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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2003 01-06 Joint ACHDMeridian City Council Special Joint Meeting With Ada County Highway District Commission January 6, 2003 The Joint Meeting of the Meridian City Council and the Ada County Highway District Commission was called to order at 12:00 P.M. on Monday January 6, 2003. Council Present: Mayor Bob Corrie, Keith Bird, Bill Nary, Cherie McCandless and Tammy De Weerd. Staff Present: Bill Nichols, Gary Smith, Brad Hawkins-Clark and Will Berg. Ada County Highway District Commission Present: David Wynkoop, Dave Bivens, Susan Eastlake, John Frander and Sherry Huber. Ada County Highway District Staff Present: Don Kostelec and Mike Brokaw I Five Year Work Program Prioritization Process ACHD Wynkoop: We will go ahead and get started. We are starting with the five-year update and Mr. Kostelec from our staff is going to make that presentation. Kostelec: Mr. Mayor, Council and Commissioners. Thanks for the opportunity. I’m Don Kostelec, transportation planner here at the Highway District. What I’m going to present to you guys today is basically our roadway project prioritization method that we use for the updated of this years five year work program, which is ongoing as we speak. Last year we had a process we went through, we prioritized roughly 76 projects and in the process previously we had only had technical factors involved. Pre-data intensive but it didn’t tell the whole picture and we found that when our number priority project wasn’t in the five-year work project but the number 76 rank project was. There are reasons for that so what we set out to do this year was use that technical data but also add some other fields to that to paint the entire picture best as we can of how and why we program the five year work program the way we do. So that’s what we are going to go through today. In front of you I gave you two handouts. One the top sheet is what you are seeing on the screen right now. The second one is just a more detailed description of what we are going to go through. We are going to use a Meridian project for an example and this is the Franklin Road, Main to east of Eagle project that is scheduled for construction in fiscal year 2004. We will go through every factor in the prioritization as it relates to this project. Like I said in the past we had used basically just technical criteria until this year. So what we did is we went in and added programming criteria to it. Essentially we just take the total points award it to each project under the two categories to get an overall rank of point total and then an overall ranking. The breakdown – the maximum number of points under technical criteria for a project is 32, the maximum under programming is 21. So we were trying to still give some advantage to the Meridian City Council Special Joint Meeting with Ada County Highway District Commission January 6, 2003 Page 2 of 10 technical side of things but also work in the programming criteria. So we will start with the technical side and work through the project from there. What we look at first is effective additional capacity of the roadway. For this one the current capacity is shown is 18,500 vehicles a day. When we widen it to five lanes it will have a future capacity of 37,000. The way the numbers work there we get an effective additional capacity of 18,500 vehicles that’s how many more it’ll be able to carry once we get it complete. If you look on the point breakdown that is the fourth highest total there so it does get the four points out of a possible five. Next we simply look at accident rate per million vehicle miles traveled. Our Traffic Department collects the data and gets a three-year average for that. This stretch of roadway, fairly low accident rate 1.31 so it’s only awarded one point out of five. Third we look at street classification, basically what’s the functional classification of that roadway. This part of Franklin is principal arterial therefore it gets the highest number of points under functional class. Next we look at system improvements value and it’s how is this widening of this stretch of roadway helping the overall roadway system. We are going from two to three – currently two and three up to five lanes which is a high improvement value, its on a principal arterial therefore its awarded the highest point total of five. Next we look at freeway diversion routes. A few years ago they went through and identified an ITS detour plan which is essentially used to time the traffic signals when the freeway is backed up primarily looking at Franklin and Overland Roads which is pretty important out in Meridian. This section was given a secondary diversion route, so it does receive one point but it’s only out of a possible two. Then we look at the condition of the pavement, each year our Maintenance Department goes out and surveys the roadways in the county to determine how good the pavement is out there. 100 being the highest score this one was awarded a 72 which falls in the preventative maintenance area, it’s not a bad roadway as far as structure. So with that score it does get two points out of a possible five. The final technical category is cost per lane per mile and we simply go out and use our cost estimates and determine this figure. Total cost of this project is right around 12 million dollars. Cost per lane per mile is 3.15, that’s pretty high for the projects we have. So therefore as cost efficiency goes it gets no points under this category. So in the end we’ve made it through the technical criteria. The project so far as been assigned 18 out of a maximum 32 points. We will go with the programming criteria and walk you through that. First we look at spent to date. What is ACHD’s financial commitment to this project? What commitments have been made in the past in spending this project? Project was designed in the past right of way as program for Fiscal Year 2003, therefore we