CC Minutes - 08/10/05 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mr. Papé asked what amount in gross dollars was allocated to planning for the region. Mr. Schoening replied that it was a little over $2 million. Mr. Papé opined that Eugene seemed to be asking for a small “piece of the pot.” In response to a question from Ms. Ortiz, Mr. Schoening explained that Game Farm Road was fairly close to the Beltline Highway/Interstate 5 interchange project and the site where ODOT planned to replace bridges, and because of this the City had been integrating with ODOT to conduct the projects efficiently. He said the ODOT interchange project would not affect the Game Farm Road project. Ms. Taylor felt encouraged to see all of the preservation projects. She wondered if there was a good chance that the projects would go through. Mr. Schoening replied that the development of good criteria that focused on arterial and collector streets could improve the chances. In response to a question from Ms. Taylor, Mr. Schoening assured her that the City of Eugene was entirely responsible for choosing which modernization projects to submit. Mayor Piercy called for a second round of questions and comments. Ms. Bettman called the assertion that an external entity made the decision on what projects to submit “nothing but pretense.” She alleged that Eugene, Springfield, and Lane County staff made the matrix and chose which projects to submit. She opined that all the elected officials needed to do was to say ‘no’ once or twice and staff would “get the message” that the policy should be upheld. She approved of the list of preservation projects, as that was the City’s highest priority. She felt there was no guarantee that staff members would prioritize them when they “got into that little room to make the decision” unless the council said that was what it wanted. Ms. Bettman agreed that the council had adopted the Game Farm Road project when adopting its capital project list, but she noted that the funding mechanism had changed. She questioned the “pretend matrix.” Mr. Poling, seconded by Ms. Solomon, moved to approve the attached list of projects for submittal of applications for federal Surface Transportation Program-Urban funds for FY07-FY09 to be programmed by the Metropolitan Policy Committee. Mr. Kelly felt preservation projects had more chance for funding now than they had a few years earlier. He said should ideas held by the Transportation Planning Committee (TPC) on how funding was allocated remain unchanged, there would be a little over $5 million available for the whole region over three years. He observed that because the list of preservation projects being put forward totaled over $8 million, it would likely be “whittled at.” Mr. Schoening responded that the actual funding totaled $14 million because part of the criteria was that the City provided a local match to the STP-U funding. Mr. Schoening said one of the reasons the list was broad was that the scoring criteria was uncertain at this point. In response to a question from Mr. Kelly, Mr. Schoening affirmed that the federal rules prohibited the MPC from dividing the money up by jurisdiction because of the region’s designation as a transportation management area. MINUTES—Eugene City Council August 10, 2005 Page 9 Work Session