Today Seton CEO Charles Barnett and IBM Site Manager Tony Befi presented a letter to the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO). The letter, signed by 23 Central Texas major employers, encourages CAMPO to address the challenges of growth and transportation.

The letter states:            

“For major employers to help meet these challenges, we are encouraging technical planning that specifically achieves…a regional system…financial sustainability…a comprehensive transportation system…a planning process that is transparent, accountable and people friendly”. The 23 major employers, along with representatives of City of Austin, Capital Metro and TxDOT, have worked more than fifteen hours since August to produce the document. “That so many senior executives have come together and given so much of their time for a regionally significant issue is an impressive first for Central Texas,” Glenn Gadbois, Alliance for Public Transportation. Growth and transportation issues can effect how employers site and expand facilities, produce future public-private partnerships, support for transportation projects and improve employees travel options.

Major Employers’ Message to CAMPO

President Trauth’s Comments 

At the May 5th meeting of CAMPO’s Transit Working Group members agreed to recommend a new decision matrix (called a “decision tree”) for CAMPO that requires projects to detail the history, benefits, direct and indirect costs, funding agencies and sources, timeline, policy requirements, operations, and opportunity costs.

This matrix needs to be applied to find out how well it works and thus what kind of tree it truly is. However, as this matrix is applied to projects it could give the public and decision makers a much clearer view of the expected outcomes on a range of important measures from the old standard - how much does it cost - to benefits for mobility, economic development, environment/public health, and social equity/quality of life.

We are hoping for a Live Oak tree.

Now all Central Texas really needs is a long range regional plan that establishes priorities and desired outcomes. With your input this may be the 2035 plan currently underway at CAMPO. http://www.campotexas.org/

CAMPO Project Decision Tree

Thank you to all of the City Council Candidates participating in the Transportation and Growth Forum on April 3rd, co-hosted by The Alliance for Public Transportation (APT) and Austin Area Regional Transit (AART).

Attach are the questionnaire responses the Candidates were kind enough to provide (as Adobe .pdf documents).

As 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Organizations, neither APT nor AART will be making endorsements as a result of our Forum. But we think the Boards, and members, of both organizations gained valuable insights into each of your ideas, thoughts, and support of public transportation and mass transit; and we think the Forum was an unqualified success.
Allen Demling

Cid Galindo

Jason Meeker

Jennifer Kim

Ken Weiss

Laura Morrison

Lee Leffingwell

Randi Shade

Robin Cravey

Sam Osemene

The Alliance is e-mailing clippings to our list of members and contacts. The articles represent some of the more thought provoking and insightful articles locally and from around the country. If you wish to receive these weekly postings directly, please e-mail transitalliance@gmail.com and ask to be placed on the list. Below are two packets of clippings as a sample.Clippings-2-7-08.docClippings-2-14-08.docClippings-2-21-08Clippings-3/10-08

CHARGE: The charge for the CAMPO Transit Working Group is to analyze and evaluate the potential for rail in Central Texas, and the optimal role for rail as part of a comprehensive regional transportation plan that also includes new roads, toll roads, rapid buses, traditional bus service, and other modes of transportation.

The working group should consider and expand on CAMPO’s past and ongoing programs, processes and commitments, including those adopted by the Transportation Policy Board in October 2007 as part of the Transportation Improvement Plan, to build out transportation corridors, reduce vehicle miles traveled, utilize land-use tools, and achieve other public benefits and dividends.

It also should coordinate with City of Austin staff, CAMPO, Capital Metro, appropriate Central Texas counties or cities, the University of Texas, the State of Texas, the Austin/San Antonio Corridor Council, and the CTRMA to identify options for routes, modes, financing mechanisms, and operating strategies. Financing options must be considered and evaluated. The Working Group, at its discretion, may choose to recommend specific routes and modal alternatives.This group meets each Monday 9:00 - 10:30am at City Hall

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Next meeting is 9:00 am on December 17th  at City Hall.  Agencies will present a broad overview of the agencies and their scope of responsibilities as well as status of facilities.

Dear CAMPO Board Members,

Attached is a letter from Michael Aulick, our executive director, announcing his intention to retire from his 15-year career at CAMPO. It goes without saying that Michael has played an essential, definingrole in guiding CAMPO over the last decade and a half. I know I speak for all of you when I thank him for his service and wish him well.

Technically, Michael’s announcement cannot take effect until the board formally accepts it, which we will do at our next meeting on January 14. We will also discuss CAMPO’s transition at that time.Please join me again in thanking Michael for all he has done for Central Texas.

Yours,

Kirk Watson

 Aulick Resignation Letter 

Austin Chronicle’s Michael King interviews Representative Mike Krusee about his recent resignation and his leadership locally and nationally for urbanism.  Krusee, says, We need “to encourage good planning throughout our region,” he believes, “so that everyone has an opportunity [for sustainable communities] and also to provide mass transit.”

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Wednesday, December 12, 2007 at 2 p.m. ETJoin us for a Knowledgplex Experts (Online) Chat as we introduce the Smart Growth Implementation Toolkit. The Smart Growth Leadership Institute, through a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is releasing a set of tools to help communities untangle the thicket of policies and procedures that get in the way of implementing smart growth strategies and sustainable urban development. These tools will allow communities around the nation to gauge whether their current policy and regulatory frameworks encourage and support smart growth. The tools were developed through a four-year technical assistance program to help communities that have made a commitment to smart growth but were struggling with implementation, building support, identifying the most problematic policies, and other issues that typically accompany a major change in development practice. KnowledgePlex and the Smart Growth Leadership Institute will present this online discussion of the tools as well as lessons learned in Smart Growth Implementation from the technical assistance program. Panelists: 

• Ilana Preuss, Director, Technical Assistance Program, Smart Growth Division, EPA
• Tamar Shapiro, Executive Director, Smart Growth Leadership Institute
• Susan Weaver, President, Weaver Consulting Group
• Benjamin dela Pena, Associate Director, Smart Growth Leadership Institute

To join the online chat KnowledgePlex Expert Chats are free to attend and use Microsoft’s Live Meeting Software, a small and free program you must first install. (For more instructions on the installation, click here. While you can install Live Meeting at any time, we recommend you do so at least 30 minutes prior to the start of the chat. Please note - while you may install the software at any time, you will not be allowed into the chat room until 30 minutes before chat time. You may listen to the chat through your computer or by dialing into a conference call. To join the chat, click or cut and paste this URL into your browser: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/fanniemaefoundationseminars/join id=Toolkit&role=attend<http://support.smartgrowthamerica.org/site/R?i=sSr_HG4dfsl8QvZaEGBmJw..>  To listen via phone, dial 641-715-3828 and use this access code: 8360630#  Email info at sgli.org for more information about the tools.

Their charge is to analyze and evaluate the potential for rail in Central Texas, and the optimal role for rail as part of a comprehensive regional transportation plan that also includes new roads, toll roads, rapid buses, traditional bus service, and other modes of transportation.

For more details and membership