Purpose

To request City Council authorization to apply for State funding available under Article 3 of the Transportation Development Act (TDA), SB 821.

Background

The TDA funds are administered by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Funding is available to local jurisdictions according to a formula based on population. These funds may be used for bicycle and pedestrian facilities, including bikeway commuter paths, bicycle commuter parking, sidewalk wheelchair ramps, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) required signage, and sidewalk repair and construction. The funds can also be used for engineering expenses and right-of-way acquisition related to the aforementioned types of improvements.

In the past four years, these funds have been used to assist in the development and construction of the Chandler Bikeway totaling $192,200.  Before the Chandler Bikeway project, Public Works used these funds for the construction and repair of public sidewalks and pedestrian ramps. 

Analysis

Staff is requesting City Council authorization to apply for the City�s share of their TDA funds of $50,044 from FY 2003-2004. Staff proposes to use these funds to provide for the local match portion of two different grants that are in the process of approval. The Beachwood Class III bikeway, a top priority project included as part of the City�s new Bicycle Master Plan reviewed and adopted by Council on December 9, 2003, would assume $29,500 of the TDA funds to meet the local match requirements of a $265,500 grant that the City of Burbank applied for in August 2003.  Even though the City has not been approved for the grant funds as of yet, the City received a rating of �Excellent�, from the Caltrans, on the proposed scope of work. 

The Beachwood Avenue Enhanced Class III Bikeway Project would provide an Enhanced Class III bikeway along a lightly-traveled local street in the City of Burbank to connect two large, regional Class I Bikeways and provide a critical north-south route in Burbank for bicycle commuters. This project proposes to enhance this street to cater to bicyclists by providing extensive route and destination signage, stenciling, bicycle loop detectors, and upgraded traffic signals to promote a bicycle �thoroughfare� while discouraging automobile through-traffic. Similar to bicycle �boulevards� in cities such as Berkeley and Palo Alto, this project will provide the missing connection between the Los Angeles River Bikeway (extending ultimately to Downtown L.A. and beyond) and the Chandler Bikeway and Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) East-West Bikeway project (extending to Warner Center). Connecting these two paths with a high-quality class III connector can result in an increase in the utility of these facilities for bicycle commuters by ultimately providing a continuous 25 mile path from Warner Center to Downtown Los Angeles.  This route is included in the City�s Bicycle Master Plan. 

The second grant that the City of Burbank has applied for, �Safe Routes to School�, as presented by the Public Works staff and approved for submission by Council on January 7, 2004, will require a 10% local match of $8,200 (Grant total of $73,800).  Once again, the City has not been approved for the �Safe Routes to School� grant as of yet, but we have received numerous grants from the Office of Traffic Safety in the past.  Staff should be notified of approval by early September.

The bicycle detection and safety portion of the Safe Routes grant will enhance bicycle routes to schools that are included on our new Bicycle Master Plan of routes.  The project will focus on Class III routes (on-street, signed routes) and it will include bicycle detection at eleven locations, new bicycle route signing, and a school oriented safety education program.  Bicycle detection may include the installation at appropriate intersections of detection technologies designed to detect the presence of bicycles and adjust the signal timing to compensate for the presence of the bicycles.  The project will improve bicycle travel to and from various schools. The bicycle facilities will also be relatively maintenance free and the system has a useful life of 10 to 15 years.  Existing Public Works maintenance staff will complete the routine maintenance.   The construction of the improvements will begin by July 2005 and be complete by the end of the same year.

Article 3 funds are not automatically distributed to the local jurisdictions. Before the end of each fiscal year a jurisdiction must either request the drawdown of its Article 3 funds or reserve the funds for future use by filing a TDA Article 3 Bicycle and Pedestrian Funds Local Claim Form. The form also identifies the project to be funded. Funds may be drawn down once a project contract has been awarded.

The total of the matching funds from the two projects above is $37,700.  The remainder of the funds, $12,344, would be used to install bicycle improvements at other signalized intersections along various top priority Class III bicycle routes not included in the �Safe Routes to School� grant, but identified in the Bicycle Master Plan.  Improvements will reflect the same components as that of the �Safe Routes to School� grant above, but will focus on different intersections. 

Fiscal Impact

If the City Council authorizes the submittal of the TDA Article 3 Bicycle and Pedestrian Funds Local Claim Form, it will provide a revenue source of $50,044 to be used toward the construction costs for the various projects stated above. No matching funds or future funding commitment from the City is associated with filing for, or receiving these funds. The funds that are normally used to make up the local match for a grant can be applied to other projects

Recommendation

Staff recommends that the City Council adopt the proposed resolution authorizing the Community Development Director to submit the claim form requesting the drawdown of the 2003-2004 Transportation Development Act Article 3 Bicycle and Pedestrian Funds.

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