have made a pretty sizable financial commitment to this project, it receives the maximum three points out of a possible three. Next thing we look at is leveraging of non ACHD funds its based on some of our federal funding sources as well as what other municipalities in the area contribute to projects. This specific project has no outside funding source identified, therefore it gets no points. Locust Grove overpass would be one with City of Meridian’s contribution and the federal funds would be an example of one that would receive the highest point total there. Next we look at public and outside agencies support. Now Meridian City Council Special Joint Meeting with Ada County Highway District Commission January 6, 2003 Page 3 of 10 what is the level of support from the public, city’s, county, COMPASS, ITD and others? This one is in the 20 year long range transportation plan, its also in the City of Meridian’s request list, therefore it gets the highest number of points, three. Then we look at where it was scheduled in our previous five-year work program. When we look at the five year work program every year we look at the first three years of projects as more committed then those in the out years. This one was in the first three years of the previous five-year work program. Therefore it does receive the highest point total, three. Next we look at geographic equity. Places in Ada County where we’ve been collecting taxes and impact fees but maybe there aren’t roadway needs in some of those areas but we need to spend the money. Meridian within the program and in the past has had a fair share of projects therefore no points out of a possible three. Next we look at development acquisition. We have development applications come in, we require the right of way for that roadway and if we can do that we can get it at a substantially lower cost then if we were to go out there and buy it parcel by parcel. So we decided to give a category to reflect how much of that project’s right of way we have obtained through the development process. This one we have obtained a moderate amount roughly one-third of the right-of-way along the project through development. Therefore it is awarded one point out of a possible three. Finally the last category we look at is impact fees under past programs we’ve had an eligible portion of a project that we could spend impact fee money on. This was simply looking at what percentage of that eligible portion do we have based on our impact fee projections. This one has roughly 26 to 50 percent of the eligible portion available therefore its awarded one point out of a possible three. So after the programming is done we have eleven points for that side if you had it to the 18 we gave to the technical side we get 29 overall points. This year we went through and prioritized 100 projects based on staff who put projects previously in the program, things that come out of your request list. This one ranked number nine out of 100 with 29 possible points. I know it’s a lot of information but if you have any questions I’m certainly willing to answer those. Wynkoop: I think the main message is that we have more needs then we have money. Therefore you have to come up with some kind of a way to prioritize the projects that you are going to construct (inaudible) and so we have attempted to come up with some kind of a rationale or matrix if you will that’s got some logical reason. So I think that’s kind of a starting point and we wanted to show you all this and see what questions you have. That particular intersection was just used kind of as an example of how they go through with each of those 100 projects and more and put them into this priority system. Any questions? It’s a lot to digest all at once and I’m sure that Mr. Kostelec (inaudible) are available if you kind of get to studying through this and scratching your head a little bit about what does all this mean. Bill. Nary: Yes. Mr. President I guess the question I have is one of the categories I didn’t see and then looking at the priority list. It looks like there is three different projects along Franklin. Five Mile Franklin Fairview area. Franklin and Meridian City Council Special Joint Meeting with Ada County Highway District Commission January 6, 2003 Page 4 of 10 Cloverdale was number one and then Franklin and Main. So how these projects relate to be (inaudible) is there some factor because if you just looked at that list if I were one of the public I would think you were going to tear up Franklin at three different times where as you might move some of those up in relation to when they would be more economic or cost effective to build them because they are right adjacent to each other or maybe it wouldn’t be I don’t know. Was that a factor that’s considered as well? Kostelec: There’s not a factor built into it. One thing about this ranking is some of the schedules of the projects that were in last years five year work program and then three or four years before that we’ve gone in line of progression. Some of this within this may look a little odd because the program hasn’t sorted itself out. One of the things we had discussed and keep in mind this is an evolving process we plan to evaluate it every year. Is looking along the lines of logical sequencing which one could go first and so its something we are aware of and we try to look at outside of this when we go in and we have dollar amounts available in certain years, can we move this up? Would this be better suited for this? The Franklin Cloverdale to Five Mile project I know we are looking at combining it with the Franklin east of Eagle to Cloverdale project in order to in order to do it in the same year and things like that. Its not built into this there’s ways we could and we’ve discussed that and that could be up for further discussion. Wynkoop: I think another example might be the two miles of Overland between Eagle and Meridian where they kind of combined that into one. So they kind of have