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Coconino County planners revise transportation chapter; sales tax, tolls and multimodal study highlighted
Summary
County staff summarized revisions to the Transportation and Circulation chapter, clarifying maintenance priorities, revenue sources and constraints on tolling and new fees, and adding policies supporting multimodal study and alternative modes.
Coconino County staff on Monday presented revised text for the Transportation and Circulation chapter of the county comprehensive plan that emphasizes maintaining the existing road network, searching for alternative funding, and coordinating on multimodal projects with state and regional partners.
The revisions add new policy text supporting continued maintenance funding for historic county roads, prioritize pavement preservation using the county's pavement management data, and call for a countywide multimodal study to assess walking, biking and transit connections, staff said.
A county staff member noted the county's road-maintenance sales tax passed in 2014 and runs for 20 years. "We originally thought it was gonna bring in about 6 to 7,000,000 a year, and we're almost double that. It's like 12,000,000 a year," the staff member said. The presentation says that tax applies to visitors as well as residents and currently funds maintenance, equipment purchases, snow removal and pavement preservation projects.
The draft chapter also clarifies legal and practical limits on user fees. County staff told the committee that adding a toll on a county road would require state approval and that interstate highways such as I-40 are out of local toll authority. The chapter therefore focuses on funding approaches the county can pursue with state partners, including support for statewide gas-tax reform and other user-based options.
On multimodal service and regional rail, staff added broader policy support for alternative modes, including passenger rail connections and medical transport. The chapter notes the county lacks direct passenger rail or scheduled medical transport to Phoenix and that improvements would require coordination with ADOT, NACOG and regional operators. A staff presenter said rail freight activity and siding opportunities on the BNSF corridor were discussed, and a separate railroad-safety study is already underway.
Members raised Highway 64 as a priority for more passing lanes and safety work; staff said ADOT has included State Route 64 in planning lists but that funding is not available and project prioritization is concentrated in districts with larger local transportation funding streams.
The chapter adds a policy (numbered in draft as CT‑7) supporting state-level review of user-fee or user-based tax options to capture revenue from non-gas-powered vehicles in the future. Staff cautioned that no concrete mechanism for distinguishing EV versus gasoline vehicles for county road funding exists now and that proposed reforms are being discussed at the state level.
Staff said next month's review will cover Emergency, Community Services and Public Safety, which will include evacuation and emergency-access metrics that intersect with transportation planning.
