*Accept grant for up to $500,000 from TriMet, authorize Intergovernmental Agreement for design and construction of capital improvements to improve transit speed and reliability, and appropriate $165,000 in FY 2023-24
The City of Portland ordains:
Section 1. The Council finds:
- The Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon, TriMet, is the transit agency serving the Portland metropolitan area. TriMet is a Qualified Entity as defined by OAR 732-040-0005(28) and a Public Transportation Service Provider as defined by OAR 732-040-0005(28).
- ORS 184.751 establishes the Statewide Transportation Improvement Fund (STIF), which appropriates funds to the Oregon Department of Transportation to finance investments and improvements in public transportation services.
- ORS 184.758 establishes that a percentage of STIF funds shall be allocated to Public Transportation Service Providers based on a competitive grant program adopted by the Oregon Transportation Commission (STIF Discretionary Fund).
- The STIF Discretionary Fund is intended to provide a flexible funding source to improve public transportation in Oregon by distributing moneys to Public Transportation Service Providers pursuant to ORS Chapter 184 and OAR Chapter 732, Divisions 40 and 44.
- TriMet has been awarded STIF Discretionary Funds in the amount of $500,000 from the Oregon Transportation Commission for transit priority spot improvements in the Portland Metro region. The Portland Bureau of Transportation has committed a minimum of $125,000 toward the local match for this grant. Of the $500,000 available in state grant funds, TriMet has pledged a minimum of $125,000 for projects within the City. The grant funding will be available starting July 1, 2023 and costs must be incurred by June 30, 2025.
- The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) has agreed to design and construct transit priority improvements in the public right-of-way using up to $500,000 of TriMet grant funding from the STIF program, matched by an equal amount of budgeted PBOT capital funding, with a minimum local match of $125,000.
- This grant will fund multiple projects. We are in the process of narrowing the list. Initial selected projects and corresponding project numbers include T01341, T01408, T01279, and T00943. The grant number is TR000304.
- TriMet and PBOT have a mutual desire to improve the speed and reliability of public transit service on City roadways. The City has established an ongoing Transit Priority Spot Improvement Program to implement projects to improve transit speed and reliability, and the parties collaborate on identifying and prioritizing locations for improvement through this program.
- The Transit Priority Spot Improvement Program helps implement recommendations from the Enhanced Transit Corridors Plan, adopted by City Council in 2018 by Resolution 37369, and the Rose Lane Project, adopted by City Council in 2020 by Resolution 37481.
- Faster and more reliable transit also helps attract new and returning riders. This helps recover and increase transit ridership. These projects serve our broader transportation system goals as well. By 2035, the Portland Transportation System Plan sets a target of one in four commute trips being made by transit. That is a 25% mode share goal.
Transit speed and reliability projects are a down payment on the future we want. Transit remains one of the most efficient, sustainable and equitable ways to move people around our growing city. Making transit better and, long-term, getting more people to choose transit over driving alone is critical for achieving our climate and transportation justice goals.
NOW, THEREFORE, the Council directs:
- The Commissioner-in-Charge is hereby authorized to accept on behalf of the City of Portland a grant from the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon for the design and construction of capital improvements to improve transit speed and reliability in the amount of up to $500,000.
- The Commissioner-in-Charge to execute an Intergovernmental Agreement in the amount of up to $500,000 in a form similar to the contract attached as Exhibit A.
- The Commissioner-in-Charge and/or Director of the Portland Bureau of Transportation is authorized to execute amendments, approved as to form by the City Attorney, to the scope of the services or the terms and conditions of this Agreement, provided the changes do not increase the total project cost by twenty five percent (25%) or greater.
- The FY 2023 / 2024 budget is hereby amended as follows:
GRANTS FUND
Fund: 217
Business Area – TR00
Bureau Program Expenses – $165,000 - The OMF Grants Office is authorized to perform all administrative matters in relation to the grant application, grant agreement or amendments, requests for reimbursement from the grantor, and to submit required online grant documents on the Commissioner-in-Charge’s behalf.
Section 2. The Council declares that an emergency exists because a delay would unnecessarily delay the City’s ability to perform the activities authorized by the grant; therefore, this Ordinance shall be in full force and effect from and after its passage by the Council.
