Item A: Street Repair Review Panel Recommendation for 2012 Bond Measure

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Placing a measure on the November 2012 ballot would allow Public Works staff to continue a seamless process of designing and bidding an annual street repair program. It takes several years to plan and design major street repair projects. This would also provide public and private utilities sufficient time to complete their work in advance of street repairs. If voters approved a new bond measure late in calendar 2012, it would allow construction to occur during the summer of 2014. If a new bond measure was approved by voters in November 2012, the taxes would first be levied in November 2014, after the 2008 bond ends in 2013. This would be clearly stated in the bond measure ballot materials. Use of Bond Proceeds The citizen Street Repair Review Panel recommended the renewal of a bond measure to fix streets and unanimously concluded that the resolution for the future bond measure should include four principal areas: Issuance of General Obligation Bonds: The City should issue a maximum of $43 million of general obligation bonds to fund street preservation projects. The measure would generate approximately $8 million in net revenues annually, plus inflation for five years. Of that amount, the SRRP recommended that over the five years of the bond, an average of six percent, or $516,000, be allocated annually for bicycle and pedestrian improvements. The measure is expected to cost an average homeowner in Eugene $0.65 per $1,000 of assessed value each year for five years or about $127 per year. This rate is also the approximate average tax rate levied over the five years of the current bond measure. Attachment A includes a comparison of the estimated 2008 and projected 2012 general obligation bonds effect on the taxpayer. Street Project Criteria: To guide the selection of street projects, the citizen SRRP recommended the following primary street project criteria: use of the most current engineering and cost-benefit information about needed street rehabilitation and reconstruction; citizen input with respect to prioritizing major streets in need of reconstruction; and geographic distribution throughout the community to ensure all areas of the City receive benefit from the bond proceeds. Secondary street project criteria established by the citizen SRRP included the following: overlay projects will generally receive higher priority than reconstruction projects; arterial and collector streets are generally prioritized over local streets; and additional criteria includes streets with utility needs, presence of bike lanes or routes, Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan projects, transit routes, and local streets that serve schools or commercial or industrial areas. If approved, the bond proceeds will fix approximately 74 lane-miles of streets and fund pedestrian and bicycle improvements. Bond Criteria and Use: The citizen SRRP recommended the continuation of the bond criteria to limit the use of bond proceeds for specific street preservation projects included in the resolution. If all of the listed projects are completed and there are bond proceeds remaining, the council may add other street preservation projects to the list. The bond proceeds will be used to overlay or reconstruct the driving surface of streets as well as to preserve existing integral elements of the street such as curbs, gutters, sidewalks, on-street bike lanes, traffic signals, street lights, medians, traffic calming devices, and other integral parts of a street S:\CMO\2012 Council Agendas\M120523\S120523A.doc