The Regional Transportation Plan for Monterey County is a long range (+20 year) plan, updated every four years. The Regional Transportation Plan forms the basis for the Metropolitan Transportation Plan prepared by the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments for the Monterey Bay Area pursuant to Federal Highway Administration and Caltrans transportation planning requirements. As the Metropolitan Planning Organization for the Monterey Bay Area, AMBAG incorporates the financial assumptions and project lists included in the Regional Transportation Plans for the Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties into the Metropolitan Transportation Plan to in order to maintain the region's eligibility for federal transportation assistance.
Pursuant to state and federal guidelines, the Regional Transportation Plan includes a countywide multimodal needs assessment, transportation policy element, long-range funding forecast, funding-constrained project list, and program-level environmental review document assessing the probably environmental impacts associated with implementation of the plan. Public participation is sought after in the development of the Regional Transportation Plan for each of the project steps.
Agency staff is coordinating with AMBAG on all planning activities, including the project list development, revenue assumptions and the environmental process. Current activities related to the Plan's development are included below, including details on the requested action, approving the Project List.
Policy Element
In February 2020, the TAMC Board adopted the 2022 Plan's Policy Element, identifying the Plan's goals, policy objectives and performance metrics. The Policy Element is included as a web attachment.
Project Lists
Projects being proposed for state and federal funding must be identified in a Regional Transportation Plan. The Plan includes a listing of regionally-significant projects on the road, highway, rail and transit networks planned over the time horizon of the plan. Regionally-significant projects include those identified within the Measure X program or regional fee program, projects with a significant impact on travel between cities, or projects of a certain size. The plan must also identify all other planned local street, bike/pedestrian, and transit projects that may use state or federal funding.
TAMC staff coordinated with public works officials for all jurisdictions in Monterey County, including airports and Caltrans, during Spring 2020, to update the regional project database for coordination with AMBAG's Regional Travel Demand Model. Changes from the 2018 project list largely reflect refined project scopes, updated cost estimates, and new or anticipated projects. The 2022 project list also reflects the removal of projects that have been completed or are not anticipated to be moving forward. The draft regionally-significant project list is included as an attachment to this report. Each jurisdiction's overall project list is included as a web attachment. The regionally-significant project list was reviewed and recommended for approval at the January Bicycle and Pedestrian Facilities Advisory Committee and Technical Advisory Committee meetings.
The final list of projects identified in the plan must be consistent with the needs, goals and priorities identified in the policy element and the total cost of those projects must fall within the funding capacity of the long range revenue forecast.
Financial Estimates
Agency staff prepared the funding forecast for the regional plan, which includes data on local, state and federal transportation funding sources. The funding forecast is used to identify a threshold for prioritizing the regionally-significant projects to be included in the plan. Projects below this threshold will be included on a list of projects to be funded if new revenues become available. Federal guidance does allow the Agency to identify revenues that it reasonably expects to be available over the time horizon of the plan, which could include a future replacement to the gas tax, such as a vehicle miles travelled fee or equivalent assessment. The Financial Element update incorporates changes in the revenue forecast for funding transportation improvements, including maintaining a consistent level of Measure X revenues and securing competitive Senate Bill 1 funds. A summary of the financial assumptions for the plan can be seen as an attachment to this staff report.
Environmental Analysis
Development of the regional Metropolitan Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy includes the development of a joint programmatic-level Environmental Impact Report. The Notice of Preparation for the environmental document was released in January 2020 and closed on February 14, 2020. AMBAG is anticipated to release the Draft Environmental Impact Report in December 2021 for public review and comment. Approval of the Final 2022 Regional Transportation Plan, adoption of California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) findings and adoption of the joint Environmental Impact Report is planned for June 2022.