April 14, 2025 — Transportation Advisory Board Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:01] Perfect. So welcome everybody I mean. Please, Veronica, just restart and let me know. Oh, oh, it! It's recording now. Yep. Alright! Well, welcome, everybody! This is Tab, our our monthly April meeting. This is my 1st time hosting the meeting. So If I make any mistakes. Please let me know. Jump in and let me know. I don't know if who goes over the technical rules. Veronica, right. Yes, I will go over the technical rules. I will share screens. Everyone could let me know if they're able to see it cool. Alright. Thank you for joining the Transportation Advisory Board meeting to strike a balance between meaningful, transparent engagement and online security. The following rules will be applied. This meeting has been called to conduct the business of city of boulder activities that disrupt delay or otherwise interfere with the meetings are prohibited. The time for speaking is limited to 3 min. No person shall speak except when recognized by the person presiding, and no person shall speak for longer than the time allotted. Each person shall register to speak at the meeting, using the person's real name. Any person believed to be using a name other than the one they are commonly known by will not be permitted to speak.

[1:17] Please use the raise hand function to be recognized for public comment. If you're on the phone, you will need to press, Star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute. No video will be permitted except for city officials, employees, and invited speakers and presenters. All others will participate by voice. Only. The person presiding at the meeting shall enforce these rules by muting anyone who violates any rules. The Q. And a function is enabled, it will be used for individuals to communicate with the host. It should be used for technical and online related questions only if an attendee attempts to use Q. And a. For any reason other than seeking assistance from the host, the city reserves the right to disable that individual's access to chat. Only the host and individuals designated by the host will be permitted to share their screen during the meeting. Thank you.

[2:06] Thank you, Veronica. And so now we get to welcome some new members, and that's very exciting. Welcome, Michael and Hernan. Where are you guys? There we go. Would you like to share a little bit about you guys and. What brought you to tab? Yeah, without doing. Sure I can start. Yeah. So my name is I was. I was born in Peru and but I believe in the Us. Since I was 17. I came here to study, and then just kept studying, and then got married and had a family and stayed I became a citizen in 2019. So after that I started getting more involved in local affairs. I guess I've been a member or I was a member of the Environmental Advisory Board.

[3:04] I was there for 4 years and one of the reasons I decided to apply to transportation is because I felt there was a lot of overlap. There were a lot of things that you guys have discussed, or you guys have proposed that we cannot provide a feedback on. So I kind of wanted to switch gears. Really, I've been like, I said, some goals for myself when I applied for the Environmental Advisory Board, and I felt like I had met them, and I felt satisfied with my work. So I kinda wanted to switch gears, learn a little bit more about how the city works and be able to provide some feedback and learn about transportation. So yeah, I'm I'm really glad to be here. Well, thank you. And and we're so happy that you're here, and I'm sure we're gonna be. You bring a lot of great insights and a lot of like a different voice from all of our voices. So it's gonna be a great collaboration. And, Michael, I know Michael.

[4:00] Yeah, yeah, I've been involved in transportation issues for a little while now, mostly through the community cycles advocacy committee, but also a local sort of strong towns, local conversation that I co-founded, called neighbors United of South Boulder. That has also sort of focused a little bit on transportation issues. And yeah, I'm longtime boulder Resident. Been here more than 20 years at this point, and have grown increasingly interested in transportation issues. partly because of my work at EPA, I'm an attorney for EPA. That's what pays the bills, at least for now find out tomorrow if that continues to be the case. But yeah, I've been sort of concerned about the impacts of climate change.

[5:01] and aware that real progress on that is likely to take place at the at the State and local level. And since greenhouse gas emissions, at least at the local level, you know, come pretty significantly from transportation. It's an area that I've been interested in and working in for a while also, just as a cyclist concerned about safety and being able to get around without being fully dependent on a car. So that's been. That's kind of my my backstory. But I've been, you know I've been part of Boulder for quite a while now. Welcome, Michael, and welcome, Hernan. And I think now it's time for you guys to be sworn in Can someone remind me how that happens. Do you guys have your oaths at hand? I have it displayed on the screen. First, st Michael.

[6:01] All right. I, Michael Odesma, do solemnly swear, affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America and of the State of Colorado, and the charter and ordinances of the City of Boulder, and faithfully perform the duties of the office of a member of the Transportation Advisory board for which I am about to enter. Thank you, Michael. Vex members Amnon via Nueva, and it's being displayed on the screen. Okay, I, Hernan Villanueva, to solemnly swear, affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America and of the State of Colorado, and the charter and ordinances of the City of Boulder, and faithfully perform the duties of the office of a member of the Transportation Advisory Board, for which I am about to enter. You don't know. Well, back to you, Trini. Wonderful well, welcome. And we're really, really excited to start this new cycle. And with that come the election of the officers, which is kind of bizarre, because we kind of discussed this, and how awkward and bizarre it was going to be, because I'm leading the election process. But yeah, so

[7:11] this is when we all vote for whoever we believe should be in these positions, and we have a moment for elections or nomination. Sorry, so does anybody want to nominate anybody for chair. I'll just speak up. Hi! Everyone! Welcome, Michael and Erlan. I nominate Trini Willison to be chair of the Transportation Advisory Board. Does anybody second that? Or is that how or do we just vote. I second. Thank you. And so do we vote we take a vote. So you have. Later.

[8:02] Thank you. It looks like I'm chair. Thank you, everybody. I'll do my best now. The second position is vice chair. Would anybody like to nominate someone. As for the position of vice chair. Yes, I nominate Darcy kitchen to be vice chair. And I second that. So everybody please vote everybody wants. Say, I vote with their hands. So it's unanimous, Darcy, you're our vice chair. We're so excited to have you and Secretary. We've had Secretary Meredith for as long as I have been here, and would anybody like to nominate Meredith? I would like to marry. I second. All in favor. Great. Hi! Yes, Meredith is the best. I'm heard of.

[9:00] Okay. It looks like Meredith, if you're willing. Oh, you're muted, Meredith. Secretary can't unmute. Thank you very much. Wonderful. My pleasure. So the year has begun, and now we have to move on to approve the March minutes, and it looks like only Darcy, Mike and I will be able to do that. Were you guys able to look over them. Yup. They look good to me. I I move that we accept them, and it's. A second. Favor. Hi, all right. So our different food. And now we can. Wow, look, you guys were running really fast. And now we're ahead of time, but we do have a moment to open the the floor for public comment.

[10:01] Do we have anybody signed up. We have one person raising their hand. Lynn Siegel, I'm going to ask if you're able to unmute yourself. Yeah, I was waiting for you to answer my Qa. And I did want to speak. And I think that this planning board I mean this, this tab should quit, you should all quit because your job is impossible. There is nothing you can do with the funding that the Planning board has decided, you know, is appropriate for lining the pockets of every developer in town, and I'm trying to ride my bike around here, and I can't go fast enough, because the roads are so crap in this town you can't do your job, so quit. Go on strike. Say that you know you can't do a good job. Not with the way the Planning Board is advising. City Council, not with the way City Council and Nuria are directing Boulder's path

[11:05] forward. It's overly expensive. $380, 80 million dollars. I don't know if that's the open space board of trustees deficit or the City Council deficit. But there's too many deficits and too many developers and too little money directed in the right places. So the best thing you can do if you're not going to go on strike, which is what I recommend you do is to recommend to the Council that they dispense with funds to you better, because I can't be riding my bike around like this. This is not okay. I'm 71. I shouldn't have to be dodging ruts and potholes all over the place. and and I shouldn't be having to go really slow to avoid the all of the road issues.

[12:01] So do something about it seriously. It's your responsibility. That's why you're on this board. So what are you going to do? I haven't seen any change, and I've been here since 1987, and it's pitiful what this town has come to. You know why it's so expensive. I mean, I can tell you about one place on Juniper Street. Someone gave them basically 3 million dollars in benefits by approving a demolition for a house that could have housed people easily. 1,500 or 2,000 feet. They'll put up a 10 million dollars place, and they got it because, oh, they're on the confluence of the flood zone. Well, they shouldn't have bought on the confluence of the flood zone. If they didn't want to be constrained in the way they can build there, why should the city be giving them a handout of 3 million bucks. Basically, there's probably even more just because you know, their poor developer can't build the way they want to, because the confluence of the flood zone in the back.

[13:07] This is pitiful, it's revolting. It's disgusting. You ought to do something about it, really. I mean, I'm sure that I'm not telling you anything that you don't already know. I'm not at the risk of stating the obvious. I'm saying these things. So what gives you know, how do we live like this? This is not okay. That's why I am at the dairy trying to go to a film thing, and I'm here testifying on behalf. Thank you, Lyn Lynn. We have to move on. now. It's time for our transportation, capital improvement, improvement plan overview. I think. Garrett's going to be in charge of that presentation. Oh, I I believe maybe we have a different agenda. Posted

[14:02] I think Staff were. Were you on deck for the can? Item. I'm sorry. I I think I I'm I'm back. I was frozen for a second. Yeah, we're happy to start with, Ken. If that's a. Oh, yes, I'm sorry I skipped it over. Yes, so I'm so sorry first.st Yes, so if Stephen and Melanie ready, so sorry. No, that's okay. Thank you. Trini, this is Valerie Watson, interim director transportation and mobility. And before I hand it over to our amazing team. I just wanted to say a quick welcome to our new Tab members, Michael and Ernan. Thank you so much for serving with us. We are excited to work with you as we move on to this agenda. Item, I just want to say real quickly that we were able to have a really great conversation at Council last Thursday night. I encourage all of you on Tab to watch the recording of that study session item with council, especially the Q. And a afterwards. Just so, if it's of interest for you, as you consider the work that we'll be doing together this year, you can hear some of the thoughts from Council, and I know

[15:22] that our team tonight will will give you a quick summary of some of the things that we heard last week, but just wanted to mention that, and I'm excited to turn it over to Steven to introduce this item. Yeah, thanks for that, Valerie, and nice to see you on the call. And Michael. So for those who don't know me, my name is Steven Rijo. I'm the city's transportation planning manager, and I'd like to say a few words before turning it over to the team. We have much to celebrate tonight in terms of the incredible progress we've made since 2022 on so much of our street network travel, safety for all is at the heart of the project status updates, you will hear tonight. And along with our vision, 0 action plan, implementation progress, we are transforming our transportation network to honor our community's vision, 0 commitment that when mistakes do happen on our system, they don't result in death or serious life-changing injury.

[16:17] I'd like to recognize my colleagues in transportation and mobility for the unprecedented acceleration of our project development process. In response to Tave and Council's bold vision. We've aligned our department structure and created new internal processes to accelerate our work while still performing inclusive equity focused community engagement. We've strategically pursued external grants and realigned our limited local dollars for both design and construction funding to support this tangible process. And we've kept to a rigorous schedule to keep the initiative on track, often navigating multiple intensive project processes simultaneously over the last year. Staff have certainly raised the bar, and I'm truly honored to support their efforts every day. Now I'm excited to introduce Melanie Sloan to provide an update on the core arterial network progress that she and the entire team have made since we last spoke.

[17:07] Take it away. Thank you, Stephen, and thank you, Valerie. I'm gonna share my screen. Okay, is that visible to everyone? Okay. Thank you so much. I have a bit of a cold. I have a stack of lozenges, but I appreciate you standing with me while I take us through this important update. So tonight, I'm here from transportation mobility. As you heard, I'm joined by several other colleagues advancing work on the core arterial network or can. And I'm presenting an update on the department's work plan for the can along with some updates on active can corridors, including the 3 priority corridors. I'll share next steps and close with an update on the can funding strategy.

[18:03] And tonight's meeting. We're all here to provide you that background and new information on the can program with a focus on 2 can projects. As you heard, we shared the information with City Council at their Thursday, April 10th study session. They offered their continued support for the can and our efforts toward advancing the initiative. And tonight I'll be asking you to focus on the can progress. And through some questions, questions will also focus on funding strategy, the community and environmental assessment process or seep. And that's because you will need to make 2 decisions on these project seeps this this summer and the presentation highlights, a lot of the content you've seen in the memo, and we look forward to your clarifying questions about the can and seat process at the end of the presentation to prepare you for those future actions. So let's start with a look at the can work plan.

