20B - AA - STREETCAR DESIGN - Laserfiche WebLink

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OC Streetcar Project Revised Capital Funding Plan Page 2 Background The State Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program (TIRCP) was created by Senate Bill 862 (Chapter 36, Statutes of 2014) to provide grants from the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Reduction Fund to support capital and operational investments that will modernize, improve, and integrate bus and rail transit systems. The purpose of the TIRCP is to reduce GHG emissions by reducing vehicle miles traveled throughout the state. On February 5, 2016, the California State Transportation Agency (CaISTA), in collaboration with the California Department of Transportation as the designated administrative agency, issued a competitive call for projects that made available a minimum of $440 million through state fiscal year 2017-18 based on ten percent of cap -and -trade auction proceeds. The final amount of funding available is dependent on the level of cap -and -trade auction proceeds. In response to this opportunity, the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) submitted a proposal to CaISTA requesting funding to support the OC Streetcar Project. On July 25, 2016, OCTA's Board of Directors (Board) approved the capital funding plan for the OC Streetcar, providing a total of $297.92 million for the project. The funding sources included the Federal Capital Investment Grant Program (New Starts), Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program (CMAQ) funds, Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Section 5307, Measure M2 (M2) Project S, and TIRCP funding. On August 16, 2016, CaISTA announced the award of TIRCP funds to the OC Streetcar Project in the amount of $25.52 million. As a result, a funding plan revision is required to incorporate the actual grant amount awarded by CaISTA. Discussion Projects pursuing a New Starts full funding grant agreement are required to show a committed and reasonably -anticipated funding plan for the project, including the local match. Consistentwith the Board -adopted Capital Programming Policies and the M2 Ordinance, which requires that every effort be made to maximize state and federal funding for M2 projects, staff submitted an application to CaISTA in April 2016 to pursue TIRCP funds. The funding plan assumed that the project might receive up to $40 million from this cap -and -trade program. The possibility that the OC Streetcar Project might not receive a full award, based on the lower than anticipated revenues for the grant program, was further discussed in the July 25, 2016, Board report. 20B-7