to look at that you know as it comes up but – Eastlake: Mr. President. Also I think the intent of this is not to say we are going to do project one first and then two then three and four. The purpose of it is to look and see if there is something very strange and for instance if you have a (inaudible) that comes in as number two in overall ranking that is (inaudible) that says to you maybe we missed something and then the same way if you look at a project that is number 26 and its going to be built next year. That’s more what this is about rather then specifically what’s number two and what’s number four and what’s number six. So within a certain range within the first ten projects for instance we ought to know right now what order we are doing those in and when we are going to do them. As we look at the next ten we ought to be thinking about okay how do these fit in the program so it’s more overall. Nary: I guess that’s probably why I asked the question because I understand all that. That explanation sort of goes along side with this ranking, that it really I guess to me wasn’t maybe necessarily when you put it in that ranked order that’s the way it would appear to most people that that’s your intent of when you are going to do those projects. Realistically it doesn’t work that way and I think we all understand that but the public may not understand it but I think President Wynkoop is right in saying its just to give them an overview of how do we come Meridian City Council Special Joint Meeting with Ada County Highway District Commission January 6, 2003 Page 5 of 10 up with some idea of priority, but without the explanation I think you are going to get the same criticism and we’ll end up hearing the same criticism of how come this is number three and we are still waiting on (inaudible) number eight. We’ll we have to explain this is kind of how it works but I think that is just part of what goes along. It’s just that education process. Eastlake: So maybe we should have range that the projects with 30 points and 35 points are A projects and projects that are 25 to 30 points are B projects or something like that. You know rather then strictly one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Nary: Yeah that would be fine or something so that people understand that we are not necessarily looking at them in that strict of a way. But really looking at how do all of these relate to one another and how they can get done more efficiently. Wynkoop: Budgeting certainly becomes a big part of that. You know if you got a project that’s only 50,000 you might be able to slide it up ahead and you got to leave money left over for some project that’s 20 million that might raise high priority but you can’t find the funds right then to do it. I think the other thing that this Commission certainly believes that this is kind of a basis for staff’s recommendation to the Commission but just as on your City Council I think the buck probably you know always stops with the elected officials. (Inaudible). De Weerd: I guess one concern that I would have. Or two comments. One is if you could share this rating schedule with our transportation task force so they can go through a similar formula in getting their priority list together but at looking at the waiting of these criteria. I guess I would like to look at that a little bit more. I do see you have the public and outside agencies support and you waited with three points. You know as we go through and prioritize the (inaudible) projects in our community, I’d like to see a little bit more wait behind those priorities and how you distinguish our number one versus our number ten. That shows up on the list, do all of them get a three? You know so as our task force goes through and prioritizes to the importance of our community that there is some advantage to the number one project that we would like to see happen versus the number ten. Huber: This is our first year at trying to really want to (inaudible) so we want to take it to anybody that wants to listen to it we want to take it to because we know as we said that we have less money and more projects. So as the cities start pounding us at least we have a way that shows that we are trying to get the ones that either have a safety problem or there’s other issues other than the (inaudible) politics associated of why a project gets done. De Weerd: This is great. Nary: Yes I think it’s very good. Meridian City Council Special Joint Meeting with Ada County Highway District Commission January 6, 2003 Page 6 of 10 Wynkoop: Take it study it, give us your thoughts. Huber: We might have to tweak it. Wynkoop: If your transportation taskforce has a regular meeting, if we could arrange to have them come out would be (inaudible). De Weerd: I think it would just be really helpful. As they prioritize ours they can kind of use your same criteria because of (inaudible). (Inaudible discussion amongst members) II Impact Fee Right-of-Way Issues ACHD Wynkoop: Mr. Brokaw. Brokaw: I’m going to handout a whole bunch of numbers to you. (Inaudible discussion amongst members) Brokaw: Mr. Chairman, Commissioners, Mayor and City Council members. I’m Mike Brokaw, the manager of Administrative Services here at the Highway District. What we were going to talk about today was impact fees and right of way issues I believe which really boils down to funding. So what I have put together here for you is some real quick – a scenario of what the impact fee situation is as it relates to revenues and expenditures through the end of the past fiscal year which ended September 30th of 2002. So the very first one and then stop me if I go through this to quickly because I work with this almost everyday so it’s almost second nature to me. But the first thing on the front page tells you that we started Fiscal Year 2002 with a balance of 6.6 million dollars and in the west Ada service are which is the one that encompass the City of Meridian we started out with a balance of five