[19:02] This map remains our North Star. The can corridors and study areas prioritized for our department by city council in January 2022, and reaffirmed as a priority in 2024. We've updated our work plan schedule. That's an attachment to the memo, and it reflects current activity of note is the accomplishment of the goal of initiating community engagement and conceptual design. By 2025 for the 3 priority corridors, Spaceline Road, Iris Avenue and Folsom Street. and there's more good news to share. So let's take a look at some of that work since our last Update to you in April of 2024 staff have advanced or completed multiple can projects detailed in your memo are 15 active projects in various stages of design, engagement, and construction. highlighted blue. On this map are cam projects recently completed, or having begun construction. These include safer street crossings, the second protected intersection in the city near-term safety improvements with paving on Colorado Avenue, near Cu's main campus

[20:17] and rapid steps towards realizing the East Arapahoe Avenue transportation plan Vision. Finally, the lighter blue on this map shows the realization of a network that safely and comfortably connects people to where they want to go. No matter how they travel. This is possible through Staff's efforts, and from your continued commitment to the can. So let's look at Can. Priority, corridor progress. The 1st Priority corridor is Baseline Road, from 30th Street to Foothills parkway. baseline road is being completed in 2 phases. The second phase builds on lessons learned during phase one, and is making permanent the interim protected intersections installed with paving in 2023, including at Baseline Road and Mohawk Avenue.

[21:08] also completing transit speed and reliability improvements, and adding a new protected intersection at Baseline Road and 30th Street, shown here. Construction of Phase 2 begins later this year, and will take about 15 months to complete Iris Avenue from 28th Street to Broadway is the second priority corridor. From the summer of 2023 to fall of 2024 staff consulted plans, Federal guidance and community input to identify important safety improvements for Iris Avenue. The project used, the city's community and environmental assessment process or seep to evaluate and identify a recommended conceptual design shown here at 19th Street. The Seep and this design were unanimously recommended by you in August of 2024, and unanimously approved by City Council at its September 19, th 2024, meeting

[22:07] final design for Fort Iris began in January of 2025, and will be completed in 2026 construction will begin once funding is secured. The 3rd priority corridor is Folsom Street. From Pine Street to Colorado Avenue. The team began work on this project in December of 24. And again, this is notable because it accomplishes the city Council priority, commitment to initiate community engagement and conceptual design by 2025 for these 3 priority corridors. I'm going to tell you a bit more about this Folsom Street project during the next section of this presentation. Okay. it's at this point that I'm going to talk about the Folsom Street and North 30th Street. Preliminary design projects together and in more detail. That's because they're each using a seep to evaluate designs and identify recommended alternatives.

[23:04] These seeps will eventually need your action this summer. That sounds pretty straightforward, but the seep is inherently technical in nature. These project seeps will build on learnings from the Iris Avenue Project Seep, and because of that I anticipate some of the technical nature to be familiar to you, and some will seem new. And that's because Staff have evolved and learned since our work on Iris. My discussing these projects and their seeps together today is meant to share that learning with you, but also to help prepare you to take action on each seep this summer. So what is the seep. It's Boulder's formal review process that assesses the potential impacts of capital improvement projects to help select the best conceptual design alternative. The Seep uses project specific evaluation criteria, the Seep checklist and community input to identify a recommended alternative. In June you will be asked to take action on the North 30th Street Project Seep, and recommended alternative in July and August you and Council will be asked to do the same for the Folsom Project Seep, and recommended alternative.

[24:14] So let's talk a little bit more about the 2 projects and their seeps. We'll look at the Folsom Street Safety Improvements Project from Pine Street to Colorado Avenue. 1st this section of Folsom Street is a vital corridor to the city. Its unique challenges, like roadway constraints and differing land uses, leads us to consider the street in 3 segments shown here, north, central, and South. Each segment experiences diverse travel patterns and user needs. For example, the north and central segments see the most vehicles, and the South Segment sees the most people walking and biking. Despite these variations, the street is multimodal. All segments serve thousands of people walking, biking, riding transit and driving the corridor every day.

[25:12] and yet crash patterns. Place Folsom Street on the vision. 0 Action Plan's high Risk Network and the Denver Regional Council of Governments, high injury network. those who drive experience the most crashes. But about 17% of all crashes involved people walking, biking, and rolling, and 7 of these crashes resulted in serious injury. Alarmingly, 100% of serious injury crashes involved these vulnerable road users of note. Also, 50% of all crashes happened in the central segment between Canyon Boulevard and Arapahoe Avenue. Excuse me, just the Folsom team has been in the community since December of 2024 talking to businesses, students, community partners, and others, both in person and virtually to hear their priorities for the future of this street.

[26:11] What Staff learned is that the community and businesses share a common goal, a safer, more vibrant Folsom Street people want slower vehicle speeds, and for everybody to have the space and time needed to travel more safely. Travel. Time and reliability, including for transit, is also a priority, and everyone saw potential for Folsom to become more intuitive, welcoming, and vibrant. So Staff developed 3 conceptual design alternatives that each balance, the key community and business priorities of safety, travel, time, and urban design, but differently for simplicity. I'm only showing the central segment from Canyon to Arapahoe. The 3 alternatives look a little different in the South and north segments, and the memo includes end to end designs for each alternative. So you can find those there

[27:04] alternative a prioritizes maintaining existing vehicle lanes between and at intersections potentially minimizing space to improve intersection safety requiring narrower sidewalk and sidewalk level, protected bike lanes, and in some places combining these 2 into segments of multi-use paths. Alternative b prioritizes safety with protected intersections, improved mid block crossings, widening or adding sidewalks, and on-street protected bike lanes by repurposing vehicle lanes at and between intersections to create the needed space alternative C seeks a compromise between alternatives A and B by selectively repurposing vehicle lanes between intersections. That's a northbound lane north of Arapahoe Avenue and a southbound lane south of Goss Street, while widening or adding sidewalks and on-street protected bike lanes.

[28:02] Now I'll switch to the North 30th Street preliminary design project from Arapaho Avenue to the diagonal highway. North 30th Street serves a diverse community of people living in market rate and affordable housing communities shown on this map, including several boulder housing partners, properties from Boulder Junction north to the diagonal highway. It also serves a significant amount of multimodal travel, with thousands of people driving, walking, biking, and taking transit on a typical day. But the street poses serious safety risks. Most drivers who exceed this posted speed limit of 35 miles per hour do so by 4 to 5 miles per hour. and existing intersection designs contribute, resulting in 56% of all crashes happening at 3 intersections. Arapahoe Avenue, Pearl Street and Belmont Road. Tragically, 13% of all crashes involve people walking, biking, or rolling, and 2 out of 3 serious injury crashes involve these vulnerable road users. For these reasons, North 30th Street is on the vision, 0 Action Plan's High Risk network and the Denver Regional Council of Governments, High Injury Network

[29:19] engagement focused on people who don't typically participate in city processes by meeting people where they are at places like the bus, stop the grocery store school and also holding focus group discussions in neighborhoods and apartment buildings, including Orchard Grove, Boulder Junction, and Bluebird apartments. At all events, where Spanish-speaking community members may have been in attendance. Spanish language, interpreters or bilingual staff were available. and Staff heard a lot of ideas from the community and businesses for how North 30th Street could be better. Their priorities were consistent and clear. People want improved safety, they want reduced vehicle speeds and safer connections along and across 30th Street. Travel. Time also for transit was important, as was preserving street trees and other urban design elements.

[30:12] So Staff developed some conceptual design alternatives to balance those key priorities of safety and travel time, but also for implementation, feasibility, implementation, feasibility is a priority, because the city was awarded safe streets for all Federal grant funds for final design and implementation on 30th Street from Pearl Street to the diagonal highway and the 30th and Arapahoe Avenue intersection as with Folsom, I'm only showing the central segment on 30th Street. That's from Belmont Road to Mapleton Avenue, and that's just for simplicity. You can see the end end assigns in your memo alternative a prioritizes travel time by maintaining vehicle lanes which minimizes space for safety, improvements like protected intersections, wider sidewalks and protected bike lanes. alternatives, B and c prioritize safety by repurposing lanes to make space for important safety improvements. But this increases travel time

[31:09] also alternatives A and C provide protected bike lanes at sidewalk level which would require roadway reconstruction. Alternative B provides protected bike lanes within the existing roadway and so will not require roadway reconstruction oops. So there are trade-offs between balancing the community and business needs for safety and comfort. With travel, time and for Folsom the importance of urban design is key to the main street's vitality. and for North 30th Street implementation. Feasibility is key. And that's because of these awarded safe streets for all funds. Emergency response is key to both streets, especially North 30th street. And that's because both the city's police and fire departments have stations located directly on or near to the corridor, and the community prioritizes the environment. Each alternative's impact, such as to the floodplain or air quality, are also key.

[32:09] So let's look at each of these to better understand their role in the draft. Seep evaluation. Starting with safety, people consistently prioritize reduced vehicle speeds on both corridors, and we know that doing so is a powerful way to reduce crashes and crash severity, because vehicle speed increase the risk of serious injury and death. Reducing vehicle lanes helps to reduce speeds. Both projects include alternatives that repurpose lanes. People also see these multimodal streets as needing to provide space for the many users of the street at intersections in between them and repurposing vehicle lanes can provide that space needed to ensure everyone can travel comfortably and safely. Both projects include alternatives that repurpose, vehicle lanes.

[33:04] and fewer vehicle lanes also reduces the number of conflict points for people driving, and that makes it easier to move on and off the corridor, but also shortens the crossing distance for people walking, biking, and rolling. removing right turn bypass lanes like the one shown on the right at North 30th Street and Canyon Boulevard reduces potential for conflict. At intersections, too. the North 30th project, looked at the number of people using bypass lanes and used traffic modeling to determine where removing them is appropriate. Several bypass lanes are no longer needed because the changing land uses and shopping patterns on North 30.th Since the last time improvements were made to the street. Both projects include alternatives to reduce conflict points, but only the North 30th Street project includes designs that remove right turn bypass lanes. In addition to providing space, people want to have time to make their travel safer, providing dedicated signal phases at intersections, and the time needed for people walking, biking, and rolling to cross the street adds time for everyone's travel. Whether or not any other safety improvements are made on the street.

[34:17] The project team considers any increase to travel time seriously, because it's important to the community and businesses, but also because it impacts transit service, and both Folsom Street and the North 30th Street are important transit corridors to the city, each serving portions of the high frequency hop route, along with other local and regional routes. Like the Bolt, the bound, and the flex. the Folsom project alternatives are similar in their travel. Time changes, but on North 30.th Excuse me. On the North 30th project there are significant differences in travel time between alternatives. a key factor for Folsom Street is the ability to better organize and support the essential vibrancy of the street through design.

[35:05] providing space for organizing and beautifying this constrained corridor is only possible through strategic lane, repurposing even a little bit of space in key areas improves a street's form and function. The Folsom Project has 2 alternatives that seek to provide space for urban design. Realizing the can initiative in the next 4 to 5 years depends on designs that are implementable using available funding north the North 30th Street project alternatives are evaluated, for whether they can be implemented with awarded safe streets for all funds by 2029, the due date of that Grant and Folsom Street alternatives are evaluated for the relative time and cost to build the simplest indicator for time and cost is whether or not, an alternative relocates existing curbs. Each project alternative includes, excuse me, each project includes alternatives that relocate curves

[36:06] for both projects. The team considered emergency response and the environment when developing designs. Emergency response is especially important for the North 30th Street project, because both the cities and police and fire departments have stations located on or near the corridor and staff have been collaboratively working internally with staff from the city of Boulder, police department, boulder, fire, rescue, and the city and county office of disaster management. Yes, repurposing lanes could reduce this space available for emergency response. and each project's alternatives include lane widths, bike, lane separations and Medians designed to ensure emergency response is supported to the maximum extent feasible. The community also prioritizes the environment and so air quality, greenhouse gas and other environmental impacts are evaluated through each project's Seep checklist.

[37:04] More detail of on these are in the memo. So what does this mean? Well, for Folsom Street? The draft seep evaluation shows the 3 alternatives balance the key priorities of safety travel, time, and urban design shown here. The full draft evaluation is in the memo. The project team will be collecting community input this month and will consider that when finalizing the seep and identifying a recommended alternative next month. I want to be clear that the recommendation will balance all the seep criteria with an eye towards these key priorities. But the recommended design may not achieve all desired benefits for North 30th Street. The draft seep evaluation, seep evaluation determined. More work is needed because no alternative adequately balances the 3 key factors of safety, travel, time and implementation feasibility also shown. Here again, this project's draft seep evaluation is in your memo, too.

