July 2002
This month the Transportation Policy Board plans to recommend regional projects to receive $37 million in federal transportation funding available in 2004-2005. Another $26 million in federal funding will go to projects recommended by the region's countywide organizations. The recommended projects will be included in the draft 2003-2005 Transportation Improvement Program that will be released for public comment and review in September. Decisions on the projects that receive funding are based on a new policy framework adopted in January. These policies call for the Regional Council to target regional transportation funding to designated urban and manufacturing centers and the transportation corridors that connect those centers. "The new focus on centers and connecting corridors will help us fund traffic solutions where they matter most," said Councilmember Dave Earling, who chairs the Transportation Policy Board. "And we've succeeded in our efforts to target more available funding to larger projects with impact, as opposed to spreading the funding thinly as we did a decade ago." The Regional Council issued a call for projects in March, and ultimately received funding requests for 28 projects worth $156 million. In May, project sponsors made brief presentations to the Regional Project Evaluation Committee (RPEC) and to the staff team that evaluated and scored the projects. RPEC reviewed the evaluation of projects and will make a presentation to the Transportation Policy Board on July 11th. Final adoption of the 2003-2005 Regional TIP is scheduled for October 2002. TEA-21 Regional Project Competition Funding Requests
| Urban Centers (4 projects) | ||
| 1. | Diesel Solutions Program | $5,000,000 |
| 2. | Urban Centers Transit Development Project | $8,928,775 |
| 3. | SR 304 (SR 3/304 Interchange to Bremerton Ferry Terminal) | $3,719,500 |
| 4. | West Central Bremerton Transit Oriented Development | $5,000,000 |
| $22,648,275 | ||
| Manufacturing / Industrial Centers (1 project) | ||
| 5. | Lincoln Ave Overpass | $5,000,000 |
| $5,000,000 | ||
| Connecting Corridors (23 projects) | ||
| 6. | 196 St SW / Filbert Rd (SR 524): 24th to SR 527 | $6,000,000 |
| 7. | Clean-Fueled Fleets Rebate Program, Sea-Tac Airport | $2,500,000 |
| 8. | Carr Road / Trans Valley ITS Corridor | $6,000,000 |
| 9. | Alaskan Way Viaduct and Seawall Project | $5,000,000 |
| 10. | SR 522 Multimodal Corridor Improvements | $5,390,000 |
| 11. | SR 509: Corridor Completion | $5,000,000 |
| 12. | 1-90 Two-Way Transit and HOV Operations | $5,000,000 |
| 13. | Strander Blvd / SW 27th St Corridor Extension | $2,889,000 |
| 14. | Pacific Highway South / Internationl Blvd Redevelopment | $19,200,000 |
| 15. | Port Orchard Intermodal Terminal (Sidney Landing) | $3,360,000 |
| 16. | SR 3 / SR 303 Interchange, Silverdale Vicinity | $7,900,000 |
| 17. | SR 16 / Burley-Olalla Interchange | $1,470,500 |
| 18. | SR 167 Extension | $5,000,000 |
| 19. | Sounder Commuter Rail: Lakewood to Tacoma Extension | $6,000,000 |
| 20. | SR 704 (Cross Base Highway) | $5,000,000 |
| 21. | 41st St: Interstate 5 Interchange Improvements | $1,800,000 |
| 22. | 112th St / Beverly Park Rd Corridor (SR 525 to SR 527) | $4,700,000 |
| 23. | Mukilteo Multimodal Terminal | $3,000,000 |
| 24. | Mountlake Terrace Park & Ride / In-Line Station | $6,594,687 |
| 25. | Sounder Commuter Rail: Everett to Seattle Extension | $15,000,000 |
| 26. | I-405 Corridor Program: "Early Actions" | $3,000,000 |
| 27. | Edmonds Crossing Multimodal Terminal | $3,000,000 |
| 28. | Pierce Transit Maintenance Base Expansion | $5,144,385 |
| $127,948,572 | ||
| All Projects | $155,596,847 | |
| Next Steps: The Regional Council has requested all other projects for the draft 2003-05 Regional TIP to be submitted by July 19. These include all other federally funded projects, and state and locally funded, regionally significant projects. The Air Quality Conformity Scoping meeting, which will provide a review of the air quality modeling process, is scheduled for August 20 (see calendar for details). The TIP will be modeled to ensure that projects meet clean air requirements. |
Schedule for Development of the 2003-2005 Transportation Improvement Program
| RPEC Subcommittee reviews scoring (6/20-6/21)
| |
| Request for all projects to be included in 2003-2005 TIP | |
| Countywide organizations and FTA caucus submit recommended projects to PSRC (7/19) | |
All other applications due
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Final review of all projects
| |
| Air quality conformity
| |
| Formal public review
| |
| Transportation Policy Board and Executive Board action on 2003-2005 TIP and conformity finding (10/10, 10/24) | |
| State and federal review and approvals: December 2002 (tentative) | |
| * Critical date -- assumes a favorable conformity finding is possible. If not, additional 30 days required. |
For a print version of this schedule, click here.
