https://connectdot.connectsolutions.com/p0bzkcl2q0iu/
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Welcome to the Value Capture joint development webinar. At this time all participants are in the listen only mode later we will conduct a question and answer session and instructions will be given.
If you should require assistance, please press Star, 6. This conference is being recorded. Now like to turn over to your host. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Hello, everyone. On behalf of the Federal Highway Administration I would like to welcome you all to today's webinar. On Value Capture joint development right-of-way use agreement in case studies. As the operator said my name is Pepper. I'm with the USDOT center in Cambridge and I will be moderating today's webinar. As well as facilitating questions and answers and helping to address any technical issues you may be having. In the top left corner of the screen you will find the audio call in information. And below that is a chat box that you can use to submit questions to our presenters during the webinar. You can also ask questions by pressing*, 1 on the telephone. You will receive more instructions about that option later. If you do have any technical difficulties, please use the chat box to send a private message to me. You can do this by clicking on the button in the upper right corner of the chat pod and selecting the option, start chat with host. I webinar will run until 3 PM Eastern today and it will future four presenters. Thay Bishop, senior program advisor with the Federal Highway Administration, will speak first. Followed by John Hibbard, operations division director at Georgia DOT. Gary Cater, community broadband manager for the city of Santa Monica, California. And John Dionisio, North American business development director for Meridiam. We will address questions that are posted in the chat pod at the end of each presentation. We will also take phone questions if there are any after each presentation. We have left a little time at the end of the webinar for additional Q&A. We will make the presenter slides available for download on the left side of the screen at the end of the webinar.
If you are interested in applying for a professional development hours are credits for your participation in today's webinar, we will provide information at the end of the webinar on how to obtain confirmation of your participation in today's webinar. Before we begin I would like to ask participants to fill out the quick Poll questions you should see on the screen. These are to help us understand your affiliation, how many people are sitting with you during today's webinar as well as your level of knowledge about the topic of the webinar.
Pretty good participation in the Poll results. And we have a pretty diverse group of federal, state, local and private sector folks on the line. I'm going to close the Poll now. And return the webinar over to Thay Bishop. This is a quick outline of the webinar. Now I will bring up Thay's slides and turn it over to her. Thank you.
>> I'm waiting for the presentation to pull up.
I can see the title slide. I can advance the slide for you.
Is still doing something. I can go ahead and get started.
Good afternoon and good morning to everyone. Welcome to the EDC-5 Value Capture innovation webinar series. I want to talk a little bit about the EDC-5. I can't see the slide at all. It have a loop or something. All right.
The Federal Highway Administration is currently implementing the fifth round of Everyday Count Initiative or the EDC-5. The EDC-5 is a state based model to identify and rapidly deploy proven but underutilized innovations. Value Capture is one of those 10 innovations. The EDC-5 Value Capture innovation promotes the value capture techniques as part of funding and financing strategies to provide reliable and sustainable transportation gap funding to accelerate project delivery and enhance safety and save time and money.
Please move to slide number three. I don't see anything. We define Value Capture broadly to include Land Value Capture, cost recovery, and revenue generation from publicly owned facilities. So, Land Value Capture is just a component of the Value Capture that we defined here. We have grouped value capture techniques into seven broad categories. Today, we are covering the joint development.
We have discussed each technique independently, but in many cases, more than one technique can applied together. The special assessment and tax increment financing are often overlapping and work in conjunction together with other funding sources to advance transportation project and spur economic development.
I'm going to the outline on slide four. The webinar today will provide you an overview of joint development, benefits, joint development types and case studies. The case studies will be selected that cover different types of joint development approaches.
So what is joint development? I'm going to slide number six.
Joint development is when the public agency partners with the private developer and develops infrastructure to benefit both parties. It's usually on the publicly owned land. It can be near, below or above the infrastructure physical facility to generate revenue reinvest in the transportation system through the lease or sale of the development rights on the publicly owned land or air space. It often is practiced in transit agencies but is underutilized in highway.
Slide number seven. Joint development generates the long-term reliable revenue stream such as new tax revenues to fund transportation improvements and reduce the operating costs. It also transform underutilized right-of-way to revenue generation such as renewable energy and fiber broadband infrastructure to save operating costs. And attract businesses to the city. It will also provide economic development technique controlled by the local to spur economic development, increase the local's tax base and create new jobs. Provide collegial cooperation between the State, localities, private sector, Federal agencies, and transportation modes to create a seamless connectivity of transportation networks.
I'm going to slide number eight. Joint development types. There are three types. At-Grade Joint Development. The development is near or at the transportation facility, such as solar energy on the highway right-of-way.
Below grade /joint development is where the right-of-way is leased to the private entity or the public agencies use right-of-way for fiber optics infrastructure to save operating expense and attract the private sector.
It's coming up now. And the third type of joint development is above grade. This is when the agency sales or leases the development rights on the top of the train station or on the top of the highway to the developer or cap a portion of the highway for the community to use such as park and green space.
Here is the reason why the state and local should consider all the revenue sources. The state and locals are alike in facing with highway system capacity and condition funding challenges but the public has no appetite for tax increases. Our public roads and bridges are in poor condition because they are chronically underfunded and deferred maintenance. The costly fixed as failed or fixed worse first approach have put us further behind. And every dollar of deferred maintenance required to invest five to seven dollars in future capital expenditures. Now it becomes very difficult to address due to condition and aging. Lack of funding can impact safety, quality of life and erode the economy.
I don't know if you know this but there are about 4.2 million miles of public roads in this country. Only about 1 million miles are funded with the federal-eight highway fund. Keep in mind the federal aid only fund for capital and not operating and maintenance. Approximately 3.2 million miles are not eligible for federal-aid highway funds. And roughly about 900,000 miles are in urban areas. Those are heavy traffic areas so the level of deterioration may even be worse than D+.