[38:04] input from the public. And you will inform that further design work. And as with Folsom, any action on the 30th Street Project Seep will be challenged to approve a pragmatic balance here between safety travel, time and budget. Recognizing that the optimal solution may not achieve all desired benefits. And so these are the next steps for the Folsom and North 30th Street project seeps the team, shared the draft. Seep evaluations with the community this month and will consider the input received to finalize the seep evaluations and identify recommended alternatives in May seep actions by you will take place in June for the North 30th project and in July for you on the Folsom Project in August for city council action. Okay. So now let's talk a bit about funding and how that relates back to our updated work plan schedule.

[39:07] The city was awarded 23 million dollars in Federal safe streets and roads for all funding in late 2023 to fund specific actions from the 2023 to 2027 Vision 0 action plan and to further the city's vision, 0 goals and objectives. 9 million dollars of the safe street funds are specifically to complete final design and implement the recommended design on North 30th Street from Pearl Street to the diagonal diagonal highway, and at the Arapahoe Avenue and 30th Street intersection as of this presentation. The city has not received notice that any previously awarded external grant funds, including for safe streets for all are impacted or delayed by changing legislation or policies and staff are continuing forward with project development activities. The other grant opportunities for city projects shown here haven't been affected by potential Federal funding changes and staff will continue to monitor

[40:06] the Grant landscape and adjust efforts accordingly. And that's good news, because these grants are central focus to helping fund the planning design and implementation of print cam projects staff will also continue to look for ways to advance can goals through internal programmatic activities like the pavement management program and the vision 0 Action Plan. Those 2 are shown in light blue on this slide. And so these are the questions that I teased at the start of our discussion tonight, and I share them here because your clarifying questions will help us to advance the next step for the can. and with that I complete my presentation. I'll return to the questions. I can also drop those in the chat. If that's helpful. Thank you so much, Melanie. That was a wonderful presentation, and

[41:03] I do have some questions, but I would like to defer to my tab members and see if they have any questions. That they would like answered. It looks like Mike and Mike. I think you I saw you first, st so. Yeah. Well, first, st I'd like to thank the staff for the clear and comprehensive update on can. It's really encouraging to see so much forward movement on these high priority corridors. and I wanted to clarify something that was confusing to me. But I think I figured it out. You talked about North 30th Street. Not none of the alternatives fully satisfied the criteria. but, as I understand it, the staff are actively working to refine these and improve them in time for us to

[42:01] approve a seep recommendation this summer. and that you also gave a timeline where we'll be doing that seat process on North 30th ahead of Folsom, and I understand that is because North 30th is part of the Federal safe streets for all Grant, and that has an obligation to move more quickly to implement the funds whereas Folsom requires maybe a bit more time and and community engagement in the process. So is that correct? What I said. Yes, every question you had. You answered probably better than I could have, Mike. So you were correct on every single one of them. But if there's anything I can clarify, I'm happy to do so. Well, I just have one other issue. I wanted to bring up. Then Just want to echo comments from several city Council members. Thursday's Study session supporting the importance of trees on our public streets, and in particular Council Member Fulkert's question, the the Seep evaluation criteria, and

[43:15] the apparent lack of consideration of urban heat islands and the way designs with asphalt scored better on water conservation than designs with trees. I don't have any expertise on the seed process myself, but that would seem potentially short-sighted. And I just want to say urban trees are not just aesthetic. I'm sure you know they're critical for cooling our streets and supporting mental and physical health. managing stormwater and enhancing the vibracy and and creating places where people want to be. So. I hope that I'm sure that's part of your consideration, and just wanted to emphasize that as well. Thanks. Thank you, Mike. Ernan.

[44:02] Tyler. Yeah, thank you for the presentation. That was very informative. I do. I do have a few questions, though, like mainly since I'm new to this, I want to understand a couple of things. On slides on page, I guess. 37. Yeah. Slide 37 38. You have this. These tables with alternatives. and for the 4 different criteria, you have scores that range from some negative value to a to a positive value. What do they mean exactly. And why will 30th have a different range than Folsom, for example, or even within each criteria? you know they go from 16 to 12 to 20 to 16, whereas the other one is all fives

[45:03] like, what does those numbers mean? Really? Besides, just you know, the green or red like, what's the difference between a 1.3 and a 1.7 or a 1.7 and a 3.3? Exactly like, what does that mean? Yeah, excellent question. And then trying to distill a lot of information that was one that might not have been clear. So I appreciate you asking. So each category of criteria. of evaluation. Criteria has multiple criteria within it. For example, transportation traffic operations could include things like travel time, but also other factors as well. And so each project is using similar evaluation criteria, similar processes. But they're distinct to each corridor as well. And so there's a set of quantitative and qualitative approaches that we use to calculate and apply a score. And on the Folsom Street project they chose to do this average and reflecting the scores within each category, whereas the 30th street project chose to do a sum. And so that's why you see different ranges between the 2 projects.

[46:17] Okay. And how objective is this like, how much, how much, is? Just kind of like. yeah, I mean, I still don't understand what they mean like, if I mean, like, it seems like, how do you get to a 4, for example, how do you get to a 3.3? How much of that is just objective, how much of that is just like a vibe like like I. At that point I don't understand. Yeah. And just to be clear when the seep comes to you in June for the north 30th project, and when it comes to you in July for the Folsom Street project. you will see the full seep documentation

[47:01] defining each of the criterias, the methodologies, the sources referenced for any quantitative and qualitative scoring, it will all be defined, and explained. And and so it's kind of summed up here. But that's just to say there is more information about each of those, and that will be available to you when you receive the final steep evaluation and recommendation. Okay, okay, okay, so basically, I should just wait and get that information later. Well and also and on. I appreciate you asking this question about methodology. If you look in the Memo. page 30, that gives a closer look at the seep criteria. And how? So this would be in the in the packet materials on online. You may not have access that yet, but

[48:02] Wait. Which one is, that is, that I got 3 3 Pdfs. Which one. You got the right. So you received the presentations right through email. But you have to go online to our materials. I can. I can also email this to you if you want. But our materials are housed in the city of Boulder sort of forget what it's called, what's it called training? Yeah, there's a there's a documentation, source. And that's where all of the detailed memos are for each of our meetings. And in there on page 30. You'll see more of the criteria for the seep, but like I'm. Does does the so does the memo from Thursday right? Is that the memo from last Thursday I see on on the page, on page 30.th It's a little more defined. Results between alternative. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so that gives you just a closer look at the criteria. But I and then it. There's some explanation following that. But, Melanie, I'll just to piggyback on that a little bit. I I appreciate you. I appreciate that. We'll be able to kind of go through that process this summer, because I think that'll help us understand how each of those criteria are

[49:14] weighed and what they really count for. I think that that's of interest to all of us. So thank you. So basically negative means it will make it worse and then positive. It will make it better. So each of the criteria has that range, and you can see in the legend like, if you were looking at page 30, where Darcy was talking up at the top might improve existing conditions or worsen existing conditions, and that's quantitatively within that range where it would and how and to what level it would change. So it would take it away, or it would like bring it closer. But those are basic, based on professional judgment, correct. Well, some of it's quantitative. There are definitely resources and research that will quantifiably show, perhaps, how many miles per hour speed reduction, a certain proven safety count or measure will do. There's also qualitative pieces,

[50:14] Right. I think those measures, and then the judgment that's that's used in the qualitative is also important to to note. These are, you know these are the kinds of things I do as well. And so it's. It's of interest to me how those are weighted. And yeah, thank you. Well, thank you guys so much for all the feedback. And I just wanted to add, I mean, I love that the key word in this whole presentation was safety. and I love the idea of beautifying our spaces, and that will encourage travel and all modalities, and I think those are like the perfect combination, right? Because people will want to be in these spaces if they feel safe. I have a question. So we keep talking about how we're going to slow people, or we're going to increase the time of travel. Do we know how much

[51:07] time we're we're adding to these different modes with different with the different alternatives. Yeah, so. Because you guys seem very, very concerned about that. Yeah. Well, we do seek to try to find that right balance. Not just for vehicle travel time. But, as I said in the presentation. It impacts our transit service, which is key on both of these corridors. And so in the evaluation. the seep evaluation and the project specific evaluation, criteria, the transportation operations does look at travel time and the open houses. The virtual open houses are still both available on the Folsom Street and North 30th Street project pages, and you can find in there the results of those early traffic modeling on the design alternatives. And, as you noted, we do look at that. And and it is one of many factors that we consider in it, including, you know, like you mentioned, training the safety aspects. And we're trying to balance all of these pieces for sure.

[52:16] Okay? And is there any way that we can know what the ratio like car Head and car cyclists, and of the usage of who's using these roads more in order to kind of determine. I mean, I know that cars will ultimately well, not necessarily. It would just be an interesting. like additional like source of data to understand. Hmm! On those roads more. So. You know, value. Yeah. So what we found to the specific quantified travel, time changes on North 30th Street. When you go into that virtual open house on the project webpage. You'll see where we showed travel. Time can increase for most trips of like, about 95% of all trips that go on that corridor with the alternative that prioritizes maintaining vehicle lanes, travel. Time can increase anywhere from 6 seconds to 2 and a half seconds, and again remember every

[53:19] change to that street is going to include those safety improvements on North 30th at those high crash intersections. That's Pearl Street, Belmont Road, Arapahoe Avenue, and that's why, even with maintaining vehicle lanes, we see that travel time increase when we add additional safety improvements to the street that travel time increase can go anywhere on average, up to 4 and a half minutes of additional travel time. And then for Folsom Street we saw again, just like the North 30th Street project. The basic safety improvements at intersections will increase travel, time for everyone, so that has an alternative that maintains vehicle lanes that sees a little over a minute of average added travel time, and then the other alternatives that repurpose lanes to get that space for additional safety improvements or urban design

[54:14] or other benefits. Those are going from a minute and a half ish, you know, somewhere around a minute, 10 seconds, a minute and a half additional travel time. and that you can also see in the virtual open house. Thank you so much. And if I might, Trini, could I just add to I I think Melanie gave a really good overview of that, and I just wanted to highlight for tab members that when we report on these metrics and and use them in our seep evaluation these are end to end corridor travel times, and that is kind of giving you all a most case scenario. But not necessarily how everyone uses the corridor day to day. So some trips are not originating at one end and going all the way to the other. Often people are crossing the corridor or are on the corridor for just a block or 2, and so what we offer here in in this information, and and to your question, Trini is

[55:12] a pretty broad look at. The operational considerations for for the from a vehicular and transit perspective as just one of many criteria that the evaluation is looking at. And it's kind of a most case if that if that helps to give some context. Thank you so much, Valerie. Yeah, it does absolutely. Michael Lodesma. Yeah. Well, first, st thank you for the excellent presentation, and for slogging through it, Melanie, with the the benefit of the lozenges that seem to be keeping you from coughing, and also for the excellent judgment to include a slide of me on on Slide 40 on my old bike crossing. I guess that's your baseline. But anyway, I had 3 questions. Valerie, kind of anticipated one of my questions, which was.

[56:07] What do we have? A sense of what percentage of folks are making that full trek from north to south on 30th Street? Or, you know, is there some sort of segment by segment? Analysis of the kind that we saw on 30th Street. And then another question is, I recall you saying that on Folsom that alternative A has relatively little room for intersection, safety, improvements. And and then, you know, I would gather that B has far more. And I'm wondering, is C somewhere in the middle, or or does C have leave enough of the road space allocated to cars that the intersection improvements are still not even feasible with alternative C

[57:06] and then let me see. My 3rd question also relates to Folsom. and and it's sort of a difference between what I see in the Folsom designs and the 30th Street designs, and Folsom. There's a looks like a 2 foot median of some sort, and I and and I don't see a corresponding kind of Median in the 30th Street design. And so I'm kind of wondering what role that plays on Folsom Street, and and you know, is that safety related? Is it? Does it perform some other function? That accounts for it not being present on 30th Street. So sorry. 3 questions. Okay. Oh, Melanie, you may have an idea of how you might want to tackle those, and I would encourage you to tackle them out of order. If that's okay with Michael, just as I know that that we wanna make sure we're able to provide accurate information tonight. And if we don't have it tonight. We can always follow up

[58:06] so, Melanie, I'll I'll turn it back over to you. Thank you. Yeah. So if I understood Michael on Folsom, you're asking about what proportion of trips travel end to end, perhaps even by mode. Unfortunately, I don't have that data on hand which we can look into, as Valerie said. In regards to the alternatives on North 30th Street. You were asking about how space was allocated across the different designs and specifically alternatives B and C, and when and where they're allocating space. Is that correct? I was asking about. Sorry. I know I did take everything out of order there. I was asking about Folsom and the fact that on Folsom. You know that the A. You said didn't have a whole lot of room for intersection safety improvements? B. Presumably would. And I was wondering if about C does C.

