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Bi-State Transportation Committee |
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Below is the meeting report for the Bi-State Transportation Committee meeting, held on Thursday, February 27, 2003, from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. at the Port of Vancouver, 3103 NW Lower River Road, Vancouver, Washington. An agenda for this meeting is also available.
The meeting of the Bi-State Transportation Committee was called to order by Chair Craig Pridemore, at 7:35 a.m. at the Port of Vancouver, 3103 NW Lower River Road, Vancouver, Washington. Those in attendance follow:
Committee Members Rex Burkholder, Metro Councilor
Serena Cruz, Multnomah County Commissioner
Lynne Griffith, C-TRAN Executive Director/CEO
Larry Haverkamp, City of Gresham Councilor
Steve Iwata (alternate), City of Portland
Craig Pridemore, Clark County Commissioner
Phil Selinger (alternate), Tri-Met
Kay Van Sickel, ODOT Region One Manager
Don Wagner, WSDOT SW Region Administrator
Bill Wyatt, Port of Portland Executive DirectorStaff Andy Cotugno, Metro
John Cullerton, Metro
Dean Lookingbill, RTC
Diane Workman, RTCInterested Guests Ed Barnes, Washington Transportation Commissioner
Mike Clark, WSDOT
Kate Deane, ODOT
Evan Dust, Clark County
Fred Eberle, ODOT
John Gillam, City of Portland
Bob Hart, RTC
Susie Lahsene, Port of Portland
Dale Miller, C-TRAN
Rod Monroe, Metro Councilor (alternate)
Sharon Nasset, NPBA
Karen Schilling, Multnomah County
Bill Stewart, The OregonianChair Pridemore asked for approval of the November 21, 2002 Meeting Report. The Meeting Report was approved as written.
Dean Lookingbill distributed a memorandum listing the federal reauthorization transportation projects that have received the regional endorsement of the RTC Board of Directors.
Mr. Lookingbill highlighted those projects which include: the Delta Park Widening Project, I-5 Columbia River Crossing DEIS Project, I-5 and 134th Street Project, I-205 and Mill Plain/112th Street Project, I-5 and 219th Street Interchange Project, Vancouver Area ITS project, I-5 and I-205 Light Rail Loop Project, Interstate MAX Light Rail Project (Oregon), MAX South Corridor Light Rail Project (Oregon), Columbia River Channel Deepening Project, and C-TRAN Park and Ride Project.
Andy Cotugno said they have some crossover in the endorsements in their resolution. He said it is important to recognize that there will be an authorization bill and a separate appropriations bill at this time. These are different. It is in the authorization bill where the new start projects get authorized for construction some time over the six-year period. It is also in the authorization bill when the overall dollar levels get established and for which categories. In the policy arena, they are stressing the importance of increasing the dollar levels. There are various approaches to increasing the dollar level. Such as hanging on to the interest that it accrues through the trust fund, having the general fund reimburse the gasohol exemption that is provided for right now. The dollar levels are important. Metro is stressing that they are interested in emphasizing that those dollar levels go into increasing the categories that matter the most to them. Borders and Corridors because of the I-5 corridor; New Starts because of the light rail agenda; STP and CMAQ because those dollars get allocated to the region; and the Formula Transit Funds that also come to the urban areas. These are the main categories that Metro is emphasizing. The present budget does provide for an increase in the New Starts category by $300 million for the coming fiscal year. Metro’s resolution covers the Delta Park Widening Project and the I-5 Columbia River Crossing DEIS Project. It includes endorsement of some of the Vancouver projects: the Vancouver Area ITS Project, the C-TRAN Park and Ride Project, the MAX South Corridor reauthorization, and the Columbia River Channel Deepening Project. Mr. Cotugno said two freight related projects are also being sought. One is to expand the Ramsey Rail Yard in the Rivergate area, which is one of the ten railroad projects that came out of the I-5 Trade Corridor Study to reduce some of the railroad operation bottle-neck. The other project sought is air cargo truck access improvements on the south side of Portland International Airport. He said they are also seeking other rail project funding. They have about $6 million appropriated so far to the commuter rail project. They are also proposing that the Feds create a streetcar category within New Starts to allow for further expansion of the downtown streetcar system.
Rex Burkholder said in their trip to Washington, D.C., they would include a visit to Congressman Baird as well. Dean Lookingbill said that as RTC’s letters that were sent in support of the Bi-State projects to our legislators, endorsement was also sent to Oregon’s legislators as well.
