Mass Transit

Today's News-Gazette:

The board Wednesday gave the MTD staff approval to look into annexing properties including the Stone Creek subdivision in Urbana, the Boulder Ridge and Sawgrass subdivisions in Champaign, areas north of Interstate 74 in Champaign and Urbana including Frasca Field, a commercial area north of Interstate Research Park in Champaign, a new addition to the Myra Ridge subdivision in Urbana and a small area in Savoy west of Colbert Park.

In addition to discussing the annexations at next month's meeting, the MTD board would be required to hold a public hearing on each of the proposals, said MTD Director Bill Volk.

Every year in January, Volk said, the MTD assesses whether new areas in the community are eligible for annexation. Under an agreement the transit district has with Champaign, Urbana and Savoy, areas are eligible for annexation if they are contiguous to current MTD boundaries, if they are not taxed as farmland and if they are within the corporate limits of one of the municipalities.

Discuss.

Judge Leonhard has issued an opinion and order in the Champaign Southwest MTD v. Champaign-Urbana MTD (05-CH-206) case.  Essentially, nothing changes.  Attachment below.

My reading here is that on the issue of Constitutionality, Judge Leonhard ruled that CSWMTD had no standing.  Whether that is appealable, I don't know.  I also don't know if the question could be brought by a citizen who would have standing or if that would be barred by laches.

On the question of whether the statutes allow overlapping districts, Judge Leonhard ruled that they did not have to be read to preclude that and that case law, Bartholf v. Woodward, specifically allows for this.  I attended the last hearing in this matter, and I got the sense then that this is where the judge was going.  I personally don't think that the law in this instance was intended to allow that.  The lawyers for both sides in this case took my position, but whether a trial court judge should fill in the gap for the legislature is certainly arguable.  Now, it appears that a panel of appellate justices will be asked to do that. 

The judge also made a ruling that the creation of the new district was valid and that the facts of the case did not support the CUMTD's assertion of bad faith on the part of the CSWMTD. 

Interesting:

Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District board members are expected to consider a suggestion to slash the cost of an annual pass for adult riders from the current $235 to between $50 and $75. The cost of an annual pass for young riders (high school and younger) could drop from $145 to as low as $5.

The proposals came Wednesday from MTD director Bill Volk to board members, who had asked for calculations at last month's meeting. He estimated the reduction in the cost of an annual pass would cost the district about $500,000 a year, a number that became more affordable because of an increase this year in the MTD's state subsidy. The state now covers 65 percent of operating expenses, up from 55 percent. The MTD received about $13 million in state assistance last year; this year it is expected to get $15.8 million and Volk is projecting next year's yield at about $18 million. The MTD's cash balance also is on the increase.

Discuss.

DI:

The Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit Dristrict began circulating petitions on buses Wednesday night to garner student support for a referendum that would expand routes and services.

On the March ballot, the proposal will ask for a $12 increase in student transportation fees.

A contract has existed between the University and the MTD since 1989, and every three years, it has been renegotiated. Using campus transit studies, in addition to other recommendations and concerns, MTD devised a plan and presented it to the Illinois Student Senate, said Tom Costello, chief operating officer at MTD.

The senate supported the proposed changes and agreed to put the referendum on the ballot.

Today's News-Gazette:

When the first Zipcars in Champaign-Urbana become available this afternoon, don't let Carol Timms jump in front of you in line.

Timms, an environmental activist and education consultant, already has her Zipcar membership and intends to make use of it for errands around town and board-meeting trips to Chicago.

She lives in downtown Champaign in a one-car family. The bus is great, she says, but not so much for carting groceries around.

There are 250,000 Zipcar members nationwide, and they can avail themselves of one of six vehicles from a fleet jointly operated by the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District, the University of Illinois and the cities of Champaign and Urbana.

Timms sounded intrigued Monday by one model, the Toyota Prius. She was interested in how the hybrid would ride.

"I'm an energy geek from way back," she said. "This is great for the environment. It means a lot fewer people will need to buy cars."

Discuss.

I've been sitting on this for a few days, mostly to get past the Blagojevich storm, but partly because I've been busy.  But the storm doesn't look to be ending soon, so I'm posting anyway.

The Daily Illini has a good article about the relationship and negotiations between the University of Illinois and Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District.  (The table at right is from the DI.)

