MINUTES OF THE METRO COUNCIL TRANSPORTATION PLANNING COMMITTEE MEETING

Tuesday, August 4, 1998

Metro Council Chamber

Members Present:  Susan McLain (Vice Chair), Jon Kvistad

Members Absent:  Ed Washington

Vice Chair McLain called the meeting to order at 3:40 PM.

1.  INTRODUCTIONS

None.

2.  CONSIDERATION OF MINUTES OF JULY 21, 1998

Michael Morrissey, Metro Council Analyst, called the committee’s attention to the following: 1) a hearing to be held on September 8, 1998, which the Transportation Department would need to notice 30 days in advance; 2) Resolution No. 98-2680, which has a new staff report (inserted into the meeting record); 3) Resolution No. 98-2689, which has been replaced by an “A” version (included in the meeting record); and 4) Resolution No. 98-2678, which would be fast-tracked to Council and heard on August 6.

3.  RESOLUTION NO. 98-2672, FOR THE PURPOSE OF APPROVING A SOLE SOURCE AGREEMENT WITH MUSE TECHNOLOGIES INCORPORATED

Keith Lawton, Assistant Director of Technical Services, Metro Transportation Department, said this is part of a large project the Transportation Department is doing with Los Alamos National Laboratories. Los Alamos has a group called Muse Technologies, which developed a system for showing traffic-flow models graphically and from which videos can be made. This provides a superior way of looking at the modeling data. The Muse Group would like to improve this system’s graphical interface, and also improve it to include trucks, transit, and pedestrian flows. Right now the system shows only cars. Los Alamos has requested Metro contract with Muse for $200 thousand to move this project forward. This must be a sole-source, because the system is unique to Muse.

Councilor McLain will carry the resolution to a meeting of the full Council.

Before addressing the next agenda item, Mike Hoglund, Manager of Metro Regional Transportation Planning, said that Metro, for air-quality purposes, needs to reconform the regional transportation plan that lapsed last month. He said Metro has been working on reconforming the plan. The biggest change is that it now includes the Airport light rail project. That project will be brought forward in September or October, for review and approval for part of the funding. In the meantime, the project has been included in the plan. Both the state rule and the Transportation Department’s normal procedures for public involvement require that a public hearing be held on the plan and that the hearing be given 30-days’ notice. The Department is requesting that the committee approve the hearing and the notice, so the notice can be put in the newspaper early next week.

4.  RESOLUTION NO. 98-2680, FOR THE PURPOSE OF ADOPTING THE PROCESS AND CRITERIA FOR PROJECT SELECTION FOR THE FY 2000-03 METRO TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM

Mr. Hoglund said that normally the committee would not be asked to act on a resolution like this before the Joint Policy Advisory Commission on Transportation (JPACT) had a chance to make its recommendations. However, JPACT will not meet again until August 13, the same day as the last Council meeting before the summer recess. If the committee waited until after JPACT to hear this, it would delay the anticipated release of a grant solicitation packet. Mr. Hoglund said the department was therefore suggesting that the order of events be reversed, and be heard here first, at JPACT the morning of the 13th, and at Council that afternoon. If the committee, JPACT, and the Council all agree, then the solicitation packet could be released right after that. If, however, JPACT did not agree the release of the solicitation packet would be seriously delayed.

Mr. Hoglund said some issues related to the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) criteria remain unresolved. He referred the committee to the staff report that accompanies this resolution (contained in the meeting record). He noted the five issues explained in that report, and said some of them have been resolved. The first issue, that of geographic equity, has been resolved. JPACT supports geographic equity to the extent possible. The second issue, that concerning how to evaluate boulevard projects, remains unresolved. He said generally JPACT, Metro staff, and the committee would like to see some boulevard projects funded. Originally, special points were awarded for boulevard projects. The concern was that the boulevard projects might get lost in the mix. JPACT recommended creating a special category for boulevard projects. The unresolved issue revolves around the criteria to evaluate boulevard projects. Staff developed a set of draft criteria that went to the Technical Policy Advisory Committee (TPAC), but TPAC did not have enough time to review the criteria. TPAC has therefore scheduled special meeting on August 7 to discuss them. The criteria will then be taken to JPACT. Mr. Hoglund said he did not anticipate that the criteria would be changed much, in that all parties have agreed on the main issue--that there should be a separate category for boulevard projects.

Councilor McLain said she thought one of the questions concerned whether the criteria should be administrative or assigned points. She did not know that a decision had been made to assign points. Mr. Hoglund said that had been decided at the a special meeting held on July 16. He said the idea was not to give special points within the road projects or to assign administrative criteria after the fact, but rather create a special boulevard category, then rank the projects within that category. JPACT and the Council need to decide how much they want to fund in that category. Mr. Hoglund said all the issues will come back to JPACT, accompanied by a report from a special committee on the unresolved issues.

