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Stakeholders press CTC to allow ATP, SHOPP and federal discretionary grants as 'uncommitted' STIP sources
Summary
At a CTC STIP guidelines workshop, regional agencies urged staff to permit the Active Transportation Program (ATP), the State Highway Operation and Protection Program (SHOPP), and federal discretionary grants as eligible sources of uncommitted funds in RTIP/STIP submissions; staff said timing and oversubscription concerns will be considered.
California Transportation Commission staff said they do not plan major guideline revisions this cycle but flagged a handful of issues for discussion, including which programs may be listed as uncommitted funding sources in RTIP parts of the STIP guidelines.
Laurie Waters (CTC deputy director) explained the current emphasis: "The commission will consider programming projects with uncommitted funds only from the Solutions for Congested Corridors program, Trade Corridors Enhancement Program, Local Partnership Program, and the Local Transportation Climate Adaptation Program," and noted that if a funding commitment is not secured within six months after adoption of the next programming cycle, a STIP amendment would be required to delete or substitute the project.
Several attendees asked CTC staff to also allow other potential match sources. MTC's Carl Anderson and others asked whether the Active Transportation Program (ATP) could be counted as an uncommitted source; Waters said the principal barrier to including ATP previously was timing and oversubscription of ATP awards, not a policy prohibition. "I don't see a terribly bad reason to allow ATP to be included as one of the funding programs that [count] as uncommitted sources," Waters said, while noting agencies should recognize it is a long shot.
Attendees also asked staff to consider the State Highway Operation and Protection Program (SHOPP/SHOPP) and federal discretionary grants. Carl Anderson specifically suggested adding federal discretionary grants to the list to align with SB 1 competitive program guidance; several commenters said federal discretionary programs are already a key source for matching and could address timing problems created by FHWA or district-level award schedules.
CTC staff accepted the recommendations as items to research further. "We'll look at that language then," Laurie Waters said in response to requests to include federal discretionary sources and ATP. Stakeholders cautioned that including discretionary sources could increase the need for STIP amendments if awards do not materialize, while others argued it would provide useful flexibility.
Ending: CTC staff committed to follow up on ATP, SHOPP and federal discretionary grant eligibility for uncommitted funds; no guideline text was adopted at the workshop.