In the midst of contract negotiations with the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District, it is clear that University officials hope to renew an agreement with the district that would keep bus service on campus.

It is unclear, however, under what provisions that contract will be renewed.

The University turned to a private transportation research team earlier this year to analyze the MTD relationship with the University and what type of changes can be made. Issues were raised regarding congestion on Wright Street and pedestrian safety.

"The question we asked was to see whether or not it would be advantageous to have our own bus system," said Associate Chancellor Peg Rawles.

"The answer was 'no way', that would be horrible. Don't do that to us," said Facilities and Services Transportation Demand Manager Morgan Johnston.

The transit analysis found that MTD charges the University $35 per hour when it costs between $70-$80 per hour to operate.

The analysis was a follow-up to a 2006 transportation study, independent of the MTD, which was also completed for the University. According to that report, the University is currently paying $3.6 million per year for campus bus service and is proposing an increase to $4.9 million to accommodate changes.

Safety is also a major focus of the discussions.

Discuss.

Today's News-Gazette:

An upset U.S. Rep. Timothy Johnson, saying he's unhappy about not being consulted by city and mass-transit officials, has come out strongly against a proposed expansion of Illinois Terminal to accommodate a "park-and-ride" child care facility.

And that opposition will likely kill the tentative project, which was dependent on $2.3 million in federal funding that Johnson's office had helped to secure.

And:

The city and MTD would have paid $30,000 each as a local match, with the rest of the funding coming from a $240,000 federal planning grant.

The child care facility would have accommodated between 100 and 125 young children. MTD Managing Director William Volk had talked about the possibility of including the facility in a much larger 80,000-square-foot addition to Illinois Terminal, plus adding a new parking deck.

But Johnson appears to have effectively vetoed the project.

In separate phone calls Monday night to Champaign Mayor Jerry Schweighart and MTD Managing Director William Volk, the Urbana congressman said he made clear his strong opposition to the project. And without Johnson's assistance in obtaining federal funding, the project is effectively dead.

In a phone interview, Johnson accused Volk of "empire building" and said the expansion would create a publicly funded entity competing directly with local private developers offering commercial space for rent in downtown Champaign.

"They can't do it without federal money," Johnson said about the MTD. "I can assure you I'll do everything I can not to finance it."

Johnson said he was unhappy with how the original park-and-ride concept and location had changed over the past five years, some of which he said happened without his being consulted.

"Quite frankly, I'm getting blamed and Sen. (Dick) Durbin is getting blamed for something I know nothing about and I'm opposed to," Johnson said.

Originally, the park-and-ride facility was proposed for the University of Illinois Research Park. Delays in getting the project off the ground led the developer of the research park, Peter Fox, to build his own facility, called Chesterbrook Academy, that opened in August 2007 at 2001 S. Oak St., C, without any federal assistance.

(Disclosure:  I do political work for Congressman Johnson.)

The recent NG stories on the CUMTD have focused on the tax levy, but given that its approval was a foregone conclusion, I think the real news has been the District's proposed park-and-ride/daycare facility:

[W]hen the conversation turned to the "park and ride" child care facility, board member Ron Peters said he thinks it's a great opportunity for the district. The district would contract the facility out, and could boost downtown development.

MTD's Director of Market Development Karl Gnadt said he thinks the location for the project at Illinois Terminal is the best of several prospects because it's in a central location and offers the best access to the most bus lines.

The board voted 5-0, with Tom Berns abstaining, to approve a letter of understanding with the city to look into what it would take to complete the project. Board member Yuki Llewellyn was absent.

It also voted 5-0, with Berns abstaining, to work with Ratio Architects to do preliminary architecture and engineering on the project, which could include up to four floors and 80,000 feet of space. The day care would occupy between 10,000 and 12,000 square feet of that, and other tenants would be found for the rest of the space, Volk said. Ratio Architects was chosen from eight firms that submitted proposals for the project, Gnadt said.

More information about the proposed facilty can be found here. 

(Disclosure:  I work for the Devonshire Group, which submitted a proposal for the architecture and engineering work, and also do politcal work for Congressman Tim Johnson who secured some of the Federal funding for the project.)

Someone mentioned this is comments last week:

Taxpayers can voice their opinions Wednesday on a new property tax proposal for the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District.

