AGENDA #8
MEMORANDUM
TO: Mayor and Town Council
FROM: W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager
SUBJECT: Draft 2006-2007 Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Urban Area Planning Work Program.
DATE: May 8, 2006
This memorandum reviews the draft 2006-2007 Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Urban Area Planning Work Program. The attached resolution would provide comments to the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Transportation Advisory Committee on the draft Program.
BACKGROUND
The Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization is required by federal regulations to prepare and adopt an annual Planning Work Program. This Program must include a summary of the allocation of federal transportation funding used for planning activities. As part of the approval process the Transportation Advisory Committee has released the draft 2006-2007 Planning Work Program for public comment. (Attachment 1)
DISCUSSION
There are four primary sources of funding for transportation planning activities available to the Urban Area. These include, Section 104(f) PL, Section 5303, 5307 and Surface Transportation Program Direct Allocation funds. The draft Work Program includes a summary of these sources beginning on page 9.
Section 104(f): These funds are made available from the Federal Highway Administration, are annually allocated to the Urban area on a formula basis and distributed to the City of Durham, Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange County. Section 104(f) funds are intended to support long range transportation planning and require a 20 percent local match.
Section 5303: These funds are provided annually by the Federal Transit Administration to the Urban Area on a formula. Chapel Hill and the City of Durham are allocated these funds. Section 5303 funds area intended to support long range transit planning and require a 10 percent local match and 10 percent State match.
Section 5307: The Federal Transit Administration provides an annual allocation of 5307 funding to the Urban Area and a portion of these funds can be used, at the discretion of the transit agencies, for short range or operational planning. The 5307 funds require a 10 percent local match and 10 percent State match.
Surface Transportation Program-Direct Allocation: The Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Urban Area is provided an annual allocation of Direct Allocation funds. These funds can be used for capital construction or planning. The Urban Area has proposed to use a portion of these funds for planning projects. Direct Allocation funds require a 20 percent local match.
The Work Program proposes to utilize the funds are follows:
|
Funding Program |
Federal |
State |
Local |
Total |
|
Section 104(f)PL |
$616,541 |
$0 |
$154,135 |
$770,676 |
|
STP-DA |
$1,775,600 |
$0 |
$443,900 |
$2,219,500 |
|
FTA 5303 |
$192,768 |
$24,096 |
$24,096 |
$240,960 |
|
FTA 5307 |
$1,736,445 |
$217,056 |
$217,056 |
$2,170,556 |
|
Total |
$4,321,354 |
241,152 |
839,187 |
5,401,693 |
On page 38 of Attachment 1, total proposed funding for transportation planning for the 2006-2007 fiscal year is broken down by local agency. The Town of Chapel Hill expects to utilize approximately $600,565 in planning funds from all the sources identified in the table above. This includes ongoing transportation and transit planning activities and special projects such as the proposed Downtown Transit Transfer Feasibility Study and Chapel Hill-Carrboro Long Range Transit Plan.
KEY ISSUES
The proposed allocation of Surface Transportation Program Direct Allocation funds includes initiating several regional planning projects. These Major Emphasis Projects, included in the table on page 34 of the attachment, include:
Bicycle and Pedestrian Trip Model Enhancement: This project will supplement the ability of existing Triangle Regional Model to represent existing bicycle and pedestrian activity and to project these uses in the future.
Comment: The existing Model includes a cursory approach to reflecting bicycle and pedestrian modes of travel but with the increased emphasis on these travel modes it is important to provide an approach that can more accurately capture existing and future activity. This enhancement to the Triangle Regional Model will provide the Urban Area with better information that can support increased investment in bicycle and pedestrian facilities and also supports expanded public transit facilities and services.
Travel Demand Model Major Update and Enhancement: This project will continue work begun in 2005-2006 to update various components of the Triangle Regional Model.
Comment: The Triangle Regional Model is being revised to run on a more advanced software platform. The TransCad modeling platform is expected to provide expanded ability to refine model forecasts and improved integration with geographic information system mapping.
Travel Survey Phase II: Onboard, External Trips and Travel Time/Speed surveys: This project will collect base travel behavior data, including a complete transit boarding and alighting survey and external trip survey.
