To: Honorable Mayor and Members of Town Council
From: David L. Corliss, Town Manager
Title
Transit Feasibility Study Scope of Work Summary
Body
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Background
A project to assess transit feasibility options for Castle Rock is included within the existing 2019 budget. This pursuit aligns with the Town’s Transportation Master Plan, and was recently confirmed by transportation stakeholders that participated during the Downtown Mobility Master Plan development. This interest was also heard in the recently released 2019 Community Survey where 56% of the respondents expressed somewhat to strong support for transit. When asked if they would pay an additional tax to fund to the service, support dropped with only 35% expressing somewhat or strong support to pay. This feedback implies that the impact to future Town budgets should be a primary consideration for any transit considerations. It will also be important to define what Castle Rock residents mean by “transit” as certain transit opportunities mean different things to various residents. As noted, a key aspect of the development and presentation of this issue will be managing expectations for our residents, as many transit options are physically unfeasible and/or with public costs which are not readily achievable. A successful study will hopefully provide some scale of achievable and meaningful options that the Town can consider and also further educate the community about realistic transit options for both the near and distant future.
Town staff is in the kick-off phase of this study, which will take approximately 12 months to complete. When finished, we recommend that Town Council be the approving body on the final document as it will contain several policy elements. Like the Town’s Transportation Master Plan, this report will assist the Town with determining what, if any, projects or policy actions to pursue in the future.
Scope of Work Summary
The Town has retained the services of Felsburg, Holt, and Ullevig (FHU) to conduct the feasibility study. The scope of work will provide a technical evaluation of possible future transit services that will take into account community needs and resources. With this in mind it is imperative that the study include an extensive community outreach effort. For this reason, a focus group to assist the technical committee in exploring transit service ideas is proposed. This could be made up of various Town stakeholders, such as interested residents, businesses, members of the Economic Development Council, Downtown Development Authority, Chamber of Commerce, developers, human service providers, government agencies, and Town Councilmember liaisons. This group will be created in early September with Town Council input and on-going updates as the study progresses. Periodic updates to Town Council will be provided, or upon Council’s request.
In addition to the community and stakeholder involvement element, the study will also consider and evaluate the following:
• Provide a historical breakdown of transit in Castle Rock, including why there is no RTD service in Town and previous and current services provided by the Town.
• Coordinate with other planning documents and mobility efforts in Town, Douglas County and the region. This will include the Town’s Transportation Master Plan and Taxi Voucher Program, Douglas County plans, DRCOG Regional Transportation Plan, CDOT’s Statewide Transportation Plan (Bustang service), and consider RTD’s Strategic Plan.
• Plan and evaluate current human services for the vulnerable population, such as the Taxi Voucher Program, Senior Center transportation services, and other service providers in Castle Rock.
• Develop and analyze transit alternatives, which will include assessing future growth, demographic changes, and socio-economic conditions. In addition, the study will need to develop transit needs and demand estimation, as well as identify trip generators and attractors. The alternative analysis will need to explore transit service trends and the feasibility of public service, private service, or public/private partnership opportunities.
• Develop ridership forecasts for the different alternatives making sure that needs for the vulnerable population are met.
• Create flexible short and long range implementation strategies that can change as the Town continues to grow and transit needs evolve.
• Conduct a cost analysis to estimate the annual operating and maintenance cost to the Town for transit alternatives. In addition, up front capital costs will also be developed depending on the transit alternative.
• Explore possible outside funding sources that may be available to the Town. This could include funding to assist with startup costs or on-going operating costs.
During the 12-month period, presentations to Town Council and other boards and commissions are anticipated. A final report will be generated by FHU to document the study process and results, including the phasing and cost considerations. A concise Executive Summary will also be included.