Minutes

I. Call to Order and Approval of Minutes

The meeting of the Regional Transportation Advisory Committee was called to order on Friday, October 17, 2003 at 9:00 a.m. in the Conference Room (6 Floor) at Public Service Center, 1300 Franklin Street Vancouver, Washington. Dean Lookingbill, RTC Transportation Director served as Chair for the meeting. Those in attendance follow:  

Sam Adams		City of Battle Ground
Jim Carothers		City of Camas
Lynda David		RTC
Evan Dust		Clark County
Mark Harrington		RTC
Bob Hart		RTC
Shinwon Kim		RTC
Dean Lookingbill		RTC
John McConnaughey		WSDOT
Thomas Picco		ODOT
Ed Pickering		C-TRAN
Sandi Roberts		RTC
Ellen Rogers		Port of Ridgefield
Anne Sylvester		Parametrix, Inc.
Mark Turpel		Metro
Bill Wright		Clark County
Phil Wuest		City of Vancouver

Dean Lookingbill asked for any changes or corrections to the September 19, 2003, Meeting Minutes.

PHIL WUEST, CITY OF VANCOUVER MOVED FOR APPROVAL OF THE SEPTEMBER 19, 2003 MINUTES AND ED PICKERING, C-TRAN SECONDED THE MOTION. THE MOTION WAS UNANIMOUSLY APPROVED.

II. WSDOT Congestion Relief Study - Overview, Discussion

John McConnaughey, WSDOT, presented the WSDOT Congestion Relief Study. He distributed a handout entitled “Urban Areas Congestion Relief Analysis, RTAC Presentation”. He said with the passage of the ESHB 1163, the state legislature appropriated $3.8 million for a study of regional congestion relief solutions for the Puget Sound, Spokane and Vancouver metropolitan areas. The bill requires that “The study must include proposals to alleviate congestion consistent with the population and land use expectations under the Growth Management Act and must include measurement of all modes of transportation” (ESB) 1163 Sec. 222 (3). John McConnaughey said the WSDOT is leading and staffing the study with help from a consultant. John pointed out that staff from the Puget Sound Regional Council, Spokane Regional Transportation Council and Southwest Washington Regional Transportation Council would be providing technical assistance for the travel modeling work associated with the study. He said their goal is to have this study completed by July 2004. John highlighted the purpose of the analysis which are: identify transportation improvement needs under the growth management plans in the three urban areas, identify and evaluate potential multi modal solutions to meet the identified needs, assess cost, impact and benefits of these potential multimodal solutions in meeting the anticipated travel demand. John pointed out that this is not a plan development process and it is not intended to make improvement recommendations. It will focus on answering questions such as what does it take (in terms of relative cost and impact) to achieve a particular level(s) of congestion relief?

He reported that the study structure would consist of an Legislative Transportation Committee (LTC) Work Group, the state Transportation Commission, MPO Transportation Policy Boards, an expert panel, interest groups and the WSDOT Study Team which consist of PSRC, RTC, SRTC, transit agencies and consultant. He said the critical issues are: How should different modes be addressed and how to assess the cost and impact of alternatives? John highlighted the modal alternatives. John said they chose a consultant team led by Parsons Brinckerhoff but are still finalizing the scope of work. RTAC had a brief discussion on what is congestion relief and what are the specific measurements and criteria to be used in evaluating congestion relief. John said a challenge is how to regard this study and work out how it should fit in the context of other planning studies and activities.

Dean Lookingbill, RTC, said he sees RTC very much involved in the modeling process and in working closely with the consulting team. Dean suggested a small, ad hoc, technical team could track details a little closer. Dean said when we have finalized our role in the work scope then we will get information out to RTAC members. John suggested that WSDOT return with an update in December.

III. Comprehensive Growth Management Plan Update, Discussion

Lynda David, RTC, distributed copies of a map that was published on the County’s web site showing “Facilities at Critical Volume to Capacity Ratios in the 2023 Peak Hour” resulting from the proposed land use alternative for the Clark County Comprehensive Plan update. Evan Dust, Clark County, updated RTAC on the Comprehensive Growth Management Plan update. He said the Planning Commission is now reviewing the proposed update. Evan said he attended the Commission meeting on October 16th when testimony from individual property owners and representatives was concluded. He said the Commission would focus on Capital Facilities at the next meeting on October 23. After Planning Commission deliberations, its recommendations will be forwarded to the Board of Clark County Commissioners, which is responsible for adopting the final plan. The Board of Clark County Commissioners will start the public hearings process on November 25, 2003.

Evans said that $536 million of revenue is projected to be available to fund the 20 year transportation capital facilities plan but it appears to be insufficient to fund all needs. The Planning Commission is being asked to make a policy recommendation to take to the Clark County Board of County Commissioners. He said one option would be to lower level of service standards. Evan said that if the standard was set at 13 miles per hour in all corridors then the $536 million of expected revenue may be sufficient to meet needs. Evan said the updated Plan will also address the impact of land use on the state highways of statewide significance but the transportation solutions are consistent with the adopted statewide Highway System Plan. Evan said the County had received written testimony from the City of Battle Ground about the responsibility to ensure adequate mobility within the proposed Battle Ground UGA expansion.

