AGENDA #8d
BUDGET WORKING PAPER
TO: W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager
FROM: Roger Waldon, Planning Director
SUBJECT: Proposed Schedule and Funding Related to the Mobility Report Card and Orange County Emissions Inventory and Implementation Plan
DATE: May 21, 2003
This working paper reviews the status of funding from the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization for an update of the Town’s Mobility Report Card and the preparation of an Orange County Emissions Inventory and Implementation Plan. Both projects require a local match.
BACKGROUND
Mobility Report Card: In 2001 the first Chapel Hill Mobility Report Card was completed. This Report included data on various aspects of the Town’s transportation system, including roadway volumes, intersection levels of service, transit use, bicycle counts and pedestrian counts. This information was collected at various locations throughout the community. The Report included related transportation data collected by the University of North Carolina as part of their Main Campus Development Plan. The purpose of the 2001 Mobility Report Card was to evaluate the status of the Town’s transportation system and to establish a base against which future updates to the Report could be compared.
Emissions Plan: Chapel Hill, and Orange County are members of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) and the Cities for Climate Protection (CCP) campaign. In addition to membership in these organizations Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange County have adopted resolutions pledging to reduce global warming by completing a five step process:
DISCUSSION
Mobility Report Card
On May 14, 2003 the Transportation Advisory Committee of the Durham-Chapel Hill Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization included funding in the FY2003-2004 Regional Planning Work Program to update the Chapel Hill Mobility Report Card. The proposed funding totals $100,000, which includes $80,000 in federal funds and $20,000 in local funds. The Metropolitan Planning Organization has included the Mobility Report Card as part of the Region’s federally required Congestion Management Plan. Durham and Orange County are scheduled to prepare similar analyses this fall. We believe it would be desirable to complete the update to the Town’s Mobility Report Card in the fall of 2003. By completing the Study in 2003 we can utilize the transportation data that will be collected by the University of North Carolina as required by the Main Campus Development Plan. The Mobility Report Card would also be able to utilize data collected from surveys of transit ridership anticipated to be completed in the fall of 2003.
The 2001 Mobility Report Card cost approximately $71,000 to complete. The Town’s share was $14,200. We anticipate that the 2003 Update could be completed for a similar amount and that the Town would need approximately $15,000 for the local match.
We note that Carrboro’s representative to the Metropolitan Planning Organization has requested that the Study be expanded to include Carrboro. We believe it would be appropriate to offer Carrboro the opportunity to purchase additional services from the consultant selected by the Town to complete the Chapel Hill Mobility Report Card in order to include Carrboro in the analysis. We believe the inclusion of Carrboro could be accomplished with the funds appropriated by the Metropolitan Planning Organization, with Carrboro providing the 20% match for any work in addition to the Chapel Hill update.
Orange County Emissions Inventory and Implementation Plan
On May 14th, 2003 the Transportation Advisory Committee of the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization allocated $60,000 in federal funds for the completion of an emission inventory and development of an implementation Plan for Durham and Orange Counties. With the 20% local match the total budget would be $75,000.
Durham County completed an emissions inventory in 1999 and developed a preliminary implementation plan. Durham County staff report that another emission inventory is not needed at this time but that there is a need to update and expand Durham’s implementation plan. They requested that $24,000 of the $60,000 budgeted by the Metropolitan Planning Organization be allocated to Durham County to complete this work.
The remaining $36,000 in federal funds would be available to Orange County to complete the first three steps of the Cities for Climate Protection process. These include:
With the 20% local match a total budget of $45,000 would be available to complete this project. We now estimate Chapel Hill’s portion of the local match will be between $2,000 and $5,000. It is anticipated that this project would be initiated in October, 2003.
CONCLUSION
We believe that in order to best coordinate transportation data that will be collected by the University of North Carolina and Chapel Hill Transit it would be desirable for the Town to update the 2001 Mobility Report Card Report in 2003. We estimate the Town’s share of this project will be approximately $15,000.
Funding for the development of the Orange County Emissions Inventory and Implementation Plan in conjunction with Orange County and Carrboro has been provided by the Metropolitan Planning Organization. The total cost to Chapel Hill of the required local share is estimated to be approximately $5,000.