The third issue, that of affordable housing, also remains unresolved. The vote in JPACT was 5/4/1 to retain an affordable housing administrative criterion. This is an area in which the committee’s message will be important. Mr. Hoglund said he had discussed this with Andrew Cotugno, Director of Metro’s Transportation Department, and they agreed that a category for affordable housing should be kept, and it should be in the administrative criteria. In this scheme, a project solicitation would contain a section asking for qualitative findings as to whether the project would do anything for affordable housing. The applicant could then provide an explanation. No points would be awarded for affordable housing, but the information could be used in making final funding decisions.

Councilor McLain said she did not feel the committee could make a recommendation on this issue without having all committee members present.

The fourth issue, that of requiring all projects be consistent with the street design guidelines contained in Title 6 of the functional plan, remains unresolved. A couple of members of JPACT expressed concern that at this point, not enough design work would be completed to allow a determination of whether particular design elements could be included. However, staff had expected that if the right-of-way and the general purpose and function of the project were known, the jurisdictions could declare their intent with the project. Staff recommendation remains to retain street design screening criteria. JPACT still needs to resolve this issue.

The fifth and final issue, the wording for evaluating jobs in relationship to freight projects, has been resolved. The issue was how to count freight jobs. The Port of Portland came up with a recommendation, which the subcommittee has accepted.

Mr. Hoglund reiterated that the two largest unresolved issues concern boulevard design and affordable housing. The question of whether to include whether street design in screening criteria remains, but it is not such a major issue.

Councilor Kvistad said he would move this resolution, but unrecommended. He said he would prefer that the affordable housing issue be separated from the other issues. Vice Chair McLain said she would also prefer to move this unrecommended, because the conversations on too many issues remain incomplete.

Vice Chair McLain said she supports the boulevard design criteria and inclusion of affordable housing, as both have implications for the functional plan and the regional framework plan. She supports the current recommendations on the other issues.

Mr. Morrissey asked if the other items mentioned in the staff report reflect the consensus of the committee as discussed in previous meetings. Mr. Hoglund said yes.

Chair Washington will carry the resolution to a meeting of the full Council.

5.  RESOLUTION NO. 98-2689, FOR THE PURPOSE OF AMENDING THE 1998-2001 METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM TO ALLOCATE $40,000 TO THE TUALATIN TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION

Mr. Hoglund noted that the original version of Resolution No. 98-2689 had been replaced by an “A” version. He said the reason this is an amended version is because TPAC made changes to the original since it was first submitted. (The amended version has been substituted in the agenda packet for the original.)

Mr. Hoglund said Tualatin approached JPACT requesting $40,000 to backfill the budget, for continuation of their Transportation Management Association (TMA). He said Tualatin had a $20,000 agreement with Tri-Met that went $60,000 in FY-98--$40,000 in 1999 and $20,000 in 2000. The idea was that they would come up with private sector money to backfill that, but that has not been possible. Some of the programs the TMA would like to complete; others JPACT thinks are important. One purpose of the money is to retain staff, and the other is to do a demonstration study of a subsidized van pool in that corridor.

Mr. Hoglund said the $40,000 would go for this fiscal year. As to where the money would come from, Mr. Hoglund said that with additional dollars through Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA), $40,000 from the TEA-21 dollars could be applied to this project. It would take away from the unallocated money that otherwise would be allocated as part of the TIP.

There is another concern, and that is there is no policy basis for TMAs. The task is, among other things, to define TMAs, identify how they work best, where they work best, and how they are best funded. Mr. Hoglund said a resolution will come forward next month to provide the policy basis for the a TMA program to feed into the MTIP process. The request at hand would allow staff to allocate through the MTIP and STIP the $40,000 to the Tualatin TMA.

Councilor Kvistad said he would like to include in this resolution the ability to fund a demonstration of the west-side light rail, to coincide with the opening of the west side MAX. He said he wanted to assure a vehicle for allocating up to $5,000 toward that demonstration project. He said he did not think this would detract from the resolution under consideration nor require additional funds. The reason he was asking for this now is that he would not have time to draw up a separate resolution and have it go through committee and Council before the September 12 opening date for the west-side light rail.

Mr. Brandman said he did not know what the funding mechanism for the demonstration project would be and he would need to consult with Mr. Cotugno on the Transportation Department’s budget to see what funds might be available. He said he does not even know where TMA funds normally come from.