[59:01] Is it compromise between A and B? Is it also a compromise in terms of intersection treatments? Or are the intersection improvements still foreclosed by the fact that you've got. You know, those 2 southbound vehicular lanes. Okay, on Folsom Street, I'll say that the lane repurposing is strategic to try to balance this the entire section between Canaan and Arapa is pretty constrained. And so how do you balance the use of that space? And so, like you mentioned Michael, the alternatives B and C differ in that C is trying to compromise with just that strategic repurposing intersection changes notwithstanding. And so it's really just. How do you use that space in between them to provide those safety benefits and and other amenities like urban design. And then your last question was about Medians.

[60:02] Yeah, yeah, it was a sort of difference between Folsom and 30, th and the fact that Folsom still has a 2 foot Median and and 30th has done in the, you know, 2 Lane configurations, 2 Vehicular Lane configurations. Yeah. So that is getting into a bit of the design detail that I'd need to get back to you on. I don't quite have, I think, the answer that that you're looking for at the moment. And so I can work with the design team and get a response to you if that's helpful. Also. Just again a plug for the Open House information. The virtual open houses are still available, and they do show Lane configurations in a bit more detail to help you get a better understanding of how each alternative acts like I said I showed only the central segment, but how they behave up and down the corridor. Is also available online for you while you wait for any additional information from the team. And I think the one thing I'll add, because Melanie did a great job with that is that the cross sections, you see, are, you know, representative of one part of those segments, and so based on different land uses different access. Those Medians are serving different purposes, but I'd say generally they're providing those benefits of

[61:11] access control which can restrict some turns that we've seen to be problematic or causing of crashes. Similarly, they can provide that visual friction for folks who are driving to just signal them to drive the speed limit, you know, which is a large goal of ours. So just want to highlight that that's not the entirety of the corridor, but rather a representative section, for I think in those cases the central segment so hopefully that helps. Just I wanna ask something really quick before I I jump over to Ernan. So the the separation is there like a physical separation here. For the bike lanes. Yeah. Anytime any of the protected bike lanes will have some type of hardened concrete separation, whether it's up at sidewalk level and some alternatives, or in the street, with some

[62:05] concrete separation between the vehicle lanes. We do those beautiful bike, like dividers that we have in on Baseline. So Hernande. Yeah, sorry. Just one. Follow up question to what I asked earlier. I was looking at the page 30, page yeah. Page 30, on the council. Memo So I I just wanted to understand, like the criteria. So like we divide criteria into traffic safety, transportation transit, safe connections, and the other 2. If they have different score ranges, does does it mean like some of them are more important than others. or like like Staff? Or the community places more emphasis on those, or just that. There's more stuff

[63:07] to assess in those categories. Yeah, yeah, no, it does not. To be really clear. The higher score does not mean it's more important in this case. You know, page 30 in the memo is looking at North 30th Street. chose to sum the criteria as opposed to do any type of averaging that Folsom street different project team chose to average. And so that's probably throwing you off when you're seeing different numbers. But even within 30th Street you might see smaller ranges like transit service 3, 1, 1, whereas traffic safety is up in the 12. And so I hear you saying. is that telling me traffic safety is more important. It just means that traffic safety has more individual criteria within it. And so when you sum those up, you're getting a higher number than what you do in transit, which has only a couple of criteria.

[64:01] So, okay, so I guess in that case the evaluation score in total. To be weighted. Because I guess 3 a 3 out of like a traffic safety at 3 out of 32. Would weight more than a 1 out of 40. But if the alternative, a, for example, is all like a straight sum without waiting for the criteria. So that's what I was asking, like the way it is right now, the negative 10.3. Since it's just, it's not weighted. It seems like transportation operations is more important. and traffic safety and all the others, and transit service is the least important. But if it was weighted, then each one of those categories will have the same influence in the final score. Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah, it does. And I hear what you're pointing out as a potential concern, and it might skew your interpretation when the seep comes around, so I'll take that back to the team as we revise our seep and finalize it. To present to you that weighted averages might be the better approach for sharing seep evaluation scores so.

[65:17] Cool. Just wanted to clarify that before that. Appreciate it. Actual document. Yeah, okay, cool. Thank you. Well, thank you so much, Melanie, for a wonderful presentation, and enjoying all our questions. If no one else has any more questions, we can continue and move on to our next presentation. Which will be given by Garrett. I believe. Yes, thank you. Garrett's here. I'll let him introduce the items. Yes, that would be amazing. Good evening. I'm Garrett Slater. I'm the capital projects manager for our department, and I am fortunate to be joined by Brian Wiltshire and Lindsey Mers, who are both

[66:05] engineering managers on the team, as well as joined by Karen Steiner, our financial analyst for the Transportation and mobility department, and we're pleased to be speaking with you this evening about the capital improvement program, and I am not good at talking and clicking buttons at the same time. So give me just one second to click the share button. And no, you don't wanna see that. There we go, all right. Looks, good. That's it. Okay, thank you. So we're going to talk about what a capital improvement program is. First, st then, Karen's going to speak about the funding that comprises our capital improvement program. Then Lindsey is going to provide an overview of our programs, and Brian will wrap us up with an overview of the capital projects that are in the 25 to 2030 Cip.

[67:11] And then we'll talk about next steps and answer questions that you might have from there. So we'll start with the question, What is a cip? And why are we talking to tab about a cip? And so, if you take a look at the Boulder Revised Code, and the City Code is the set of rules and laws by which we govern ourselves, and the section that pertains to the Transportation Advisory Board which Hernan and Michael are familiar with. After being inducted to incorporated integrated brother into the tab, you're familiar that the second priority you have is reviewing environmental assessments which you've started the process tonight with 30th and Folsom. And then, secondly, on that second item is reviewing capital improvements. So you're fulfilling your duty by reviewing the capital improvement program as tab.

[68:05] And the capital improvement program is the way that we tackle individual projects and infrastructure needs and system needs around the community for transportation. and this differs from the operational budget, and that the operational budget addresses more routine day-to-day type of matter. So the operational budget will cover things such as snow and ice response, filling potholes, being able to take care of traffic signals when they need minor repairs, and so that lives in the operational budget which is approved and reviewed by city Council. Tab gets to provide review and input into the development of the capital improvement program before it makes its way to the planning board and ultimately to city council for approval. So this is a unique opportunity for you to have some guidance and input into how a portion of the transportation and mobility budget is advanced. And, unlike the operational budget which is

[69:10] done one year at a time, the capital improvement program is done 6 years only the 1st year is locked in and the out 5 years is more of a program. It can change from year to year, and historically it has modified a bit as we go, depending on how tax revenues are doing and how our Project budgets are looking. And so we are here tonight to provide an overview of the 25 to 2030 capital improvement program, which was approved by City Council and recommended by planning board and tab last year. And so the capital improvement program that we'll be talking about in May and June will not be the backward looking 25 to 30, but will be the forward looking that we're going to talk about with you the 26 to 31

[70:03] proposed and draft capital improvement program. So since we allocate a portion of our annual budget to the capital improvement program, it's important that we have priorities that help us understand how to invest the limited resources that we have. And so we continue to make these investments consistent with the transportation master plan, and where it says that our highest priority is in system, operations and maintenance, vision 0 and travel safety. The medium priority is operational improvements, enhancement of the transit and pet and bike system and person carrying capacity. The neighborhood speed management program is identified as a Second Level priority. That is, a formerly sent a program that has been sunset. That is, part of future cips, for now and then the 3rd priority is quality of life, items such as sound walls and noise walls. So

[71:02] the just a bit more about the nature of what is comprised in the cip, and what you'll see presented this evening. I always like to use the metaphor of a home so, and and then also help further with the metaphor of routine maintenance. So the operational budget for the department addresses matters such as covering, if you were to think of it in your home, sweeping the kitchen floor, vacuuming the carpets. cleaning up the driveway, mowing the lawn, shoveling the snow. These are operational expenses. Capital expenses are divided into 2 categories, capital maintenance and capital enhancements, and the capital maintenance cover items such as you need to replace your roof or your back patio is cracking and needs to be replaced, or your driveway needs to be replaced or your hot water heater went out. So those are capital maintenance expenses. The comparison to the cip

[72:04] would be taking care of our pavements, our bridges taking care of sidewalks, and then enhancements would be, you decide that you want to add a garage, or you want to add a room, or you want to make some back deck enhancements to your property. So similarly, when we add new infrastructure, such as bike lanes. or we add an underpass, or we're adding a new multi use, path extension. All of these are things that are in our cip we are making major enhancements. So just wanted to provide sort of an overview of what to expect. For the the cip as we start moving forward. And with that it's important as we develop our overall budget as well as the cip that we understand that all of our investment priorities on a transportation level, as all other departments are expected to be compliant and consistent with the city's sustainability, equity, and resiliency framework in which we're focused on providing a safe, healthy, and socially driving, livable.

[73:17] accessible, connected, environmentally sustainable and economically vital community. And so within the realm of transportation. That means that we're primarily focused on accessible and connected. Of course, all these other areas, particularly safe, are vital to our mission. And so we are focused, as all the other departments are on fulfilling the mission of fulfilling this Sarah framework. So now I'm going to hand it off to Karen to talk about the funding. Hi, everyone. I'm Karen Steiner. I'm Senior Budget analyst in a hybrid role supporting transportation and mobility and also in the central budget.

[74:02] So first, st as we transition to talking about how the cip is funded, I want to talk about the size of the transportation and mobility capital improvement program. So over the 6 year period from 2025 to 2030. The current approved Cip. We have 118 million in plan spending in the capital improvement program of that 118,000,080.1 million is city of boulder funding and 37.9 million represents grant funding that we have on average, this equals a plan spending of approximately 18.1 million each year. The capital improvement program is made up of one-time projects and ongoing capital maintenance programs like our pavement management program. we'll go into more detail on the capital maintenance programs and the various one-time projects a little bit later in this presentation.

[75:06] For now I just want to point out that our ongoing capital maintenance programs comprise approximately 9 million of our annual cip budget each year. and just to clarify. As Garrett pointed out, this 118 million over 6 years for the Cip budget is separate from our T. And M operating budget. So next, if we could go to the next slide, I want to talk about how our capital improvement program is funded or the revenue side. So the transportation and mobility cip spending is from 3 different city of boulder funds. 1st is our largest fund. It's our transportation fund, and it's where the majority of our cip projects and capital maintenance programs are funded. It's also where the transportation and mobility operating budget is funded from.

[76:06] and the transportation Fund is primarily funded by sales and use tax. You can see on the graph to the left sales and use tax is the large, darker blue section that makes up over 70% of our funding, and I'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute. Our second fund is our Transportation Development Fund. This is a much smaller fund, and includes a few of our cip projects that are associated with growth and development. and this is funded from development fees and Excise Fee revenue. Last, we have our Boulder Junction Fund. We currently don't have any projects in that fund, but likely as phase, 2 of the Boulder Junction development begins, we will fund some projects out of that fund as well.

[77:00] So, moving to the chart on the left. yep, thank you. You can see, as I mentioned, 70% of our funding for the 3 city of Boulder transportation funds. 70% of that comes from our sales and use tax. This is the largest section, and it just goes to indicate how reliant we are on all the sales and use tax to fund not only our operating budget, but to fund our cip budget. And so, as we have fluctuations in our sales and use taxes, we also see a fluctuation in our transportation and mobility revenues and our ability to support different capital improvement programs and enhancement projects. Other sources indicated on the chart include our highway users tax fund, also known as the gas tax

[78:01] and grant funding, both of those segments are approximately 10%. And then last, the 2 remaining pieces are our development and impact fees. Those are largely fund the Transportation Development Fund, and then miscellaneous, which is made up of things like interest, special assessment fees like lime and B cycle, auto registration. And miscellaneous sidewalk repair projects. Right? So if we head to the next slide. I'll talk a little bit more about a summary of the grant programs that we currently have funding some of our existing projects in the Cip. The 1st program is the Federal transportation improvement program. These are funds that we receive through Dr. Cog, that's an acronym that stands for the Denver Regional Council of Government. It's basically the Denver Metro area transportation planning agency.

