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6 - Letter from RTD concerning Boulder Transit Village (BTV) Regional Transportation District 1600 Blake Street D Oenver, Colorado 80202-1399 D 303.628.9000 RTD-Denveccom January 14, 2009 Jane Brautigam City Manager City of Boulder 1777 Broadway, 2"d Floor Boulder, CO 80306 Dear Ms. Brautigam: This letter is in response to the feedback received on the preferred conceptual design of the bus facility for the Boulder Transit Village (BTV) by the Boulder Planning Board on November 13, 2008. Specifically, RTD wants to clarify its position with regard to the conceptual design of the bus facility and our ability to address the comments received by the Planning Board. R-1"D is eager to partner with the City of Boulder in moving forward with the bus facility at the Boulder Transit Village site. RTD looks forward to discussing our concerns about moving forward with the Planning Board and City Council at a joint study session on March 10, 2009. Partnership between Boulder and RTD The City of Boulder and RTD have a long established partnership for the BTV project which started with the joint land purchase of the 11-acres at 30"'/Pearl in 2004. In this partnership, RTD has been willing to let Boulder take the lead in establishing a vision for the area surrounding the 11-acres through the Transit Village Area Plan (TVAP). In addition, RTD committed part of the Congestion Mitigation and Air C!uality (CMAQ) funding for the design and construction of the bus facility for master planning to refine the TVAP vision for the 1 1-acre site BTV site. RTD has been working closely with Boulder staff during master planning and was under the assumption that the preferred alternative concept was consistent with the vision for the TVAP given the constraints that we are under with regards to budget, bus operational requirements and land availability. As a result of waiting for the vision to be established through TVAP and master planning, RTD has had to delay the design and construction of the bus facility. RTD recently received a letter from DRCOG indicating that we were in violation of their three strikes rule for not spending the grant funds within a 3-year window and we are in jeopardy of losing those funds. (A copy of our response to DRCOG on this issue from November 18, 2008 is attached). This fundamental constraint is important to understand in reviewing our response to the Planning Board's feedback. An Equal Opportunity /Affirmative Action Employer Jane Brautigam January 7 4, 2009 Page 2 of 4 Response to Boulder Pianninc~8oard Feedback At the November 13, 200$ Planning Board meeting the Boulder Planning Board provided feedback on the preferred alternative conceptual design for the bus facility at 30`h/Pearl. The following are RTD's response to some of the bigger concerns raised by the Planning Board: o Design doesn't ref/ect urban character of Bou/der -Planning Board raised issues that the design reflects a suburban character and the facility should be placed underground with development on top similar to Market Street Station in Downtown Denver. Given our limited budget, 57.8 million, a surface facility is the only feasible option at this point. RTD would not preclude the opportunity tv put the facility underground in the future, with the caveat that such an enhancement would have to be funded by someone besides RTD. Another option which could be considered in the future would be to put parking or development over the bus facility to create a more urban character; this option would likely require reconfiguration of the site and would also need to be funded in its entirety by someone other than RTD. o Site design/potential for buildings a/ong the east sid® of Junction P/ace and Pear/ Street east of Junction P/ace -Planning Board raised concerns over the lack of opportunity for development to create an urban edge along the east side of Junction Place and along Pearl Street east of Junction Place. The potential for joint development or the integration of development onto the RTD site was considered in the evaluation of alternatives. However, it must be understood that RTD's bus operations criteria must be met for the facility to function and in many cases these requirements limited our ability to consider joint development options. The specific RTD operational criteria include: o Bus loop must be a single direction (all current RTD facilities have this operating characteristic) o Traffic for buses and private vehicles must be separated to avoid conflicts o Space must be provided for supervisor and maintenance vehicles o Three kiss-n-Ride drop off spaces must be provided o A minimum of 60 parking spaces must be provided within a distance of 1000 feet of the station Considering the criteria above along with the space requirements needed for buses to maneuver within the facility, an east-west configuration of the bus loop with parking south of the bus loop along Pearl (with the potential for building over the parking in future) in order to accommodate proposed joint development was not deemed feasible. The potential to create an edge along Pearl or at the corner of Junction Place with a building is potentially Jane Brautigam January 14, 2009 Page 3 of 4 feasible if the building were placed over the parking on the east edge of the site and/or if a building were cantilevered over the bus facility on the west edge of the site along Junction Place. Neither of these options wilt be precluded and could be funded by others in the future. o Aesthetic treatment of bus facility -Planning Board raised issues with the aesthetic treatment and integration of art at the facility. RTD is very open to working with the city to develop aesthetic treatments and functional art that embrace the character and vision of the Boulder Transit Village. Art elements, including the potential for an iconic art element near the intersection of Junction Place and Pear! Street, will be considered during the site design process. RTD plans to work with city staff to engage an artist, budget-permitting, to help with aesthetic treatments and shelter design during the design process. The extent of artistic enhancements or public art installation at the station will be better understood once schematic (30%) design and the associated cost estimating have been completed. The city of Boulder has indicated that they may have additional funds available to contribute to art at the station. o /ntegration of Historic Train Depot -Questions were asked about the lack of integration between the bus facility and the Depot. The operational requirements of the bus facility and the inability to move the depot itself limited RTD's ability to integrate the two facilities. RTD does remain open to the potential for shared parking between the two taciiities. o /ntegration of housing/deve%pment with bus facility -Planning Board had concerns about the lack of integration between development and transit. As was stated before, joint development opportunities were considered as part of the alternatives evaluation process. However, the 3.3-acre RTD site is very limited in its capacity to accommodate both development and transit together. In addition, the Pollard Motors lease on the remainder of the 11- acre BTV property through 2014 virtually eliminates any potential for reorienting the bus facility, road system and other framework elements to help with the integration of development and transit. Again, RTD is open to a future phase where the bus facility is reconfigured and development is put above or the bus facility is placed underground if it is paid for by others. Summary of RTD's Position/Next Steps Given the constraints that RTD faces with designing our bus facility at the BTV location including budget, operational requirements, and limitations on reconfiguring land for our facility, RTD believes that there is a limited ability to change the preferred concept presented. RTD is willing to work with Boulder to continue to refine the concept during the site design process, but will not be able to directly address many of the issues raised by Planning Board. Jane Brautigam January 14, 2009 Page 4 of 4 RTD would like to move forward with site design of our facility in 2009 and complete construction in 2010. However, if the City of Boulder feels strongly that the current design is not consistent with its vision for the BTV then we may have to reconsider moving forward with the project. In addition, it is important for RTD to move forward quickly because of the potential for DRCOG to take away the 57.8 million in CMAQ grant funding for the project. RTD would like to receive an official response from the City of Boulder on its position immediately following the joint study session between Planning Board and City Council on March 10, 2009 where this issue will be discussed in detail. Following a response from the City, RTD will make a determination about how to move forward with ihis project. Please contact Bill Sirois, our BTV planning project manager, at 303-299-2417 with any questions about this letter. Sincerely, r I t / ~'(.L ~'1v Clarence W. Marsella General Manager cc: Lee Kemp, Chairman of Board, RTD Boulder City Council Boulder Planning Board Tracey Winfree, City of Boulder Karen Rahn, City of Boulder Micki Kaplan, City of Boulder Michelle Allen, City of Boulder John Toyer, RTD Board District Bill Van Meter, Senior Manager Systems Planning Bill Sirois, TOD Manager Errol Stevens Richard Rost John Shonsey Chris Quinn Nadine Lee Reed Lee Jeff Dunning Attachment M Regional Transportation District 1G00 Dicke Street D Denver. Colorado E3U2U?-1399 D 303 62&.9000 ~1~1\\ RTU-Uenver com November 18, 2008 Steve Rudy Director, Transportation Planning and Operations 1290 Broadway, Suite 700 Denver, Colorado 80203-5606 Dear Mr. Rudy: t This letter is in response to your letter dated November 5, 2008 regarding the circumstances behind the delay of the Boulder Transit Village project. The specific j information on the project is identified below: Project Sponsor: Regional Transportation District Project Name: Pearl Streef/30' Street Boulder Transit Village Transit Center TIP lD Number: 2005-037 Federal Funding through FY08: FY06 $2,730,000 and FY07: $5,010,000 Explanation for Delay Delay in this project was caused by the request from the City of Boulder to delay the start of the project until the City's Transit Village Area Plan (NAP) was complete. This plan, which is a broader subarea plan, created a vision for the 160+ acres surrounding the 11-acre Boulder Transit Village site that the City felt important to have in place prior to the start of the conceptual design for the bus facility. The plan was adopted in August 2007 by the Boulder City Council. Since the time of the TVAP's adoption, RTD, in coordination with the City of Boulder, hired a consultant team lead by EDAW to conduct conceptual planning and design for the Boulder Transit Village project. FTA provided RTD with an initial release of $220,000 to conduct the conceptual planning phase of the project with the intent that RTD would pursue a Categorical Exclusion (CatEx) to receive environmental clearance of the preferred alternative derived during the conceptual planning phase. RTD staff has prepared a draft CatEx and expects to submit it to FTA for review and approval prior to the end of 2008. Assuming FTA approves the CatEx, RTD would expect to have the remainder of the CMAQ grant funds available in first quarter 2009 to start design. Action Plan to Implement Proiect The plan to implement the project is in place and RTD is moving forward with the plan. The steps in the action plan are as follows: - Complete the conceptual planning phase of the project -December 2008 - Submit CatEx far preferred alternative from conceptual planning phase to FTA for review -December 2008 - Approval of CatEx from FTA -March 2009 - Start design phase of Boulder Transit Village -March 2009 An (:r~ual Op; orUmi;y / A±(iunF;livt Acliort Employer - - Complete design phase of Boulder Transit Village -December 2009 - Complete construction of Boulder Transit Village -December 2010 I hope that this provides you with the necessary documentation for RTD to continue to move forward with this very important project. Please contact Bill Sirois at 303.299.2417, if you have any questions regarding this letter. ' Sincerely, _ i Bill Van Meter Acting Assistant General Manager, Planning cc: Richard Rost, RTD Facilities Engineering Bill Sirois, RTD Planning and Development Micki Kaplan, City of Boulder