The Transportation Agency prepares a Regional Transportation Plan every four years, which provides a basis for actions to allocate state and federal funding to transportation projects in Monterey County. The Agency prepares its plan in coordination with the Association of Monterey Governments, which prepares a Metropolitan Transportation Plan and Sustainable Communities Strategy for the three-county Monterey Bay Area in its role as the federal Metropolitan Planning Organization for this region. These plans outline the Agency’s priorities for meeting future transportation and mobility needs, consistent with the policy goals and objectives adopted by the Board, as well as within the constraints of a transportation revenue forecast over the 20-year planning horizon of the documents.
The Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) includes three main components: 1) A Policy Element communicating goals and measurable objectives for improving the transportation system, 2) a Financial Element that includes a forecast of revenues over the life of the plan, and 3) an Action Element that includes a list of projects to be funded within the capacity of the funding forecast, which meet the goals and objectives identified in the document. The RTP does not approve any particular project, but does review the environmental impacts of all proposed projects on a "program level."
The Agency has prepared a technical update to the 2014 Regional Transportation Plan. The technical update addresses two of the three elements of the RTP, the Financial Element and the Action Element, while leaving in place the Policy Element from the 2014 RTP. The Financial Element update incorporates changes in the revenue forecast for funding transportation improvements in Monterey County, including the addition of Measure X and Senate Bill 1 funds. The Action Element update reflects the addition of new projects within Monterey County (such as those listed in Measure X), and removal of completed projects (such as the Holman Highway Roundabout). Both the funding update and the revised project list were drafted and reviewed last year, with the final project list approved at the April 26, 2017 Board meeting.
The Policy Element of the Regional Transportation Plan provides a framework for selecting and evaluating transportation projects to meet Monterey County’s mobility needs over the twenty year lifetime of the plan. The Policy Element is also designed to be consistent with statewide goals, policies, and measures, and those outlined in the 2040 Metropolitan Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy Update. The current Policy Element is also consistent with the goals and objectives of Measure X, and the vision provided by the Board of Directors at the September 27, 2017 Strategic Planning workshop.
Since the passage of SB 375, state law requires that Regional Transportation Plans be consistent with local Sustainable Communities Strategies. Collaborating with AMBAG on a coordinated Regional Transportation Plan/Metropolitan Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy update allows for one Environmental Impact Report (EIR) to be prepared for all three documents. Attached is a summary from AMBAG regarding the Metropolitan Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy Update, as well as a timeline for the coordinated plan adoption process.
To align the review process for these coordinated documents, the Agency released the Draft Monterey County Regional Transportation Plan in December 2017 for a public review period closing February 5, concurrent with AMBAG’s review period. As part of this process, the Agency held a noticed public hearing on the draft plan at the January 24, 2018 Board of Directors meeting. The document was posted to the Agency website and distributed to member jurisdictions, state and federal resource agencies, citizen advisory committees and other public stakeholders.
The Agency received four comments on the draft Plan. Of the four comments there was one formal comment from Caltrans that noted various minor edits to be made. The remaining three comments were either informal or received by AMBAG for the joint MTP/SCS/ RTP EIR, and these included comments from the Monterey Regional Airport noting their new name; comments from the Monterey Bay Air Resources District related to air quality in the Monterey bay region; and comments from the City of Salinas requesting six completed projects be removed from the project list. Agency staff has incorporated the various comments into the final Plan.
AMBAG adopted the final Metropolitan Transportation Plan/ Sustainable Communities Strategy and certified the final EIR at their Board meeting on June 13, 2018. The action requested by staff will adopt Resolution 2018-12 and 2018-13 to take the actions required of the Agency for the environmental documents and for approval of the 2018 Monterey County Regional Transportation Plan.