Imagining Our Transportation Future
Experts Say Value Pricing Can Help Ease Congestion, Offer Transportation Choices
On May 29, the Puget Sound Regional Council helped to host a lively, well-attended conference on Value Pricing in Transportation. The conference was one in a series sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration and the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota.
- New approaches to transportation finance must be used if regional investments in mobility are to move forward; existing tax-based financing will not be sufficient. This is the situation in most major metropolitan regions.
- Efficiency in transportation investments and management will become increasingly important in the future as it becomes more difficult financially and politically to build new facilities.
- Value pricing helps to efficiently manage the use of roads and can help finance new transportation investments.
- Value pricing is a popular idea among people who are familiar with its real applications. Users place high value on pricing benefits like reduced congestion or travel choices, and many non-users believe pricing offers a fair approach to providing improved transportation services.
- The logistics of value pricing can easily be resolved with existing technology. Barriers to putting value pricing in place are largely political. Success depends on professional marketing and effectively communicating the anticipated benefits of value pricing.
- A mature research agenda is important. Current political opposition to value pricing revolves around a range of perceived unintended consequences, such as equity implications. A strategic research agenda that examines all appropriate policy issues will have the best chance for success.
- Addressing urban traffic congestion requires creative thinking and bold transportation plans. Value pricing can help make these plans a reality.
The Puget Sound Regional Council has applied to the Federal Highway Administration for a grant to operate a value pricing demonstration project. If funded, this project will test user response to roadway pricing by simulating value pricing for a sample of volunteer motorists. The demonstration project will design and test all the major elements of an actual price management strategy. For updates on the status of the demonstration project grant proposal and for follow up from the May 29th conference in Bellevue, please visit the Regional Council's Web site, psrc.org/projects/pricing/. You can listen free to an audio recording of the conference on the Web. Go to TVW, the Washington public affairs network, at tvw.org. TVW also offers a video of the conference for purchase.
Washington State Department of Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald noted that efficiency is key to the future of urban transportation -- and efficiency is what value pricing is all about.
Randall Pozdena, economist and managing director of the consulting firm ECONorthwest in Portland, Oregon, noted that drivers on congested roadways impose costs on society as they contribute to additional delay. Value pricing is the signal that encourages drivers to economize their travel.
Patrick DeCorla-Souza, Value Pricing Team Leader at the Federal Highway Administration, provided an overview of the national value pricing pilot program and its funded projects around the country.
Edward Tyrer, UK Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions (DTLR), provided insights into transport pricing policy within the United Kingdom.
Conference Sponsors
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2002 Legislative Session: Lawmakers Act on Some Financial Incentives to Support Centers Destination 2030 describes a number of regulatory reforms, development strategies, and financial incentives as potential tools to help foster development in urban centers and around high-capacity transit stations. A number of bills were introduced in the 2002 legislative session that were directly related to the financial incentives: Multi-Family Tax Exemption Program Bill Passes.
