MINUTES OF THE METRO COUNCIL

TRANSPORTATION PLANNING COMMITTEE MEETING

Tuesday, November 2, 1999

Council Chamber

CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL

Chair Kvistad called the meeting to order at 3:41 PM.

1.  CONSIDERATION OF THE MINUTES OF THE OCTOBER 19, 1999 METRO COUNCIL TRANSPORTATION PLANNING COMMITTEE MEETING.

2.  RESOLUTION NO. 99-2858, FOR THE PURPOSE OF AUTHORIZING A REVENUE NEUTRAL INTERGOVERNMENTAL AGREEMENT WITH TRI-MET CONCERNING TRANSIT-ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT AND INCREASING THE LEVEL OF TRANSIT SERVICE.

Andy Cotugno, Transportation Director, explained that this resolution authorized execution of an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with Tri-Met relating to transfer of funds for transit and transit oriented development (TOD) purposes. (See Staff Report attached to permanent record of this meeting for details.) He referred the committee to pages 4-5 of the IGA, which itemized the money in question. He said there had been several allocations of federal funds for TOD purposes, some of which had been committed to various projects around the region. The dollars already committed would, under the IGA, continue attached to local funds rather than federal funds. He said future decisions by council would be needed for the uncommitted money to be allocated which gave them some flexibility for the funds.

Chair Kvistad thought the money indicated for Gresham in the packet had already been obligated.

Mr. Cotugno said the money was committed based on having a development plan supportive of the lightrail station but it hadn’t been completed yet. He said as far as Metro was concerned, the money was committed but hadn’t been spent.

2-A.  UPDATE ON 82^ND AVENUE WINTER CO CONFORMITY SUB-REGION

Mr. Cotugno reported that after the last Council meeting, he had further consultation with DEQ regarding the 82^nd Avenue area carbon monoxide numbers. He wanted to ask council to reconsider Resolution No. 99-2843, adopted at last Thursday’s Council meeting, because the area was, in fact, in compliance as discovered after speaking further with DEQ. The problem was that the traffic analysis zones used were not the same as the ones used 6-7 years ago. He submitted a copy of a memo from Jean Alleman, Senior Transportation Planner, explaining the inconsistencies. (See copy in permanent record of this meeting) He said the amendments to the resolution considered at last week’s council meeting acknowledged a problem with the 82^nd Avenue area because they thought there was one at that time.

Councilor Bragdon clarified that it was not actually a mismeasurement, but that we were measuring emissions in larger area than they were and calling it the same.

Mr. Cotugno said yes, the focus area was still the 82^nd Avenue area, but it was a smaller area that finally got adopted in their maintenance plan.

Councilor Bragdon asked if it was only the amendments that pertained and if just “unwinding” the amendments would make the resolution accurate.

Mr. Cotugno said it would be accurate without the amendments.

Councilor Atherton asked why the 2005 budget for the 82^nd Avenue Winter CO was 5 and in 2015 the budget was 4.

Mr. Cotugno noted a similar pattern on other budgets, and said it was a declining rate because the emission rates on cars came down over time. He noted that in 2020 the rate started going back up again because of the number of vehicles and how clean the cars ran.

Councilor Atherton asked the difference between the budget and the standard.

Mr. Cotugno said the standard was a measurement of atmospheric concentration of pollutants at a particular location based on wind and temperature conditions among others. He said it was the estimate of how much pollution came out of all the tailpipes in the entire region.

Chair Kvistad asked Mr. Houser to make sure the Presiding Officer got the information needed for proper noticing before the next council meeting..

3.  COUNCILOR COMMUNICATIONS

Councilor Atherton asked if Metro had a role regarding rules for studded tires.

Mr. Cotugno responded that he was not in a position to give legal advice, but the issue was controlled by the legislature.

Councilor Atherton asked if Metro had the authority to charge a use tax on studs,

Chair Kvistad said Metro could have the authority under the niche tax, but could not prohibit studs altogether because the state made that decision as well as time frames for their use.

Councilor Atherton commented that upon looking at the front of some MAX trains, he thought perhaps a plastic insert could be manufactured to fit the front of the trains that would be more people friendly than the existing design and maybe save some lives. He said he had been looking into it some with Tri-Met.

Chair Kvistad said it would be interesting to find out. He asked Councilor Atherton to keep them informed of any new developments.

Councilor Bragdon noted that the east side had 12 years of operation and only one fatality, where the westside had 5 fatalities in 1 y ear. He wondered if station design could be part of the problem.

Councilor Atherton wondered when would be the appropriate time to bring up specific land use/transportation issues in the RTP.

Mr. Cotugno offered an RTP worksession for the committee.

Chair Kvistad agreed that it would be a timely update. He asked Mr. Cotugno to prepare a worksession for the committee. He felt it would be good to have an overview of how TPAC and other advisory groups worked with Metro.

Mr. Cotugno said they were anticipating that TPAC would finalize their RTP on Friday. He hoped an adoption draft would then be available to this committee as well as JPACT and MPAC with all the details.

Councilor Atherton asked how many agency people had been working on analyzing the air quality impacts of land use and transportation changes.

Mr. Cotugno said there were about 9 people in the travel forecasting section that did all of the modeling for traffic, transit ridership, air pollution emissions, bike ridership estimates, pedestrian estimates. All of the data related to how much travel there is out there, trucks, etc., that crew worked on the travel forecasting needs of Metro’s work program whether it is a RTP or a South Willamette River Crossing study, or an IMAX study. He said they also did all the travel forecasting for ODOT and other local governments so when ODOT did design work on a project they used the same travel forecasting information. When Tri-Met did route planning or when a local government did design work for local traffic improvements, they used all the same traffic forecasts That crew did these emissions estimates and did it as often as we need it. He said at a minimum, they would do it once every 2 years when the MTIP was updated. He added that as it happened this year, they would end up spending a fair amount of time on those estimates because of all the RTP projects upcoming. He thought it took 2 people about 3 weeks for the work that was done on this project.

Councilor Atherton asked if their budget was paid for by state, federal and local funds.

Mr. Cotugno said yes.

ADJOURN

There being no further business before the committee, Chair Kvistad adjourned the meeting at 4:10 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Cheryl Grant

Council Assistant

Attachments to the Record

Metro Transportation Committee meeting of November 2, 1999