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Council reviews Transportation Benefit Program plan; staff to refine budget, grants and pavement‑preservation options
Summary
City staff presented a Transportation Benefit Program implementation plan that prioritizes sidewalks, multimodal improvements and pavement preservation funded by an estimated $1.5 million per year from a voter‑approved 0.2% sales tax.
City staff presented an implementation plan for the Transportation Benefit Program (TBP), a voter-approved 0.2% sales tax that is projected to generate roughly $1.5 million per year for 10 years to fund sidewalks, multimodal improvements and pavement preservation.
Staff described a prioritized list of 20 sidewalk or non-motorized projects and several complete-street roadway projects (including Main Street improvements and a commercial revitalization corridor on 90 First Avenue NE). The plan reserves $500,000 annually for pavement preservation and factors grant-seeking and other local revenue sources — for example, traffic-impact fees and stormwater funds — into a 10-year delivery schedule. Staff said the project delivery schedule assumes roughly 35 percent of total funding will come from external grants and that individual project costs include a 4 percent annual escalation assumption.
Councilmembers asked for more detailed budget reconciliation. Councilmember Peter Shagan and others requested a spreadsheet of grant applications and their statuses; staff said they would provide a grant-tracking update. Several members raised questions about the TBP revenue assumptions given recent softening in sales-tax growth and asked staff to confirm finance’s revenue forecast. Councilmembers also discussed whether to consider bonding to accelerate pavement preservation, and Public Works staff said they would perform an analysis on the potential benefits and return within about three months.
Staff announced two upcoming public open houses for the 116th/117th Avenue project (April 9 at The Mill and an on-site meeting April 14) and said project webpages and ZenCity pages will provide project details as design advances. Council asked that staff share the TBP project-status list and grant-application log, and to return with an analysis of pavement-preservation options, including the merits of bonding and trade-offs with projected escalation.