The major funding source for federal-aid Highway's system comes from highway trust fund and it is unsustainable. In order to keep the highway trust fund solvent, Congress has to transfer the general fund money into a Highway Trust Fund. By the way, the transit system also funded from the highway trust fund as well.
The Outlook for Highway Trust Fund is not promising. The gap between the revenue and spending continues to widen. According to Congressional Budget Office projections in January in January 2019, the future five-year reauthorization Bill will need to cover a projected $68 billion shortfall, and the six-year will would need to cover $89 billion shortfall. And by the way it will come up next year. And keep in mind that the federal funding only covers 1 million miles of the public roads the remaining 3.2 million miles of the public roads that needed improvements will need to come from alternative revenue sources.
Joint development can generate reliable revenue sources for the state and local public agency to supplement the funding needs to improve the roads and bridges condition. In the case of transit, it can subsidize for operating costs.
Okay. Joint development at grade such as the solar energy in the highway right-of-way.
The state and local transportation agency can transform underutilized land along the highway as well as in rural areas into the solar power generation facilities instead of growing grasses. And specifically in areas that lack of rain. Certainly a renewable energy would be the best place for that. And those facilities can, in many cases, not only reduce the energy bill in the form of lower electricity prices and provide credit to the state for excess power, it also can provide additional revenue to local agencies in the form of land lease agreements.
There are a couple solar deal structures. Direct procurement and ownership
This is where the state and local public agency can take direct ownership of the solar power generation system. And utilize the electricity generated by the system directly and export the excess power to the grid and receive a credit that they referred to as net metering credit from the power company to lower the operating costs.
The setback for this approach is the required upfront capital investment that includes lifecycle maintenance responsibility, which may not interest the state and local.
In the case of public and private partnership structure, the private sector would design, build, finance and operate the system. The private sector also signs a power purchase agreement to sell to the state or local public agency electricity at a predetermined price, which can be lower than the current market price. Any excess energy that is generated from the solar system is exported to the power grid. The state and local receive the net metering credit which will further reduce the electricity bill. The private sector and the state or local also can sign a land lease agreement where the private sector agrees to pay the leasing of the land on which the system is built on. The land lease payment can provide additional revenue stream to the state and local. Here is the advantage of the public and private partnership option. The public sector needs to know, if you enter into negotiations.
The private sector can utilize available federal tax credits, specific to the solar energy sector that include investment tax credits
I believe is about 30% in 2019. And the modified accelerated cost recovery system, that is accelerated depreciation. With a further reduce in the tax liability for the private sector. Only the private sector participant can leverage those tech benefits because the public sector is a tax exempt. These tax incentives substantially reduces the project cost to the private sector and lower the costs for both public and private partners.
This slide provides the list of state and federal solar incentive programs.
Several state Department of Transportations have taken advantage of the state and federal incentives to install these solar panels in the right-of-way and more states are exploring the possibilities. You will hear from John Hibbard, Georgia Department of Transportation Operation Director, on Georgia Solar Road and laboratory. That is the road of the future, by the way.
Joint development below grade such as use right-of-way for fiber broadband infrastructure. The fiber broadband becomes critical to the economic development and vitality of communities across the country. There are three main approaches in fiber broadband deployment.
The first is the publicly owned and operated system. This is in case of the city of Santa Monica in California. You will hear from Gary Cater, community broadband manager on the city fiber broadband innovation. This is a smart city and really exciting to hear about that.
The second approach is the privately owned and operated network. With the minimal involvement by the public sector. The private sector provides the public agency with the fiber or conduit space. The public sector charges the telecommunications company the leasing fee for using the right-of-way. The value of the fiber or conduit space is deducted from the companies leasing fee. And the third approach is the fiber network sharing through the public and private partnership cooperative agreements. The state partner with the private sector to expand the fiber network to support the intelligent transportation system through the resource sharing program or conduit trading system with the private sector.
All right. This is the Smart City. Some of us already live in one. The city would need to spend some source of funding to leverage all the technologies. The technology are configuring how we live, work and interact with our cities. Automated vehicles are coming in a couple of years. Ridesharing services are underway. Cloud-based management services for improving municipal services delivery are already here. Internet of Things is testing. By the way there is a testing site in Georgia in Peachtree city.
Road, water and lightning systems with embedded sensors are already here. This is the new utility, my friend. Think about fiber like you do about gas, water and power. Broadband is actually changing the way we live.
>> And broadband has become essential for the economy. We can no longer view broadband and the telecommunication infrastructure that facilitate high-speed connectivity as a luxury. But realize their important as a mission critical infrastructure.
Cost saving by avoiding lost time and saving lives. And actually our Intelligent Transportation Systems technologies utilize wireless communication to manage traffic flow and improve safety. And some states are using drones for the facility management and maintenance such as crawl drones in bridge inspection programs. And it is also used to promote economic growth, especially needed in suburban and rural areas. And also strengthening the public safety by facilitating medical emergency and fire response to save lives. Many cities are proactively planning their broadband future and even the farmer today has to increase high-speed broadband to run their farming business and planning their crops.
This slide provides you a list of the funding available for fiber broadband. Note that Value Capture can be a funding source for fiber broadband infrastructure investment as well. And here is a list of the financing options that are available for broadband infrastructure.
Let's look at joint development above grade. Such as the air right development.
Air rights is the legal term that is used to describe the area above the transportation facility located within the existing right-of-way boundary. The public sector sale or lease of the development rights over a transit station or the highway. Please note that I refer to lease development rights, not sale the transit station or the highway system. Leasing retains the public ownership or provide an on going lease revenue and can also provide an upfront capital infusion as well. Joint development is underutilized in highway but is often practiced in transit agencies to increase ridership and generate ongoing lease revenue to subsidize for transit operating expenses. The transit fare will only cost 40% of transit operating expenses. So searching for new revenue sources to contain the fare is an ongoing transit agency objective. At least during my tenure with the transit agency.
