1 Sound Transit Citizen Oversight Panel Meeting Summary February ...

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cost savings modifications by the Board last October, a SEPA addendum is being prepared and will be published in March, with decisions by the ST Board and the City anticipated in April. All three ideas involve getting the alignment out of the ground so are very likely to yield real savings. The construction delivery plan for the Bellevue to Overlake segment has been identified and the I-90 segment and systems plans are in development. The Bellevue to Overlake segment is proposed to be divided into four contracts: South Bellevue as design-bid-build; Downtown as GC/CM; Bel-Red as GC/CM; and SR 520 as design-build. The factors influencing the choice are the complexity of the segment and whether it is at-grade, elevated or in a tunnel. Asked whether any joint development is anticipated, Lewis said ST is pursuing a public-private partnership at the 120 th Street Station; also a pedestrian bridge at Overlake Transit Center is being considered, with funding from the City of Redmond. The schedule has the project baselined in the spring of 2014 and construction starting 2015. The final design stage budget is $757 million, with $200 M committed. The estimated final cost is trending on budget. Challenges include the financial impacts of the recession on revenues; timely decision making by the City of Bellevue on code amendments, cost savings options and technical solutions; maintaining the final design schedule; 3 rd party coordination; and upward cost pressures on the project. Asked what would happen if the park and ride capacity fills up, Billen said it will fill up. Height limits preclude the parking structures going higher. Local transit will have to maximize feeder service to the stations. Asked how the project is using the lessons learned from the other Link segments, Lewis said he is in frequent contact with Joe Gildner and Don Davis and is focused on a high degree of systems coordination. Transit-Oriented Development David Beal introduced the presentation, saying that TOD has been busy the past year, especially with the newly developed TOD policy and the Capitol Hill TOD term sheet developed with the City and the community. Kate Lichtenstein described the Board direction leading to the new policy: consolidate and update the existing TOD policies in one document; maintain the transit mission; encourage TOD to increase ridership; emphasize coordination and partnerships; assess TOD early in system and project planning; and involve the Board and stakeholders. After reviewing other agencies’ policies and meeting with over 20 stakeholder groups, staff brought a draft policy to the Board in October. In December the final policy was adopted. The policy framework established a goal to focus growth around transit facilities and leverage transit investments to help produce regional and local benefits. Other goals include increasing ridership, supporting plans, economic development, and protecting and enhancing assets. The strategies involve the dual goal of both agency TOD and community TOD where the local jurisdiction leads the process. A key provision is allowing early TOD assessment during development of plans and projects, and coordinating with the Phase Gate process. Scott Kirkpatrick said that ST can now do station-area planning and can do more to participate in and support community planning. Asked what remedies Sound Transit has available if a developer wanted to build a widget factory on a TOD site, Kirkpatrick stated that ST issues RFPs with strong covenants and encumbrances that specify the type of development being sought. The proposer must sign and be bound by the covenants. ST also has the ability to screen proposers 2
for financial capacity and will not close a sale until all building permits are in hand. Current activities in the TOD pipeline include the Capitol Hill term sheet to develop five parcels near the Capitol Hill Station; this will be the largest-ever TOD at 500,000 square feet. The term sheet will go before the Seattle City Council in the April/May time frame. Another major TOD is the Mount Baker Lofts project which is within weeks of closing and will provide 57 units of livework space with no parking on site. The South 200 th Angle Lake site is out for early marketing to the hospitality industry to assess feasibility of a hotel. No Sound Transit TOD has gone out this early before. The Orcas/Centioli TOD on Martin Luther King Way was a proposed 70-unit project that fell through. ST is completing procurement documents for remediation on the site. On the Lynnwood extension, staff are providing technical assistance to the cities of Shoreline and Mountlake Terrace. On the East Link extension 130 th Station, staff are providing technical assistance in collaboration with the City of Bellevue. Asked what safeguards are in place to protect against potential conflicts of interest or abuse, Kirkpatrick replied that since money is involved, there is always a risk, but ST uses a fair and open process based on business decisions and fair market value. An example arose where community members wanted to be involved in selecting and negotiating with the developers and ST said No. Asked about the funding for the new TOD staff positions, Beal explained that one of the positions was transferred from planning and charged to the agency budget; the new half-time position is assigned to ST3 planning and will be charged to the projects. Other costs are borne in the Sound Move lifetime TOD planning budget of $1.64 million which in 2013 still has a balance of $495,000. A new TOD surplus property budget of $5.6 M lifetime is used to prepare property no longer needed for transit purposes; $4.4 M remains in that fund. How does ST coordinate with the PSRC’s transit-oriented planning efforts? The PSRC looked regionally at 72 intermodal station sites in a much broader way and ST was engaged in that process for its sites. A member noted that the Roosevelt community had no technical assistance in its station-area planning, either from the City or from ST. Kirkpatrick said this was a big concern for the Board and perhaps the single biggest impetus for the new policy. Discussion Members discussed the Draft COP Year-End report and made suggestions for changes: On page 2, the suggested recommendation for a one one-page, side by side comparison of budget-to-budget and forecast-to-budget percentages was good. Another useful suggestion would be to break out the current service budget plus additions due to new projects or services. COP should also encourage actual-to-actual comparisons for multiple years. The terminology of phrases like “budget,” “forecast” and “actual” can be very confusing and should be clarified. The budget-to-budget presentation is required by the state’s BARS reporting requirements but there is nothing to say that ST cannot provide additional formats. Local jurisdictions generally do this. Management has been convincing that the agency is in fact using actual spending data 3
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