The tax levy is a 7.5 percent increase.

A hearing will be held at 3 p.m. that day at Illinois Terminal, 45 E. University Ave., C.

The $6,074,000 maximum levy is up from last year's $5,650,000, Managing Director Bill Volk said.

I wonder how they will handle the massive crush of public participation?

From yesterday's News-Gazette:

Under the approved agreement, most residential property will not be annexed for 25 years. But all new developments will have to annex into the MTD district once they are annexed into the village and become contiguous with the MTD boundary.

"We're throwing them under the bus," Dykstra said. Even if those individuals know about the tax, Dykstra said, they will not want to pay it. She said now that the agreement has been passed, she hopes to see the village watch over the MTD and challenge the district to prove its services are being used.

Trustee Bill Smith said he had some concerns about the MTD and asked about having a representative work closely with the transit board.

"I'm disappointed because we as a village had the unique opportunity to make MTD accountable in a variety of ways," Dykstra said. "I think we've missed it."

Discuss.

The MTD rejects the Savoy annexation agreement:

Champaign-Urbana's mass transit board on Wednesday unanimously rejected an annexation agreement with Savoy that would have required rebating tax money to the village.

The issue has been left hanging since November, when Savoy's board voted 5-1 to forward an agreement with MTD that changes its annexation map and stipulates that the MTD must reimburse the village for 10 percent of the Savoy property tax payments for 25 years.

The rebated money would be used to repair and maintain roads.

Though MTD did not have a board meeting in December, individual members have been saying for nearly two months that approving the tax rebates would set a dangerous precedent, suggesting to boards in Champaign and Urbana or any future annexation area that they seek infrastructure reimbursement.

CUMTD had a blog post responding to concerns about road damage here.

There was a hearing today in the case of the  Champaign Southwest Mass Transit's petition to not be in the CU Mass Transit District.  (05 CH 206)  In a half hour hearing, Judge Leonhard denied the motion of the City of Urbana to intervene in the case, but granted the same motion to the City of Champaign, based upon their intergovernmental agreement with CUMTD regarding annexations.  Good news for citizens of Urbana who won't have to pay city legal staff to work on a case that has absolutely no bearing on their community.

The next hearing on the matter is scheduled for February 26, 2008. 

The CUMTD has a portion of their website called "Checkpoint" used to counter media reports it finds unflattering or incorrect.  They have two posts up so far. 

The first is a response to a letter-to-the-editor from a Board member of the Champaign Southwest Mass Transit District. 

The second is a response to Savoy's wanting the CUMTD to kick back some property tax revenues from annexed areas to the Village for road repairs:

Providing for community infrastructure is a community responsibility which is almost always paid with public funds.  Whether the funds for road improvements come from taxes collected by the Village or from property taxes collected by the MTD, the public pays the necessary taxes.  That is, the funds come from the same pool of tax money.  Approval of the 10% condition by the Board could be interpreted as a punitive measure designed to cast the MTD in a negative light if the MTD Board of Trustees does not approve the amended agreement.

The travel of transit buses is no more detrimental to the quality of roads than that of garbage trucks, school buses, fire trucks, and other service vehicles. When roads are properly constructed and maintained, the passage of transit vehicles has a negligible impact. It is patently unfair to expect the public transportation provider to “give back” for road repair when providers of other services are not required to do so. Furthermore, a primary avenue of travel for MTD buses would be Route 45, a State of Illinois road whose maintenance is funded by the State.  Also, the MTD does not have such an arrangement with Champaign nor Urbana.

They even have an RSS feed.  (It sounds trivial, but the good people at the State Republican Party haven't figured out feeds yet...)

Hat tip:  It's Matt's World.  Don't worry, Matt - I'm even later to this than you are.  ;-)

The Savoy Village Board is scheduled tonight to vote on an annexation agreement with the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District. While I don't claim to be an expert on the details of the proposal, I understand it would exempt most residential areas from annexation for 25 years. The exeptions would be new development that asks for it and a corridor down Rt. 45. It would also annex some properties...like the grain elevator at Church & 45 into the MTD. Honestly, I don't think many farmers take a bus to a grain elevator. Its a safe statement to say most people in Savoy don't want the MTD service. Whether they wouldn't use it or don't want busses on the street or hate the taxes...those are their reasons. What do you think of the agreement?

