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C. 76

To:	Board of Supervisors
From:	TRANSPORTATION, WATER & INFRASTRUCTURE COMMITTEE
Date:	August 1, 2017

Contra

Costa

County

Subject:

Comment Letter to the Contra Costa Transportation Authority Regarding the 2017 Countywide Transportation Plan Update

APPROVE	OTHER
RECOMMENDATION OF CNTY ADMINISTRATOR	RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE

Action of Board On: 08/01/2017

APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED

OTHER

Clerks Notes:

VOTE OF SUPERVISORS

AYE:

John Gioia, District I Supervisor
Candace Andersen, District II Supervisor
Diane Burgis, District III Supervisor
Karen Mitchoff, District IV Supervisor
Federal D. Glover, District V Supervisor

Contact:	John Cunningham (925) 674-7833
cc:	John Barclay

I hereby certify that this is a true and correct copy of an action taken and entered on the minutes of the Board of Supervisors on the date shown.
ATTESTED: August 1, 2017
David Twa,

BY:	, Deputy

RECOMMENDATION(S):

AUTHORIZE the Chair of the Board of Supervisors to sign a letter to the Contra Costa Transportation Authority providing comments on the May 24, 2017 DRAFT "2017 Countywide Comprehensive Transportation Plan", as recommended by the Transportation, Water, and Infrastructure Committee.

FISCAL IMPACT:

None.

BACKGROUND:

The Transportation, Water, and Infrastructure Committee (TWIC) and the Board of Supervisors (BOS) reviewed, discussed and provided input on the update to the Contra Costa Transportation Authority's (Authority's) Countywide Transportation Plan (CTP) from 2014 through 2016. For a portion of this time the discussion was in conjunction with the development of the Measure X Transportation Expenditure Plan (TEP). Ultimately, CTP development was suspended in 2016 and TEP development proceeded independently.

BACKGROUND: (CONT'D)

While the CTP and TEP were under development, the Board of Supervisors received numerous staff reports and the County submitted several comment letters to the Authority. The Authority was responsive to County input and the majority of our revisions were incorporated in to the CTP. For background purposes those staff reports and letters are compiled in a list of links at the bottom of this report.

This May 2017 version of the CTP is, in part, picking up where the Authority left off before development of the document was suspended. However, the document has been reformatted and some content has been changed. That said, staff's proposed comments on the CTP are brief given the Authority's prior responsiveness to the County.

The following chapters from Authority's Countywide Transportation Plan are attached (CTP Excerpts: Executive Summary, Introduction, Vision-Goals-Strategies) to this report: Executive Summary, Introduction, Challenges and Opportunities, and Visions, Goals, and Strategies. The full document is available here:
http://2017ctpupdate.net/

Draft Letter: A draft comment letter (attached: BOS to CCTA reCTP) on the May 24, 2017 DRAFT "2017 Countywide Comprehensive Transportation Plan" from the Board of Supervisors to the Authority is attached. TWIC, at their July 10, 2017 meeting, approved sending the letter to the full Board of Supervisors for their consideration and approval.. The staff report and letter reviewed by TWIC focused on two topics, the 1) Northern Waterfront Economic Development Initiative, and 2) Accessible Transit.

Two new issues, 3) Expanded Regional Transportation Mitigation Program, and 4) Project List Comments were raised subsequent to the TWIC meeting. Those issues are addressed below and raised in the attached draft letter. The new information on this topic below and in the attached letter has not been reviewed by TWIC. There are two attached letters, one track changes version showing revisions subsequent to the TWIC meeting and one clean, final draft.

1) Northern Waterfront Economic Development Initiative: As reflected in the draft letter, the CTP supports the County's Northern Waterfront Economic Development Initiative. The comments in the letter are intended to ensure that some tangible actions are included in the CTP.

The concept of "Priority Production Areas" (PPAs) has been discussed at, and has some support with the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC). PPAs, according to ABAG, are areas that "...would be locally designated zones where manufacturing, warehousing, distribution and repair services would be a priority consideration in determining future land use." County staff believes that we would benefit from a formal, funded PPA program at the regional level to assist with our Northern Waterfront efforts. This would be similar to Priority Development Areas (PDAs) and Priority Conservation Areas (PCAs) which are established programs with, most critically, associated funding priorities.

2) Accessible Transit: The message in the letter related to accessible transit is a departure from the County's past practice in addressing accessible transit issues. With earlier versions of the CTP update and development of the TEP, the County provided expansive, well-documented rationale including data, history, best practices, etc, in advocating for proactively and strategically addressing accessible transit needs. These reports and letters can be accessed at the links at the bottom of this report.

