Summary: The Environmental Justice Subcommittee will meet for the first time on Friday, May 19th.  One of the items the committee will discuss will be the EJ Performance Indicators.  FCOG staff will report on the outcome of that discussion.

Action:  Information.  Direction may be provided at the discretion of the Roundtable.

Summary:  Fresno COG awarded mini grants to 7 organizations to help with RTP/SCS outreach. The 7 mini grant recipients have currently coordinated 13 workshops for the month of June throughout the County. Attached is the finalized workshops dates, times, and locations.

The purpose of this round of workshops is to collect feedback from residents on what projects they would like to see in their communities and facilitate what projects each jurisdiction decides to submit to the RTP Roundtable.

Fresno COG hopes that City and County staff can attend the workshops for their communities and work with residents to discuss the projects and address some of the questions. The format staff is envisioning for these workshops is as follows:

• City or County staff provides a brief presentation on their General Plan’s vision for their community and their Circulation Element.
• Fresno COG staff will bring maps of the city’s proposed projects from the 2014 RTP for the residents to look at and provide feedback on.
• Fresno COG is currently developing an online survey using MetroQuest that has a mapping tool for residents to add and comment on projects they would like to see.

Fresno COG staff will compile the feedback collected during these workshops and provide it to each jurisdiction for their consideration.

For any additional information, contact Meg Prince at mprince@fresnocog.org or 559-233-4148 Ext. 203.

Action: Information. Direction may be provided at the discretion of the Roundtable. 

Summary: MAP-21 and FAST Act require MPOs to conduct performance based planning.  Performance measures are reflected in different areas, such as safety, bridge and pavement conditions, congestion/system performance and transit state of good repairs.  Among them, safety performance is one of the first performance measure areas that need to be included in the Fresno COG 2018 RTP.  Future year targets need to be set for each of the five following performance measures:

• Number of fatalities
• Rate of fatalities per 100 Million VMT
• Number of serious injuries
• Rate of serious injuries per 100 Million VMT
• Number of non-motorized fatalities and serious injuries

Fresno COG will have the option of following the State of California overall target, which will be announced in the coming months, or setting our own targets.  To support this target setting process, staff has gathered historical collision data in Fresno County and conducted a trend analysis for each of the performance measures.  A brief presentation will be made to the Roundtable on the safety target analysis.

Fresno COG is now organizing a safety target sub-committee.  We welcome any interested committee members to join the sub-committee to provide feedback and contribute to the target setting process.  The recommended targets from the sub-committee will be brought to the RTP Roundtable for approval.  The first sub-committee meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 7, 2017 from 1:30-3:00 PM in the Sequoia Conference Room.

Action: Information only. Direction may be provided at the discretion of the committee.

Summary:  The second meeting of the RTP Financial Element Technical Group was held on Wednesday, May 3, 2017. Topics of discussion included funding sources for revenue projections and the development of a focus group to review and update the Project Evaluation Criteria for use in the new 2018 RTP.  The first Project Evaluation Criteria (PEC) Focus Group was held on Wednesday, May 10, 2017.  Various updates to the criteria were recommended and incorporated into the Draft 2018 RTP PEC.  The subsequent PEC Focus Group is scheduled to meet on Tuesday, May 23, 2017 where the group will continue to recommend updates to the Project Evaluation Critera.  The Final Draft of the RTP PEC will be brought to the full Financial Element Technical Group on Thursday, June 1, 2017 at 1:30 p.m., and then to RTP Roundtable at their June 2017 meeting.

Another topic of importance discussed at the May, 3 2017 Technical Group Meeting included information regarding the process for the RTP Call for Projects.  Member agencies were informed that Fresno COG will need all transportation projects the jusrisdications have planned, not just capacity increasing projects as has been done in the past. Staff will provide further details regarding the RTP Call for Projects process at the meeting.

Action: Information only. Direction may be provided at the discretion of the Roundtable.

Summary:  Senate Bill 375 (SB 375) requires that greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets be updated every eight years for the 18 Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPO) in the State. The California Air Resources Board (ARB) adopted the first set of MPO targets in 2010. They are set for each region at a percent per capita reduction of passenger vehicle GHG emissions from 2005 level. The eight MPOs in the San Joaquin Valley were given the targets of 5% reduction for 2020, and 10% reduction for 2035 in 2010. The ARB is now in the process of updating the targets, and will propose new draft targets for MPOs in late May.  The targets will be finalized by the ARB Board in the fall of 2017.

SB 375 is focused on GHG reduction from passenger vehicles through integrated transportation and land use planning.  MPOs are tasked with the implementation of SB375 through the development of a Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS) in the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP). An SCS is a forecast land use development pattern combined with transportation strategies, which if implemented, will meet or exceed the GHG reduction targets set by the ARB.

Fresno COG recommended 13% of GHG reduction as the 2035 target for the region, and was approved by the Roundtable in April. Because the State is on track to meet the 2020 goal, it hasn't been ARB's focus for the 2020 target. Fresno COG decided to submit a 2020 target recommendation subsequently to better inform ARB's target setting process. Fresno COG is proposing 6% reduction for the 2020 to reflect the economic recovery effect from the recession. Attached with the agenda is the target recommendation letter to ARB that explains the economic recovery effect and the assumptions that went into the 2020 target recommendation. The 2020 target scenario is largely based on the 2014 SCS, but with a new growth projection that was approved by the Policy Board in April 2017. Enhanced transportation strategies such as vanpool, bike/ped., transit, EV charging stations, etc. were included in the 2020 target scenario.

Action: Staff recommends that the Roundtable approve 6% per capita greenhouse gas emission reduction as the 2020 target for the Fresno region.

Summary: Staff will present the scenarios developed by the scenario development subcommittee, which was formed after April's meeting by Roundtable members who expressed interest in being included in the effort.  The Roundtable is encouraged to discuss and modify (if desired) the proposed scenarios, and to designate no more than four scenarios that the members believe well represent the possible and desirable visions for Fresno County's future that are both ambitious and achievable.

At the Roundtable's direction, COG staff will develop and model the designated scenarios.  Staff expects to present the modeling results and performance indicators to the Roundtable in October, at which point staff will be asking the Roundtable for its recommendation for a preferred scenario.

Action: COG staff recommends the RTP Roundtable select and designate no more than four scenarios for official inclusion in the 2018 RTP/SCS modeling process.  Further action or direction in the scenario modeling process may be given to staff at the Roundtable's discretion.