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Bi-State Coordination Committee |
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Below is the meeting report for the Bi-State Coordination Committee meeting, held on Thursday, June 18, 2009, from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Metro Regional Center, Council Chamber, 600 NE Grand Avenue, Portland, Oregon. An agenda for this meeting is also available.
The meeting of the Bi-State Coordination Committee was called to order by Chair Steve Stuart at 5:08 p.m. at the Metro Regional Center, Council Chambers, 600 NE Grand Ave, Portland, Oregon. Those in attendance follow:
Committee Members Chair Steve Stuart, Clark County Commissioner
Vice-Chair Rex Burkholder, Metro Councilor
Katy Brooks, Port of Vancouver Alternate
Shirley Craddick, City of Gresham Councilor, Alternate
Doug Ficco, WSDOT Alternate
Stuart Gwin, City of Portland, Alternate
Jeff Hamm, C-TRAN Executive Director/CEO
Kelly Betteridge, TriMet Alternate
Royce Pollard, City of Vancouver Mayor
Thayer Rorabaugh, City of Vancouver AlternateStaff and Interested Guests Lynda David, RTC
Kim Ellis, Metro
Sharon Nasset, Portland Citizen
Karen Schilling, Multnomah County
Mark Turpel, Metro
Malu Wilkinson
John Williams, Metro
Sharon Zimmerman, WSDOTThe meeting summary was approved unanimously.
Kim Ellis of Metro staff presented the Mobility Corridors project. (As part of the meeting record are a memo and two attachments to it in addition to Ms. Ellis PowerPoint.)
Ms. Ellis noted that the Mobility Corridors are a multi-modal approach to transportation and will form the foundation for the projects included in the updated Regional Transportation Plan (RTP). She described two corridors of special interest to the Committee – Interstate 5 and Interstate 205.
Ms. Ellis posed three questions to the Committee; 1) Are there additional transportation needs that should be added to the I-5 and I-205 corridors? 2) Do you have suggestions for investment priorities to be considered, and 3) When should future coordination occur?
Jeff Hamm, C-Tran, urged that the plan reflect the fact that a growing portion of the population is aging and that they may have differing transportation needs than the general public – especially on-demand transit service.
Chair Stuart commented that there are freight rail needs and issues that should be addressed. Karen Schilling noted that the Metro region’s draft freight plan was looking into heavy rail needs and these recommendations would be part of the RTP update. Chair Stuart also asked how the potential for high speed light rail is shown in the plan? Chair Stuart also noted that the airports, while out of scope of plan, are part of the mega-region and should be brought into the discussion of the RTP plan. Vice-Chair Burkholder pointed out our planning boundaries do not really work with the transportation sheds. He noted, for example, that people go back daily between the Metro area and Salem, but there is not much planning that Metro does with Salem. Vice-Chair Burkholder did note that there is some coordination in Oregon between MPOs being done by OMPOC, but that closer coordination could occur. Mr. Rorabaugh recommended that the Committee take a step back and look at the work we do.
The Committee concluded that they supported the Mobility Corridor concept and looked forward to seeing it incorporated into the RTP update where additional Committee review could occur. Vice-Chair Burkholder stated that another piece of the planning process that wasn’t touched on but was being assessed was the local government and neighborhoods aspirations and their employment goals and that these would be incorporated into the RTP update.
Vice-Chair Burkholder also noted that greenhouse gases is the next step and evaluate land use. Chair Stuart noted that each state had now enacted greenhouse gas policies (Washington State through the Governor’s Executive Order and Oregon with a state law).
The Committee concluded it would like to see the draft RTP for review at its September meeting.
John Williams and Malu Wilkinson gave an update of Metro’s Making the Greatest Place. At the last meeting the residential growth projections were presented, and at this meeting they completed the presentation by providing the employment projections. (The projections are contained in an attached document made part of the meeting record.)
Ms. Wilkinson presented the employment forecasts including job site utilization, forecasting more redevelopment and refill opportunities in centers and other Region 2040 design types.
She noted that in the literature review of employment growth factors, a key element is world class work force training and higher education. Further, she noted that business conversions are trending to leave less of a footprint by building up – increasing the floor-area ratio. She further noted that more structured parking is forecast, but manufacturing employers still favor one floor designs. The literature review also focused on the green aspect - which is one of our region’s competitive edges. Businesses in the region are looking at this as an edge as well as potential employers looking for an attractive place to bring their business. Employers want to be green but cost effective. Metro staff findings were that green practices are seen by employers as a positive if they help the bottom line.
Mr. Rorabaugh noted the decline in manufacturing and that non-manufacturing jobs are increasing as a percentage of total jobs. He noted that this trend can be unfortunate news for the many of students who do not finish high school. Ms. Wilkinson concurred that the literature and forecasts were consistent with both points – the decline of manufacturing and the role of education.
Mr. Williams presented a memo to the Committee about the Urban and Rural Reserves work and milestones. He noted that at the last Bi-State Coordination Committee meeting, he presented the candidate areas for the Reserves. He noted that the current staff focus was assessment of those lands.
Chair Stuart noted that in Washington, rural reserves can’t be put converted into an urban reserves. Mr. Williams agreed to check on this point for the Metro reserves.
The Committee agreed that the three listed future items on the agenda (Greenhouse Gas and Climate Change, Freight Movement and Active Transportation) are definite topics for the future. Vice-Chair Burkholder suggested the Committee add a health impact assessment and how it is going to affect our planning. He would like to take a look at public health impacts of transportation.
Stuart Gwin brought a statement to the Committee from Mayor Sam Adam’s office of the City of Portland, requesting that the Bi-State Coordinating Committee should include a progress report on the Columbia River Crossing project, looking at the Transportation Demand Management Plan, tolling options and other implications of this for land uses, including induced land use change as a result of the project.
Mr. Ron Swaren commented that I-5 and I-205 are only on the Westside of the river. He wants to see a mobility corridor on the Eastside. He noted that with the CRC Portland and Vancouver are just going to be seeing more traffic in the area and will stress the bounds of I-5. He suggests instead of doing the CRC project to do similar projects that have been done in Detroit (building two freeway plazas), I-110 in Phoenix plaza and the freeway park in Seattle. Pictures were included as part of Mr. Swaren’s comment and are part of the meeting record.
Sharon Nasset of Portland expressed interest in a “Northwest Passage” to address the difficulty of freight coming off of I-5 and that there needs to be some sort of freight oriented transportation improvement on the Westside of the river to help because of the lack of freight access. This is a concern to her as many of the jobs in her area are manufacturing and freight related. She also said she was glad to hear support for heavy rail improvements, and said it brings jobs to our region. She said New Starts dollars should be applied to heavy rail improvements, and a new bridge next to the old rail bridge going from Ridgefield into Swan Island should be build. Ms. Nasset said that since we are not going to do light rail in the near future, we need to look at going for those dollars.
The meeting was adjourned at 6:45 p.m.
Dean Lookingbill
Transportation Director, RTC
360-397-6067Andy Cotugno
Transportation Director, Metro
503-797-1763
       
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