Official Record (Efiles)
An ordinance when passed by the Council shall be signed by the Auditor. It shall be carefully filed and preserved
in the custody of the Auditor (City Charter Chapter 2 Article 1 Section 2-122)
Passed by Council
Auditor of the City of Portland
Simone Rede
Impact Statement
Purpose of Proposed Legislation and Background Information
- This ordinance will approve an IGA with TriMet that will allow PBOT to submit for reimbursement from an ODOT STIF Discretionary Funds grant that TriMet received for a portion of the cost of transit speed and reliability projects in the public right-of-way.
- This is the third such ODOT STIF Discretionary Funds grant awarded to TriMet that PBOT has partnered on with TriMet for implementing transit priority spot improvements. The previous two grants were for the 2019-2021 biennium and 2021-2023 biennium. We had similar IGAs for the past two grants. See City Contract # 30007896 for the last IGA.
- For this third grant, PBOT has agreed to provide a minimum of $125,000 local match, and in exchange TriMet has agreed to provide to PBOT at least $125,000 out of the $500,000 STIF grant funding they received.
- If PBOT and TriMet both agree to fund projects beyond the initial $125,000, projects will be reimbursed at a 50% rate, up to a maximum of $500,000 of grant funding.
- PBOT will use the last remaining Transit Quick Build (HB2017) allocation funds and Rose Lane Project capital project funds as 50/50 match to leverage the grant funds from TriMet. This will allow PBOT to effectively double our precious remaining one-time funds.
- PBOT and TriMet have agreed to use this funding for a set of projects to improve transit speed and reliability along TriMet bus routes throughout the city, consistent with the City Council adopted Rose Lane Project Report (2020) and the Enhanced Transit Corridors Plan (2018).
Financial and Budgetary Impacts
The grant number is TR000304. This is the same number as the previous ODOT STIF Discretionary Funds grant awarded to TriMet that PBOT has partnered on with TriMet for implementing transit priority spot improvements.
There is a match requirement. The IGA with TriMet requires a fifty percent (50%) match on eligible expenses incurred by PBOT.
PBOT has agreed to provide a minimum of $125,000 local match, and in exchange TriMet has agreed to provide to PBOT at least $125,000 out of the $500,000 STIF grant funding they received.
If PBOT and TriMet both agree to fund projects beyond the initial $125,000, projects will be reimbursed at a 50% rate, up to a maximum of $500,000 of grant funding.
I do not believe the TriMet grant funds were included in the current or past budget.
The PBOT match funds were included in the current fiscal year budget, FY23/24. PBOT will use the last remaining budgeted Transit Quick Build (HB2017) allocation funds and Rose Lane Project capital project funds as 50/50 match to leverage the grant funds from TriMet. The underlying source is PBOT General Transportation Revenue (GTR). The TriMet grant funds will allow PBOT to effectively double our precious remaining one-time project funds. This includes, but is not limited to the following capital project numbers:
- T00943, Transit Quick Build (funding source: T00735/ HB2017 Quick Build)
- T01279, SE Foster Rd Rose Lane/ Transit Priority Project/ Bus line 14 (funding source: T00735/ HB2017 Quick Build)
- T00974, Rose Lane Project (funding source: GTR)
- T01341, Inner SE Hawthorne and Madison Transit Signal Modification (funding source: GTR)
- T01408, Capitol Hwy TriMet Match, SW (funding source: GTR)
Additional project numbers will be generated as new project scopes and cost estimates are agreed upon by PBOT and TriMet. They will likely be chartered under one of the above parent project codes (T00943 or T00974), or another such existing, budgeted funding source.
Work outside of the scope of the grant agreement is not anticipated for this project.
This ordinance will appropriate a portion of the grant funds in the FY 2023 / 2024 budget. It will be amended as follows:
GRANTS FUND
Fund: 217
Business Area – TR00
Bureau Program Expenses – $165,000
Community Impacts and Community Involvement
Transit speed and reliability projects, such as the ones built through the Transit Quick Build program and partially funded with the STIF Discretionary grant, primarily benefit bus riders. People riding transit are demographically more diverse than the general population, with a higher percentage of BIPOC community members, people experiencing low-incomes and people who don’t drive or own a motor vehicle.
These projects help people on transit get where they need to go more reliably and quickly, while also improving operational efficiency for TriMet. This benefits all the people on all the buses traveling through the project area, as well as people waiting to board further out the route and people making transfers to other transit lines to complete their journey across the city.