[79:15] These tip projects, are we? get grants through a competitive process, and we submit project ideas every 3 to 4 years. One thing I want to highlight. Here is. Melanie was talking earlier about our Iris project and how design is almost complete, and we'll begin construction when we have funding finalized there. doing those kind of planning and designs really helps us in the competitive process for getting grants, because it really sets us up in our grant applications to show we've already done the work. We have some designs figured out, and it really helps in that competitive process for us to be competitive to get those tip grants.

[80:08] Some of the other programs that we receive. Grant funding for include the highway safety improvement program. Hsip is the acronym you'll hear from. For that a couple of projects we have associated with that are some traffic signal upgrades and some pedestrian crossing treatments for improved safety. A few other programs are the transportation alternative programs. Our 19th Street project is an example of this, and we recently received another tap or transportation alternatives. Program grant for extending the multi-use path along Highway 36 revitalizing Main Streets grants through Cdot is another program, safe routes to school.

[81:01] the safe routes to school program. We usually have an opportunity every one to 2 years. We currently have a project that has yet to be started for. Excuse me, Manhattan, Middle School, and some of the pedestrian walkways, making it easier for students and parents to to walk and get to school. And last is our is the safe streets for all program. This is a program where we received late in 2023, a 23 million dollars, grant, which is super exciting, and funds various programs excuse me various projects throughout the city over the next 4 and a half years, and, as Melanie mentioned earlier, a portion of the 30th Street will be funded by the safe streets for all

[82:01] So by seeking out and applying for all these various grant opportunities, we're able to leverage our funding and to complete more projects and larger projects, as Garrett likes to say we use our grants to turn our nickels and dimes into dollars. So oftentimes our grants are funded 80% from the granting agency and 20% city of boulder funds. So, for example, if we invest $200,000 in a project and the Grant invest is invests 800,000, we have total project funding of a million dollars. And so the city of Boulder's contribution of $200,000 results in a 1 million dollars project, or multiplying our $200,000 investment by 5 times. And so we have done an outstanding job in the past, and I am sure we will continue to in the future of seeking out these grant opportunities and really leveraging the dollars we have to stretch them and make them go as far as possible.

[83:11] So our next slide will shift. And since we've talked about how our cip projects are funded, I want to spend a little bit of time talking about the expense side of things on our capital improvement program. So this graph is. it's basically showing our purchasing power over 3 different inflation scenarios. The blue line across the top is if our budget for our capital projects and capital maintenance programs are keeping up with inflation each year, and that means if we were able to purchase a hundred widgets in year, one for a dollar in year 7. If our budgets are keeping up with inflation, we can still purchase a hundred widgets.

[84:00] The second example is the orange line, and this shows if inflation was 5% every year and the budget remained flat. basically, that would mean in year one with a dollar we could purchase a hundred widgets, but over 7 years. If we were not keeping up with inflation in year 7, we'd only be able to purchase 75 widgets. And then, to take that example, a little bit further is the gray line which represents average 10% inflation year over year. So again in year one with our dollar, we can purchase 100 widgets. But if our budget is not keeping up with the 10% inflation in year 7, we're only able to purchase 55 widgets. And so this mostly impacts our ongoing capital maintenance programs like pavement bridges, sidewalks. and you should expect to see an increase each year in the cip budget for ongoing capital maintenance programs. But it really shows if we're not increasing our budgets by inflation, or more, the decrease in our purchasing power.

[85:13] The next slide delves into this in a little bit more detail, with a different example. So this chart is showing the Colorado construction cost index and the importance on our purchasing power for our cip projects. So first, st what I'd like you to focus on, because I know there's a lot on this chart is the green line. The green line is showing the annual Colorado construction cost index, and it's showing the actual increase for that year. And so in 2,019, the Colorado construction or the Colorado construction costs went up by 5%. Then in 2020 construction costs went up by an additional 3%.

[86:03] And then in 2021, an additional 17%. And so we really have to add all of those percentages to see the cumulative effect of the Capital Construction Index. and, as you can see, based on the the green line that shows the yearly increase the capital construction costs have typically been significantly higher than the average inflation rates with the highest increase that we saw was in 2022 of 20%. So then the Red Trend line and the Associated Blue Bar charts, they are showing if something cost us $100 in 2,019. And then we take into consideration all of these increases in construction costs throughout the year in 2024. That same item that cost us $100 in 2019 is now costing $178 and 16 cents.

[87:15] So all of this is to show that even though we have been increasing our capital maintenance program budgets by a few percentage points each year, and you should expect to see an increase each year for these programs in the future. The increases are not keeping up with the Colorado construction cost index. So, despite the budget increases, our purchasing power has decreased significantly, so that we actually have less spending power today than we did in 2019. And that's just adding to our unfunded needs. List. So last, I wanted to talk a little bit about the split in our capital improvement program between our programs and projects.

[88:05] This graph is showing that there is well of the 118 million in our 6 year. Capital improvement program 62 million of the plan spending is in projects which is 53% of the total and approximately 55 million is for our capital maintenance programs, which is about 47% of the total. Our, historically, this split has been a little bit different. It's been closer to 50 50, but because of the large 23 million dollars safe streets for all Grant. It's skewing it a little bit. So that it's 43% projects, 47% capital improvement programs. And next, I will hand it off to Lindsay, who will provide some additional information about our ongoing capital maintenance programs.

[89:02] Thanks, Karen. Can everyone hear me? Okay? Cause I'm speaking through my phone. But good. We can hear you. Wonderful. So Hi, everyone, I'm Lindsay Mers. I'm a civil engineering manager in the Cip Workgroup. And I'm going to talk to you about our cip programs. And so this table on the side is just the overall view of the funding of the various programs from 2025 to the 2030 transportation cip and so listed. Some of these programs are the sidewalk and pedestrian programs, the multi-use path programs, pavement maintenance program. the major capital reconstruction program. The vision 0 with the Pmp integration is on there and then our streetlight maintenance program. And so now, I'm gonna step through a few of these. But just know that table's there for your overall view. So I'm going to start with the pavement management program. So this program, we use this to keep our streets safe and in good condition.

[90:04] This includes that we're maintaining about 300 miles of streets, and we have to inspect all of them about every 3 years. And so these inspections help us understand the current condition, and then use that those inspections to plan where future repairs are going to be needed. So the payment management program also supports other city efforts like vision 0 and the core arterial network by including safety upgrades like bike lanes or better sidewalks, and so these are included into this annual street resurfacing projects or program. So, for example, the improvements that were made on Baseline Road and on Moorhead Avenue. and so to decide which streets we're going to fix. First, st the Pmp. Uses something called the Pavement Condition Index, or the Pci, which rates which rates our streets from a scale of one to 100, and so, if it gets a rating of 75, or above, we consider it good condition, with no major repairs needed. If it gets a rating between 45, and 75, we consider it needing some structural work.

[91:10] and if a rating falls below 45, it most likely would need full replacement. And so we aim to keep our average street rating at 75 or higher, which is considered the good condition. And so the pavement management program is identified in the Tmp as a priority, one investment. So then, the next program. we have several programs actually that focus on improving our sidewalks and pedestrian safety. And so these include the 3 listed here. The pedestrian facilities, enhancements which builds the missing sidewalk links as well as connects enhancements to crossing treatments, the pedestrian facilities repair and replacement program, and then the sidewalk maintenance program. the sidewalk maintenance budget funds the miscellaneous sidewalk repair program which shares in sidewalk repairs anywhere in the city with property owners who pay for half of the repair for the cost of the sidewalks that are adjacent to their properties.

[92:12] The pedestrian facilities budget is an ongoing funding program that includes the installation of missing sidewalk links and pedestrian crossing or the safety treatments and so crossing treatment improvements are prioritized citywide, and these improvements can include things like medium refuge islands, crosswalk lighting. pedestrian signal signing neck downs, flashing signs, those types of improvements. And so these programs are identified in the Tmp as a priority, one investment and the various implementation locations are prioritized each year by using the condition level and then program guidance documents. And so then the other program we have is multi-use path programs which include our multi-use path enhancement budget, and then the multi-use path, capital, maintenance budget. And so these programs are dedicated to enhancing and maintaining the 80 plus miles of path that are within our city

[93:17] and the maintenance budget is charged with providing major maintenance of the Off Street multi-use path network. And this budget, those are types of activities such as replacing panels of concrete. We'll do flood proofing of underpasses. We'll redeck some of our pedestrian bridge using that maintenance budget whereas the enhancement budget is used to expand on the current path system to build our new paths, or we'll sometimes convert existing sidewalks into paths. And so our enhancement budget is currently funding the Valmont Multi-use Path Project, which is a can corridor project. And that project is currently in construction. And so these programs are identified in the Tmp as a priority, one investment and the projects are prioritized. Using the condition level. We do pedestrian bridge inspection reports, and then the maintenance frequency.

[94:10] And so then the major capital reconstruction program mainly supports our bridge asset management program and the Bridge asset management program funds, repairs for around 300 major and minor bridges and structures that are aging or near the end of their lifespan. So this funding provides the ability to complete the capital repairs that are not typically eligible for the grant funding, such as lining our existing culvert pipes, or we'll apply waterproof proofing membranes on existing bridge structures, or we'll complete structural repairs to concrete and steel elements, as you can see on the top photo of a wing wall that collapsed into Goose Creek and will require replacement. So I'd like you to note that the minor and major structures don't only include the more commonly seed roadway bridges and ped bridges, but it includes all of the box culverts and the pipes that are under our roadways. And so this program is identified in the Tmp as a priority, one investment and we use the bridge health index to prioritize the work, and this index is a bridge performance measure to rate the overall health of our structures, and that rating is between a 1 and a 10,

[95:25] and so then, finally, at the end of 2024, the city acquired all the streetlights from excel energy, and it is now the responsibility of the city to maintain them. And so the streetlight capital maintenance program will fund this work. So as we transition from excel to city management, we are finding more issues than we expected, such as some corroded pipes or poles, or even damaged poles. And so we need to repair or replace these, and so to keep up. We need to expand the maintenance efforts and ensure there's dedicated funding to respond quickly when problems arise

[96:02] and the map showing the current conversion progress is shown on this slide. This program is identified in the Tmp as a priority, one investment. And we're currently working on creating an inventory of the streetlight conditions to then prioritize the work. and I am now going to hand it off to talk to Brian, to speak about our projects. Thanks, Lindsay. Good evening, everyone. My name is Brian Wiltshire, and I'm also a civil engineering manager in the transportation and mobility group, primarily responsible for implementing cip projects. And I'll be covering the transportation cip projects portion of tonight's presentation. This transportation cip project slide represents projects currently in the planning phase the projects in construction, such as 19th Street and the Rapo Multi-use Path, aren't shown since they've already been funded in Prior approved Cip years. The table you're seeing right now shows the budgeted amount for each project, and in which year the funding will be received out to the year 2030. Next slide, please

[97:07] this tip. Local local match and Tfp implementation slide. Discuss the various funding sources, such as tap, Srts. s. 4, a. And H. 7. As we receive funding for these projects. The local match comes out of the T. And T. And M. Cip budget and goes into each specific project. Next slide. I'm going to highlight. A few key projects not the entire cip list, just the ones of broader interest to the public. The 1st project is baseline road phase, 2. Project. The 1st phase of baseline was constructed in 2023 with the tall curb implementation. This project represents Tmp investment priorities one and 2 construction of this project is anticipated to begin in 2025, with total funding for the project at 3.9 million, with 3.1 million coming from grant funding

[98:01] this project is part of the core arterial network priority corridors. The project consists of projects, protected intersection improvements. An example can be seen in the illustration in the lower right hand corner of the screen and safety improvements along the entire corridor. Next slide, please. The second project is the 30th Street preliminary design from Arapahoe to Iris. This project is looking at the next segment of the 30th Street Corridor, the previous projects, the 30th and Colorado underpass and the 30th Street, Bike Lane improvements came directly out of the 30th Street and Colorado Avenue Corridor Study project completed back in 2018. This current project also represents Tmp. Investment priorities one and 2. Planning and design of this project began in 2024, with total funding for the project at 1.3 million, with 1.1 million of that coming from grant funding. engagement and design will continue in 2025, with implementation projected to be 2026, and beyond using some of the recently awarded safe streets for all funding. This project is also part of the can and safe streets for all corridor

[99:15] next slide, please. The 3rd project being presented tonight is the Broadway Intersection Improvements Project. The goals of this project is to study future conversion of the 3rd lane of Broadway in each direction to a business access transit or Bat Lane and improve transit at the Broadway Regent and Broadway Table mesa intersections. This project is another can corridor that represents Tmp. Investment priorities one and 2. The design of this project is expected to be completed in 2025, with construction in 2026. The city has received 4 million dollars in grant funding for the project with the total cost expected to reach 4.6 million next slide, please.