Air rights development over the highway interchange corridor provides a vibrant economic development, social benefit, and environmental stewardships.
The first example is Copley place in Boston, Massachusetts. This is an example of the 99 year lease of the development right above the Massachusetts Turnpike. The revenue from the lease supported the Turnpike to offset operating, maintenance expense. The project transformed an unproductive highway interchange and the rail right-of-way that bisected the Back Bay and South Boston neighborhoods, at the time, the area provided no employment or tax revenue and had no residential or shopping uses. The project really transformed the area into a vibrant development, connecting the neighborhoods and attracting tourists, shoppers and new residents to the site. It generated about $27 million in state and local tax.
The I-395 Capitol Crossing project in the District of Columbia demonstrates an upfront payment of the development right above the highway. The district captured $120 million at the time of the agreement. The development cost was about $1.3 billion, 100% funded by the private investors and developer. The developer also spent about $270 million in transportation improvements such as enhanced vehicular, pedestrian and bicycle connection around and across I-395. The project will generate an estimate of $40 million in annual real estate tax revenue, create about 8000 jobs and the majority will be filled with district residents. But much more important, it will reconnect Capitol Hill and the East End district neighborhoods. Several mayors have longed for this. The project provides an opportunity to reconnect those neighborhoods.
Beyond the air right lease to generate revenue, many states cap the freeway for public amenities such as deck the freeway for Park or green space for the community use and to spur economic development. You will hear from John Dionisio, director of business development at Meridiam. North America on a Central 70 project in Colorado. The project provided beyond economic and environmental benefits, it will reconnect the long divided neighborhoods, replace a deteriorating bridge and spur economic development.
Looking at the federal influence in joint development or value capture and general. I would say it's limited. Federal has very limited influence in joint development. Or value capture and general because the power to implement Value Capture is at the local level. And controlled by the local. By the way, the local owns about 79% of the public roads in this country and the federal only owns about 3%. So only land purchased with federal funds and the state and federal have direct influence. That means you must follow federal requirements and obtain federal highway approval. As far as I can see, almost every single state has regulations that provide guidance on how to utilize the right-of-way so you may consider, check with your State DOT and the federal highway for your state to make sure that you get the assistance.
This slide just provides you the federal regulations applied under title 23 USC.
The USDOT support Value Capture and the Federal Highway Administration assembles Value Capture Implementation Team. The team from multi discipline experts are available to assist on an on-call request.
The team focused on communication and outreach. Using a web platform to bring awareness of the value capture and it's applicable to highway projects such as our webinar series and on-call services. We also provide technical assistance. We are implementing peer programs which include peer training and peer exchange to those agencies that interest to implement Value Capture. We are partnered with the leading cities, counties and states that have successfully implemented Value Capture. We also have expert consultants to assist us as well. In terms of clearinghouse, we are using web platform to make important information available to you. And this is evolving. Keep in mind that we can only update the information as it becomes available to us. You can help us. If your state or local has used value capture techniques, we would love for you to email it to us. We want to showcase them and work with you to make it available for all to learn from.
We just completed the Value Capture implementation manual. We will begin to roll it out in late September. It's limited to about 30 to 40 participants per workshop. The first workshop will be in Atlanta next week on September 24 and 25th. The second will be in Chicago on October 29 and 30th. And the third will be in Phoenix Arizona on November 6 and November 7. If you're interested, please let me know. Email your contact information to me. Or send it to the Value Capture email.
This slide just provides you the information, the link to the information on the website.
Here are a couple important funding sources that I think you should be familiar with. The first one is the stic grant. It's up to $100,000 per year. For example, if the city or county wants to implement Value Capture, Value Capture would require you to do a viability analysis depending on the technique that you use. In many cities and counties, they do not have staff resources to undertake that type of analysis. You will need Value Capture or planning expert to assist you. And use this opportunity to apply for this grant. The second is aid demonstration grant and is up to $1 million annually. For example if the local has a project and want to implement value capture techniques that has not be done by the local previously, this is an opportunity to apply for this grant. Information and contacts are available on the websites. The link is provided on the slide. This concludes my presentation. Thank you for listening and I will now turn it over to Pepper.
Thank you, Thay. We do have one question in the chat pod and that pertains to limits or rules about the amount of compensation that a state or DOT can get for, arranging for the use of broadband in the right-of-way. And it looks like Lindsay has already answered that question.
Operator, I think we will see if anyone wants to ask a question over the phone at this point.
Certainly. If you would like to ask a question over the fund please press Star, 1 on your telephone keypad. If you are on a speakerphone please make sure your mute function is turned off to allow the signal to reach our equipment. Again, that is Star, 1 to ask a question. We will pause for a moment to assemble the queue. Again, that is Star, 1 to ask a question. It appears we have no questions at this time.
Okay. Well, we will continue to monitor the chat pod for questions and also provide folks after the next presentation an opportunity to offer questions that way and at this point then I will turn the webinar over to John Hibbard who is the operations division's director at Georgia DOT. John, it's all yours.