million. Taking all of the collections that came into the highway district and subtracting out the refunds, which were due to individual assessments. The offsets that were paid for the acquisition of right-of- way, which is really what we are talking about here today. We come up with a year end subtotal that’s available to be used for impact fee eligible project costs. So in all countywide we had 9.2 million dollars available and in the west Ada service area we had 5.9 million dollars available. The next four lines really tell you what the total roadway costs were of those projects and if you would like I do have a listing of all of those projects. What the eligible impact fee portion was of those costs and how much in impact fees were available to be used to pay for those costs. So we ended up with an ending balance at the end of Fiscal Year 2002 overall 2.5 million, in the west Ada service area 1.5 million. We had to make some adjustments there because some service areas were in the red, others weren’t. It ended up with a net ending balance of 1.4 million for the entire Meridian City Council Special Joint Meeting with Ada County Highway District Commission January 6, 2003 Page 7 of 10 countywide situation. What we had originally budgeted for in the Fiscal Year 2003 budget was to have 3.5 million dollars available and in the west Ada area we had estimated at 2.1. So what this means is we have essentially a shortfall of 2.1 million dollars as far as actual versus projections in the impact fees countywide and 648,000 in just the west Ada service area. The next page gives you what those projections were for both countywide and the west Ada service area that essentially says this is what we had at the beginning of 2003 as the projected beginning balance for each that that’s what was in the budget. Those numbers have changed and we have projected to have 2.6 million dollars left over at the end of 2003 to use for 2004 projects. In the west Ada service area we had planned on spending all of those funds particularly to fund Overland Road and part of Franklin Road. So what this is really showing you is that we are going to have to make up some money here. Impact fees are coming in lower than what we had anticipated particularly last year we had quite a situation where we went from 11.3 million down to 7.3 million. So there has been quite a decrease in the impact fees so far and I think a lot of that is mainly due to the economy more than anything else. But the last page is really I believe what the subject area that what we wanted to talk about and looking at the previous page it shows that projected developer offsets were 2.1 million dollars and in west Ada they were 1.4. We adjusted that already with one, I believe project out in Eagle, which was Plaza Drive. So we added 258,000 to that budget already that’s why it’s listed here in the total column of column one of 2.4 million. What this is showing is that we have already paid out and committed and or committed 2.1 million dollars of that 2.4. Now what this means is we only have 300,000 dollars essentially left to be able to be able to use for the acquisition of right-of-ways or completed improvements for the balance of this Fiscal Year which is nine months. Historically we’d been spending about two to two and a quarter million on these types of acquisitions in an entire year. I went back and looked back five years and its fairly constant that each year its been between that range and for some reason we’ve gotten some larger ones and I’m sure that Bruce and I’m sure that I see Gary here right now. For some reason these have all came in all at once in the first three months of this Fiscal Year. What that has done to us is that then we have to look at each one of those areas and determine if the impact fees are coming in quick enough in order for us to go ahead with some of these offsets and what we are finding is that they are not. So it’s put the highway district in a situation where we will have a developer come in and we want to buy the right-of-way but we don’t have the impact fees to buy it. That then puts us in a situation where we have to make the decision do we want to use other revenues in order to go ahead and make that acquisition and if we do then what are we going to sacrifice that is being funded with other revenues that we won’t do. So it’s either a project issue or it’s an operating budget type issue. Ran through that fairly quickly so if there are any questions I’d be glad to answer any of them that I can. Wynkoop: Questions for Mr. Brokaw? Let me kind of underscore the point here I think he was trying to make and he said it but I’ll say it again. That is basically Meridian City Council Special Joint Meeting with Ada County Highway District Commission January 6, 2003 Page 8 of 10 because of a combination of factors the impact fees are not going to be available this Fiscal Year to purchase right-of-way like we (inaudible). So we are going to need to find other revenues or which means you cut a project someplace or you don’t buy the right-of-way liked you had hoped. It’s always optimal to buy the right-of-way (inaudible) development because then landowners (inaudible) go ahead and put in your site and then they come back five or ten years later and try to buy the right-of-way then now you are buying the developed site. So anyway if the money isn’t there it isn’t there or you find another way to fund it. Wynkoop: Mr. Keith. Bird: Like on your all service area, does that include – the money in there includes west Ada too? Brokaw: Yes it does. Bird: Okay so in another words like your first line carry over balance – actually all service areas after you took west Ada out of there was only 1.6 million carry over from that area. West Ada carried over 5.5 million. Is that right? Brokaw: Councilman Bird, are you referring to page one where it says – Bird: Yeah right there your carry over you show it for all areas at 6.6 and actually west Ada carried over five, so