Projects being proposed for state and federal funding must be identified in a Regional Transportation Plan, which the Transportation Agency updates on a 4-year cycle for Monterey County. The regional plan is a long-range planning document with a 20-year horizon that 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 built within the capacity of the funding forecast, which meet the goals objectives identified in the document. The Agency coordinates preparation of the document with the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments, which prepares a Metropolitan Transportation Plan for the three-county Monterey Bay region pursuant to federal requirements.
To streamline the development of these documents and the environmental review process, the Regional Transportation Planning Agencies for the tri-county region are seeking to designate the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments as the Lead Agency pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act for the preparation of a collective environmental review document. The agreement attached with this staff report would allow for the mutual development of one environmental review covering each Responsible Agency’s 2045 Regional Transportation Plan and the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments’ Metropolitan Transportation Plan / Sustainable Communities Strategy.
The project costs for consultant services to develop the environmental document are budgeted not exceed the amount of $300,000. The Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments and the Regional Transportation Planning Agencies are seeking agreement to split the costs for the project as follows:
| AMBAG |
$140,000 |
| TAMC |
$60,000 |
| Other RTPAs |
$100,000 |
AMBAG will provide overall project management and will receive consultant invoices and pay the invoices upon satisfactory completion of consultant work. The agreement holds TAMC to the following payment schedule:
January 1, 2021: $30,000
January 1, 2022: $30,000
The intent of this payment schedule is to provide for the timely payment of consultant invoices by AMBAG through partial prepayment, without imposing significant burden on TAMC through total prepayment. At the end of the Project, if the project consultant invoices less than the aforementioned project cost, AMBAG shall return to TAMC its share of the remaining non-invoiced amount.