Thank you. And I appreciate everybody's attention and hope that I can provide some additional information on a most unique arrangement that we have in this part of Georgia. If you are hearing any background hum or buzz sound at this point, well, it's me. Sorry. And I don't hear it but I've been told quietly that, hey, buddy, there may be something going on. So, as I finish my presentation, I look forward to answering your questions, understand that I will be on and off mute as needed to minimize that because I know when I'm on your side, such background noise is very annoying. So, okay. Off we go. I'm going to talk to you, and I've got to give you background or else it doesn't make sense. We are talking today or I'm talking today about a section of Interstate 85. The blue arrow up there top center points to roughly where the section is. It's at the Alabama state line coming into Georgia. About 18 miles long in total. That is a section of I-85 that was named in memory of an individual. His name was Ray C Anderson. Although I did not know Mr. Anderson and my suspicions are that you did not either, we all come into contact with what he invented. The carpet square. He was a carpet manufacturer and he came up with that square. And as I look here, out in my workspace here, I see carpet squares everywhere. With that I can think Ray C Anderson. When he passed away, this section of I-85 was named in memory of him. Which is an activity. We've named other parts of roads for individuals of note and significance. His family took this on with a level of responsibility and activity that you might not typically see in these scenarios. They have established a foundation called the Ray. A nonprofit foundation. And the focus of that is on sustainability, really. And you can see that designation of this section of 85, as of 2014, they engage with a Georgia Tech based here in Atlanta who developed a master plan on the heels of that. We, as the Ray reached out to us and engage with us on implementing a broad spectrum of different concepts along the stretch, we developed a coordinated committee in early 2016. I make reference there to District 3. District 3 is our field district the covers that central-west part of the state. And then the operations division. That's what I'm associated with and the state maintenance office as part of the operations division. And we, in conversations with the Ray came to the conclusion that really, a great example of a sustainability that they are wanting to foster in this segment is also improved safety. So, you will see a broad stretch of things here in these next couple of slides. So, off we go. Hang on. But you will notice in this schematic, the stick figure I made off your to the side that there are essentially five interchanges. You see a reference to one in the middle, Kia Boulevard. That is adjacent to a Kia automobile manufacturing plant. And that sometimes comes into play, as I will talk here.
So, initially some of the first things we did with the Ray were green things. Green initiatives. Those circles up there give you a sense of where we did them. Remember that stick figure from the prior slide? I'm leaning on that as I go forward just to provide a spatial sense of where are we doing what. One of the first things we did was the planting of bioswales at exit 16. Bioswales essentially that is suitable plant material that you would plant in the ditch line of the road so that as water drains off the road, like rainwater, drains off the road. Those plants, this plant material effectively filter the water as it flows back into the rivers and streams of the state. You get the idea. We installed a pollinator garden at the welcome Center, that far left bit, in 2016.
Sustainable landscaping, again, that is focused heavily on native plants and native species. That's it - it exits 2 and 18. And Martin native at 2017, in 2017 at exit 14. That is specifically called out because that was an effort where 2018 engage with the gate adjacent Troup County high school to help plant that and The Ray did a really nice job of community outreach in that sense. So you get the idea that initially that's where we were focusing on green things. And in fact we continue in that effort today. We have at exit 6, Kia Boulevard, a living lab that we have developed in connection with The Ray but also with the University of Georgia. And it is really for vegetation establishment research. Plant types, mixes. Replanted a material that's called Kernza. That is a variety of wheat. And it's really not intended to grow well here in Georgia in a relatively hot, humid climate. It's more of a Midwestern variety but the developers of Kernza wanted to see how it would do in our world and so here it is. Planted at exit 6. Some of our goals are, will this grow? Whatever this is whether it Kernza or other things and certainly anesthetic we are hoping to achieve. A roadside aesthetic. Recognizing that this is the roadside that we treat just like any roadside in terms of we mow it a few times a year. We do not irrigate it. We don't fertilize it. So whatever is planted has to function and survive, ideally has to thrive, and that sort of an environment. What's in it for us? Frankly, if we can come up with natives that grow well, especially on sloped sections of the roadway, then we will minimize erosion. That's good news. And if things grow any manageable fashion, maybe we don't have to cut the grass so often. That is a direct financial benefit to the department and the citizens of Georgia. So you get a sense as to what's in it for us, so to speak here. Back at the welcome center, over the past several years we have implemented several smaller scale technological initiatives. You see and that bottom left photo what looks like solar panels on the road and in fact that is exactly what you see. This is a French developed project, developed by a company which is a French consortium. They are both a contractor and they design and manufacture products. This includes solar panels and these are ruggedized panels that were applied to the road. That is the parking lot at the welcome center. We use those panels to power the box that you see in the top photo, which is a device called the WheelRight. Tire pressure, tread depth monitor which is a fascinating piece of this technology. Where you can driving your car essentially along a driveway, instrumented with the WheelRight technology and at that kiosk that the man is standing adjacent to, that kiosk will spit out a piece of paper that will tell you your tread depth on all your tires and tell you your tire pressure in each of your tires. We have installed an air compressor adjacent so if your tires are in need of air, you can pull over and put in air in your tires which, we've heard it's all set, properly inflated tires contribute to reduced fuel consumption. So, again, it is a nod toward efficiency and better use of our resources. So, that is all present and working at the welcome center. In these cases, all of these ideas, everything I have brought you so far and including things yet to come, or ideas brought to us by The Ray. Which is fascinating because they are willing to essentially beat the bushes for candidate ideas and bring those to us. And, so, we can then sit down, evaluate them, our committee has an executive committee that can essentially that and approve concepts for implementation. The The Ray is very willing, and for this we are thankful, they are willing to put their money where their mouth is and help in a fiscal context to accomplish these initiatives to varying extents. Various project by project. I keep on going because you're really not here for all of these things. This is probably what you're here for. And it is underway as we speak. It is so underweight that photo right there is not its. That photo is, in fact, what came out of a tour. It was a peer exchange, I guess, done up in Massachusetts. That is right-of-way on the Massachusetts Pike specifically. But what is happening here in Georgia, and frankly, it is under construction right now, is a pilot project. Solar energy development generating one megawatt, or it will generate one megawatt, of power working with Georgia Power which is the biggest power company here in Georgia. And notes, I list PSC. Public service commission. Which is an agency, there's nothing remarkable, new and unique about the PSC except that honestly the DOT does not deal with it very often. We deal with utility providers all the time in very routine manners and that is usually a utility management, utility accommodation adjustment in conjunction with projects that we might have underway. That has been a fascinating experience and note the photo I brought you was of the mass Pike and this was not built with federal funds. I-85 certainly distressed that we call The Ray was built with federal funds and so, as we started this conversation. This was very much a pilot project. So a lot of the questions that you might have about, so how do you pick your something like this or what vehicle did you use and so on and so on, I don't really necessarily have good answers for you. Because we did it as a pilot and what will we trip on our way to doing it? And, so, we worked a lot with people that say, that Thay mentioned on her slides. There's a list of people. I'm confident I was on the phone with several of them several times. As we work through the business of the agreement that we developed, our legal folks and attorneys, developed, that was essentially going to be between Georgia Power and Georgia DOT, a relationship brought together, fostered, engendered by The Ray. And, so, the public service commission, The Ray worked with the public service commission and essentially got an order by the public service commission, because that's what their actions are. They are orders, that this, in fact, occur and it defined the financing by which it would occur.
