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Orange County Transit Plan Update.
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Staff:
Department:
Brian Litchfield, Transit Director
Transit
Caroline Dwyer, Project Manager
Renaissance Planning
Overview: To present a check-in of the Orange County Transit Plan (OCTP) Update process and draft recommendations for new bus operations and capital projects for preliminary feedback and comments that may inform a draft plan.
Recommendation(s):
That the Council provide direction on priorities for the Orange County Transit Plan Update.
Plan Background and Overview:
In 2012, the Orange County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) along with the Durham-Chapel Hill Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization (DCHC MPO) and GoTriangle adopted Orange County's first comprehensive Transit Plan. This Plan was funded using a newly-adopted Article 43 Half-Cent Sales Tax. It included investments in new and expanded bus service and new capital infrastructure projects such as the Chapel Hill North- South Bus Rapid Transit Project, the Hillsborough Train Station, and the Durham-Orange Light Rail Transit (D-O LRT) Project. The Plan was updated in 2017 to meet federal requirements associated with the D-O LRT Project.
In March 2019, the D-O LRT Project was discontinued. This project was central to the Transit Plan; it was the Plan's primary investment, represented a critical partnership between Durham and Orange counties, and served as the transit infrastructure around which other transit services and growth strategies were planned. In response to the discontinuation of the light rail project, a staff team began the process of creating a potential planning framework to create a new Orange County Transit Plan that prioritizes investments, funds service improvements, and improves the resiliency of the public transit network.
At its November 17, 2019 meeting, the Orange County BOCC approved the planning framework for updating the Orange County Transit Plan. The framework included a Policy Steering Committee (PSC) compo...
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