The Lee County 2040 Transportation Plan is the 25-year vision of how to meet our community’s transportation needs and expectations through 2040. The plan incorporates all types of travel including driving, biking, walking, public transportation, and freight movement. At the Dec. 18, 2015 Lee MPO Board meeting, the Board unanimously adopted the proposed 2040 Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP). This action marked the completion of a 2 1/2 year effort involving the MPO Board, its Executive Committee, MPO staff and consultants, FDOT staff, MPO committees, as well as citizen participation throughout the process. BikeWalkLee has been an active participant in the Plan development over the past several years. For a review of how the Plan performed against six of the key goals set out by the MPO Board, see BikeWalkLee's assessment report. For background on the process and our previous comments, see the BikeWalkLee blog posts at the end of this post.
Click here to read the Executive
Summary of the Lee MPO 2040 Plan, and check
the Lee MPO 2040 Transportation Plan webpage
for more background information.
Report By Darla
Letourneau
The draft 2040 LRTP was discussed at both the Nov. 20th and
the Dec. 18th Lee MPO Board meetings, culminating in its adoption at the Dec.
meeting. The major shortfall in funding
to meet the transportation infrastructure needs of the growing county dominated
the discussion during the entire Plan update process. There was universal agreement that additional
transportation revenues were needed to sustain our economy and quality of life
given the projected population growth.
As reported in our previous blog about the Oct. 16th MPO Board meeting, the Board charged its Executive
Committee with undertaking
an effort to explore all financing options for the Board's consideration.
As a result of citizen comments, committee recommendations,
and Board discussion, the Board voted to make several changes to the draft
LRTP, including moving up the construction of the Corkscrew Rd. widening,
keeping the Three Oaks extension in the first 5-year segment, removing the
northern section of the proposed CR 951 from the draft needs plan, and
undertaking a hurricane evacuation study for I-75 and the Cape Coral area. In total, $1.8 billion of road projects are
planned through 2040 (see Appendix B, Cost Feasible Projects), leaving $2.4
billion in unfunded projects on the needs list (See Appendix A, Needs Plan
Projects).
How does the Plan meet the MPO Board's goals?
From the beginning of the process, it was a given that
revenues from all sources were declining (down 26%), at the same time our
population is growing (51%). The MPO's task was to ensure that the
county's scarce resources were wisely invested--to prioritize maintaining and
improving the existing roads before creating new capacity; to downsize and
right-size projects; to integrate land use and transportation planning; and to fund a balanced multi-modal
transportation system.
However, the 2040 LRTP is actually less balanced and less
multi-modal than the 2035 Plan. Given
that no new revenues are projected for transit services, the adopted Plan
assumes that the current level of LeeTran services is all we'll see between now
and the year 2040. This was the focus of
BikeWalkLee's comments made by Letourneau at the Nov. 20th MPO Board
meeting. As Letourneau stated,
"over the past 5 years no attention has been given to doing what it takes
to design a robust countywide transit system with a dedicated funding source
that can move transit from its current "social service" model to one
focused on attracting "choice riders". In 2010, the Board adopted a 2035 needs plan
that reflected a visionary transit system that promoted "choice
riders", with 15 minute headways on all route by 2035. The price tag for this vision was about $600
M, while the resources available were about $20 M. To implement this vision would require 30
times the resources currently spent on transit.
Designing a robust transit system with stable and adequate funding
sources is one of the key challenges that the Executive Committee needs to take
up as part of its transportation funding work.
Still, the Board, its committees, staff and consultants should
be commended for the many improvements in the LRTP process. The most
significant and successful innovation is the land use scenarios project which
integrated land use with transportation planning. Another major improvement was the focus on
having realistic revenue projections so that the Plan that was produced was
100% fundable. Enhanced public engagement was also one of the improvements in
this update process. Appendix D of the Executive Summary includes the results from the public input.
What's in the Plan for Bike/Ped?
The Bike/Ped Plan looks at a 10 year horizon. The Needs Plan for Bicycle, Pedestrian,
Multi-Use Facilities Projects included 87 projects with a total price tag of
$202 million. The projects were
prioritized, with 35 projects making the final cut of the cost feasible plan
($48 M worth), reflecting the projected revenues available over the next 10
years. Thus, only 24% of the needed
projects are included in the plan. Among
the projects on the list are 18 shared use paths totaling 47 miles. There are also 24 miles of sidewalks,
distributed among 15 projects. See Appendix A for the full needs list and
Appendix B for the cost feasible list of projects.
What
is the significance of this Plan?
Since
the 1970s, federal law has required MPOs to ensure that existing and future
expenditures for all transportation projects and programs in the region are
based on a continuing, cooperative, and comprehensive planning process. So this Plan sets the countywide
long-term transportation policy and
investment
framework (between now and 2040) given the projected available funding from all
sources--federal, state, and local.
In Lee County's 2040 Plan, 45% of the revenues come from federal and
state sources, while 55% comes from local funds.
To
ensure that the Plan stays on track, at the Dec. 18th MPO Board meeting, BWL's
Letourneau encouraged the Board to
review annually whether the revenue estimates are on track from all the various
sources and to review project costs. The
Board shouldn't wait 5 years to discover that the Plan is seriously off track,
as occurred with the 2035 plan, primarily because that Plan overestimated
revenues. The Plan amendment process
provides a tool for the MPO Board to review proposed changes and the consequences
of those proposed changes for other projects in the Plan. Letourneau noted that this is also important
for accountability and transparency to the general public.
Note
that the MPO Board cancelled its January meeting. The February 19th meeting will include a
discussion of the roles and responsibilities of the MPO, as requested by the
BoCC.
Recent
BWL-related blogs
1. Nov. 17, 2015: MPO 2040 LRTP Goals and BikeWalkLeeAssessment
2. November 22, 2015: Last opportunity for public comment on Lee MPO's2040 Transportation Plan
3.
Oct. 17, 2015: Lee MPO debates critical road projects and need for expanding
transportation revenues
4. October 9, 2015:Action
Alert: Important votes on Long Range
Transportation Plan at Oct. 16th Lee MPO Board meeting
5.
August 12, 2015: Invite to August 25th Public Workshop on Lee County 2040
Transportation Plan
6.
May 4, 2015: Time to participate in development of Lee County's Long Range
Transportation Plan (LRTP)
8.
LRTP Resource Document: BikeWalkLee put together a resource document for the 2040 LRTP Process
(with lots of links) based on our many related blog posts. (5/13/15)