And the project, like I said, is under implementation as we speak. It's one quadrant of a very traditional -looking diamond interchange. To me, an interesting little vignette that occurred within this was The Ray wanted, had an interest early on and talking with Georgia Power about what stuff you plant under the solar panels. Well, and I said, great, go talk with them but it's between you and them. Because our intent was essentially to provide a section of land that Georgia Power and its agents or contractors would build on, build safely and appropriately on. So, the business of what went underneath the solar panels, well, that is Georgia Power business and they have solar installations elsewhere around the state. So, I figure they knew what they wanted to do and probably already had in mind what they wanted to do. Come to find this is a real issue with solar power generation. Is the need or the desire to have something green underneath the panels that is, that would not grow terribly tall and is low maintenance. So, that effort continues on and will happen as this gets built. A couple of interesting, to me, lessons to be learned throughout this discussion, and in fact in the conversations I had with MassDot when I was in Massachusetts earlier,, agencies contemplating this need to do your homework first. You need to develop, I will call it and inventory, of sites that you believe are viable for solar power generation. If it's a whole bunch of interchanges or quadrants of interchanges, okay. That might be it. But you've got to recognize that the roadway network, at least the one I'm speaking up here in Georgia, there's only so much overlap with the power company network. And what looks good and viable from a DOT perspective may not necessarily be good and viable from a power providing perspective. There network that we all kind of casually called, the grid, needs to be appropriately sized to accept that energy as generated. Or they have to be willing to do that upgrading to their network and that is a conversation that I found alien because I simply am unaware of their plans for their power distribution network. I would suggest, if we were to do this again here in Georgia, we would treat it as a P3. Public-private partnership that we have legislation here the state. We have some experience here at the department and public-private partnerships and so that's where I would go. But I would also not only do homework in terms of candidates land that the department might have, I would also pause for a minute and ask internally, what we hope to get out of it. What is our goal and it? Is our goal a rate reduction? That might be a good thing. For the married facilities we have scattered across the state. Do we want a lease payment? Possibly. Sure. Those are the two ones certainly but I think creative thought might be nice too. We had street lighting, run rate lighting installed at this interchange as a consequence of it. That was something that mattered to us. It scratched an itch so to speak. I encourage your careful examination of what you were hoping to get out of it as you move forward. You notice reference to another project that is underway right now and that is the connected vehicle project. Georgia is a leader in the deployment of connected vehicle technology. This is going to be Georgia DOT's first rural, outside of Metro Atlanta, deployment. And that is an effort that's underway right now with Panasonic taking the lead on that.
This that we have here with The Ray is truly, it is truly a lab or you could call it and incubator setting. Where we try things. And I offer these other ideas explored. Glowing lines. A concept called the road. Those were ideas tossed out. We talked. We met with candidate manufacturers.
We considered other parts of the department and brought them into discussions and ultimately these landed on the cutting room floor. It didn't happen. And I would argue that if in the true context of a lab and innovation, well, not everything happens . And, frankly, not everything that happens as well as you wish it would happen. So, I offer you those thoughts. The real world of the waterway product. We've had challenges literally with the materials sticking. You see there it coming up in that left-hand photo. They repaired them and you see the middle and the right-hand photos. It's repaired and it looks good. Note also that we are about to have those panels replaced at the manufacturer's interest and expense. And we are resurfacing that lot anyway and we have a capital maintenance project that is occurring along that corridor. So, we are going to replace those and recognizing that the manufacturer has their interest in that replacement. I do too because I would love to see improved life and improved conditions and things like that over there life. So, with that, I will stop and I am willing to take on questions as they come.
Okay. Thank you.
I think there is a question for John.
Yes. John, Val asked if you use of federal funds to acquire the right-of-way and if you had to pay back the federal highway for using it for a revenue generation or for electricity generation?
Federal funds were used to by the right-of-way, yes. Recognizing that was in the 1960s. But nonetheless federal funds were used. Are we paying back federal highways? Know we are not and that was, I'm sure, that was, a part of the discussion back and forth that we have with federal highways. Was to establish where the value was being generated and was effectively, I will call her, was there excess revenue, excess money going to somebody that was being generated as a consequence of this endeavor? The conclusion ultimately was that it was not of significance. Which, frankly, was part of Georgia DOT goal as well. We did not want to be in a position for this pilot of paying money or receiving money or doing something that was seen as giving a private company, that is Georgia Power, a gratuity, which is in violation of state law. So we were walking fine lines as we developed the concept that is now being implemented. And I see a comment or question. Who is the primary party responsible for maintenance during the pilot? Within the area where Georgia Power will install or is installing its solar panels. That area will be fenced off and will be secured by Georgia Power. Within that fenced off area, it's Georgia Power. Outside that fenced off area is Georgia DOT. Trying to make it as simple as we possibly can to draw those lines of responsibility.
