Transportation Benefit District Governing Board - Regular Meeting

Alright. Okay. I would like to call to order the transport Benefit District Governing Board special meeting of 10/14/2025. Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Board Member Bushnell? Present. Vice Chair Daniels?

Here.

Board Member Diaz?

Here.

Board Member Hines?

Here.

Board Member Rumba? Here. Board Member Sidalgo?

Here.

Board Member Scott? Here. Board Member Walker?

Here.

Chair Woodards? Absent.

Okay. We don't have any consent agenda items or any regular agenda items, so we will move on to the public hearing. Item one, this item will have a PowerPoint presentation. Clerk, will you please read?

This is a date set for a hearing on the proposed modifications to the twenty twenty five-twenty twenty six Transportation Benefit District budget and spending plan to budget additional projected revenues associated with the Transportation Benefit District sales and use tax.

All right. I would like to call on Jake Green, who is in person, to begin the presentation.

Good evening, everyone. Members of the board, I'm Jake Green. I'm with the Public Works Department. This is a public hearing in preparation for the approval of amended transportation benefit district and spending plan for the twenty twenty five twenty six biennium. Just to offer some background on this, on 11/20/2012, the city council passed an ordinance establishing Tacoma's Benefit district.

It created chapter 10.28 in the municipal code which identifies the purpose of the transportation benefit district, the board, and their authority and responsibility. The twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six spending plan was adopted by the board on 12/03/2024. On that same night, the board also approved resolution number TBD 23, which replaced the expiring voter approved tax from 2015. This renewal ensures uninterrupted funding for street maintenance, preservation, and enhancements without increasing the overall tax rate. Additionally, at least 15% of the annual revenue will be used for safety improvements that include, but are not limited to, sidewalks, street lights and bowl belts.

In order to collect and spend the revenue generated by the district, state law and the municipal code requires that a spending plan be adopted by the board. The spending plan should include projects that improve safety, travel time, air quality, accessibility, and reduce the continued degradation of the street system. It should also be consistent with the city's capital improvement plan, comprehensive plan, six year transportation improvement program, and maintenance preservation and operations of the city's transportation system. OMB estimates the city will collect $21,300,000 in TBD revenues for the twenty twenty five twenty six biennium. With this revenue, we have developed the following spending plan.

Street maintenance and repair get 14,500,000.0, and that will allow us to chip seal two fifty to two seventy blocks of residential streets. It also allows us to pave 90 to 110 blocks of residential streets, crack seal two fifty five to two seventy five blocks of residential streets, and pave three to five lane miles of arterial streets. ADA accessible curb ramps gets 1,200,000.0, and that will allow us to replace the 140 to 180 curb ramps. Pedestrian safety improvements gets $844,435. This is the new program added to our plan, which I'll go over in the next couple of slides.

Public works is proposing to create two programs for the pedestrian safety funds. The majority of the funds will be dedicated to construction of curb ramps, missing link sidewalks and improved crossings. As projects become more complicated and costly and opportunities arise to leverage these funds, the intent is to use a portion for grant match. The other 15% will be dedicated to signal and streetlight improvements. This includes adding or improving signals, accessible pedestrian signals, leading pedestrian intervals, signal timing for better crossings, and street lights.

Tacoma has roughly 371 miles of missing link sidewalk. About 20% of that is located on arterial streets. This prioritization focuses on arterial streets because the higher traffic speeds and volumes contribute to a greater number of severe crashes. Many elements go into creating a safe and accessible and connected pedestrian environment. These maps show an example of how the city uses safety, equity and connectivity data as prioritization tools using arterial missing link sidewalk data.

Staff will use these priorities to then analyze where improvements can be made to maximize TBD funds. This list includes a selection of upcoming projects that have a major focus on improving pedestrian safety. They have been funded by one time real estate excise tax, motor vehicle fuel tax, streets initiative funds, and grants. With the dedicated TBD 15% for pedestrian safety, the city is committing to continue this progress for a safe and connected system. On November 12, the resolution will be brought to the board requesting approval of the amended twenty twenty five twenty twenty six budget and spending plan.

That concludes the presentation. I'll be happy to take any questions you guys have.

Thank you so much for your presentation tonight, Jake. Do we have any council questions or comments? We do. Quite a few. All right. Starting with Councilmember Walker.

Thank you. And thank you for the presentation. We talked a lot at IPS about the pedestrian dollars, and really appreciate having those maps in there. They're very, very tiny. Is it possible to get those as separate documents so we can dig in it a little has bit

be created as separate maps.

And then my understanding between the three maps, then the fourth one that's a little bigger is the combination of all of those. And then, so the projects that we choose will be off of that fourth map because they hit all three buckets. Is that what that sort of like a selection of what's possible?

That's my understanding, talking with our engineering staff, yes.

Okay. Great. Well, thank you for that. Really appreciate the responsiveness to our questions at IPS, and looking forward to seeing some of those projects on the ground.

Okay. Councilmember Rambaugh, followed by Councilmember Bushell.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor. So I'm just curious, Jake, and I think Jeff probably, like, knows what I'm going to ask about. So if we're doing major changes to an arterial because we're redesigning the street, we wouldn't do the sidewalks until we knew what we were going to do with the street. Right?

That's correct. Usually it's done in combination with redoing the street.

Okay. I just I was just checking to make sure that we weren't going to just go fix, put sidewalks in some place where we're redesigning. Okay. Thank you. All right. Councilmember Bushnell.

Thank you, vice chair, and thank you so much for the report here. My quick question is in regards to the Manitow annexation area. Has that been included yet within the overall scope of the sidewalk program? I do know that we also have an arterial that does go through there as well. I'm not sure if that's been updated or reflected in our plans yet.

I missed the first part of the question. What part of the

The Manitow neighborhood that we just recently annexed, like a year and a half, two years ago. I was wondering if the sidewalk program has incorporated that area, because it's my understanding that there's zero sidewalks there currently.

I don't know the answer to that right at this point. Yeah, we'll follow-up with our engineering team on that one.

Okay, great. Just if it isn't, then it's something certainly we need to take a look at because it is now part of the city as well. Thank you.

VICE All right. If there are no more counsel comments or questions, we will open it up to the public for the hearing. At this time, I would like to ask attendees if you want to speak under the public hearing regarding the proposed modifications to the twenty twenty five-twenty twenty six Transportation Benefit District budget and spending plan, please press the raise your hand button near the bottom of your Zoom window or star nine on your phone now so we can see the number of people wishing to testify this evening. If you are speaking in person, please sign up at the back of the room if you have not done so already. Your name and the last digits of your phone number will be called out when it is your turn to speak.

You will have sixty seconds to make your remarks for the public hearing, so please be mindful of your time frame. As always, you are not required to use all of your time to make your point. Clerk, have we received any written comment for the public hearing?

We've received no written comment and have no, individuals in person.

All right. Well, with that, we will declare the public hearing closed. And I will take the final motion.

I move to excuse Board Chair Woodard's in the meeting.

Second. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed signify by saying nay. The motion carries.

Second.

All right. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed signify by saying nay. The motion is declared adopted. We stand adjourned.