PLANS AND PROGRAMS COMMITTEE
Meeting Notice
Date: 10:00 a.m., Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Location: Room 263, City Hall
Commissioners: Commissioners Tang (Chair), Christensen (Vice Chair), Breed, Farrell, Yee and Wiener (Ex Officio)
Clerk: Steve Stamos
1. Roll Call
2. Citizens Advisory Committee Report – INFORMATION* attachment
Consent Calendar
3. Approve the Minutes of the January 13, 2015 Meeting – ACTION* attachment
4. Recommend Adoption of the Fiscal Year 2015/16 Transportation Fund for Clean Air Local Expenditure Criteria – ACTION* attachment
Transportation Fund for Clean Air (TFCA) funds come from a $4 per vehicle surcharge collected by the Department of Motor Vehicles on motor vehicle registrations in the nine-county Bay Area region. A portion of the funds (40 percent) is available to each county on a return-to-source basis from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (Air District). These funds are used to implement strategies to improve air quality by reducing motor vehicle emissions in accordance with the Air District’s Clean Air Plan. As the Program Manager for the City and County of San Francisco, the Transportation Authority is required to annually adopt Local Expenditure Criteria for the programming of the local TFCA funds. Our proposed Fiscal Year 2015/16 Local Expenditure Criteria (Attachment 1) are essentially the same as those used in past cycles and are consistent with the Air District’s TFCA policies for Fiscal Year 2015/16. The criteria establish a clear prioritization methodology for applicant projects, including project types ranked by local priorities, emissions reduced, program diversity, project readiness, and past project sponsor delivery. We plan to issue the Fiscal Year 2015/16 call for projects in late February and anticipate having approximately $850,000 to program to projects. We are seeking a recommendation to adopt the Fiscal Year 2015/16 TFCA Local Expenditure Criteria.
End of Consent Calendar
5. Recommend Appointment of One Member to the Geary Corridor Bus Rapid Transit Citizens Advisory Committee – ACTION* attachment enclosure
The Transportation Authority has a 13-member Geary Corridor Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Citizens Advisory Committee (GCAC). There is one vacant seat on the GCAC for a representative of the Richmond District. The vacancy is due to the resignation of Jette Swan who moved out of San Francisco. Following the issuance of notices seeking applicants to the GCAC, we have received applications from 14 candidates. Staff provides information on applicants but does not make recommendations on GCAC appointments. Attachment 1 contains a summary table with information about current and prospective GCAC members, showing neighborhood of residence, neighborhood of employment, affiliation, and other information provided by the applicants. We are seeking a recommendation to appoint one member to the GCAC.
6. Recommend Programming of Up to $5,143,714 in Cycle 4 Lifeline Transportation Program (LTP) Funds to Two San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) Projects, Concurrence with Cycle 4 LTP Prop 1B Priorities as Submitted by SFMTA and the Bay Area Rapid Transit District, and Amendment of the Prop K Bus Rapid Transit/MUNI Metro Network 5-Year Prioritization – ACTION* attachment
Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s (MTC’s) Lifeline Transportation Program (LTP) funds projects that improve mobility for low-income populations primarily by addressing gaps or barriers identified through community-based transportation plans or other substantive local planning efforts. In our role as Congestion Management Agency (CMA), the Transportation Authority prioritizes a portion of LTP funds and helps MTC with administering the overall LTP for San Francisco. For Cycle 4, MTC has assigned $4.9 million in funds to the Transportation Authority. An additional $216,000 in Cycle 2 LTP funds is also available for reprogramming due to the cancelation of the San Bruno Transit Preferential Streets project which will be implemented through Muni Forward. In October 2014, we released a call for projects, and by the December deadline, we received four applications from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) totaling $6.6 million. Consistent with MTC’s guidelines and the prioritization criteria, the evaluation panel reached consensus on the project rankings, and upon consultation with SFMTA, we recommend fully funding Potrero Hill Pedestrian Safety and Transit Stop Improvements and Expanding Late Night Transit Services (Attachment 3). MTC has assigned State Prop 1B funds directly to transit operators to program at their discretion with CMAs’ concurrence. Attachment 4 shows a summary of LTP Prop 1B priorities, including SFMTA’s Van Ness Avenue Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) ($6.19 million) and the Bay Area Rapid Transit District’s (BART’s) Wayfinding Signage and Pit Stop Initiative ($4.6 million). The proposed LTP Prop 1B programming will allow SFMTA to reduce an equivalent amount of Prop K funds going to the Van Ness BRT project and direct them to Geary BRT instead. To reflect the Prop K reprogramming, the requested action includes an amendment to the relevant Prop K 5-Year Prioritization Program (5YPP). We are seeking a recommendation to program up to $5,143,714 in Cycle 4 LTP funds to two SFMTA projects, concur with Cycle 4 LTP Prop 1B priorities as submitted by SFMTA and BART, and amend the Prop K Bus Rapid Transit/MUNI Metro Network 5YPP.