The County's detailed engagement is due to numerous factors which suggest greater County involvement is appropriate: 1) the County has obligations under the the Older Americans Act that includes transportation, 2) the Contra Costa Health Plan (CCHP) has significant patient transportation responsibilities^[1], 3) the County's efforts to fill the responsibility gap observed in an earlier report to the BOS on the CTP which states, "barriers to progress on this issue are...accessible transit responsibilities are diffused (geographically and organizationally) throughout the county resulting in no single agency or organization falling naturally into a leadership role..."* and 4) general, countywide obligations related to public health.

At this point in the CTP update staff believes that relative to accessible transit: 1) the BOS position on this issue is reflected in the record, 2) the rationale for making changes on this type of transit service is well-established, and 3) there is a general understanding among some decision makers that action needs to be taken. Considering all of this information, the CTP comments proposed by staff are brief and to the point which is to see some progress on the issue after years of advocacy.

With this letter the County's options for using the CTP/TEP process to catalyze changes in the accessible transit system appear to be exhausted.

3) Expanded Regional Transportation Mitigation Program: Concerns with the following concept from the "Maintaining the System" section in the CTP were raised at the July 14th TRANSPAC meeting: "…the Authority proposes to expand the Regional Transportation Mitigation Program to ensure that fees collected cover the costs of ongoing maintenance…”. This concept was the subject of a message (attached: 7-13-17 Email BIA to TRANSPAC Re_CTP Fee Program.pdf) from the Building Industry Association of the Bay Area to the Chair of the TRANSPAC Committee (Supervisor Karen Mitchoff).

In response to these concerns and in consultation with Supervisor Mitchoff in her capacity as the County's Authority representative, staff revised the letter. In summary, the primary concerns with the concept are 1) there does not appear, on the face of it, any mechanism by which the proposal could be implemented given the current statutes related to imposing mitigation fees, and 2) a proposal of this significance requires substantially more vetting at the various collaborative public forums established for these issues, the Regional Transportation Planning Committees, Technical Coordinating Committee, in addition to the City/Town Councils and the Board of Supervisors.

4) Project List Comments
The transportation project list published in the 2017 CTP is missing two projects that were present in the 2014 project list, the Vasco Road Safety Improvements (Phase 2) and Northern Waterfront Goods Movement Infrastructure. As seen in the attached, the County is requesting that these projects be added back in.

________________________________________________________________

^[1] Transportation and healthcare are becoming more interrelated as research shows that poor transportation is a significant barrier to adequate health care and a cost effective system. (National Institutes of Health (NIH): Traveling Towards Disease: Transportation Barriers to Healthcare Access, 2013 - NIH Barriers to Health Care Access Among the Elderly, 2011) Without access to adequate transportation preventative medical appointments are often missed resulting in untreated chronic conditions resulting in degradation to the point where emergency medical care and transport is necessary. Recognizing this issue, legislation has been recently introduced to impose transportation requirements on healthcare providers. The Affordable Care Act included transportation coverage and California AB 2394 (2016 - Medi-Cal Non-Medical Transportation) increases transportation obligations to health insurance providers.

The unintended consequence of these requirements is further balkanization of transportation systems and providers which has long been acknowledged to confound cost saving coordiation efforts thereby increasing costs through duplication of services. (United States Government Accountability Office (GAO), "Transportation Disadvantaged Populations: Coordination Efforts are Underway, but Challenges Continue", GAO: "Transportation Coordination: Benefits and Barriers Exist, and Planning Efforts Progress Slowly" 1999, GAO: "Transportation Disadvantaged Populations: Some Coordination Efforts Among....Transportation...Obstacles Persist" 2003, GAO: "Services for the Elderly - Longstanding Transportation Problems Need More Federal Attention" 1991, GAO: "Transportation Disadvantaged Populations: Federal Coordination Efforts Could be Further Strengthened" 2012, GAO: "Public Transit: Challenges in Funding....and Coordinating Services" 2014.

Previous Reports and Letters on the Contra Costa Transportation Authority's Countywide Transportation Plan Update and Transportation Expenditure Plan:
March 8, 2016 Staff Report to the BOS: Update on the Status of the Contra Costa Transportation Authority's Development of a Transportation Expenditure Plan
*September 15, 21015 Staff Report to the BOS: Report on the Development of a Transportation Expenditure Plan and potential sales tax ballot measure by the Contra Costa Transportation Authority
November 3, 2015 Letter: BOS to CCTA Re: Transportation Expenditure Plan & Potential Sales Tax Measure
October 21, 2014 Staff Report to the BOS: Comment Letter on the Contra Costa Transportation Authority's DRAFT 2014 Countywide Transportation Plan Update
October 21, 2014 Letter from the BOS to the CCTA: 2014 Countywide Transportation Plan Update
White Paper on Accessible Transit in Contra Costa County

CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:

If action is not taken, the County's policy priorities will not be communicated to the Contra Costa Transportation Authority for inclusion in the Countywide Transportation Plan.

CLERK'S ADDENDUM

Written comments received from Debbie Toth, Choice in Aging (attached).