Item 1: TransPlan and Metro Plan Amendments

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(LCDC) a work plan for making TransPlan consistent with the RTP. Eugene, Springfield and Lane County concluded that they could not make a finding that TransPlan is consistent with the RTP, nor could they update TransPlan by November 7, 2008, to be consistent with the RTP. Accordingly, the three jurisdictions sought LCDC’s approval of a work plan. On October 16, 2008, LCDC approved with conditions the Regional Transportation Work Plan (“Work Plan”). The Work Plan represents a logical, coordinated, and programmatic approach for updating local and regional land use and transportation plans. The Work Plan requires as early, interim steps in the overall update process that the local jurisdictions amend TransPlan in the following ways: (1) delete transportation projects that have been completed; (2) delete the West Eugene Parkway; (3) move four ODOT projects from the Future list to the Financially Constrained list; and, (4) adjust TransPlan’s planning period to be better reflective of actual population. A copy of the Work Plan is attached to this agenda item summary as Attachment B. The shift of four ODOT projects from the Future projects list to the Financially Constrained list has been accomplished through a separate process. The removal of the West Eugene Parkway will be considered during development of the Eugene Transportation System Plan at a later date. Thus, this public hearing considers only deletion of the completed projects and adjustment of TransPlan’s planning period. The amendments to be considered during this hearing were considered by the three metro-area Planning Commissions in April, 2009. The three Planning Commissions recommended approval. When the amendment process started, the planning period adjustment utilized a population forecast based on the safe-harbor method. Following the completion of Lane County’s coordinated population forecasts, on September 1, 2009, the three Planning Commissions recommend that the TransPlan planning period amendments recommended for adoption in April, 2009, be adjusted to reflect the coordinated population numbers. On September 22, 2009, the two City Councils and the County Board of Commissioners unanimously voted “to establish a process for proposed transportation planning horizon amendments that allows new evidence at the governing body joint hearing and allows the governing bodies’ decision to be based on the new evidence as well as the evidentiary record created before the planning commissions.” No letters of public testimony have been received as of the time this report was written. Any additional written comments received after the preparation of this staff report will be provided at the public hearing for inclusion into the public record. DESCRIPTION OF PROPOSED AMENDMENTS: 1. Project List Amendments: As noted above, when the Metropolitan Policy Commission (MPC) updated the federally-required RTP in November, 2007, among other amendments made to the RTP, MPC deleted projects that have been built. These completed projects should now be deleted from TransPlan. Since the Metro Plan incorporates by reference TransPlan’s project lists, the Metro Plan must also be “amended” to acknowledge the changes to the project lists that are contained in TransPlan. It is the intent of these amendments to only remove projects that have been completed, not projects that can be removed for other policy reasons. The three Planning Commissions recommend that any projects completed after their deliberation, but prior to this hearing, also be deleted at this time. The proposed project list amendments are set forth in Exhibit A to the ordinance (Attachment A to the AIS). 2. TransPlan Text Amendments: The region covered by TransPlan is the “TransPlan Study Area.” The TransPlan Study Area extends beyond the UGB and Metro Plan boundary and is used for transportation modeling purposes. TransPlan includes provisions for meeting the transportation demand 2 of 5