Kay Van Sickel said that ODOT received $3.5 million to initiate the bridge influence area EIS. She said that is being handled both out of Olympia and Salem. She said they were asking originally for $4 million. Andy Cotugno said that Metro is also asking for that last $0.5 million. ODOT is also looking at earmark funds to finish up the last piece of the Westside agreement, the third lane on 217 from TV Highway north to Highway 26.
Don Wagner said that WSDOT endorsed most of the projects listed. Washington Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald is on his way back from Washington D.C., but while he was there he spoke with delegations from both sides of the river. Mr. Wagner said their focus was primarily on the Bi-State Freight Partnership effort and where they go from here. He said the only project that was not listed that received endorsement from WSDOT was the widening of I-5 from 99th to 134th. Mr. Lookingbill apologized and said that project was endorsed by the RTC Board but was inadvertently left off this list.
Rex Burkholder said that their introduction about discussion of policy issues, flexibility of funding, and allocation levels may be something that RTC may want to do also. Mr. Lookingbill said RTC has not formally done that. The State of Washington did a policy activity early on with very similar connections. Andy Cotugno said that it is important to note that most of the money that is received is through formulas, not through the project earmarking. Ninety percent of the highway dollars come out through formulas. Those policies are what drive how you are allowed to spend that formula money.
Kate Deane, ODOT, said the first kick-off meeting was held on February 19, 2003, with two citizen committees. She had a handout listing the two committees, the Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) and the Environmental Justice Work Group (EJWG). The Environmental Justice Work Group will follow the project as it moves along. Included in the handouts is a list of the roles and responsibilities of the Project, a schedule for the Environmental Assessment and Preliminary Design Schedule, and a Target Schedule for EA, PI, and Management Activities. Ms. Deane said that now through April is being used to identify the issues. Three meetings of the committees will be held, stakeholder interviews have been held, and an open house will be held. They anticipate developing and screening the alternatives in the May/June timeframe and have another open house. They hope to use the summer to do their analysis of the options, coming out with their environmental assessment findings, and then selecting the alternative a year from now in spring 2004. In addition to this and fairly transparent to this process, they are also doing a study to determine whether the third lane should be an HOV lane or not, where it begins and where it ends. Ms. Deane said they have an interjurisdictional committee that will be following that committee from a technical standpoint very closely and helping to advise as it is developed. For each of the projects, at all the key milestones, they will come back to the Bi-State Committee and check in with information to keep on track. The first thing that will be addressed is the purpose and need statement for Delta Park, the kinds of evaluation measures that they have, and the alternatives. On the HOV study, the kinds of input that are looked for are on the criteria that they use to evaluate it.
Don Wagner asked if the time of June 2004 period was the time of decision of the HOV or non-HOV. Kate Deane said the HOV decision would be made in parallel to the project. She said it is not at this point a part of the environmental assessment. They want it to be fairly transparent that they are making this decision in parallel. This allows them to get feed back on the project and at the same time feedback on those elements as well.
Dean Lookingbill referred to the memorandum that was distributed and said the proposed action is to approve a strategy to implement a process for establishing the Bi-State Coordination Committee, including the steering committee, consultant, and schedule. Mr. Lookingbill said this process has taken some time, but is now moving forward.
The recommended approach includes the following steps:
- Establish a Bi-State Transportation Steering Committee to oversee the development of the Bi-State Coordinating Committee and to serve as a selection committee for a facilitation consultant. Membership on the steering committee should be recommended by the Bi-State Transportation Committee.
- ODOT, Metro, WSDOT, and RTC staff would submit a list of possible consultants to the steering committee. The steering committee would conduct interviews and select a preferred consultant.
- The consultant would interview key elected officials in Washington and Oregon to discuss issues related to the establishment of the Bi-State Coordinating Committee and the adoption of a Bi-State Land Use Accord.
- The consultant would work with staff and prepare a draft Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) establishing the Bi-State Coordinating Committee. Metro legal counsel and Clark county legal counsel would then agree on the IGA language and finalize it as a legal document.
- The Bi-State Transportation committee would review and recommend approval of the IGA to the RTC Board, Clark County Board, JPACT, and the Metro council.
- The consultant would work with staff to prepare a strategy for adoption of the Bi-State Land Use Accord by the appropriate agencies in Clark County and Portland.
- The RTC Board, Clark County, JPACT, and Metro Council would by resolution adopt and establish the Bi-State Coordination Committee and continue to provide oversight.
Mr. Lookingbill said the tentative schedule would be:
February 27th – Bi-State transportation Committee endorses the implementation strategy and establishes the steering committee.