Lynda David, RTC, reminded RTAC of last month’s discussion on how the updated Comprehensive Plan will feed into the next Metropolitan Plan update and cautioned that level of service will have to be addressed. Evan said we need to discuss what happens if the Board adopts a Plan that is challenged yet we will need to use the land use assumptions to develop the new MTP. Dean said he thinks level of service is a significant issue and can solve a lot of problems if viewed realistically. Evan said that by the November RTAC meeting we should have some idea of what Planning Commission recommendations are on Capital Facilities Plan and Level of Service standards.

IV. MTP Amendment, December 2003, Discussion

Lynda David, RTC, presented the proposed December 2003 MTP Amendment and explained that a major update to the MTP would occur in 2004 following update to the Comprehensive Growth Management Plans for Clark County and local jurisdictions.

Lynda distributed a description of the proposed Ridgefield Railroad Overpass with $20 million cost estimate and said this project was proposed for inclusion in the MTP. The Port of Ridgefield has presented the project to the RTC Board at the June and August 2003 Board meetings. Lynda said the current MTP (December 2002) supports development of the Pacific Northwest High Speed Rail Corridor and the Port of Ridgefield overpass project is part of the rail corridor improvement. The project would provide safety benefits and improved access to the Port of Ridgefield’s Lake River Industrial Site and to the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge.

Lynda also reviewed with RTAC the proposed changes to the MTP Strategic Plan. She said the re-worded sections would focus on Purpose and Need for transportation improvements and on clarifying the federal “New Start” process. Dean said we would continue to work to get federal funding earmarked for analysis of High Capacity Transportation in the I-5/I-205/SR-500 loop. Even without an earmark we could allocate small amounts of staff time to building initial criteria, developing process, and taking the initial steps to identify alternatives. In order to move the project forward for federal project funding eligibility, the Federal Transit Administration requires the official initiation of a “New Start” process. The New Start process begins with Alternatives Analysis and moves through an environmental/preliminary engineering process and ends with a final design and federal “full funding” agreement. The Alternatives Analysis process would evaluate several modal and alignment options for addressing mobility needs in a corridor or in this case in three corridors that form the loop. The AA process provides information to citizens and local officials on the benefits, cost, and impacts of alternative types of transportation. Potential local funding sources for construction and operation are also identified. An extensive public involvement process that includes a wide range of stakeholders is anticipated. The AA process may or may not include the undertaking of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement. The AA Process concludes with the selection of a locally preferred alternative (LPA), which is adopted by the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) into the financially constrained Metropolitan Transportation Plan.

Mark Turpel said Metro is currently developing a Regional Transportation Plan update which has a very narrow set of changes. However, he said RTAC should note that there is a proposal to take light rail to Vancouver out of the financially constrained system. This will be talked about at the Bi-state and JPACT meetings.

Lynda talked about the amendment of Chapter 4, the Financial Plan, of the MTP. Changes in this minor MTP amendment would reflect funding of the “nickel package” projects. Also, projects completed since the last MTP adoption in December 2002 would be deleted. As a result, Lynda noted that $61 million dollars worth of projects would be deleted from Table 4-5 of the MTP. Any additional changes to Chapter 4 would follow completion of the local Capital Facilities Plans and would therefore be dealt with in the 2004 MTP update. Lynda said these proposed 2003 MTP amendments would be taken to the RTC Board for comment at the November meeting.

V. Other Business

Dean suggested that GMA may once again be a topic for the November meeting.

A. RTAC Members

Mike Clark, WSDOT, distributed the “WSDOT Developer Service and Review Handbook” (April 2003). Mike asked if RTAC would want a presentation on this process. Evan Dust, Clark County, said he felt it would be more effective to meet with the staff that works on development review.

Ed Pickering, C-TRAN, said the 20-year plan evaluation will be presented publicly in November and could also be presented to RTAC members.

B. RTC Staff

HSS

Dean explained that the State Transportation Commission will be updating the Highways of Statewide Significance (HSS) as required by law. Nominations for change are due to the Commission from RTPO’s by December 1, 2003. Highways of Statewide Significance (HSS) in Clark County are I-5, I-205, SR-14 and SR-501 to the Port of Vancouver. The Legislative Transportation Committee has provided guidance for HSS review. Dean proposed that a small-group meeting be held before the next RTAC on this issue.

Federal Functional Class Map

Lynda said the draft functional classification update map is available for RTAC members to review. Before December 2003, changes resulting from the update to the Urban Area Boundary must be submitted where facilities change from rural to urban classification or vice versa. We are asked to hold off until 2004 to submit the comprehensive functional classification update.

Walkable Communities Workshop

Lynda said RTC was selected as one of the MPO’s to participate in the Walkable Communities Workshops program, along with eleven other MPO’s from throughout the nation. RTC is to share a week of workshops with Lane COG (Eugene, Oregon). RTC will receive staff training and the region will host four local workshops to be presented by staff from the National Center for Bicycling and Walking (NCBW). Phil Wuest, City of Vancouver, suggested it might be best to form a small working group to organize the workshops. John McConnaughey, WSDOT, suggested that the Bicycle Advisory Committee should be contacted on this. Lynda suggested that RTAC should hear the presentation that Todd Boulanger, City of Vancouver, presented at the Walk IV conference held in May 2003 in Portland.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:55 a.m. The next meeting will be Friday, November 21, 2003.

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