Comment: The collection of this data is important to improve the ability of the Triangle Regional Model to more accurately reflect existing transit behavior and project future activity. The expanded external trip data will better capture the increased trips originating or destined for areas outside the Orange, Durham and Chatham County areas.
MPO Transportation Data Management Automation and GIS Integration: This project will develop a process for collecting and maintaining a real time database of socio economic data, including housing and employment information.
Comment: The ability to collect and update expanded housing and employment data will allow regional and local planners to use the Triangle Regional Model in periods between major Regional Plan updates, which are required every four years.
Land Use/Transportation/AQ Integration Model: This project will develop a land use model that is integrated with the Triangle Regional Model to allow interaction between land use and transportation analysis.
Comment: The quantification of land use impacts on transportation facilities and transportation decisions on land use patterns has been the identified as a goal of the Urban Area. This project will provide the linkages to allow for evaluation of both transportation and land use impacts.
Collector Streets Plans: This project will prepare collector streets plans for areas of the Urban Area.
Comment: The collector street plan will focus on those areas of the Urban Area outside municipal jurisdictions. The Plan will develop collector roads networks linking areas anticipated for future development with existing or proposed collector street systems.
Intelligent Transportation Systems Plan Update: This project will refine the existing Urban Area Intelligent Transportation System Plan. The Intelligent Transportation System Plan addresses the implementation of advanced technology systems, such as passenger information systems and computerized traffic signals systems.
Comment: The System Plan will integrate the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Urban Area Plan similar plans for the Capital Area Urban Area and local transit system. The Update will and also conform to federal regulations for Intelligent Transportation System architecture.
The use of the Direct Allocation funds to complete all of the major emphasis Planning Projects requires a 20 percent local match. Because these studies are regional in nature the local match is proposed to be apportioned between local jurisdictions. The proposed 2006-2007 program includes the following local match requirements:
|
Durham |
$193,301 |
|
Chapel Hill |
$42,357 |
|
Carrboro |
$14,592 |
|
|
|
|
Total |
$250,250 |
There is no proposed contribution by Durham, Orange or Chatham County to the local match for any of the proposed Major Emphasis Projects. In the past the Urban Area pursued a limited number of planning projects, most of which were focused on transportation issues directly affecting Durham, Chapel Hill and Carrboro. While the proposed Major Emphasis Projects continue to reflect the focus on transportation issues directly affecting local jurisdictions, we believe the proposed Collector Roads Study will benefit areas outside the these areas. The Collector Roads Study is intended to develop a collector roads plan for areas of the region not currently covered by existing plans.
We believe that the majority of the proposed Collector Road Study will be undertaken in areas of the region that are under county jurisdiction. Chapel Hill and Durham are currently completing a joint collector roads plan in the southwest Durham/southeast Chapel Hill area. This project was funded with 2005-2006 planning funds and the Town has provided a share of the local match for that project. We do not believe areas within Chapel Hill’s jurisdiction require additional collector roads planning as envisioned in the proposed regional project. We recommend removing the requirement for local match from Chapel Hill and including Orange, Durham and Chatham counties as providing the local match.
PROPOSED FUNDING FOR CHAPEL HILL-CARRBORO
LONG RANGE TRANSIT PLAN
The draft 2006-2007 Planning Work Program also includes approximately $160,000 in Surface Transportation Program Direct Allocation funds for the proposed Chapel Hill-Carrboro Long Range Transit Plan. This allocation requires a $40,000 local match. This allocation is shown in the table on page 13, General Planning (3-C)/Funded Special Projects and New Initiatives.
We believe the Council should express continued support for the funding of the Long Range Transit Plan in the Planning Work Program.
NEXT STEPS
The Transportation Advisory Committee is expected to review and approve the draft 2006-2007 Planning Work Program at their May 10, 2006 meeting.
RECOMMENDATION
Managers Recommendation: That the Council approve the attached resolution providing the following recommendations to the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Transportation Advisory Committee on the draft 2006-2007 Planning Work Program.
ATTACHMENTS