Thank you, John. We have a question from Arizona devotees saying what is in the slide? John, your last slide there, there is a hand with maybe some plant seed? >> It is simply seeds being planted at the exit 6 living lab site.
Operator, I think we can see if anyone wants to ask a question over the phone.
Of course. As a reminder that is Star, 1 to ask a question over the phone. If you are on a speakerphone, please make sure your muted function is turned off to allow the signal to reach our equipment. Again, Star, 1 to ask a question. There are no fun questions.
Okay. Starting to see more text in the chat pod. Has The Ray funded any of your activities, John? A question from Minnesota DOT.
Yes. The Ray has been willing to fund two bearing extents. It depends literally on which item we are talking about here as throughout my presentation. But they have been very willing to participate financially and we are very thankful for that because sometimes that has speed up some of these smaller scale initiatives. Yes. They have.
Okay. It looks like maybe an off-line exchange with Minnesota could be helpful, John. They are putting an additional questions into the chat pod. I would like to move along and turn the webinar over to Gary Cater.
Community broadband manager from the city of Santa Monica. Gary, I put your slides up and you can take it from here.
Great. Thank you, pepper. And thank you Thay and the department of transportation for inviting me to present today on behalf of the city of Santa Monica. Santa Monica's community broadband initiative here, we operate as a division and RIT department. It's a small city. 8.3 square miles and we are a full-service city. We have a water department, fire, police, library system, waste management, trucks. All in-house. However, we do not have our own electric utility. And respective utility pole infrastructure but that is owned by SoCal Edison here in California. We have a vibrant community and the city financial position is very stable. We have a long-standing AAA bond rating and our budget for this fiscal year is $712.9 million. With that said when we hold our Smart City working group meetings, one question that seems to come up is who will pay for it? And our current focus and primary focus now of our Smart City working group is related to transportation. And it's not an attempt to showcase futuristic innovation but it's rather an immediate concern. I'm not sure if the electric scooter craze has showed up at your city yet but if it hasn't it's coming. Bird is one of the first major E scooter sharing startups. They actually launched here in Santa Monica. And after a roller coaster ride of emergency policy analysis, enforcement, lawsuits, negotiations. E scooters are gradually evolving into a manageable, I daresay manageable, mobility option. We have gone from single scooter accidents resulting in broken bones to crashes with pedestrians including myself. I was hit with one. A near crash with one of our buses to a fatal accident with a vehicle. Involving an E scooter operator.
But recently just last week the city demonstrated a technology solution to all these scooter operators that would enforce geo-fencing of our sidewalks and automatically slow down scooters after they traverse our sidewalk. Our bird experience which was preceded by a small startup called a Mac that also launched here years before that had led to an overhaul of loading zones, parking policy and traffic circulation so when considering the rapid rate of new mobility solutions that were introduced to the right-of-way in the past decade, to us and our working group it's obvious that we really need a new I TS system that's capable of interfacing with and adapting to all these new mobility solutions. And then just to mention there is a startup nearby called sky ride and they have autonomous helicopters. That founder had an unmanned aerial video for the Air Force when he was 16 years old. I think he is older now and is focused on that. So, we are really looking at, and there's another startup called air map and they are mapping the GIS coordinates for airspace for these sorts of things. Their offices are a stone throw away from my office in Santa Monica. So it's very real these new mobility solutions. So, we keep having this question, who is going to pay for the ongoing operational cost to manage these options and the public right-of-way, particularly when roads, bridges and tunnels are underfunded as was mentioned earlier. The city started constructing our fiber network for our traffic purpose. It was for a traffic signal is Asian that started in 20 that started in 22,002. The network built out's every several major traffic materials by 2006. In 2006, Google had an office here. They basically walked over to City Hall and requested to use the fiber they said we know you have it and they know everything, right? They said they want to use some of it. The city established a rate and Google was our first customer. At the time a few, a handful of entertainment companies joined in the dark fiber revenue leasing was about $40,000. In 2009 we launched our 10 gigabit network that required equipment. Staffing and expertise. And the city was its own first customer. We wanted to try everything to see if it was something we could scale and offer to the community. After about one year of amazing our engineers with the new network capacity and realizing reduce cost to our telecommunications budget of about $750,000, we started to offer annually to offer it to other businesses.
>> CityNet proved to be a requirement and must have for the influx of tech startups that emerged here during a period of about 2010 through 2015. This was the time that Santa Monica transformed itself into silicon Beach. And now we service about 95% of our tech and entertainment sector. Our major hospitals, medical clinics, community college and of course the city itself including our police, fire stations, libraries etc. We also offer some free Wi-Fi to the public in city buildings and in the public right of way, at bus stops. From a revenue perspective, this is about $2.5 million annually. And so the question is, what are we doing with that revenue? We are able to fund our Smart City initiative which CityNet has evolved into CityNet Labs. And its funding different projects for Smart City negatives including the digital inclusion project which we offer free dig enter that to committee rooms in the portable housing buildings. Actually it's free 10 gig Internet to committee rooms and that is used for after-school programs, homework help. And technology training workshops with the kids and also with their parents in the evenings. We were successful in obtaining a CDBG grant to fund some of the right-of-way construction and we are using our revenue from Bird build out the connections to actually put about 30 or 40 affordable housing buildings on that.