As you may have heard by now, Governor Blagojevich has called the legislature back today for another in a long line of special sessions. The problem is, his call to special session only included a bailout for Chicago Area Mass Transit systems. I say that because numerous downstate lawmakers have said they won't support an RTA bailout without a capital plan. Without a capital plan mentioned in the Governor's proclaimation. So what's going to happen? Nothing probably. State government at its finest.

So I pose this question to you: What is more important, a capital bill or a mass transit bailout?

The floor is yours.

From today's News-Gazette:

Scott Garth and Linda Stark are among a select number of Savoy businesses owners whose property, on the east side of U.S. 45, could be annexed immediately by the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District if an annexation agreement with the village is approved.

"I joke and say it's because we're on the wrong side of the tracks," said Stark, owner of Savoy Storage, near the corner of U.S. 45 and Church Street.

Garth's business, Curtis Road Self Storage, sits just north of Stark's near the intersection of Curtis Road and U.S. 45.

But just across U.S. 45, businesses such as Old Orchard Lanes and Links, the Senator's Inn, the Best Western, the Savoy Super Wash, ABC Learning Center, Sonic and the Mobil Gas Station, among others, wouldn't be annexed by the MTD for 25 years.

"This has blown me away," Garth said. "If people are going to pay for this thing in Savoy, everybody needs to pay for it. But (I feel like) they are singling out businesses only to support this. I can understand apartments needing MTD service, but we probably will not ever have anyone get off an MTD bus to store stuff with us. The MTD is not a moving service."

I, for one, welcome our new CUMTD overlords.

Discuss.

From today's Daily Illini:

The village is currently debating the addition of a new bus route along Route 45. Savoy Village President Robert C. McCleary, said the annexation of a new route has been debated for two years.

"Mass Transit District has supplied service to about a third to a half of the community and some business developers have asked to see if Mass Transit could be brought in to other parts."

None of the village's current routes will be affected. Chairman of the Mass Transit District Al Anderson said what will change is that the routes will pass by new developments.

"We will not annex any of the current, call it housing partial, for the next 25 years, but we will have the option on annexing newly built housing and newly built apartments," Anderson said.

Discuss.

This is in today's News-Gazette.

The Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District Board voted for a proposed tax levy increase of 4.9 percent Wednesday, down from the original proposal of 7.5 percent.

The $5.6 million levy is up $404,032 from fiscal year 2006-07, when the levy was up 15 percent from the previous year.

Managing Director Bill Volk proposed a 7.5 percent increase, noting that diesel fuel costs have gone up by more than $1 million dollars over the last two years.

The board voted 5-1 for the levy, a government's formal request for property taxes. Board Chairman Al Anderson voted against it.

"There are things in the budget that board members may not be aware of," Anderson said this morning. "Bill Volk asked for what he thought he needed."

Five percent is still a large increase, but it's better than eight percent.

Discuss.

From today's News-Gazette:

Since the southwest district's petition varies from Tapley's only in one paragraph, Leonhard wrote, and because the district did not exist at the time of Tapley's first action, it was reasonable for the two parties to join in one effort now.

Vaughan said "once again Judge Leonhard has demonstrated that he is both a thoughtful and scholarly judge who wants to rule on the matter based on law rather than emotion."

The judge ruled that the cities of Champaign and Urbana cannot yet intervene on behalf of the C-U MTD.

"The court cannot properly determine the viability of the requests for intervention until such time as the C-U MTD has itself answered the amended complaint of Mr. Tapley and the complaint of the CSWMTD," Leonhard wrote.

The next court date is at 1 p.m. Dec. 28 in Leonhard's courtroom.

Discuss.

Interesting:

The Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District is looking into renewing its service contract with the University before the current contract expires on August 19, 2008.

Negotiations will only begin after the completion of an ongoing study analyzing how MTD buses are moving people through campus, concentrating on where riders board and exit the buses. The study will give University administrators and MTD staff a better idea of how to run buses through campus and keep the safety of the campus community at the forefront of the service goal, said Pam Voitik, director of campus services at the University.

"We want to provide good service but service that is also safe," she said.

And note the sub-head:  "Student deaths will not factor in UI's decision process"