The Covid-19 pandemic had a profound impact on the way people get around, including Portland’s transit system. It has also amplified racial inequities. The pandemic and last few years have brought into greater relief the inequities in our society and the growing impacts of climate change. We see the transit speed and reliability projects as a part of our recovery, reducing disparities and helping our city thrive. We want to serve the people who continued relying on transit during the pandemic, including frontline workers, and welcome back more riders.
These projects are part of our commitment to keep transit lines running smoothly as traffic returns and demand grows and help prevent a return to the transit delay experienced in 2019 and the years prior.
Faster and more reliable transit also helps attract new and returning riders. This helps recover and increase transit ridership. These projects serve our broader transportation system goals as well. By 2035, our Transportation System Plan sets a target of one in four commute trips being made by transit. That is a 25% mode share goal.
Even these smaller projects are a down payment on the future we want. Transit remains one of the most efficient, sustainable and equitable ways to move people around our growing city. Making transit better and, long-term, getting more people to choose transit over driving alone is critical for achieving our climate and transportation justice goals.
Community Involvement
We generally scale the level of community involvement relative to the scale of change and potential trade-off impacts of individual projects. Most often these projects involve minimal changes in the public right-of-way and minimal trade-off impacts. In these instances, there is minimal community involvement. At a minimum, engagement focuses on advance notification to adjacent businesses, residents, tenants and property owners near the project location, with an opportunity to contact staff to learn more, provide feedback and discuss.
Where a project has potential trade-off impacts that may cause concern for community members, we provide more community involvement. That includes engaging residents and businesses. For example, in such instances we send letters to Neighborhood and Business Associations, and offer to attend their meetings to present, receive feedback and answer questions. We have also talked one-on-one with community members. Sometimes this has resulted in modifications to the proposed project.
During this current grant, we are focusing more on opportunities to expand the Next Generation of Transit Signal Priority (TSP) to other bus lines. That is, beyond the initial installation through the Division Transit Project, where it benefits riders of the new TriMet FX-2 line along SE Division.
Next Gen TSP projects tend to have little or no visible change to the traveling public by any mode. Next Gen TSP can be implemented with little trade-off impact. Plus, it can be more surgical and efficient, only giving buses green time when they are present or need it. Hopefully, this can include streetcars in the near future, when they begin operating using the same CAD/AVL system as TriMet.
100% Renewable Goal
N/A
Budgetary Impact Worksheet
| Fund | Fund Center | Commitment Item | Functional Area | Funded Program | Grant | Sponsored Program | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 217006 | TRED000009 | 441100 | TPCIAM00000000GT | T01341 | TR000304 | T01341 | 87,500 |
| 217006 | TRED000009 | 511300 | TPCIAM00000000GT | T01341 | TR000304 | T01341 | 47,500 |
| 217006 | TRED000009 | 529000 | TPCIAM00000000GT | T01341 | TR000304 | T01341 | 40,000 |
| 217006 | TRED000009 | 441100 | TPCIAM00000000GT | T01408 | TR000304 | T01408 | 25,000 |
| 217006 | TRED000009 | 511300 | TPCIAM00000000GT | T01408 | TR000304 | T01408 | 2,200 |
| 217006 | TRED000009 | 529000 | TPCIAM00000000GT | T01408 | TR000304 | T01408 | 1,800 |
| 217006 | TRED000009 | 549000 | TPCIAM00000000GT | T01408 | TR000304 | T01408 | 21,000 |
| 217006 | TRED000009 | 441100 | TPCIAM00000000GT | T01279 | TR000304 | T01279 | 25,000 |
| 217006 | TRED000009 | 511300 | TPCIAM00000000GT | T01279 | TR000304 | T01279 | 13,600 |
| 217006 | TRED000009 | 529000 | TPCIAM00000000GT | T01279 | TR000304 | T01279 | 11,400 |
| 217006 | TRED000009 | 441100 | TPCIAM00000000GT | T00943 | TR000304 | T00943 | 27,500 |
| 217006 | TRED000009 | 511300 | TPCIAM00000000GT | T00943 | TR000304 | T01279 | 15,000 |
| 217006 | TRED000009 | 529000 | TPCIAM00000000GT | T00943 | TR000304 | T00943 | 12,500 |
Financial and Budget Analysis
Analysis provided by City Budget Office
This action authorizes PBOT to accept grant resources up to $500,000 from TriMet for capital improvements related to speed and reliability. Local match of 50% is required. PBOT included match funds in the FY2023-24 Adopted Budget. This action additionally authorizes the bureau to appropriate $165,000 into the FY 2023-24 budget.