It's budget time again, and BikeWalkLee has communicated its comments on the County's proposed 2015-16 budget to the Lee BoCC in advance of the September public hearings (see below). For information on the schedule of upcoming public budget hearings, click here. Take the time to communicate with your elected officials about what public investments are most important to you.
BikeWalkLee,
a coalition working to complete Lee County's streets, works for a balanced
multi-modal transportation system that values transportation choice,
connectivity, economic opportunity, livable communities, community character,
safety, and quality growth. As the
Board prepares to take public input in September about its proposed 2015-16
budget, BikeWalkLee would like to share its comments for your
consideration.
Here
are the highlights of our recommendations:
1. Transit--Adopt the proposed modest
increases to the LeeTran budget, and commit to addressing the larger need for a
more robust transit system in the coming year.
2. Bike/Ped Facilities--Fully fund the
BPAC request for $2 million a year for retrofit projects by adding another $3.9
million to the 5-year CIP for this line
item.
3.
Transportation CIP--Delay the Alico Rd. widening project and shift those
funds into the Board's #1 priority project-- Estero Blvd. Improvement
project--so that it can be constructed in a shorter timeframe (currently
planned to take 10 years).
4. "Growth Increment Funding"--Announce
your plans for the use of these funds and the process by which those decisions will
be made prior to the September public budget hearings.
5. Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Settlement
Funds--Announce your plans for the process and timeframe for deciding how
to allocate the $5.24 million, and consider allocating these funds for bike/ped
projects.
Transit
BikeWalkLee
has long advocated for a robust transit system as part of a balanced
multi-modal transportation system. We are pleased to see that the proposed
budget continues the restoration of services that had been cut in the FY 2014
budget, maintains the three bus route improvements that began in January (with
revenues from the increased fares), and provides an additional $600 K for
improved ADA transit and transportation disadvantaged service. We were also pleased to see the improvements
to Route 60, serving FGCU and San Carlos Park, implemented beginning last
month. We also urge you to ensure that
the Fort Myers Beach "Park and Ride" service continues without
disruption while the county develops a new parking facility. BikeWalkLee’s concern
has been that the 2014 cuts to transit services resulted in ridership losses
that are difficult to rebuild. The dependability and convenience of transit
must be addressed. The County can do this by further improving headways
throughout the system, enhancing the rider experience, and aggressively
marketing the benefits of transit.
While
we support the County's transit budget proposals, they only tinker at the edges
of what is needed to meet the long term needs of our community. The county
should be proactively preparing to meet the future demand of a population
projected to grow to over 1 million by 2040. As the Bonita Springs' Chamber of
Commerce President Christine Ross' recent article, Our Region's Transportation Conundrum, Let's Tackle Transit,
stated, it's past time for the county to provide public transportation options
for the growing workforce. Having a
robust transit system--one that has frequent and reliable service--that
attracts "choice" riders, not just a transit system viewed as a
"social service"--is critical to Lee County's economic
competitiveness. In the coming year, we
urge the Board to partner with the Lee MPO and other communities and businesses
throughout SWFL to seriously commit to a reliable and convenient transit
system.
Bike/Ped Facilities
As
we stated in our March 9, 2015 letter to you, we wholeheartedly support the
BPAC request for $2 million a year for stand-alone bike/ped retrofit projects
to attack the extensive backlog of 85 approved and prioritized projects (totaling
$68 million). While your proposed budget for this line item represents an
increase over last year's plan, it still falls $3.9 million short of what is
needed to fully fund BPAC's request, and only funds 5% of the needed projects
(4 of 81 projects funded). The next
project on the BPAC prioritized list is for a shared use path on Estero
Parkway, which is urgently needed for the safety of pedestrians and cyclists
with the growth and development that is occurring along this county road.
We
were pleased to see the Palomino Lane Shared Use Path project, which was
approved by the Board in 2014, be fully funded in this year's budget. Another important bike/ped facilities project
off Daniels Parkway--the Fiddlesticks Rd. Shared Use Path--was approved in 2012
and was to start construction in 2014.
We hope that construction on this project, which has been delayed by
permitting issues, will begin shortly.
With the new shared use path soon to be constructed on the Fiddlesticks
side of Daniels Parkway as part of the MPO's $10 million TIGER Complete Streets
Initiative grant, it will be important for both of these two side road shared
use path projects to be completed and connect up with the Daniels pathway
system. This will allow many local residents to walk and bike to shops,
schools, parks, and other destinations in the area without having to drive
their cars on this increasingly congested roadway.
As BikeWalkLee stated in its January 29, 2015 letter to you, we are pleased that
the impact fee ordinance (adopted March 3, 2015) includes language broadening
the definition of what road impact fee funds can be used for, making it a more
multi-modal transportation approach. We
encourage you to use this new tool to ensure that bike/ped/transit facilities
are incorporated into transportation projects designed to meet the
infrastructure needs created by growth.
This will provide our citizens with more transportation choices and save
the taxpayers money by building these needed facilities from the start vs.
later expensive retrofit projects.
Transportation
CIP
It
is also important that all road projects in the CIP be designed with a complete
streets approach in an effort to improve the safety of all road users. We also encourage the County to give a higher
priority to maintaining and improving the current roadway network vs. expanding
road capacity, taking a "fix it first" approach to prioritizing the
scarce resources.
