Item 2C: Ratification of IGR Minutes

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6. Items from Members and Staff Ms. Wilson related that the Eugene Airport had notified the CCIGR that they had applied for a $10,000 grant from Lane County Tourism. She explained that the money would be used as part of a $50,000 match for a $550,000 federal grant that they had applied for and no city funds would be used for it. She said the CCIGR did not need to act upon it. Regarding the second item, Ms. Wilson stated that a non-profit group wanted to conduct a feasibility study for streetcars in Eugene. She said the non-profit was headed by David Wilde, who had been working on the item for two years. She related that he had gone before the Lane Board of County Commissioners and asked for their support and they had provided it to him. She said they had spoken with the congressional delegation about it and they basically said, along with the Lane Transit District, that they needed to see a plan. She stated that Mr. Wilde would take a request to the commissioners asking them to be a partner in a grant application for the Transportation and Growth Management (TGM) program, a program that provided funding for transportation system planning and integrated land use and transportation planning. She noted that some of the details were not clear at present, but in order to get it on the agenda for the commissioners they needed an endorsement from the CCIGR. She also noted that Mr. Wilde had indicated that the range for a feasibility study was between $25,000 and $250,000. She had asked him if he could narrow that down because the TGM grants were in the neighborhood of $150,000 to $200,000 and required a 10.27 percent local match. She explained that a $200,000 grant application would require approximately a $22,000 match. In addition to this, two areas of the city were also applying for TGM grants. She related that the City would be applying for $185,000 to do better policy planning when the City put together its new Comprehensive Plan. She said they intended to create a sub-component of the plan, which they would call an urban form plan and would serve to illustrate how the different policies of the City could be realized on the ground and that would lead to better cooperation, understanding, and progress on important goals like greenhouse gas reduction. She understood that another area of staff would also be applying for a TGM grant and both would compete with the one Mr. Wilde was proposing. In response to a question from Mr. Poling, Ms. Wilson surmised that the local match would be split three ways between Lane County, the City, and the University of Oregon, if the latter signed on for the project. Mayor Piercy asked if LTD had been contacted. Ms. Wilson responded that they had not asked LTD to partner in it and she was not certain why. Mr. Poling noted that the back page of the memorandum indicated that they had reached a verbal agreement with LTD’s general manager. He asked if Ms. Wilson was aware if that had occurred and to what degree that verbal agreement would extend. Ms. Wilson confirmed that they had conversed. She related that LTD had agreed on a couple of points: that streetcars would not compete with BRT and that LTD would work with them to see whether or not it was feasible. She was not aware of any agreement that LTD would aid in the match funding. Mr. Poling ascertained from Ms. Wilson that the funding was just for a feasibility study. Ms. Wilson added that they did speak with the congressional delegation staff and asked them how they would want the City to move forward with a discussion on streetcars in Eugene. She related that they indicated that they needed to have a real plan before it was brought back to them. Mayor Piercy remarked that Rep. DeFazio had his name behind a new publication called Street Smart. She believed there was positive interest in the area, but she was not certain the City was ready to move on MINUTES—Council Committee on Intergovernmental Relations February 3, 2010 Page 5