Continuing our work with CityNet Labs we have secure the FCC licenses to offer services using our millimeter wave wireless network. The pilot for that or currently is the temporary homeless shelter for UCLA and Santa Monica community college students. Here in this area homelessness is an increasing issue. College students are really hard-hit getting scholarships and the ability to attend schools is one thing but your living expenses is another. So there is actually a temporary homeless shelter in one of our churches and we have been able to provide the students with gigabit Internet Internet. Students love it. They do their own troubleshooting and somehow they are able to use more bandwidth than a few of our tech companies. I don't know how that's possible but it is. And then back to this nagging traffic management problem concerning the new mobility options that are here. Cities need Realtime data for anything from the upcoming autonomous vehicles, aerial vehicles and pedestrians. This is them navigating the right-of-way. Obviously there are going to be some changes that may be needed to the physical infrastructure but, and also I guess the question is, what tech companies are private sector, will facilitate and distribute this data which will rely on a partnership and or vendor opportunity. But also what are the privacy concerns from in government perspective?
That leads us to our current venture which CityNet Labs is working on an autonomous vehicle pilot. This will allow staff and subject matter experts to research more effective tools and technologies to manage our new mobility options while at the same time introducing this to residents to assess the potential traffic impacts. So, Value Capture right away for Santa Monica, it's central to our efforts to adopt innovation driven policy updates that are key to our local transportation strategy. It's not only created revenue and generated revenue but it has directly had a social impact in terms of our homeless housing. In terms of our affordable housing and social mobility efforts, as well as our economic development. It's been central to our evolution into silicon Beach and has help attract numerous tech and entertainment companies here to the city. And with that, I conclude my presentation and I will open it up for any questions.
Great. Thank you. I do see one question being entered in the chat pod, operator, we will offer that option for people to give, pose a question over the phone if they so choose.
Thank you. As a reminder that is Star, 6 ask a question over the phone.
I do see a question in the chat. Pepper, if you don't mind. I can answer that. There is a question regarding the cost savings which I'm glad Donny asked. Yes. The revenues are one thing. Over time we've actually saved about $1.2 million annually and cost. And that is cost based on the low-level circuits that we were using in the past. The bandwidth that we would need at this point, it's estimated it would cost an annual of about 2.2-$2.3 million that we are saving. We have applied that cost savings to our network equipment infrastructure, our small team here, and also all of our efforts at construction and really expanding, actually the private firms that take some of our services from CityNet, they have helped expand our network so we have been able to add more traffic signals to, and extend our traffic signal network, basically paid for by interested businesses that are getting our CityNet services. It not only adds revenue but actually adds about $500,000-$700,000 worth of construction every year to expand our network and that's good for 35-40 years.
Gary, if I can infer from the question that Donnie posed, are you charging market rate to your customers or part of your economic development approach to provide lower cost service?
Sure. That's a fair question. When we started, we were able to offer 10 times the speed for one third of the cost. So when we started, folks were, even some big entertainment companies were only getting 10 or 20 megs. Most folks had about 10 megs. The enterprise companies pick we offered 100 megs at the time. For one third of the cost of what they are paying for 10 megs. With that we were still able to generate program income to support operations. Now, since then, what has happened is that the market has adjusted so the other options are still there but they realize to be competitive they need to adjust their pricing. So at this point in time we are market rate and our businesses can attest that we drive the market in a certain context. Not unfairly so but it is competitive and the other thing we do drive is the network capacity. The options available. We started offering to businesses in 2010 and now it's 2019 and all those folks are on a gig or more. We have some 10 gig customers. We have capacity to offer 100 gig service. Usually that is for events and things like that. But, we have that capacity already. So, we have helped to incentivize the other options, the other network providers, to see that this is a competitive market and to focus their marketing strategies and their new products and service options and make sure that Santa Monica is part of that and that benefits all of our tech and entertainment center here.
Rates.
Another quick point. We do subsidize the, obviously at our affordable housing buildings, the families that lived there, if they wish to get gigabit service to their units, they pay three dollars a month for one gig of Internet. Or they can just go downstairs in the committee room and use it for free for research and homework help and all that. >> Thank you for that response. Operator, do we have any phone questions?
Not at this time.
Okay. Well, thank you, Gary, for your presentation. At this point I would like to turn the webinar over to John Dionisio from
Meridiam. Your slides are coming up and it's all yours.
Thank you, pepper. Thank you, everyone, for the opportunity to be able to present Rural Business Development Grants P3 and talk about Value Capture in the context of central 70. Maybe before and start, this slide you see, the background is a project that is in Long Beach, California. It's the Long Beach courthouse. P3 project. Which was a helpful project to not only solidify the first P3 project to be done in the social infrastructure context in the U.S. but also one that really revitalized part of downtown Long Beach and was a springboard for real estate development around Long Beach. So, another good example of how public, project development can actually create value alongside it. I organized my presentation as follows. I will give you an overview of Meridiam and try to keep it short. Try to talk about the role that the developable like Rural Business Development Grants place in the P3 process. Bullet points to give you context of where I'm coming from. And then I will describe how we see Value Capture opportunities in P3 procurements. And then type in a little bit to the Central 70 project in Denver, Colorado that is currently under construction.
