Item #63 for 11/4: Project Connect JPA
Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2021 9:16 pm
Dear Colleagues,
With Item #63 on Thursday's Council agenda, we have another opportunity to discuss, and potentially approve negotiation and execution of, a Joint Powers Agreement for Project Connect with Capital Metro and the Austin Transit Partnership. I am eager to get this done -- and to get it done in a way that will withstand the test of time -- as I know you are.
The Project Connect JPA, as currently drafted, provides us a solid plan for how we're going to build a high-capacity transit system of trains and buses for Austin. But unless we ALSO plan for how we're going to FILL those trains and buses -- how our city collaboration will support transit ridership -- then we risk investing all this time, energy, and voter support into a generational transit system that has a hard time competing for federal funding. People need safe sidewalks and bikeway connections to get to the transit lines, and people need to be able to live, work, and play along these transit lines themselves.
Therefore, colleagues, I seek your support in giving direction to our staff on Thursday to initiate the development of a "Supportive Planning" supplemental agreement that establishes how the City, CapMetro, and ATP will collaborate on both multimodal connectivity planning and land use/eTOD planning around the Project Connect transit lines. We know there are roles here for all three entities (e.g. ATP should be constructing the bike/ped infrastructure on the transit corridors themselves, CapMetro has federal grant funding to do eTOD station area planning, etc.), so we need to establish exactly how our entities will work together in these areas to allow as many people as possible to use the great transit lines we are building. Much like the anti-displacement work, I see this planning work as inseparable from Project Connect.
Furthermore, to make sure we have the door open for developing a Supportive Planning supplemental agreement, I would like to offer an amendment to add one word to Section 2.7 of the JPA (at the bottom of page 6 in v3), Supplemental Agreements. I would add the word "planning" into the list of possible topics of future Supplemental Agreements immediately after "policy." As amended, the sentence would read, "These supplemental agreements must be taken by the appropriate parties and may be bilateral, such as… to address specific project issues related to policy, *planning,* property acquisition, financing, design, construction, operations or maintenance of the Project Connect system.”
In summary, I would ask that, on Thursday or at any other subsequent meeting on the JPA, we (a) make this one-word amendment to the JPA text, and (b) direct staff to initiate development of a Supportive Planning supplemental agreement on the coordination of multimodal planning and eTOD/land use planning.
Thank you all for your consideration of this amendment and this direction. I look forward to our discussion on Thursday and to considering any other amendments to the JPA that are proposed.
Best,
Paige Ellis
With Item #63 on Thursday's Council agenda, we have another opportunity to discuss, and potentially approve negotiation and execution of, a Joint Powers Agreement for Project Connect with Capital Metro and the Austin Transit Partnership. I am eager to get this done -- and to get it done in a way that will withstand the test of time -- as I know you are.
The Project Connect JPA, as currently drafted, provides us a solid plan for how we're going to build a high-capacity transit system of trains and buses for Austin. But unless we ALSO plan for how we're going to FILL those trains and buses -- how our city collaboration will support transit ridership -- then we risk investing all this time, energy, and voter support into a generational transit system that has a hard time competing for federal funding. People need safe sidewalks and bikeway connections to get to the transit lines, and people need to be able to live, work, and play along these transit lines themselves.
Therefore, colleagues, I seek your support in giving direction to our staff on Thursday to initiate the development of a "Supportive Planning" supplemental agreement that establishes how the City, CapMetro, and ATP will collaborate on both multimodal connectivity planning and land use/eTOD planning around the Project Connect transit lines. We know there are roles here for all three entities (e.g. ATP should be constructing the bike/ped infrastructure on the transit corridors themselves, CapMetro has federal grant funding to do eTOD station area planning, etc.), so we need to establish exactly how our entities will work together in these areas to allow as many people as possible to use the great transit lines we are building. Much like the anti-displacement work, I see this planning work as inseparable from Project Connect.
Furthermore, to make sure we have the door open for developing a Supportive Planning supplemental agreement, I would like to offer an amendment to add one word to Section 2.7 of the JPA (at the bottom of page 6 in v3), Supplemental Agreements. I would add the word "planning" into the list of possible topics of future Supplemental Agreements immediately after "policy." As amended, the sentence would read, "These supplemental agreements must be taken by the appropriate parties and may be bilateral, such as… to address specific project issues related to policy, *planning,* property acquisition, financing, design, construction, operations or maintenance of the Project Connect system.”
In summary, I would ask that, on Thursday or at any other subsequent meeting on the JPA, we (a) make this one-word amendment to the JPA text, and (b) direct staff to initiate development of a Supportive Planning supplemental agreement on the coordination of multimodal planning and eTOD/land use planning.
Thank you all for your consideration of this amendment and this direction. I look forward to our discussion on Thursday and to considering any other amendments to the JPA that are proposed.
Best,
Paige Ellis