Mr. Hoglund said TMA funds normally come from Congestion Mitigation/Air Quality (CMAQ) or State Transportation Project (STP) funds, and are therefore flexible. Mr. Brandman said JPACT might need to act, if funds are allocated that would normally be controlled by JPACT.

Vice Chair McLain suggested Councilor Kvistad not tie his $5,000 request to this resolution. She said she anticipated some Councilors will have reservations about the resolution, which could put the demonstration project’s funding at risk. She said she had reservations about this resolution. She said she had no problem with the original resolution, but she questioned providing money to support staff until they figure out what they are doing.

Mr. Morrissey suggested that Councilor Kvistad might ask that the committee declare its intention to bring an amendment forward, rather than proposing an amendment now. Councilor Kvistad agreed. Councilor Kvistad said he would make a separate motion to recommend to Council a resolution that will authorize the funds, up to $5,000.

Vice Chair McLain said she needed more convincing to pass Resolution No. 98-2689A. She said as she understood it, the original purpose was to keep a the working system whole--to keep buses on the street.

Mr. Hoglund said that it is unfortunate the piece is not included here on what TMAs do. He explained that they do “soft” things and “hard” things. Most TMAs do more soft things--organize pass programs such as the one in the Lloyd District, provide information, organize to encourage alternative transportation modes--and not much in the way of hard things. He said that is what he understand the $20,000 gap in the Tualatin TMA is--to keep the full-time staff on board and hold the TMA together. Then the TMA would use the other $20,000 to demonstrate the feasibility of a van pool program in that area. Metro is interested in how well the van pool idea works, as it is one of the cornerstones of the transit choices for livability--to do these van pools in areas that are a mix of industrial and flex space. This would provide good information on how that might work.

Councilor McLain said that the staff report makes it sound like this would be an open check, giving staff the authorization to resolve administrative issues, to determine which program funds to use, and to decide for which the fiscal year the funds would be programmed. She said that implies Metro does not know what is out there, where it wants to put its money, and in what year to do it. She said she felt uncomfortable about that. She felt comfortable with the original resolution, which stated a particular program that would be presented to JPACT.

Mr. Hoglund said the reason the “be it resolved” is so vague is that we don’t know from which program to take the funds. Before, we thought we were going to have to go to project and say “this one’s delayed” and take $20,000 from it to backfill later. However, because we received a mass of money under TEA-21, we don’t know if we would take the $40,000 from STP or Congestion Mitigation/Air Quality (CMAQ) funds. The other reason it is vague about the fiscal year is because we’re approaching the end of the federal fiscal year, which is September 30. But by the time we do all the contracting and grants to make the money eligible, it could be this year or October, which goes into the next fiscal year.

Vice Chair McLain asked if this would be going to JPACT next week. Mr. Hoglund said yes.

Vice Chair McLain said she thought staff needed to answer some of its own questions before going to JPACT, such as from where the money will come and an idea of how the money will make the TMA whole. She cautioned against tying the money up and missing an opportunity on another project.

Mr. Hoglund agreed.

Councilor McLain will carry the resolution to a meeting of the full Council.

Councilor Kvistad recommended that a resolution be drawn up that authorizes up to $5000 for Metro’s contribution to a demonstration project on a west-side commuter rail, to coincide with the opening of the light rail. Mr. Morrissey clarified that this was a separate resolution and not an amendment to Resolution 98-2689A. Councilor Kvistad said that was correct. This would be a separate resolution with its own number.

6.  RESOLUTION NO. 98-2678, FOR THE PURPOSE OF AMENDING THE SOUTH/NORTH DEIS CONSULTANT SERVICES CONTRACT, NO 904021, WITH PARAMETRIX, INC. TO INCORPORATE ANALYSIS FOR THE FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT (FEIS)

Councilor Kvistad said he understood both this resolution and the next one. He said the committee and the Council had dealt with both Parametrix and the Larkin Group before. He moved both resolutions at the same time. No further discussion accompanied either resolution.

Councilor McLain will carry the resolution to a meeting of the full Council.

7.  RESOLUTION NO. 98-2685, FOR THE PURPOSE OF AMENDING THE SOUTH/NORTH TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE, FINANCIAL ANALYSIS, AND INTERGOVERNMENTAL COORDINATION CONSULTANT SERVICES CONTRACT, NO. 904099, WITH THE LARKIN GROUP, INC.

Chair Washington will carry the resolution to a meeting of the full Council.

8.  COUNCILOR COMMUNICATIONS

There being no further business before the Committee, Vice Chair McLain adjourned the meeting at 4:20 PM.

Prepared by,

Pat Emmerson

Council Assistant