what the other areas carried over was 1.6. Brokaw: That’s correct. The west Ada service area has been the largest one as far as collection of fees and the balances that have been there in the previous two years. The main reason for that is we were trying to collect enough money to fund Overland Road and Franklin Road which then we would see the balances go to zero by the end of 2003. Bird: Also in the same token. The roadway costs for all areas when you take out the west Ada was double what west Ada was. (Inaudible). Wynkoop: Questions, comments or discussion? De Weerd: I guess an item that was talked about at Council just recently was what can cities do to help with right-of-way acquisition and what’s legal and what isn’t or what would be considered (inaudible)? Can the cities ask for right-of-way donations? I guess you can ask, you can require that. Corrie: If I’m not mistaken. Nampa puts the right-of-way dedication in part of their project. If you want the project you put the dedication in. Why can’t we do that? Meridian City Council Special Joint Meeting with Ada County Highway District Commission January 6, 2003 Page 9 of 10 Bird: They are the same entity. We are two taxing entities. The City of Meridian and Ada County Highway District is two taxing entities. Nampa has their own highway district that’s right with the city. Their budget is all part of the Public Works. Corrie: Okay so in other words legally then that would be taking if we put it as part of their project. Bird: Ask the lawyer – I know there’s something – Corrie: I’ve had this discussion before. Brokaw: Mr. Mayor, for example Nampa Caldwell Boulevard. ITD came down and that might be a good analogy because you got the city and you got ITD coming in and approving the project within the city. ITD basically said we will use our construction dollars to approve that project if the city can persuade the adjoining property owners to donate the land. So it ended up being kind of a partnership like our Locust Grove but maybe that’s a (inaudible) close analogy. Bill’s anxious to comment but obviously the law of these actions is entered into the – Nichols: Mayor, members of the Council. It was actually Councilman Bird that pointed out in a prior meeting one of the key differences which I failed to take into account which is Nampa does not yet impose impact fees for roads. So there is a distinction between what Nampa does but typically roadway dedication is a requirement of the annexation in Nampa. So if you don’t get annexed you don’t get your project unless Council can see that there is roadway dedication so they don’t get into some of these issues about having to tear up an improvement in order to put in a road and pay several times over of what would have been paid initially. So I know the Council has asked us to (inaudible) what Mayor and Council do is assist the highway district so that even if the funds are not available today then down the road it’s not as expensive as if there are 75 houses that have to be (inaudible). So we are interested and might figure out that part of it. Trying to assist the highway district therefore (inaudible). Wynkoop: There is a couple things that obviously come to mind. One of course is with some developers we have been able to negotiate kind of a future payment so (inaudible) even though we don’t have the dollars today. The other thing is the sidewalk issue. A lot of times you are buying that extra right of way now so that the adjoining developer can know exactly where to put the sidewalk. So the practical problem is if you don’t buy that right-of-way now do you require the sidewalk to be put in and if so where. It is always an option for Nampa slash developer to put the sidewalk on their own property. Then essentially a dedicated easement to the public for use of the sidewalk to the extent that applicants and developers are willing to do that. That is a great help in this particular situation. Certainly the City of Kuna has experimented with requiring Meridian City Council Special Joint Meeting with Ada County Highway District Commission January 6, 2003 Page 10 of 10 certain dedications of right-of-way beyond what the highway district has required. We aren’t sure what we think about that exactly. Whether that’s a slippery slope or not to start down but I don’t know that I have a direct answer for Bill’s question or yours Tammy but maybe our staff has some further ideas or suggestions. Huber: You know this has been kicking around so there’s an interest on your part it seems to me that maybe Steve the two of you could get together and see if you can come up with a solution and maybe you can use that as a model. We’ve kind of skirted it for quite some time and you know its nice that you recognize our dilemma and so the two attorneys can legally come up with something that they can recommend then we can maybe use it countywide. Corrie: I think that if they group all of us to work together. It’s going to get to a point where you can’t do anything because we don’t have roads. They want to build them but they don’t want to help. So if we could work some kind of a partnership out with them or we could have that dedication done and then after it’s built it’s there. But we are heading for a big disaster if we don’t do something. I can see it now, I’ve seen it in other places (inaudible). I think the developers would be willing to work with us (inaudible). We are willing to work with them. So if we can get everybody together and I think the west Meridian area is going to be a good template for everybody to go on. Bird: If we get them to dedicate the right-of-way, what does that do to the impact fee? You can still charge the impact fee? See that’s the difference between Nampa. Not only are they the same taxing entity but they don’t have an impact fee. If we require them to give us 40 feet of right of way and then they are going to get charged for impact fees too. What does that do? Wynkoop: Let me make a comment real quick