Monday’s Joint Meeting with Capital Metro RE: Project Connect
Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2020 3:33 pm
From Mayor Adler, Mayor Pro Tem Garza, Council Member Ellis, and Council Member Kitchen:
Colleagues,
On Monday, we have a joint meeting (http://austintexas.gov/department/city- ... 7-spec.htm) with Capital Metro where we will be asked if we’re ready to give direction on the Project Connect system investment. After having heard our Council’s various public statements and what we assume we’re all hearing from the various community partners and stakeholders, we’re thinking the following might represent a way forward that might represent council consensus on several issues, including the Project Connect TRE, investing in displacement mitigation, and furthering active transportation. If there is in fact support behind this, then Monday’s work may come together.
This week, City staff and Capital Metro laid out an alternative funding scenario for implementing the Project Connect transportation system that would have an initial investment of approximately 8.5 cents rather than 11 cents.
- We’re excited about the possibility of achieving the entirety of this transformative plan with an initial and smaller overall impact to City of Austin property taxpayers.
- We’re confident that revenue from a reduced City of Austin tax rate increase of approximately 8.5 cents can be successfully leveraged with future matching funds from federal, state, regional, and private sources. Combined with Capital Metro’s ongoing financial commitment to the project, this more prudent approach will still enable our community to build, operate, and maintain the entire proposed transportation system.
- We have experience with this approach. The city has demonstrated our ability to leverage our local transportation funds to draw down other funding sources, e.g., the 2016 Mobility Bond Program.
Given the importance of this opportunity to invest in a city-wide transportation system, we support keeping the tax rate for the proposed City budget at 3.5% (even though the law would enable us to go higher, given the state-wide disaster declaration).
Given the expressed priorities of all of us on the dais, it’s important and exciting that we have the opportunity to make a really significant investment in displacement mitigation at the initiation of a city-wide transportation project. When the staff laid out the 8.5 cent option, it included $200 Million for displacement mitigation and active transportation. We anticipate it could be the will of the Council to put at least $200 Million toward just displacement mitigation. We believe a commitment to fund anti-displacement programs at this level follows through on the direction in the unanimously approved Council resolution in April (https://www.austintexas.gov/edims/docum ... ?id=339361), and our transportation equity policies enshrined in Chapter 6 of the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan (https://austintexas.gov/sites/default/f ... munity.pdf).
Austin has the opportunity to lead the nation in proactively addressing equity and planning for anti-displacement as part of our transit investment. We are not aware of any other city that has acted so boldly and proactively as we have the opportunity to now. We support the anti-displacement elements proposed by PUMA, AJC, and other housing advocates, and included in the recent staff memorandum developed with the Equity and Innovation Offices (http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/pio/do ... ?id=343876):
- Substantial funding for displacement mitigation strategies (at least $200 Million in the TRE*)
- We would suggest Council consider having this fund administered by the NHCD and city housing staff, rather than the independent construction oversight board, to take advantage of the expertise and project leveraging that would enable.
- Equity scorecard for each station area to evaluate displacement risk
- Neighborhood level anti-displacement strategies co-created with the community
- New, inter-agency team to coordinate anti-displacement strategies and actions
- Identify any other disparate impacts through an Environmental Justice Review for each project
Finally, we’re sure you’re hearing, too, from the coalition of community organizations, leaders, and advocates calling upon the Council to give voters the opportunity to also approve a transformative package of active transportation investments this November. If we are to move forward on active transportation beyond the elements included in Project Connect system projects, we would suggest these additional projects be funded through a separate bond measure. This is something we could discuss on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday (as related to Item 90 on the 07/29 Council Agenda https://www.austintexas.gov/edims/docum ... ?id=343582) and then give direction to staff.
We hope that laying out a possible direction prior to Monday will help inform our joint meeting.
Mayor Adler, Mayor Pro Tem Garza, Council Member Kitchen, and Council Member Ellis
Colleagues,
On Monday, we have a joint meeting (http://austintexas.gov/department/city- ... 7-spec.htm) with Capital Metro where we will be asked if we’re ready to give direction on the Project Connect system investment. After having heard our Council’s various public statements and what we assume we’re all hearing from the various community partners and stakeholders, we’re thinking the following might represent a way forward that might represent council consensus on several issues, including the Project Connect TRE, investing in displacement mitigation, and furthering active transportation. If there is in fact support behind this, then Monday’s work may come together.
This week, City staff and Capital Metro laid out an alternative funding scenario for implementing the Project Connect transportation system that would have an initial investment of approximately 8.5 cents rather than 11 cents.
- We’re excited about the possibility of achieving the entirety of this transformative plan with an initial and smaller overall impact to City of Austin property taxpayers.
- We’re confident that revenue from a reduced City of Austin tax rate increase of approximately 8.5 cents can be successfully leveraged with future matching funds from federal, state, regional, and private sources. Combined with Capital Metro’s ongoing financial commitment to the project, this more prudent approach will still enable our community to build, operate, and maintain the entire proposed transportation system.
- We have experience with this approach. The city has demonstrated our ability to leverage our local transportation funds to draw down other funding sources, e.g., the 2016 Mobility Bond Program.
Given the importance of this opportunity to invest in a city-wide transportation system, we support keeping the tax rate for the proposed City budget at 3.5% (even though the law would enable us to go higher, given the state-wide disaster declaration).
Given the expressed priorities of all of us on the dais, it’s important and exciting that we have the opportunity to make a really significant investment in displacement mitigation at the initiation of a city-wide transportation project. When the staff laid out the 8.5 cent option, it included $200 Million for displacement mitigation and active transportation. We anticipate it could be the will of the Council to put at least $200 Million toward just displacement mitigation. We believe a commitment to fund anti-displacement programs at this level follows through on the direction in the unanimously approved Council resolution in April (https://www.austintexas.gov/edims/docum ... ?id=339361), and our transportation equity policies enshrined in Chapter 6 of the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan (https://austintexas.gov/sites/default/f ... munity.pdf).
Austin has the opportunity to lead the nation in proactively addressing equity and planning for anti-displacement as part of our transit investment. We are not aware of any other city that has acted so boldly and proactively as we have the opportunity to now. We support the anti-displacement elements proposed by PUMA, AJC, and other housing advocates, and included in the recent staff memorandum developed with the Equity and Innovation Offices (http://www.austintexas.gov/edims/pio/do ... ?id=343876):
- Substantial funding for displacement mitigation strategies (at least $200 Million in the TRE*)
- We would suggest Council consider having this fund administered by the NHCD and city housing staff, rather than the independent construction oversight board, to take advantage of the expertise and project leveraging that would enable.
- Equity scorecard for each station area to evaluate displacement risk
- Neighborhood level anti-displacement strategies co-created with the community
- New, inter-agency team to coordinate anti-displacement strategies and actions
- Identify any other disparate impacts through an Environmental Justice Review for each project
Finally, we’re sure you’re hearing, too, from the coalition of community organizations, leaders, and advocates calling upon the Council to give voters the opportunity to also approve a transformative package of active transportation investments this November. If we are to move forward on active transportation beyond the elements included in Project Connect system projects, we would suggest these additional projects be funded through a separate bond measure. This is something we could discuss on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday (as related to Item 90 on the 07/29 Council Agenda https://www.austintexas.gov/edims/docum ... ?id=343582) and then give direction to staff.
We hope that laying out a possible direction prior to Monday will help inform our joint meeting.
Mayor Adler, Mayor Pro Tem Garza, Council Member Kitchen, and Council Member Ellis