committee (PSC) composed of two (2) Commissioners serving as Co-Chairs, and one 12 representative each from Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough, and Mebane to lead the process. 13 The County and/ or municipal appointees are intended to represent the interests of GoTriangle 14 and DCHC MPO. 15 The PSC is aided by a staff team which is led by County staff and includes representatives from 16 the same organizations as well as staff support from the Triangle J Council of Governments 17 (TJCOG), the Triangle Area Rural Planning Organization (TARPO), and the University of North 18 Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). Both the PSC and the staff team provide direction and guidance 19 to the consulting firm whose tasks include analyzing data, facilitating public input processes, 20 soliciting feedback from specific stakeholders, and drafting the Transit Plan. The new Plan is 21 intended to outline transit investment priorities through 2040. 22 23 In January 2020, Orange County Planning staff began work with Renaissance Planning, Inc., 24 the consulting firm chosen to update the Orange County Transit Plan. Over the past two years, 25 Planning staff and the consulting team have established key project deliverables and the 26 timetable for their delivery, defined the scope of the consulting work, established a project 27 website (www.octransit2020.com), created the public participation and outreach plans, and 28 conducted regular meetings with the PSC, transit service providers, and key stakeholders with 29 updates on the plan's progress. 30 31 Following is a list of key process milestones carried out by the consultant, PSC, transit service 32 providers and staff teams: 33 34 • Held bi-monthly meetings with progress updates for the PSC during the 2020 calendar 35 year (May 2020) 36 • Received the Transit Choices Brochure (TCB), a visual document that illustrates the 37 concepts and continuums of transit planning, and the Regional Connections Opportunity 38 (RCO) Report, a technical assessment of key issues and opportunities for effective 39 transit service (July 2020) 40 • Held the first Transit Summit over the Zoom platform and received a memo of key 41 themes from the summit discussions and first public survey (October 2020) 42 • Met with Durham City and County representatives to discuss progress of Durham Transit 43 Plan Update relative to the Orange County Transit Plan Update (November 2020) 44 • Received draft versions of conceptual scenarios and graphics with an accompanying 45 memo (January 2021) 46 • Held recurring monthly PSC meetings over Zoom with updates for first half of 2021 47 (January 2021 —June 2021) 48 • Received final versions of conceptual scenarios and graphics with an accompanying 49 memo (May 2021)