Brief Description: Funding qualifying projects through the urban corridor program of the transportation improvement board.

Sponsors: Representatives Simpson and Wood.

Hearing Date: 2/27/07

Staff: Jerry Long (786-7306).

Background:

The Transportation Improvement Board (TIB) administers grants for Washington cities. One of the grant programs is the Urban Corridor Program. The Urban Corridor Program receives 1.3 cents of the State's motor vehicle fuel tax. The program has annual grants of $40 to $45 million. Applications are due at the end of August and projects are selected in November.

• Eligible agencies are cities with a population greater than 5,000;
• Projects ust be consistent with state, regional and local transportation plans;
• Project selection criteria includes: funding partners, mobility, economic growth and development, safety, and mode accessibility;
• Projects must be partially funded by local contributions;
• The local match requirement is determined by the city's valuation, or in the case of counties, by its road levy valuation. Minimum local match ranges from 10 to 20 percent; and
• funds are distributed across three regions based on arterial lane miles.

Summary of Bill:

In any project funded through the Urban Corridor Program, the following elements are to be considered in addition to the existing requirements to determine whether:

• the project will improve the levels of service on transportation facilities using a measuring    scale of "a" through "f" or other generally-accepted measurement scale;
• the project will enable the local government to implement its comprehensive and capital    facilities plans to accommodate projected population and employment growth; and
• the local government has sufficient quantities of buildable land and development regulations    to accommodate projected population and employment growth related to the project.

In addition TIB must give preference to proposals from local governments with adopted policies that:

• provide or encourage the provision of housing for all economic segments of the community;
• ensure that land use regulations will not result in a net loss of housing capacity; and,
• provide receiving zones for the transfer of development rights.

The amount of $20 million is appropriated for the 2007-09 biennium from the Motor Vehicle Fund to the Urban Arterial Trust Account for projects in the Urban Corridor Program.

Appropriation: None.

Fiscal Note: Available.

Effective Date: The bill takes effect 90 days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.