Early March – Staff submits a list of facilitation consultants to the steering committee
Mid March – Steering Committee interviews and selects consultant.
Late March through April – Consultant conducts elected official interviews and reports to the Bi-State Transportation Committee in April.
May – consultant works with staff and key committee members to prepare a draft IGA and a draft Bi-State Land Use Accord strategy. Present draft IGA and Accord strategy to Bi-State Transportation Committee meeting in May.
June – Consultant prepares final IGA and Accord strategy for the Bi-State Transportation Committee to recommend for adoption to the appropriate list of signatory agencies.
July/August – Jurisdictions and agencies endorse the IGA and Accord strategy for final adoption by JPACT/Metro, Clark county, and RTC.
Andy Cotugno said the Bi-State Transportation Committee is a creature of Metro and the RTC. This IGA proposes to set up a committee that is really a creature of all the signatories. While the two legal counsels will be doing the drafting, all the other agencies’ legal counsels will need to be reviewing that as well. All the government parties will be signing on to the creation of this group not just the two. Dean Lookingbill said that the reason for that is land use. The RTC and Metro/JPACT have that regional transportation role, but RTC does not have the land use role. Hence, the land use element must go back to Clark County and the cities. Kate Deane emphasized that the schedule that is listed is just tentative.
Craig Pridemore asked if this process is what Bi-State Members have in mind, or if there are other steps or processes that need to be added.
Phil Selinger said in item three it states interviewing key elected officials, but there may be some key non-elected officials who need to be a part of that process. That wording would be changed to say key stakeholders instead of key elected officials.
Mr. Lookingbill said it was anticipated that the Steering Committee would have a strong role in the selection of the consultant and the direction of the Committee. It was not intended to have the Steering Committee spend more than three or so meetings. Kate Deane said the idea is to get additional direction and oversight, not make the final decision. After discussion, it was decided representation on the Steering Committee would include: City of Portland, City of Vancouver, Multnomah County, Clark County, City of Gresham, City of Battle Ground, Metro, RTC.
Rex Burkholder said the Steering Committee would help get the consultant up and running. Mr. Burkholder confirmed that staff support would be combined to include Dean Lookingbill, Andy Cotugno, and Kate Deane. This initial piece will be a lot on the back of the consultant and staff would be there for coordination and organization. Much of the initial work will be framed by the facilitation consultant.
REX BURKHOLDER MOVED TO ADOPT THE PROCESS AS STATED AND EMPOWER THE BI-STATE CHAIR TO WORK OUT WHO THE REPRESENTATIVES OF EACH OF THE JURISDICTIONS WOULD BE. PHIL SELINGER SECONDED THE MOTION. THE MOTION WAS UNANIMOUSLY APPROVED.
Steve Iwatta said the schedule is pretty aggressive and Commissioner Francesconi will have to work closely with the Mayor and multiple areas from the City in order to coordinate internally. Craig Pridemore said the same is for the Washington side. The hope is that this group will hire a consultant who will be responsible for the work.
Craig Pridemore said the Bi-State Coordinating Committee would be a big accomplishment in this next year. This agenda item is to discuss any things that this group may discuss in the next year while this committee is transitioned and the new committee formed. He said it is important to continue to meet and discuss.
Rod Monroe asked the status of the HOV lane and how it can be protected until the decision is made on the Oregon side. Don Wagner said Washington Department of Transportation agreed with the RTC recommendation to continue the HOV pilot in Washington for another two years. He said WSDOT believes that the data that they collected indicated that they were seeing substantial growth in the usage of the HOV lane on the Washington side. They also recognized that there are several opportunities in the next two-year period for incremental growth in that usage. Additional park-and-ride lots will be coming on line, in Washington in September 2004. At this point, it will continue until October 2005.
Kay Van Sickel said regarding ODOT’s HOV lane northbound, the pavement project that ODOT was involved with is completed. They have transitioned the policing part of the project to the City of Portland, and will be coming to Metro based on the original resolution of almost five years, to ask to continue it as permanent. She said the support over the years is appreciated.
Ed Barnes said at last week’s Washington Transportation Commission meeting, there was a very good presentation to the Commission on the HOV lanes in our region and none of the commissioners expressed any opposition with what was taking place.
