CC Minutes - 11/21/01 Work Session

Home Browse Search

Mr. Kelly concurred as to the importance of monitoring and updating the SDC on a periodic basis. He also endorsed the proposal for a new trip behavior survey, and asked if that could be funded from SDCs. Mr. Kelly asked how staff handled inflation, and if there was an automatic inflator built into the Replacement Cost New approach. Mr. Kelly noted that the recommendation was to collect now at Replacement Cost New in today's money for an improvement that may not be built for 10 to 20 years; he asked how that was addressed in the calculation. Mr. McVey said the trip behavior survey would be largely funded through SDCs as it was part of the administrative backbone of the SDC. He confirmed that the survey was on the division's work program, and that staff would work with Lane Council of Governments staff on the new survey instrument. He noted that the RAC reached consensus on that particular recommendation. Mr. McVey reported that staff addressed inflation administratively; it was the City practice to use the Construction Cost Index as an inflationary index, and to apply it to the SDC rate on a periodic basis as a routine means of keeping pace with construction costs. He noted the complication created by what he termed "lumpy" transportation costs; the City could have large expenditures in one year and relatively lower expenditures in another year; the revenue stream was also "lumpy," dependent on development. Mr. McVey indicated that overall, the revenue stream was adequate to fund a portion of the projects identified, but there were a number of transportation project in the unfunded category in both the City's Capital Improvement Plan and TransPlan. He suggested there was a self-balancing mechanism in terms of the availability of funding and the need to do projects. Ms. Bettman thanked staff for its work on the transportation SDC, saying staff and the RAC worked very hard. From a general perspective, however, Ms. Bettman did not think that the RAC had realized the council's direction to realize full-cost recovery in the SDC. She believed that the RAC had started as a balanced committee but that through attrition it became weighted in favor of industry. Ms. Bettman said the council was far from full-cost recovery with the recommendation before it. She acknowledged the challenge in determining what was full-cost recovery, but maintained the answer was tied to the data available, and there was insufficient data, leading the RAC to rely on national or regional data. Ms. Bettman said that it was difficult to ascertain if the communities on which the data was based were collecting on a full-cost recovery basis. She believed that the City could have gotten closer to full-cost recovery by relying on staff and not using the RAC to review and screen the data further. Ms. Bettman questioned how long it would take to conduct another household survey. Mr. Rayor asked if changes in the LOS in the transportation system would lead to changes in the methodology and increase the SDC. Mr. McVey said a change in the LOS would potentially change the SDC. He added that the LOS approach assumed that growth would pay for a new system proportionate to the cost of existing capacity in the existing system to maintain the LOS adopted by the community. Mr. Rayor asked if, as growth occurred and the LOS dropped, the SDC would increase. Mr. McVey said that ensuring that the LOS did not fall was a component of the RAC's recommendation for monitoring the adequacy and equity of the rates. Mr. Rayor asked if there was anything in the methodology that would allow the rates to be adjusted as things changed. Mr. McVey responded that the primary variable in the rate would be the inflationary adjustment. In addition, staff had committed to the RAC for periodic review of the SDC in four years. Mr. Rayor MINUTES--Eugene City Council November 21, 2001 Page 3 Work Session