| This incentive encourages new multi-family housing in urban centers by forgiving the property tax payments for 10 years. Previously, only larger cities were eligible to use this incentive. House Bill 2466 reduces the population threshold from 50,000 to 30,000. This reduction allows a host of medium sized cities to use the incentive, including Redmond, Kirkland, Auburn, Edmonds, Sammamish, Lynnwood, Puyallup, Burien, and Bothell. University Place has likely passed the threshold this year. |
| Tax increment financing ("TIF") has been a topic of continued interest in Washington state for many years. This technique "captures" the additional property taxes generated by private development projects to finance the up-front public development costs. TIF had been unavailable in Washington state until June 2001, when House Bill 1418 passed, authorizing TIF. However, restrictions in the bill limit the funds available to the district, and the use of the funds requires a supermajority agreement from the taxing districts. These restrictions protect the taxing authorities, but also limit the effectiveness of the TIF. In 2002, House Bill 2592 passed, making technical corrections to HB 1418, clarifying that fire districts must agree to the TIF district, and that local governments can issue long-term revenue bonds which are not considered as general obligation indebtedness. This bill adds clarity to the bonding structure, and by creating a separate structure for generating and paying back the revenue bonds, it helps protect the local government. Also, House Bill 2437 passed this year, allowing cities and towns to use the incremental increase of their own local sales and use tax to finance projects in their downtown and neighborhood commercial districts (funds can be pooled citywide to pay for programs or to pay back bonds). This tool is available only to cities with greater than 100,000 residents, or those with state-designated "main streets." This bill merely clarifies that this pre-existing authority is legal, and so does not add new options for local jurisdictions. |
| This incentive encourages new multi-family housing in transit corridors by forgiving the property tax payments for a period of time in defined transit corridors around transit stations/facilities. Senate Bill 5950 would have authorized a 10-year property tax deferral, with the funds to be paid back over the following 10 years with no interest, essentially serving as a no-interest loan. Cities would have retained control over developing local guidelines such as low-income housing, heights, density, public benefit features, and parking requirements. The Regional Council will continue to monitor efforts made in this area. |
Granite Falls Becomes Newest Member of the Regional Council
The Regional Council welcomed Granite Falls as a new member in June. Named for the waterfalls cut into granite by the nearby Stillaguamish River, Granite Falls was first settled in the 1890s and became a city in 1903. The city is now home to 2,372 people, and the 108-year-old Granite Falls School District supports more than 1,600 students.
- a voice in key regional decisions
- opportunities to resolve growth and transportation issues that cross jurisdictional boundaries
- information and technical assistance for obtaining federal and state transportation funds
- employment, population and travel data needed to meet special requirements of the Growth Management Act and other laws
- access to databases for use in Geographic Information System (GIS) software, GIS assistance and custom map products
- free standard and secondary data products and working data sets; large custom requests at a discount
- access to an extensive range of technical expertise in areas such as transit and transportation planning, economics and economic development, growth management, demographics and use of geographic information systems
LIDAR Consortium Developing Digital Topography for the Puget Lowlands
The Puget Sound LIDAR Consortium, an informal group of local, state and regional agency staff and federal research scientists, is developing LIDAR topography and related products for the Puget Sound region. LIDAR is an acronym for Light Detection And Ranging, the laser equivalent to RADAR or SONAR. This remote-sensing technology maps topography at a very high resolution and level of detail. The goal of the PSLC is to acquire LIDAR topography for the entire Puget Lowland (lands less that 2,000 feet above sea level). The consortium formed in the fall of 1999, with initial participants from Kitsap County, Kitsap PUD, City of Seattle, Puget Sound Regional Council, NASA, and the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Since that time, Clallam, Jefferson, Mason, Island and Thurston counties have become involved as well as the Washington state departments of ecology and transportation. Conversations are currently underway with Whatcom, Pierce, Snohomish and King counties. The effort is being funded from a variety of federal, state and local sources, with the majority coming from direct federal grants. The various participants have different, though complementary, uses for the data. The USGS and NASA scientists are evaluating geologic hazards, including earthquakes and landslides in the region. The detailed topography has so far revealed seven previously unknown earthquake fault scarps -- places where the earth's surface ruptured -- associated with a major earthquake on the Seattle Fault around 900 A.D. The scientists are also measuring uplifted beach terraces around central Puget Sound that are associated with that event. The state and local agencies are putting the topography to a number of uses including public works planning, environmental assessment, flood and landslide hazard mapping, ESA salmon habitat assessment, and water resource planning. Since the data products are all in the public domain, these planning efforts can make use of precise, highly detailed data without increasing the cost of the projects. Local governments like Bellevue and Mercer Island, who have not participated directly in the consortium, have made direct use of the public domain data for watershed and landslide studies. The Regional Council has been actively involved in the LIDAR Consortium from its inception. Regional Council funds contributed to the first year's data collection in early 2000. Currently, with the help of a grant from the USGS, the PSRC is providing project coordination, quality control and data distribution for the project.
| Prospect Point, Kitsap County |
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| Top surface showing trees |
| Top surface showing bare earth |
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| Images courtesy of Kitsap County |
206-464-7532 - FAX 206-587-4825 - infoctr@psrc.org Sign language and communication material in alternative formats can be arranged given sufficient notice by calling Grace Foster at 206-464-7090. TDD\TTY; 206-464-5409. Funding for this newsletter provided in part by member jurisdictions, grants from U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration, Federal Highway Administration and Washington State Department of Transportation.
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