7. Recommend Allocation of $5,199,670 in Prop K Funds, with Conditions, and $636,480 in Prop AA Funds for Eight Requests, Subject to the Attached Fiscal Year Cash Flow Distribution Schedules – ACTION* attachment enclosure
As summarized in Attachments 1 and 2, we have eight requests totaling $5,836,150 in Prop K and AA funds to present to the Plans and Programs Committee. Attachment 3 summarizes our recommendations. We are requesting $750,000 in Prop K funds for traffic analysis and environmental studies required for the potential realignment of the I-280 off-ramp at Ocean Avenue and a ramp closure analysis for the possible closure of the I-280 on-ramp at Geneva Avenue near Balboa Park. These are two of the recommendations from the Balboa Park Station Area Circulation Study. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) has requested Prop K funds for six projects. They include construction of Balboa Park Station Area and Plaza Improvements to facilitate multi-modal access ($1,773,993); planning and design of Fall Protection Systems at seven vehicle maintenance facilities ($2,160,777); $72,000 to extend the existing Bicycle Safety Education Classes contract by nine months; planning, design, and construction of WalkFirst Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons at up to 11 locations ($222,900); construction of Golden Gate Road Diet from Polk to Market ($120,000) which is a near-term Vision Zero capital project; and $100,000 for the District 1 Neighborhood Transportation Improvement Program planning project to study safety and access improvements on four north-south corridors in the Richmond. Lastly, the SFMTA has requested $636,480 in Prop AA funds for Franklin and Divisadero Signal Upgrade construction. We are seeking a recommendation to allocate $5,199,670 in Prop K funds, with conditions, and $636,480 in Prop AA funds for eight requests, subject to the attached Fiscal Year Cash Flow Distribution Schedules.
8. Recommend Reprogramming of $10,227,540 in OneBayArea Grant Funds from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s Masonic Avenue Complete Streets Project to the Light Rail Vehicle Procurement Project, with Conditions – ACTION* attachment
In June 2013, the Transportation Authority programmed $10.2 million in federal funds to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s (SFMTA’s) Masonic Avenue Complete Streets (Masonic Avenue) project as part of San Francisco’s competitively awarded OneBayArea Grant (OBAG) program. The Masonic Avenue project will reallocate road space to calm traffic, dedicate space for bicyclists, and provide pedestrian and transit enhancements on Masonic Avenue from Fell Street to Geary Boulevard. Consistent with regional timely use of funds requirements, the SFMTA must obligate the OBAG funds by April 30, 2015. If that deadline is missed, there is a high risk that the funds will not be available to the Masonic project before October 2016 due to the uncertainty in future federal funding levels. The SFMTA will not be able to meet this deadline as the project has been delayed due to its extensive coordination with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and unanticipated scope additions which included a dual sewer system, Muni overhead wire relocations, and new signals on medians. The SFMTA has identified Masonic Avenue as a priority safety project, so in order to avoid further delays, it has proposed swapping the Masonic Avenue project’s OBAG funds with local revenue bond funds and reprogramming the OBAG funds to its Light Rail Vehicle (LRV) Procurement, which is eligible to receive OBAG funds. To minimize risk and avoid further delays, we support the proposed swap. Given the Transportation Authority’s commitment to monitor the progress of San Francisco’s originally approved OBAG project list, our recommended action includes a special condition that the SFMTA continue to follow our OBAG reporting requirements for the Masonic Avenue project. We are seeking a recommendation to reprogram $10,227,540 in OBAG funds from the SFMTA’s Masonic Avenue project to the LRV Procurement project, with conditions.
9. Major Capital Projects Update – I-80/Yerba Buena Island Interchange Improvement Project – INFORMATION* attachment
The Transportation Authority is working jointly with the Treasure Island Development Authority (TIDA) on the development of the I-80/Yerba Buena Island (YBI) Interchange Improvement Project. TIDA asked the Transportation Authority, in its capacity as the Congestion Management Agency, to lead the effort to prepare and obtain approval for all required technical documentation for the I-80/YBI Interchange Improvement Project because of its expertise in funding and interacting with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) on design aspects of the project. The project is funded with a combination of Federal Highway Bridge Program, State Proposition 1B Seismic Retrofit (Prop 1B) and TIDA funds. The scope of the I-80/YBI Interchange Improvement Project includes two major components: 1) The YBI Ramps Project—which includes constructing new westbound on and off ramps (on the east side of YBI) to the new Eastern Span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (SFOBB)—is currently in construction and scheduled for completion in August 2016; and 2) the YBI West-Side Bridges Project, which includes the seismic retrofit of the existing YBI Bridge Structures on the west side of the island, a critical component of island traffic circulation leading to and from the SFOBB. This component of the project is in the engineering phase and is scheduled to go to construction in the early 2017 time frame after the completion of the YBI Ramps project and the Caltrans SFOBB eastbound on-off ramp improvements project. This is an information item.
10. Introduction of New Items – INFORMATION
11. Public Comment
12. Adjournment
* Additional materials
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