Agenda Item # 7
| |
Date: |
November 19, 2004 |
| |
Committee Meeting Date: |
December 9, 2004 |
| |
Board Meeting Date: |
January 6, 2005 |
| |
ACTION
___
DISCUSSION
X
| INFO
___
|
BOARD MEMORANDUM
| TO: |
Technical Advisory Committee |
| | Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority |
| | Board of Directors |
| | | | THROUGH: | Peter M. Cipolla |
| | General Manager |
| | | | FROM: | Carolyn M. Gonot |
| | Chief Development Officer |
| | |
| SUBJECT: |
Community Design & Transportation Program: First Cycle Planning Grants |
RECOMMENDATION:
Review and comment on the recommendation to program $450,000 in Community Design & Transportation (CDT) Program Planning Grants to projects as shown in the following discussion.
BACKGROUND:
The CDT Program is designed to provide information, tools, and planning, technical and design assistance to member agencies to influence a proactive planning and development process. During the development of the CDT Program, member agencies also expressed the need for VTA to provide financial resources to assist in implementing the CDT Program.
At its June 3, 2004 meeting, the VTA Board of Directors adopted policies and criteria for a CDT Planning Grants Program to assist member agencies with implementing the concepts, principles, practices, and actions outlined in VTA’s CDT Manual of Best Practices for Integrating Transportation and Land Use. Attachment A is the Board-approved CDT Program description.
The CDT Planning Grants are intended to help the cities, towns, and County of Santa Clara develop, refine, and build on promising ideas, and prepare those plans, projects, and policies for implementation. Moreover, they are intended to help member agencies incorporate transit-and-pedestrian-friendly design into all aspects of the planning and development process.
The CDT Planning Grants are intended to prepare projects for implementation by member agencies, and to compete for VTA Livable Communities and Pedestrian Program (capital) Grants, as well as MTC Transportation for Livable Communities (TLC) grants. Member agencies can apply for grants in two categories:
1)Policy Planning Projects that revise existing or create new policies, codes, ordinances, or enforceable design standards that encourage changes in community form that result in multi-modal, pedestrian-friendly streets and transit-oriented, compact, mixed-use developments along major transportation corridors, and core areas such as downtowns, main streets, commercial nodes, and station areas. Up to $150,000 per project will be available to assist with policy creation or revision projects. (See Attachment A for a description of the types of projects that would be considered “policy” projects.)
2)Capital Planning Projects that integrate high-quality, pedestrian and multimodal transportation design elements into a public street, corridor, commercial node or station area. Up to $75,000 per project will be available for capital planning projects. (See Attachment A for a description of the types of projects that would be considered “capital” projects.)
DISCUSSION:
On July 18, 2004, VTA issued a call for CDT Planning Grant project proposals. Ten projects were submitted. Projects were reviewed and evaluated by a Scoring Committee based on the policies and criteria adopted by the VTA Board on June 3, 2004. The Scoring Committee was composed of VTA staff, Capital Improvement Program (CIP) Subcommittee members and a member of the VTA Policy Advisory Committee (PAC).
The Scoring Committee scored the projects as shown in the following table. VTA Staff recommend that the Board program grant funds to the four highest scoring projects.
Previously, the Scoring Committee had included the Sunnyvale Downtown Murphy Avenue Streetscape Project as part of the approved project list. Since that time, it has come to our attention that the project has received approval from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission for funding through the TLC Program and therefore does not require funding through the CDT Planning Grant Program.
In its place, the Sunnyvale Caltrain Station North Pedestrian Access Improvements will move up above the cut-off line. The grant amount recommended is $75,000, which is identical to the previously approved Sunnyvale Downtown Murphy Avenue Streetscape Project.
The final project listing is shown in Table 1.
|
Member Agency
|
Project Name
|
Total Score
|
Grant Request
|
Grant Recommended
|
Cumulative Grant Total
|
|
Milpitas
|
Midtown Transit Sub Area Plan
|
98
|
$150,000
|
$150,000
|
$150,000
|
|
San Jose
|
Pedestrian Master Plan Update
|
88
|
$150,000
|
$150,000
|
$300,000
|
|
Sunnyvale *
|
Downtown Murphy Ave. Streetscape
|
83.5
|
$75,000
|
$75,000
|
$375,000
|
|
Sunnyvale
|
Tasman/Fair Oaks Bike & Ped. Circulation Plan
|
83
|
$75,000
|
$75,000
|
$375,000
|
|
Sunnyvale
|
Caltrain Station North Ped. Access Improvements
|
80
|
$75,000
|
$75,000
|
$400,000
|
|
Cut-Off Line
|
|
Mountain View
|
|
77
|
$40,000
|
|
|
|
Palo Alto
|
Bicycle Blvd. Network
|
66
|
$60,000
|
|
|
|
Sunnyvale
|
Downtown Gateway Streetscape
|
65
|
$60,000
|
|
|
|
Los Altos
|
Pedestrian Master Plan
|
64
|
$68,000
|
|
|
|
Palo Alto
|
Transportation Strategic Plan Performance Measures
|
36
|
$60,000
|
|
|
*The Downtown Murphy Avenue Streetscape Project has been granted funding through the MTC Transportation for Livable Communities (TLC) Program.
CONTACT BOARD SECRETARY'S OFFICE FOR ATTACHMENT
Click here to return to the Board Agenda Index
|
Rider's Links 