Rex Burkholder said coming to this committee new, he asked about the coordination of the two ports. It is a concern that he has in looking at their industrial lands supply in their next urban growth boundary decision making. He said what happens on the Washington side is critical to what they have to do. He said also to look at airport planning and the future of the airport. He said at a Strategic Plan Open House that Bill Wyatt hosted, half the people attending were from Vancouver with concerns. Craig Pridemore said this had not been discussed by this Committee and was a good point. Clark County is also working on their Comprehensive Plan update with alternatives and looking at a June timeframe for choosing a preferred alternative. It will be brought to this committee recognizing the connection of transportation and land use. Phil Selinger said the Governor has recognized that connection and support of the industrial lands.
Andy Cotugno said one of the I-5 Trade Corridor recommendations was to form a railroad Subcommittee of the new Bi-State Coordinating Committee. He said we might want to get that started. There is a railroad project in the TEA-21 requests. Dean Lookingbill asked if that subcommittee would be exclusively rail. He said from time to time there have been discussions of the Puget Sound Freight Mobility Roundtable. If it is railroad, is it just our region or do we look up to the north as far as the Kelso/Longview area? When dealing with the freight issues but be more inclusive of the freight movement. Mr. Cotugno said the more emphasis on freight, the better. Rex Burkholder said it might be helpful to have a discussion with a range of examples and knowledge of how others have worked.
Craig Pridemore asked the status of Cascadia. Andy Cotugno said they are proposing a June conference, and would like to do the metropolitan forum as part of the conference. This had previously been done as a one-day session with the Vancouver region, Seattle region, and Portland/Metro region to discuss common issues. No agenda is set at this time, but it is Portland’s turn to host the forum.
Ed Barnes said when freight rail is discussed, this also includes passenger rail. Both aspects need to be included in the discussion since they use the same corridor.
Andy Cotugno asked Steve Iwata the status of the Hayden Meadows area of concept planning for any rezoning. This was recognized as a concern of the I-5 Trade Corridor. Steve Iwata said the last he had heard is that Mr. Moyers is contemplating releasing the properties back to the horse track operation. At this point, it doesn’t look like much will happen in that area. He said certainly as the Delta Park Lombard project moves forward and the development of an interchange management system for that area, factors of a redevelopment scenario should be included.
Don Wagner said with the money that ODOT has received to move into the EIS on the Freight Partnership, that is going to be something that this group will have to focus a lot of energy on as we move through that process and on to the construction piece. This group will need to get support from outside our area for the magnitude of dollars. This will require a significant amount of time of this group to work through some of the very difficult issues that may arise in getting through the environmental document.
Steve Iwata said just the previous day, City of Portland Commissioner Francesconi kicked off their Freight Study. This will be looking at freight truck movement inside the City. At an appropriate time, this can be brought as an agenda item to this committee. John Gillam said there are actually two parts to the study. One is for Metro for the gross freight movement issue, and the one in the City is more focused on truck and freight movement on streets and highways, and land use issues associated with that. Susie Lahsene said that they would be looking at trade across the river.
It was asked how close they were to opening day service plans for I-MAX. Phil Selinger said they were real close. He said that possibly if there is interest, an update could be presented at the next meeting. The planned opening day is September 2004, but that could be moved up.
Steve Iwata introduced John Gillam with the City of Portland. He will be the new alternate for Commissioner Francesconi.
Lynne Griffith said that at future meetings, C-TRAN will need to come forward with some issues that have some correlation with Tri-Met, such as the opening of Expo, issues that C-TRAN is having in downtown Vancouver, along with the launching of their 20-year plan. Phil Selinger said it could be a two-part presentation with Tri-Met.
There was no public comment.
Larry Haverkamp noted that Chris Lassen was the previous Bi-State member for the City of Gresham. The Mayor suggested that Mr. Haverkamp take over that position. Mr. Haverkamp pointed out that he was not appointed by Metro or RTC. Craig Pridemore said when the Committee was formed, Chris Lassen had an interest because this committee includes both I-5 and I-205 corridors. Members were in favor of his appointment. Dean Lookingbill said that it is up to the entity to select their representation and that is endorsed.
Don Wagner noted that WSDOT is proposing to close I-205 for the weekend of March 19 in order for Clark County to place some beams across the freeway for a pedestrian bridge. He also said the Lewis and Clark Bridge between Rainier and Longview is beginning re-decking work this summer. The work will be done at night, so there will be eight-hour night closures almost every weekday night beginning in late spring of this year and through the summer. When the bridge is closed, the detour route is I-5 and US 30 in the Portland area. A lot of heavy truck traffic use the bridge at night, so this will be significantly noticeable to the public.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 a.m.
Dean Lookingbill
Transportation Director, RTC
360-397-6067Andy Cotugno
Transportation Director, Metro
503-797-1763
       
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