Over
the past three years, the Board has given priority to four road projects:
Alico/Ben Hill widening; Estero Blvd. Improvement project; Burnt Store Rd.
widening; and Homestead Rd. widening.
BikeWalkLee has consistently stated that funding for the Alico Rd.
widening project is not justified at this time, especially in light of other
much higher priority needs in terms of traffic demand. The Estero Blvd. Improvement project is a
much higher priority and should proceed at a much faster pace in order to
minimize the economic disruptions that the planned 10-year construction
timeframe will cause. With Estero Blvd.
being the only road through Fort Myers Beach--one of the county's tourist hot
spots--the economic costs of delay in terms of lost tourism dollars, not to
mention the disruption to Fort Myers Beach residents, from such a long time
horizon for this project merits delaying other projects so that this one can be
completed as quickly as possible.
More
glaringly, we continue to be concerned that the County has an approved
transportation CIP that has set in motion the expenditure of funds on a long
list of projects for which there is a MAJOR shortfall in revenues projected to
be available. pushing off the hard choice of
prioritizing projects. This "head
in the sand" approach will cost taxpayers a great deal of money for
purchase of right-of-way and design studies for projects for which there are no
funds to construct. As has been made
clear at all levels of government over the past 4 years, transportation
revenues will continue to decline from all sources at all levels of government
for the foreseeable future. You, as our
elected leaders, should be facing the fiscal reality and making tough choices,
rather than hoping for a future solution.
As
we have communicated with you on numerous occasions over the past 4 years, we
believe that the county should be collecting 100% of the impact fees due so
that the full cost of the infrastructure necessitated by development is paid
for by those creating the growth rather than current residents. Even with full impact fee collections, the
county would be short revenues needed to meet the transportation infrastructure
needs of the county, but it would significantly reduce the "hole"
that is growing increasingly deeper.
"Growth
Increment Funding (GIF)"
In our May 29, 2015 letter, we outlined our comments on the County's policy
decision to earmark an estimated $7.9 million of general funds (already
collected from property taxes) for infrastructure projects. This proposal simply fills the hole created
by the loss of impact fee revenues due to the Board's decision to continue
significant reductions in impact fee collection rates (now a 55%
reduction). Since that policy was
adopted, County Administration has notified the Board that construction costs
are up 20%, meaning that the gap has widened even further.
To
date, the County has not indicated how they plan to spend the GIF fund and what
process it will use to make those decisions.
Will the funds be used for transportation projects, parks, county
buildings, utility projects and/or jails?
Will the funds be added to the CIP budget and made part of the annual
CIP review and decision-making process? Or, does the County intend to create a
separate/new process for projects to be considered? If so, when and how will
this be determined? Will the public have an opportunity to comment in advance
on this approach? Given that
infrastructure projects are usually multi-year investments, how will these
funds be committed for the outyears, if not through the normal CIP
process? We urge the Board to announce
the plans for the use of these funds and the process by which those decisions
will be made before the beginning of the September public budget hearings.
As
we stated in our May 29, 2015 letter, we urge you to dedicate a significant
portion of these GIF funds to bike/ped retrofit projects and transit funding.
Deepwater
Horizon Oil Spill Settlement Funds
In
mid-July, the Board accepted $5.24 million as part of the national $18.5 billion
BP settlement for the 2010 disaster.
These funds, which are due to be distributed by the end of this year,
can be spent on anything, according to the County's spokesperson. Although the Board is not including these
funds in its decisions on the 2015-16 budget, the allocation of these funds is
clearly a budget decision that should be subject to public input. We hope that you will announce shortly the
plan, process, and timeframe for deciding how to allocate these funds.
In
the meantime, BikeWalkLee would like to offer its suggestion that these funds
be allocated for bike/ped projects. As
mentioned before, the backlog of retrofit projects is extensive.
Use of these funds for small one-time capital expenditures is a good fit
for a one-time revenue "windfall", since it won't require ongoing
expenditures in the outyears. If the
County wishes to take a tourism approach to the use of these funds, there are
two quick projects with great tourism benefits to consider--creating the long
discussed trailhead for the 10 Mile Linear Trail, so that visitors and
residents have a place to park and then bike the trail; and investing in
wayfinding signs along the network of share use paths and bike lanes throughout
the county, i.e., expanding the County's Tour de Parks and University Loop
successful wayfinding signs to the whole system, thereby encouraging more
people to bike for transportation and recreation. We look forward to discussing these ideas
with you further once you have announced your process for deciding how to spend
the $5.24 million.
Thank
you for considering our views.
Darla
Letourneau
on
behalf of BikeWalkLee
Related BWL letters to
BoCC on various budget topics:
Transit:
April 10, 2014 BWL
Letter (comments on 4/15 BoCC Agenda Items 4 and 10): LeeTran Park and Ride
Facility for Fort Myers Beach Trolley
Bike/Ped Facilities:
April 15, 2014 BWL
letter (comments on 4/15 BoCC Agenda items 4 and 10): Palomino Lane Shared Use
Path CIP Project Proposal
CIP/Impact Fees
Aug. 18, 2014 Letter
(Margaret Banyan): Comments on 2015 budget items (CIP, impact fees, transit,
Conservation 20/20)