[100:02] Next up is the Central Avenue Bridge Replacement Project. This project will replace the existing bridges, both vehicle and pedestrian bridges, both of which have been. excuse me, both of which have failing conditions, currently using an innovative construction delivery method to deliver the project as quickly as possible. This project represents Tmp investment priority. One construction of the project is anticipated to begin in this summer or in fall of 2025 total funding for the project comes in at 6 million dollars with funding coming in from the voter approved community culture, resilience and safety tax. Next slide. The last project is the East Arapaho Final Design project. The goal of this project is to improve multimodal connectivity through the corridor from 28th Street to Foothills Parkway. East Arapahoe is part of the Can Ss. 4. A corridors and represents Tmp. Investment priorities one and 2.

[101:01] Construction of this project is anticipated to begin in 2026 with total funding for the project, which is design only at this point, at 2.9 million, with 2.7 million coming from Federal Cmac. Stbg grants and State Mmo. Funds separate ss. 4. A funds will be used for construction. Other efforts, including the electric undergrounding, multi-use bath improvements. The cdot overlay, and the Bat Lane conversion, have also been coordinated closely to help deliver the East Arapaho final design next slide. Okay, so what's up next? The May Tab meeting will where Staff will present the draft 2026, 2031 cip for review at the June Tab meeting, tab will have public hearing and recommendation of the 2026 to 2031 Cip. The august Planning board will be a public hearing and request for recommendation of the citywide cip to city council.

[102:03] and then in September, October City Council will review and approve the 2026 budget as well as the cip next slide at this point. Finally, we'd like to take this opportunity to see if Tab has any questions on anything we've presented tonight. It looks like Darcy has a question, and well, thank you so much. everybody. Garrett, Karen, and Lindsay for this wonderful presentation, and Brian. Darcy, you wanna go ahead and ask your question. Sure. Thanks. I put into the chat a link to a document about a proposed transportation maintenance fee, and I'm just curious about what the status is on that, and the possibility of assessing that utility based fee to fund help fund transportation in boulder.

[103:07] Well, thank you, Dorothy, yeah, yeah. For that. Prompt to discuss that tonight is a great night to discuss that, because not only did we have this presentation from these leaders in our capital Projects division at the department. We also are. I'm just so pleased to have Karen Steiner, our senior budget analyst, join us and up for our next item under matters from Staff Charlotte Husky, with our finance team at the city to talk about the bigger picture at the city, the long term financial strategy. That is an organization wide effort. So she's going to be offering a lot of context this evening for you all as tab members. I will mention that this is what the link you put into the chat here. The idea of a fee that is collected for the maintenance of a transportation system is a topic that the city of Boulder has been discussing for many years. That was, I think, really, work that was initiated long before the pandemic was kind of put on pause during that timeframe, just when, you know, we were all.

[104:21] you know, adapting to those changing conditions. But our department is really picking that work back up this year. We're excited to be really building from all of that very intensive work that was done that is still very much relevant. And we're happy to speak to that tonight, maybe best framed after Charlotte's presentation under matters from staff and happy to return to that and and then have the focus right now, perhaps be a little bit more on the cip and the overview that was provided this evening. But I completely understand the question

[105:02] is this something we are considering? And the answer is, yes, and we'll have much more information to share on that actually, next month as an agenda item for for Tab. Great. Okay? Sorry for jumping the gun. And yeah, thank you for the the great presentation on the the cip projects. I don't have specific questions about those. I'm just curious about how we're working to diversify the funding for all these. Well, thank you. I just didn't know if you were going to expand on that. But if that's it all right, anybody else have any more questions or any questions. Mike, Michael Ernan, Michael. I've got a question. So there were, oh, sorry there were in the presentation. There's some mention of various grants, some from Cdot, Dr. Cog.

[106:10] I'm kind of wondering, probably a Newbie question. But how do you have a sense of how the changed priorities of the current administration in Washington would affect the funds that the that the State and Dr. Cogg draw on are those are those revenues coming principally from state from within the state? Or are they pulling from the Federal Government in a way that we would that would sort of be passed down in terms of our prospects of getting those grants in the coming years. That's a great question, Michael. I appreciate you asking that. So the situation is continuing to unfold, and we are in close contact with our friends at the Denver Regional Council of Governments. In fact, just last week I was having a conversation with one of the regional planners there, and asking if he had any insight as to how we expect Federal dollars to flow

[107:13] to regional planning agencies, and then the next round of Tip. And right now they don't have a sense of how things are going to play out, but they are expecting. What they do know is that funding levels will at least be at the level they were in the last round, which means we'd be losing ground. But it's, I guess, better than no funding right? So we know that there will be some funding. We just don't know at what level the funding will be available as a Federal pass-through to Dr. Cogg for us to pursue on a State level the primary grant opportunities that we pursue were highlighted by Karen, such as safe routes to school, the transportation alternatives program, and then sort of mixed into Dr. Cog tip opportunities. They've also supplemented the Regional Transportation funds through the Multimodal Options Fund, and it looks like.

[108:16] And so things are very fluid and dynamic at the State Legislature with the Multimodal Options Fund as well. There's an effort to try to sustain the funding that's there. So there's no guarantees. But we're optimistic that the legislature and the governor will find a way to continue to keep multimodal options funds in place. Those State multimodal options funds have been very helpful. Directly to the city of Boulder. They helped deliver the 28th and Colorado Intersection Project. They have helped fund the 30th Street project that's currently under construction. So we are hopeful that we'll be able to be competitive and pursuing those funds in the future and crossing our fingers. The legislature brings that to fruition.

[109:01] So a lot is changing. There's still a lot of uncertainty. I will also sort of give you this a little bit of an indicator as to how things are going in that the safe streets for all Grant the city was awarded in late 2023. The there was uncertainty as to whether that was going to continue, and there was a notice of funding opportunity, a call for projects just in the last 2 weeks. So the current administration is continuing safe streets for all Grant opportunities, which is a sign of encouragement. The selection criteria have changed a bit, but still I think good news in there that those opportunities are continuing to be available. Thank you. Thank you so much, Garrett. Yeah, I think that pretty much, says it. And it's I don't know. I guess we just have to kind of navigate until we know more, assuming

[110:01] or hoping for the work. The best or none. Yeah, I just had a question about that the fee. But it seems like we're gonna be talking about it later. So I can just circle back to that later. Oh, Michael! Yeah. So I had another question. About the plan to cope with inflation. It, you know you you pointed out that there. The cost, the cost of construction is outstripped. General inflation. And it seems like that's only likely to increase nationally and and in particular, some of the inputs in construction are likely to become more expensive because of ongoing trade wars at the national level. So is there an effective estimated inflation rate that you're using as your assumptions when you're you're kind of mapping things out going forward.

[111:10] So we you might have noticed, as Lindsey was providing information about the capital maintenance programs, that we were showing general uptick each year, and the different infrastructure asset classes. And we are currently programming 3%. And you're probably going well, if you know, it's more than that, why don't you program more. And that's because everything is a trade off. So we know it's not mitigating all the inflation that we're fighting, but it's better than holding steady. And it gives us the resources to tackle other things because we have a whole lot of other needs and priorities within the department. And so, if we were to tackle all the inflation for cip, that's something we could do, but we probably wouldn't have any money to deploy our snow and ice when we have winter precipitation events.

[112:09] Understood, thanks. Thank you, Garrett, any more questions from Tab. If I could. I'm sorry I just. There was one other question you had in there, Michael. I wanted to go back to. We've also with the tariff conversation and situation that's happening nationally, we've asked a couple of our contractors how they're seeing tariffs potentially impact them. And because so much of the project. Infrastructure work we do in the city is grant funded, and grant possible. That means that almost every one of our projects have buy America provisions already so and and that includes not just from the contractor. But that's this. The the Grant overseers make us demonstrate that the steel, the cement everything. All the raw materials that go into a project are also manufactured and produced in America. So they have told us at this point they don't foresee major increases coming from the situation, but

[113:17] they also need to buy equipment right and all that equipment may or may not be made in America, or the parts for their equipment. So I think we'll see some impact from from that. But it's to be determined. Thank you. Thank you. And I also wanted to. Just point out that I really appreciate how thorough you guys were explaining the cip, and everything that implies for, especially for our new members. I know that it took me a while to kind of understand all of these intricacies, and so I'm very grateful that they have all all of this information in their very 1st meeting. So thank you.

[114:03] So do we have anything else on the cips. any more questions. Okay. Well, I'll just note that the link Darcy dropped in the chat isn't working for me. This is the Sean Duffy Memo. I guess. No I'll just. Clarify real quickly that this looks to be a summary of where the work on this stood around maybe 2018 2019. I'm just guessing because there's not really a time stamp on this. It looks like it's on an Fhwa website. So we can provide this after the meeting. If in case anyone else is having trouble accessing this link. That's well, that's the that's the transportation maintenance fee. Pdf, oh, okay. But Michael is referring to the dot, the current dot memo from Sean Duffy about priority.

[115:07] Okay. Of funding. So if that Pdf isn't working for you, you can find a link to it. On this website, Michael. I monitor the work on safe routes to school. And so that's where I saw it in their call for applications for Ss, 4. A funds this year. And so it's linked on that page. Okay. Regarding that, you know. So this ss, 4, a funds. Part of what's in that memo is that, you know funding will not go to areas that have received it previously right, and that they're also prioritizing areas. As I think we've all heard, they're prioritizing areas with high marriage and birth rates and So these are specifics that will have to be noted by anyone going after Ss, 4. A funds and other Federal funds.

[116:03] I think there are certain words that would not be flagged in any other circumstance that are being flagged. So yeah, if you have a chance to look at that. I think that would be interesting to look up. I guess we could move on to matters of the board. I mean matters of stuff from the from staff. Sorry is the next agenda item. Thank you, Trini. So, as as we mentioned earlier in response to Darcy's question with the last item, we are really pleased to invite Charlotte Husky to present tonight about the city's citywide long-term financial strategy and what the I think the importance of this for Tab members, a lot of you on on tab that have been on the board for the last year may have heard me mention this several times since last fall, usually in the context of questions around. If we wanted to fund something at a different level, how would that work? And what would the trade-offs be? And tonight, I think, will be a really informative presentation for you all, because Charlotte will be outlining

[117:20] an organization wide. Look at our long term finances and fitting into that is, you know several steps, not only identifying what our unfunded needs are that you heard a lot about in the last presentation. but also what potential new revenue sources can the city bring to bear? And so the work of the Transportation Mobility Department is really best understood, contextualized in terms of the work that all city departments are doing right now in this arena, so I'm really excited to turn it over to Charlotte, and happy to speak more

[118:02] after her presentation to the work that the Department's doing around potential new revenues. And again, just a reminder that that is going to be an item under matters from staff at next month's tap meeting as well. So 1st I will hand it over to Charlotte. Thanks so much, Valerie. Good evening, Tab members. I'm Charlotte Husky, Budget officer for the City of Boulder and the Finance Department. Happy to be here with you all tonight to talk about the long term financial strategy. I will go ahead and send a request to share my screen and get access to it and share this presentation shortly. Alright. Can you all see the screen? Okay. Looks, good. All right. Great. So again, I'm Charlotte Husky. I'm the budget officer for the City of Boulder. Good to be here with you all this evening to talk about the long term financial strategy that was named a city council priority last April as one of their top 11 priorities for staff to focus on in a citywide comprehensive initiative as Valerie was mentioning, I'll provide before sharing forward about 10 slides of the long term financial strategy.

[119:23] I'll provide a very high level overview of the forecast that we're looking at, and some major forecasting considerations that you all have already pointed to, and some of the questions on the last item. So some of the major forecasting considerations that we're considering for the 2026 budget development is in terms of looking at our sales and use tax growth which funds over 50% and makes up over 50% of our citywide revenues. We recognize that there has been limited and slowing growth in sales and use tax over the past few years. And we're seeing the same and looking at our 2024 year end numbers. And so in heading into 2026, we recognize again that we have limited ongoing revenues for new additive ongoing programs and services.

