Agenda 01-16-24; 8-h - Approval of Orange County 2022 Transit Plan Public Hearing Records

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6 9 Commissioner McKee relayed the contents of a phone call he received from a resident about the help they received from Corey Root and other housing staff. He said the resident was in a dire situation and was very complimentary of staff, and was extremely grateful for the help they received and the outcome in preventing their house from becoming uninhabitable. Chair Price thanked Corey Root for the work she has done, especially throughout the pandemic and keeping people in their homes. c. 2022 Orange County Transit Plan Update— Public Hearing The Board held a public hearing, received the Policy Steering Committee, Staff Working Group, and Orange Unified Transportation Board recommendations, closed the public hearing, and considered taking action on the 2022 Orange County Transit Plan (OCTP) Update. BACKGROUND: In 2012, the Orange County Board of Commissioners along with the Durham- Chapel Hill Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization (DCHC MPO) and GoTriangle adopted the first Orange County Transit Plan. This Plan was funded using a newly-adopted Article 43 Half- Cent Sales Tax, and it included investments in new and expanded bus service and new capital infrastructure projects such as the Chapel Hill North-South Bus Rapid Transit Project, the Hillsborough Train Station, and the Durham-Orange Light Rail Transit(DO LRT) Project. The Plan was updated in 2017 to meet federal requirements associated with the DO LRT Project. In March 2019, the DO LRT Project was discontinued. This project was central to the Transit Plan as the Plan's primary investment, representing a critical partnership between Durham and Orange counties, and serving as the transit infrastructure around which other transit services and growth strategies were planned. In response to the discontinuation of the DO LRT project, Orange County staff began the process of creating a draft framework to create a new Orange County Transit Plan that prioritizes investments,funds service improvements, and improves the resiliency of the public transit network. At its November 17, 2019 meeting, the Orange County Board of Commissioners approved the planning framework for updating the Orange County Transit Plan. The framework included a Policy Steering Committee (PSC)composed of two (2) Commissioners serving as Co-Chairs, and one representative each from Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough, and Mebane to lead the process. The County and/or municipal appointees are intended to represent the interests of GoTriangle and DCHC MPO. The PSC is supported by a staff team led by County staff and including staff representatives from the aforementioned municipal jurisdictions, as well as DCHC MPO, Triangle J Council of Governments (TJCOG), the Triangle Area Rural Planning Organization (TARPO), and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). In January 2020, Orange County Planning staff began work with Renaissance Planning, Inc., the consulting firm chosen to update the Orange County Transit Plan. Over the past two years, Planning staff and the consulting team have established key project deliverables and the timetable for their delivery, defined the scope of the consulting work, established a project website (www.octransit2020.com), created the public participation and outreach plans, and conducted regular meetings with the PSC, transit service providers, and key stakeholders with updates on the plan's progress. Both the PSC and the staff team provided direction and guidance to the consulting firm whose tasks included analyzing data, facilitating public input processes, soliciting feedback from specific stakeholders, and drafting the Transit Plan. The new Plan is intended to outline transit investment priorities through 2040.