The Surface Transportation Program is a federal program that provides states and local jurisdictions with funding for highway improvements, street rehabilitation and transportation enhancements. The Transportation Agency receives an annual apportionment of Regional Surface Transportation Program funding, passed through the State. Because Monterey County didn’t have an urbanized area with a population of greater than 200,000 in the 1990 census, it qualified for the state exchange Surface Transportation Program, whereby Caltrans keeps the federal Surface Transportation Program apportionments for a region and gives the regional agency an equivalent amount of state cash.

The Transportation Agency distributes Regional Surface Transportation Program funding in both fair-share and competitive programs. Monterey County and the cities receive fair-share Regional Surface Transportation Program funds based on their population and road miles. The total fair share allocation over the next three years was set by the Transportation Agency Board of Directors at $3.6 million. This fair share amount would be distributed to the jurisdictions as follows:

The Transportation Agency distributes part of the Regional Surface Transportation Program funding on a competitive basis to transportation projects based on a variety of criteria, including traffic volume and project deliverability.  With the Transportation Agency now seeking to begin a new grant cycle, this process would involve the release of grant materials by the Transportation Agency, and the Technical Advisory Committee establishing a subcommittee to review and rank project proposals. When combined with an estimated $250,000 per year in Transportation Development Act 2% funds ($750,000 for the 3-year grant cycle), the estimated three-year total available for grant funds is $9.03 million (see Attachment 1).

The table included as Attachment 2 is a listing of projects with 2014 Competitive Grants fund balances as of October, 2016. The table indicates projects with balances by jurisdiction and by fund type – either Competitive RSTP or TDA 2%.  The Transportation Agency Board established a strict 3-year "Timely Use of Funds" policy with the most recently adopted Regional Surface Transportation Program Guidelines (June 2015).  The TAMC Timely Use of Funds provision gives the agency staff authority to deobligate funds from a local agency if project implementation is not moving forward in a satisfactory manner and reapply these funds towards a project that is ready for implementation.  Accordingly, Agency staff is proposing to deprogram projects that have not used their existing competitive grant fund balances, and use the funds in an upcoming grant cycle. Jurisdictions with projects that are deprogrammed would have the ability to reapply. The Transportation Agency staff requests that each jurisdiction review the attached listing and notify the Transportation Agency of any updates that need to be made to their competitive grant balances, and the status of their projects. Projects with fair share balances would not be affected.

Agency staff is proposing to award the competitive grants in two tiers, based on the availability of funding.  The first tier would be funded with the estimated $9.03 million in RSTP and TDA 2% funds.  The second tier would be funded with any deprogrammed funds from the last competitive grants cycle.

The Transportation Agency will also be updating its policies and procedures related to the Regional Surface Transportation Program. Transportation Agency staff will provide an update to the Technical Advisory Committee on the guidelines, as well as review policies for the distribution of fair share allocations, the timely use of funds, use of interest, project eligibility, and discuss criteria and procedures for future grant cycles. The draft schedule for these activities are included as Attachment 3.