[120:10] You all pointed to the Federal uncertainty that many questions are surrounding this piece of our forecast for 2026, and our budget development for 2026. Some of the main areas that we're looking at, that you all have already mentioned are Federal awards, that the city receives both direct funding that the city receives as well as indirect funding that might be helping to support some of our citywide goals and programs and services across the community. Tariffs are another consideration, particularly for the cost of capital infrastructure across our capital improvement program holistically across the organization and then potential impacts to consumption. And then, finally, the last that we're really looking at are potential tax policy changes, particularly in the vein of the municipal tax exempt status that we have for debt issuances and the potential for higher cost of borrowing

[121:09] our focus for our forecasting for 2026 as well is really focused on the development of a long term financial strategy. And I'll speak to that on the rest of these slides that I'll present on tonight where we're looking at a multi-year tax ballot measure strategy looking at potential tax ballot measures for 2025, and focusing on underfunded core services across the organization and unfunded services, we have a list currently of approximately 380 million in unfunded needs across the organization, and part of that is looking at transportation, public safety parks, assets, and really focusing on total cost of ownership. Within this discussion for 2025 tax ballot measures. We're also focused on continued flexibility across all of our city funds and performing realignments of dollars toward prioritized program outcomes.

[122:06] Really, with all of these considerations in place, we're really focused on organizational resiliency. And the long term financial strategy is a key part to that. So the long term financial strategy was indicated. A top city Council priority in April of 2024 last year, and this is a citywide, comprehensive strategy to help guide fiscal decision making for the city of Boulder, as well as long term financial health of the city. It builds upon prior policy recommendations that were brought forward by 2 Blue Ribbon Commission reports in 2,008, as well as 2,010 and a 2019. Report called the Budgeting for Resilience report. And these prior policy recommendations synthesized about 70 recommendations that we're incorporating into prioritizing and incorporating into the long term financial strategy. But some of the key findings within these reports included calling for a comprehensive financial plan for the city of Boulder.

[123:06] cautioning the city's over reliance on sales tax. I mentioned that sales tax is 50% of our overall revenues for the city of Boulder across the entire organization. It also cautioned against the dedication of funding sources. It recommended the identification of core city services as well as service level prioritization and encouraged the development of an outcomes based system for budgeting. And this is something on the last bullet point that we have been working as an organization to implement and have fully implemented this as a framework for our budgeting approach, for the organization across the city, and then, finally, in terms of the policy guidance that we receive as part of this project, we work on a monthly basis with a Council committee that comprises 3 council members that make up the Financial Strategy Committee, and we meet with them on a monthly basis to receive policy guidance as part of this effort with the long term financial strategy.

[124:04] We also work with city Council and receive policy guidance from city council and just presented to them an update on this on April 3, rd just a couple of weeks ago, and we'll continue to bring items forward with them. Our next meeting is on may 8, th and we also have an internal executive steering committee that helps to provide policy guidance for this project. So the long term, financial strategy, current and future state. Really, what we're focused on here is recognizing that a high percentage of our revenues across the organization are dedicated. And what this means for us as well as the recommendations that were brought forward as part of the Blue Ribbon Commission Report and the budgeting for resilience report is that this reduces our flexibility and ability to address needs of the moment and meet community priorities of the moment. So in the future state and in this work of the long term financial strategy. We're focused on increasing our flexibility of funding to meet emerging and changing needs.

[125:03] Our major revenue source that I mentioned is sales and use tax which reduces stability and predictability of our funding levels. And so we're focused on looking at how we diversify and increase stability of revenues with less reliance on sales and use tax. And I'll speak to this in a moment. But part of this is looking at exploring additional revenues across the organization and potential new fees. For example, as part of this work. our current state is also looking at the underfunded and unfunded core city services across the organization, as well as our expiring funding sources that we have with term limits, associated or term links associated with our major revenue sources, primarily sales and use tax with the difficulty of ensuring reliability. And so future state is part of this work and part of this project. We're focused on increasing reliability through establishing guiding principles.

[126:04] revenue identification as well as community prioritization to meet service level demands. And finally, recent practice, particularly in thinking of the buildup out of the pandemic period, is focused more on short term decisions without a long term, comprehensive financial strategy in place. And so the future state of this effort is really focusing on the development of a long term strategy to focus more holistically and comprehensively with a citywide approach to support core service levels across the organization as well as community priority and needs. We have structured this project within 4 work streams or 4 primary sub projects within our overarching comprehensive project. This includes the development of a long term financial plan, a 5 year comprehensive plan underneath our 1st item here, our 1st work stream, the development of guiding principles for the organization and for this effort.

[127:03] as well as performing a current State inventory. Against the report recommendations that I mentioned, we had about 70 recommendations, and have completed part of those, and are incorporating other recommendations as part of this work within the long term financial strategy. The alternative funding mechanisms work stream really focuses on identifying alternative revenue opportunities. And this includes looking at taxes. fees, existing fees, as well as potential new fees, and other revenue sources, such as grants or public private partnerships. As part of this work stream. In phase. 2 of this work we are asking departments across the organization citywide to identify revenue plans and a pathway for potential updates or exploring additional revenue opportunities. And so this this is part of the work that you all were questioning about and and speaking to as as the the transportation fee is one of these items that we're looking at as a potential option for diversification of our revenues and stability of our revenues and revenue sufficiency which is a part of our guiding principles.

[128:11] Core service levels is focused on identifying the levels of service that the city should provide for programs and services. And we'll be performing a benchmarking analysis as well as community conversations that are yet to come this summer and fall as part of the fund. Our future work which is really a comprehensive engagement and holistic engagement conversation that we're interested in planning on having with the community again. That'll take place this summer and fall. And then, finally, the multi-year ballot measure strategy workstream is focused on the development of a multi-year ballot measure framework for 2025 and considerations for potential tax ballot measures in 2026. We're also performing comprehensive community engagement as part of this work and part of fund. Our future.

[129:01] The long term financial strategy as part of the work that I mentioned. We meet monthly with the Financial Strategy Council Committee and developed guiding principles as part of this initiative. The guiding principles that we established really align and uplift the greater sustainability, equity, and resilience, citywide framework, and these fall within these 3 categories. So when we point to the guiding principles that have been developed as part of the strategy. It includes a fiscal sustainability and sufficiency, equity and resiliency under fiscal sustainability and sufficiency. We're focused on ensuring that our core service levels are stable and predictable, that our revenue is diverse, flexible, and sufficient enough to be able to meet core service needs as well as community priorities within equity. We're focused on revenue structures and looking at our financial policies that aim, that help to aim to reduce tax and fee burdens on historically disadvantaged groups. So some examples here might be looking at potential subsidies of fees across the organization, and how those might be applied

[130:08] that under resiliency we're focused on our ability to anticipate, adapt, and recover quickly to adversity and change that's supported by a diversification again, of revenues and sufficient reserve levels and ensuring that our reserve policies are in place. So focusing just the next 2 slides on the multiyear ballot measure framework that we've developed within the long term financial strategy. And this was input received and policy guidance received from the Financial Strategy Committee and working with them over the past 6 months and developing this framework and narrowing in on potential options for council consideration for the 2025 tax ballot measures for the 2025 tax ballot measures. Our focus for potential tax ballot items are focused on a more narrow incremental approach to tax changes and our key focus areas for funding include our unmet needs. I mentioned that we have over 380 million currently of our unfunded needs list across the organization. And so we

[131:16] know that we have a backlog of capital infrastructure. Capital maintenance needs total cost of ownership funding. And so we're really focused on taking care of what we have with the considerations coming forward with the 2025 tax ballot measures. With our 2026 tax ballot measures, we're interested in looking at a more expanded creative and comprehensive approach to tax changes. Again, focusing on unmet needs and taking care of what we have in addition to additional investments in programs and services. And so we performed as part of phase one of this work, conversations and synthesis and analysis, staff analysis and looking at ballot measure history as well as looking at our unfunded needs list or backlog of unfunded needs list, as well as the dedication of funding sources across the front range and comparable cities, and we narrowed in on 2 potential options that ultimately the Financial Strategy Committee

[132:17] brought forward to City Council for recommendation, and these 2 tax ballot measures for consideration for 2025 include an extension of the existing 0 point 3% community culture, resilience and safety sales and use tax from 2036 to 2050, or, considering an extension permanently to continue to support city infrastructure and maintenance projects as well as nonprofit capacity building and capital investments. 90% of these sales and use tax revenues are dedicated towards city projects, city infrastructure projects, city supplemental capital maintenance projects, and 10% of these revenues are supporting nonprofit capacity building and capital investments. The second item that the Financial Strategy Committee narrowed in on is the exploration of a creation of a public realm tax.

[133:07] And this public realm tax would increase the existing permanent parks property tax from 0 point 9 mils to 2.2 5 mills and expand the use of this tax again, looking at the guiding principles that we've established within the long term financial strategy. Looking at flexibility of funding, this option would look at expanding the use of this tax allow debt, issuance. and be able to support again additional capital infrastructure, and maintenance projects more broadly that fell within the public realm. This would include funding for parks, open space, civic buildings, and areas in the public right of ways such as streets, sidewalks, bike lanes, and multi-use paths. Just a couple more notes on this slide is that the the Ccrs tax we're estimating about 15 million annually in sales and use tax revenues that would come in and the public realm tax is approximately 7 million in annual revenues that

[134:05] that would be generated. And this is moving forward as part of the ballot measure discussion. That city Council is considering. Their next meeting is on May 8, th and they will be also considering we're performing a statistically valid polling survey to consider these options, and we'll be bringing that forward in late June for consideration as to whether or not council decides on both of these items. One of these items or none of these, these items. shifting gears for the last 2 slides. But part of the work that we're doing within the long term. Financial strategy is setting up community conversations that are planned to take place this summer and fall, and these are called. This will be called fund. Our future, and these will be community conversations on service level priorities that we're interested in inviting you all to the table as part of these conversations as well.

[135:01] And and this is really looking at and focused on receiving input from a diverse range of stakeholders to be able to have an understanding of trade off of priorities. And looking at the service levels that we provide across the organization for all of the the programs and services and functions that we provide across the organization we're also looking to as part of this effort to fund our future, educate the public on the city's budget as well as our financial constraints. We'll plan to perform another statistically valid polling survey for 2026 potential tax ballot measures, and these discussions will help to inform the tax ballot measures for consideration for 2026 in terms of timeline for the Funder future within the long term financial strategy. We're here in the April and May time period with previews to board and commissions as well as community groups. June 12th is where we'll be having a community and council forum that will take place during a city council meeting that evening on June 12, th and that will help to set the framework for much of the discussions to come in the summer and

[136:14] fall between July and October of this year, with community conversations, in-person and virtual information and input sessions and online platform feedback that we'll receive through various platforms, such as be heard boulder in January and March of next year we'll be bringing forward and performing the 2026 polling survey and completing our staff analysis related to additional revenue stream potential revenue streams, particularly looking at potential taxes for 2026, and then in May of 2026 is when we'll be providing an update to city council on the long term financial strategy with particular focus on potential tax ballot measures for council consideration.

[137:01] so that wraps up the end of my presentation. I'm happy to take any any questions. But again looking forward to inviting you all to continue in this discussion as we move forward throughout the the process of the long term financial strategy. Thank you so much, Charlotte. do any of my tab colleagues have any questions for Charlotte? This is a very, very extensive presentation, and it looks like almost everybody has questions. So Mike Mills, that's the 1st hand ice also. Yeah. Just have some comments. I I want to thank the staff for presenting such a clear and realistic view of our funding situation, and both the short and the long term I was particularly concerned in the memo about the expiration of a point 5 1% sales tax in 2029. I'm sure that's motivating a lot of this, and

[138:02] would shift our ability to pursue and match external grants. Not just for individual product projects but for ability to maintain momentum on vision 0 and and the core arterial network. And so, as I understand, this potential public realm, tax could be used for improvements like that, while transportation maintenance fee which would not fall under the category of tax could be use for more everyday operations. And so I'm glad to hear about that. Thanks. So Mike, is. is there a specific question that that you want us to address tonight? Would it be helpful to share any additional information or we can also just consider your comments. There.

[139:06] Well, you could. Did I get all that right that the the public realm fee would be used for improvements, and then there'd be a separate fee. Trans potentially transportation, maintenance, fee for everyday operations. Yeah. Go ahead. Charlotte, what? Yeah. Happy to start. Yeah, thanks, Mike, for the the observations, the comments, and the the questions. So one of the things that we're really looking at as part of the long term financial strategies holistically across the organization. What potential options do we have for increasing revenues? Not only looking at taxes. But as you're mentioning looking at fees as well, and other opportunities. and so, as as part of the the proposal for the public realm tax, we would be increasing the ability to capture an additional estimated 7 million annually in revenues. We'd have the ability, as proposed, currently to issue debt and financing for capital infrastructure projects.

