Board Packet - Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority

Agenda Item # 7.X

	Date:	November 29, 2004
	Committee Meeting Date:	December 9, 2004
	Board Meeting Date:	January 6, 2004
	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:	Regional Bicycle/Pedestrian Program Project Prioritization

RECOMMENDATION:

Review and comment on the recommendation to approve the prioritized list of projects to be submitted to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) for the Regional Bicycle/Pedestrian Program.

BACKGROUND:

The MTC’s Regional Bicycle and Pedestrian Program (RBPP) supports the construction of pedestrian and bicycle facilities throughout the Bay Area. The RBPP is divided into a 25% regional program (administered by MTC) and a 75% county share program (administered by the Congestion Management Agencies.)

Approximately $8 million is available through the RBPP 25% regional program for FY 2006 and FY 2007. VTA is responsible for submitting a prioritized Santa Clara County project list to MTC for the RBPP 25 % regional projects. The projects on the list are evaluated based on MTC’s RBPP criterion.

VTA issued the call for projects on October 5, 2004 and accepted applications until November 12, 2004. For bicycle and bicycle/pedestrian projects, candidates were limited to projects on the VTA Bicycle Expenditure Program list. After the VTA Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) and the VTA Board endorse the prioritized project list, the list will be forwarded to MTC by January 21, 2005.

MTC requires the prioritized project list then be reviewed by a county-level BPAC. In February 2005, MTC will evaluate projects with the assistance of representatives from MTC’s Regional Bicycle Working Group, Regional Pedestrian Committee, and the Bay Area partnership of transportation agencies using the RBPP project criteria. MTC plans to release a draft program of projects recommended for RBPP funding in March 2005 and is expected to approve the draft program of projects in June 2005.

A subsequent call for projects for the 75% county share of the RBPP funds for FY 2008 and FY 2009 program years will be released in FY 2006. An estimated $6 million will be available for Santa Clara County for the 75% county share.

DISCUSSION:

Prior to receiving applications, VTA solicited five volunteers from the BPAC and Member Agency staff to form a scoring committee to evaluate projects for prioritization and recommendation.

VTA received four project applications, which are listed below in Table 1:

Table 1. Submitted Projects for RBPP Funding
Sponsor	Project	Requested Amount
Monte Sereno (Los Gatos, Saratoga)	Highway 9 Corridor Bicycle/Pedestrian Improvements	$ 1,675,000
Mountain View	Stevens Creek Trail Reach 4 Segment 2	$ 1,000,000
San Jose	Guadalupe River Trail Reach A-G	$ 3,137,705
Saratoga	Highway 9 Improvements at Horseshoe Dr. and Oak St.	$ 166,628

Copies of the applications and the evaluation criteria were forwarded to the Scoring Committee on November 15, 2004. The scoring committee met on November 22, 2004 to discuss the projects and created the list of prioritized projects shown in Table 2:

Table 2.
Recommended Projects
for FY 2006 and FY 2007 RBPP Funding

	Sponsor	Project	Requested Amount
1	San Jose	Guadalupe River Trail Reach A-G	$2,000,000
2	Monte Sereno	Highway 9 Corridor Bicycle/Pedestrian Improvements	$1,675,000
3	Mountain View	Stevens Creek Trail Reach 4 Segment 2	$1,000,000
Project Not Recommended
	Saratoga	Highway 9 Improvements at Horseshoe Dr. and Oak St.	N/A

The scoring committee recommended that the request amount for the Guadalupe River Trail project be limited to $2 million, given that the total funding available is $8 million. The City of San Jose has indicated that $2 million could build a sizable length of usable trail segment.

The City of Saratoga’s Highway 9 project at Horseshoe Drive and Oak Street was not recommended as part of the prioritized list. The requested amount was less than the $300,000 minimum grant established by MTC, and the project is localized within the same limits as the City of Monte Sereno’s Highway 9 Corridor project. VTA staff will work with staff from the Cities of Saratoga and Monte Sereno to coordinate and refine project elements in the Highway 9 Corridor application prior to submittal for MTC.

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Agenda Item # 7.X