RCTC committee sends ranked project list to SCAG for 2025 federal competition

The Riverside County Transportation Commission Budget and Finance Committee on Wednesday forwarded a staff-ranked list of 17 project applications to the Southern California Association of Governments for the region's 2025 competitive awards of Surface Transportation Block Grant (STBG) and Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) formula funds.

The ranking, presented by staff member Jillian, will be submitted to SCAG for inclusion in the regional scoring and selection process.

The commission's evaluators followed a prioritization framework the commission adopted in March and assessed projects on eligibility, deliverability, readiness, alignment with regional plans and public engagement, according to Jillian. "The ranking of projects before you for consideration will ultimately be submitted to SCAG," she said.

RCTC staff told the committee that 15 Riverside County agencies submitted 17 applications requesting a combined total larger than the county's approximate regional formula share. Staff estimated Riverside County might expect about $150 million of the roughly $1.2 billion available in the SCAG region; applicants requested about $327 million. The evaluation committee's membership included Jillian, RCTC planning and programming staff, the commission's technical advisory committee chair, Cathedral City's public works director John Corella, and SCAG's transportation director John Hoy.

Staff categorized the 17 applications as not recommended (1), contingency (4), recommended (8) and highly recommended (4), with the recommended and highly recommended groups requesting roughly $102 million and $177 million respectively. RCTC itself submitted an application for the I-15 Express Lanes Project Southern Extension; staff noted ten projects requested CMAQ or a CMAQ/STBG combination.

Committee members pressed staff on perceived omissions in the scoring metrics. Commissioner Cindy Marietta said she was surprised safety-related projects such as the Keller Road interchange in her city did not score higher. "Keller Road for Marietta ' can make the difference between life and death of getting to a hospital, not even on the highly recommended," Marietta said. Jillian responded the commission's framework focused scoring on deliverability, eligibility and readiness to create an objective shortlist for SCAG to score, and suggested safety could be considered in future refinements of the framework: "We didn't look at factors like demand or safety," she said.

Other commissioners and staff emphasized the importance of NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) clearance to be competitive for federal funds. A speaker handling committee remarks said projects without NEPA clearance lose points because federal funding requires the federal environmental process; projects without that clearance face multi-year delays and higher costs. On the Bundy Canyon Road submission from Wildomar, staff said it had CEQA clearance but not NEPA clearance, which reduced its score and delayed eligibility.

Staff recommended that the committee recommend the commission approve the ranking in the agenda and authorize the executive director to submit it to SCAG. The committee approved the recommendation by roll-call vote as the meeting continued as a committee of the whole. The committee recorded votes from participating jurisdictions when taking the approval on the record.

The next step is SCAG's regional scoring and selection, which will combine SCAG's scoring with Riverside County's submitted ranking. Staff told the committee that future rounds and adjustments to the prioritization framework are possible and encouraged jurisdictions with projects still in design or environmental phases to reapply once projects are closer to construction readiness.

Committee members asked staff to relay to local public works directors and city managers the importance of early NEPA work for any project that may seek federal funds to avoid delays and cascading cost increases. That guidance came as part of staff's broader advice that readiness and federal environmental clearance are decisive in this competitive cycle.

The committee forwarded the ranking to SCAG and noted the action for the record; SCAG will issue the final regional allocations following its scoring process.