[140:10] They would also provide more stability in terms of revenue sources, because, as I mentioned, the sales and use tax is one that we, the pandemic period is a great example, where we saw a drastic decline in sales and use tax revenues, reducing our stability for our ongoing expenses and capital infrastructure projects. And so this is intended to be an expanded use of the existing fund from broad in in broadening it from just you know, looking at the permanent permanent parks. Capital infrastructure to fall more broadly within the public realm. So, as you were mentioning this, would this would help to support items like the public right of way parks, open space, and other items that fall within the public realm.

[141:00] As well as capital improvements. Exactly. Thanks. Right. And I'll just add to that that, Mike, you mentioned that there's an expiration of an existing sales tax in December 2029. And so, knowing that that's on the horizon, I think what you're hearing tonight and what we will continue to paint the picture for you all on tab is that the city is looking at a whole range of potential new revenue sources, as Charlotte mentioned, that could look like the new public realm tax, that she was just describing. It could also be cobbled, together with the transportation maintenance fee that was mentioned earlier, and all of those alone are not going to meet the unfunded needs, or even need to keep up with inflation. None of them alone will solve the problem. But all in tandem together is really what is shaping up is the city's long term financial strategy department by department, and I think you know the the sales tax that expires in 2029. It's important to note that that tax will still be collected. It's just not going to be dedicated to transportation any longer, and that's an important distinction. It doesn't just go away.

[142:17] It does go back to the general fund. And you know what I think the higher level strategy is that you're hearing articulated. Is that the city needs more flexibility with the funds that we do have to really meet the priorities and part of the exercise that Charlotte's describing is really looking at all of the needs across the city and and starting to them in terms of priority and need and so I think that's why we're. We're really excited to bring this information to you tonight. It's like, there's so many great conversations we're going to have this year. But what Charlotte delivered really helps to be the umbrella, for for all the work, especially that you'll be considering at the the level of of tab and for this department. So I hope that provides a little bit of additional context for your remarks and questions. Mike.

[143:10] Thank you for pointing that out. I know there's a lot of concern about restriction of revenues to certain uses has been seen on ballot, initiatives, and so forth. And so there is a need for flexibility. Thank you. Thank you so much. Michael, would you like to. Sure, just a couple of questions in Charlotte, one of your early slides. I saw something that was outcome, based system for budgeting, and I wasn't sure what that was. Yeah, it's it's a great question. So there are. I'll try to be as summar, summarize it as as best as possible and high level as possible. But

[144:01] essentially, we're interested in understanding the performance of our programs and services across the organization as part of our budgeting process. And so what we have performed is a shift from more traditional increment based budgeting where we're only looking at additive line item budgets year after year to focusing more on, how are we performing with the programs and services and the dollars that we do have? And so this was a 3 year process that we focused on where we identified a program inventory across the whole organization and the the program parameters were set. We had departments identify outcomes and measures associated with those programs and targets or benchmarks associated with those programs. And so this is something that we've been working on for the past 3 years and have established an initial foundation. And it took 3 years to be able to implement this across the organization. So it's a significant amount of work to be able to synthesize across the organization in 4

[145:09] departments, to go through each year, and the steps that we are performing in this process. But really the intent and focus is to be able to drive our investments and utilize that performance data at the program level to help inform one of the pillars of decision making that we have for citywide budgeting. I think I understand and my my other question again, maybe a Newbie question. But what what can Tab do? I mean? This is extremely important work, and it's extremely important that we get it right? So my question is, what can Tab do to support this? If anything. It's a great question, and I appreciate the question. One of the things that I mentioned in the last 2 slides of the presentation is, we are going to be having community conversations, as Valerie mentioned, and really understanding the service levels that the community is interested in providing across the board, we recognize that we have

[146:07] a significant, unfunded needs list, and we know that there are interests in the community to fund particular items or to fund service levels at particular service levels. And so what we're really interested in having is a community conversation this summer and fall. That is holistic. So we invite you all to the table. We invite you all to those conversations and share forward the engagement opportunities that we're going to be having and information and input, sessions that we'll be having. It would be great to be able to ensure that we have holistic and comprehensive engagement opportunities as part of this work. Thank you, Charlotte. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I think I don't know if you have anything else, Michael, but I think that that pretty much and captures

[147:03] what we could do right? I mean. show up basically or none. It looks like you've had your hand up for a very long time. Yeah, I just had a quick question. will this fee be similar? Or it like, it's like the same concept as the climate action tax that was passed 2 or 3 years ago. It's like similar idea. Is the the fee that you're mentioning the transportation fee situation or the public realm tax. I guess both like what you guys mentioned. You want to put in the ballot. It's a it's a similar process in that the city of Boulder is considering tax changes, and so those will come forward on the November ballot for voter consideration. They are different tax structures, though the climate tax was a consolidation of a former utility occupation, tax and a climate action plan fee, I believe, and consolidated those and changed the structure.

[148:13] This tax that we're the 2 taxes that we're looking at is an extension of the existing sales and use tax as well as a expansion of property tax and expanding the use of that tax. The fee would be different in that it wouldn't be structured in the same way, it wouldn't be considered a tax, and it would help to support the cost of government services. That's how the distinction between taxes and fees typically are. And Valerie, I don't know if you want to speak anymore to that piece. Yeah, thanks, Charlotte. That was a great explanation. And, Ernan, to answer your question. What we will be bringing to Tab next month is an overview on a study which will be establishing a legal nexus for the transportation maintenance fee, just as Charlotte described.

[149:11] And that study we've you know, we've been kind of developing a scope of work for that, and have selected a consultant to initiate that study. And so that's what we would love to go into more detail with you all next month is what that study will do. And then part of what I would just mention tonight is that the study is really going to help describe and define what the fee you know, might be used for what kind of uses, and that will also help establish, you know, really calibrating what level of fee is is reasonable and and feasible, and how establishing how it will meet our needs and some of our needs in the department, so not all of our needs, but some of our maintenance needs as Charlotte described. That's more, you know, things that are operational or maintenance in nature, such as

[150:08] snow and ice response or street sweeping things like that. Right? So again. Yeah. Happy to speak more to that next month. But if you have other questions tonight, I can give it a step. No, that's great. I sort of don't understand the context. So I'm good. Thank you. That's a good answer. Well, thank you. So unless Darcy has any questions, I think we can move on to matters, or are there any more matters from the staff, Valerie, before I move forward. That's all for tonight. Thank you. Trini. Awesome. Well, thanks, so much so. Does anybody have any matters from the board they'd like to bring forward. Nope. Well, so. Sorry are we talking about matters from us? Sorry my son was interrupting me. Sorry!

[151:03] Have you on a bridge. Wanted to. I wanted to bring up something I witnessed today. I witnessed a close call at 55th and Baseline, a young person, maybe young high school or middle school on a class 3 e-bike coming up to the intersection at 55th and baseline in a car turning right on Red. and this young person almost got hit and was really startled. And it was very. It was really hard to witness, and I was like 3 cars back I was. I had picked up my car from the shop and was driving home. And yeah, I just want, you know. So things like that that don't get reported right. I don't know if anybody would have. I mean, I guess I could have reported it, but I don't think that that Kid reported it, or that the driver reported it. And it just, I just want us to be really aware that these things are happening more often than are in our reports. And yes, there are a lot of crashes which is tragic, and we need to be. We need to reduce those, but we also need to reduce the opportunity for close calls like that. So.

[152:15] And did. Could you tell who was at fault, or was it just. No, all I saw. Well, I mean, it's interesting, right? The driver was turning right on Red and I I but I didn't see the. I didn't see the the young person's approach to the intersection. I didn't witness that I didn't notice that I didn't notice it until the collision almost happened, so. You know it's terrifying. which brings me do we have an update on the cyclist that was hit earlier this month, and colors and spine, I think, was the name of the Nj.

[153:03] We haven't received any update from our police colleagues. And so that's something that we do continually keep, you know, in coordination with them, with regular meetings, and that this one we don't have an update to offer at this time. And, Trini, I'm happy to offer some thoughts on on the 1st a description of what Darcy had described. If that's if that's of desire. Yeah, that that would be great if you'd like to do that. Yeah, so Darcy. And and I think, you know all of our tab members, especially with with our new members tonight. You know. I think I'm so sorry that you witnessed and and experienced that, Darcy. It is not you know something that you know it's easy to talk about. And so I really appreciate you bringing that forward in in this meeting. And

[154:02] you know, it is very helpful for us to hear about these types of incidents, and so thank you for offering that. One thing I will just quickly mention. I know we've talked about it previous Tab meetings is that Darcy's absolutely right, that these types of incidents that don't result in some kind of injury or police report they are not showing up in that data, and that is a fact. And that is why we did implement a close calls form that is reviewed by our staff, and is something that we regularly take a look at to see if there are patterns that we should be aware of to monitor. So we really encourage anyone on tab any member of the public. Anyone listening tonight that if you do witness a close call like that, we welcome that data point in our close calls form. And I'm happy to put the link in in the chat. In in a little bit. Yeah, thank you, Valerie. Appreciate it.

[155:01] Yes, thank you, Valerie, so much, Michael. I was just wondering if that close calls form is part of inquire. is it? Is it accessible there? Cause? That's probably where I would think, typically to to go. It is. Yes. And and and then the, I guess, follow up is my ongoing petition for there to be a favorites tool. In inquire, because I find that there's like, you know, like 2 or 3 things that I'm always using. Inquire for. And I've got to scroll through this super long list and remember what it was called whatever the item was, you know, whatever the category was, and and that functions as a disincentive to actually use the tool which I feel bad about, but I would certainly do it if I could. You know, if I could favorite something like that, I would definitely use that pretty regularly.

[156:05] Thank you for that. If I might. Trini. I'll just mention that idea of bookmarking. There are links to those specific topic areas. So you don't have to kind of go through the homepage all the way through all of those clicks. And so that would be a fantastic idea is to bookmark that unique link to that topic. And and if anyone needs a tutorial, I'm happy to to share that with you. Offline. Thank you so much, Valerie. Mike Milt. Yeah. My only comment is just once again to welcome our new members, Michael and Hernan, and say, I was very impressed with your comments, your 1st meeting. over the last 2 years I've gotten to know Michael, and so was I've always been impressed by his dedication and attention, and hadn't had any interaction with her. Non before. And I'm just very impressed with your your comments and observations tonight.

[157:09] Yeah, me, too. And I wanted to extend. I don't know if this actually happened, but I just, you know, as a as an anecdote, I mean, when I 1st joined Tab, I was just so overwhelmed by the amount of acronyms not being immersed in the transportation universe, which you know, I came to a board where basically everybody was very heavily. If they were not engineers, they were like incredibly submerged in this lexic. And so it took me a while to understand what on earth people were talking about. I was like literally googling things as people were speaking so hopefully. That was something that did not happen tonight. I think things flowed, and it was a great meeting. So

[158:03] Oh, yeah, I'm a Federal employee. We know about acronyms. I was gonna say the same thing. I've worked for the government so. Yeah. It's like tons of acronyms. The word was an acronym. I was like, what is it? It's also good to be back up to good, to be back up to a full 5 members again after a number of months. Yes, it's very nice, and and it's very well balanced. I think that there's voices that are represented in many different ways. And I think that's really cool. Oh, I agree. So, and with that I think now we have future agenda topics. For our May meeting. So we have a public hearing and tab recommendation, access management and parking strategy. So code and policy enhancements. I don't know if we want to talk about that.

[159:01] We also have. Oh, we have to review and appoint tab representatives for the Vision 0 Community Partner Partnership Committee. I've been doing that, and I love doing that. So if anybody wants to join me. That would be great. And I guess that's all we have. I mean. With that I move to adjourn second. and we always mess this up. What was the 3rd part, Darcy? Oh. so everybody that is in agreement. Say, aye. and I think with that we're done, and thank you so much. Everybody. Thank you to all the staff. I think we had a wonderful, very, very illustrative session, and I'm looking forward to next month, and if we have any questions or anything. Please feel free to email me or anybody at the staff.

[160:08] and good night. Training. Good job on your 1st meeting as chair. Yeah, thank you. Good job. See? You guys. Thanks everyone good to see you. Girl. Bye, bye.