Very briefly, Meridiam is a developer , in a nutshell. We develop and finance and manage infrastructure projects globally. We are a firm that is backed by insurance companies and pension funds and pride ourselves on investing in projects that we feel do good for communities. We are a firm that is firmly rooted in the UN SDG goals and we approach every opportunity with those goals in mind. Since our founding in 2015, we have developed and closed over 72 projects worldwide. The fund manages $7 billion of capital from long-term institutional investors. We have 250 employees. In North America and in Europe, our investment horizon is over the long term. We invest and hold, of the 72 projects, we have yet to sell an asset in our portfolio. The projects we have invested in an aggregate have created over $50 billion of construction capital. It's quite a diverse team with 28 nationalities and offices all over the globe as infrastructure development, if done successfully, needs to be done locally. This is a snapshot of the projects that we have done, we have closed in the last 15 or so years. In North America or in the Americas there are 17 projects. In the United States there are 14 or so and the project I will be discussing in detail is the Central 70 project which we completed in late 2017. I should say we've reached financial close in late 2017. Quite a busy 15 years for us. I don't want to bother presentation done with a conversation about P3 because I'm sure that many of the participants are well-versed in P3 but just maybe highlight the P3 delivery model as we see it. P3 projects that we have been involved in our performance-based whereby the government asks the private sector to design, build, finance, operate and maintain a critical piece of infrastructure and pay the private sector there or allow the private sector to earn revenue. Payments usually come from appropriated dollars. They come from savings that the infrastructure project creates, whether that's energy savings or whether that's consolidation savings, or they come from Value Capture revenue. That is typically backed by a state or municipality. In typical P3 projects, payments are not made from the public sector into the private sector until the facility our project is built which in itself is a Value Capture aspect. The private sector typically is held to a very high performance standards. Over a very long period of time. If the private sector deviates they will be penalized.
And we believe that if P3 is done right, not only can it create value but it could provide governments with budget certainty over a longer period of time. P3 projects are usually financed with a combination of public sector funds through grant money, through federal highway loan programs, which have been extremely catalytic to the development of the P3 market in the U.S., as well as, private debt and equity. From our standpoint P3 projects should transfer a significant amount of long-term risk to the private sector to really promote a whole life costing approach whereby in the public sector and the taxpayers, could be guaranteed a high-quality asset over a long period of time. This slide describes some of the projects that we've been involved in. I mentioned the Long Beach courthouse project in California. The LaGuardia Airport central terminal project in New York which is currently under construction. I'm sure many people on this phone have seen it or experienced it so bear with us for another couple of years as that project concludes. And one great project, P3 project is the port of Miami tunnel which was one of the first availability payment based projects in the United States. When we talk about P3 we talk, usually talk about in the context of design, build, finance, maintain or where the public sector is either paying a performance payment or and availability payment or allowing the private sector to charge a toll or user fee. What's interesting in the last few years is the market has matured from a sector perspective to not only include transportation projects such as road projects, real projects, but also consider P3 projects for other innovative transportation means like fleet electrification. We spent a lot of our time with municipalities and universities and states about electrifying their fleet. Promoting the P3 model. There is obviously a growing energy market with respect to P3 applicability and as previously mentioned, the broadband spec sector has created an interesting set of P3 projects and we expect more of that. The next two slides describe the value proposition. This is a slide that I'm sure many have seen before. The theory is that if done right the public sector is transferring risk to the private sector and therefore creating value as signified here with this blue box on the left-hand side of the slide. I would argue that this chart should be updated and include an additional value associated with Value Capture. With the value unlocked by successful, public sector infrastructure delivery. One great example, I'm not sure anyone has visited this in New York and it hasn't been done as a P3, but if you look at what's going on the west side of New York and all of the value that's been created at Hudson yards, people forget that value was created after the MTA in New York extended the 7 line to Hudson yards to provide transit connectivity and after a deck was put over an old railyard. So public infrastructure creating value right here in New York. And one of the backbones to P3 development is proper risk transfer. If done right, the private sector will retain on balance more risk than the public sector and, again, with this foundation of allocating certain risks to the private sector, you create a foundation to unlock value through additional development in the project or on adjacent land. Let's get into Value Capture a little bit. 28 did a great job of summarizing Value Capture as defined by the center. When we think about Value Capture we think about it in the following four formats. There is capacity building. So, creating value by incentivizing the inclusion of local communities, of MW/DBE participants to the project. We talk about Central 70 in Denver but that project has created over 4000 local jobs in the last few years so that's one aspect of value drivers that should be considered in P3 procurements. The next is the additional development opportunities and this is what Thay referred to as joint development. This is unlocking value whether in the project, on the project right-of-way, using the air rights.
Really, unlocking an opportunity that otherwise did not exist. A great example of this in the making, a project that is going on in Denver where the city and County of Denver is looking for the private sector to rebuild important public infrastructure but also help with a full-scale real estate development on the parcels adjacent to the public infrastructure. So, really, Value Capture in the context of joint development. Design innovation creates value and captures value. The competitive tension in P3 pushes teams to be more value-oriented and create savings so that savings that is created flows through back to the taxpayer. And the last thing is revenue enhancement. Technologies to enhance project revenue that create additional revenue. Gary did a great job talking about that in the context of what Santa Monica is doing in the context of some of our projects, the P3 projects actually result in creating new sources of revenue from government, typically through adding additional capacity that is a toll. We'll talk about these four elements in the context of Central 70.
Central 70 is a project that really is the result of good strong public policy and thinking. See.in Colorado spent years thinking about how to provide congestion relief on this part of the I-70 that goes just north of Denver. And so they embarked on a P3 project that we were successful to win and close in late 2017. The project includes adding one express lane in each direction on Central 70. That will be a toll but in addition to that it includes reconstructing the entirety of the road fence to fence so about three lanes in each direction plus the express lane. It includes removing a 55-year-old viaduct that is structurally inefficient and lowering the interstate to create shared space on top of the interstate which we will talk about. And that is this four acre park that is referenced here on this line. Like most P3 procurement process, patience is virtuous. The RFP period started in 2017 and included, concluded in mid-2017. And closed in late 2017. We are in the midst of construction. We have a few years to go and then once the project opens in March 2022, we will be responsible, we the concessionaire, Kiewit Meridiam Partners in this context, will be responsible to operate and maintain the road for a period of 30 years. As I mentioned, the granting authority was the Colorado Transportation Department and a subsidiary of C. called the high-performance transportation enterprise. An important, given the proximity of the project located in Denver, the city of Denver is also a key partner involved in this project. This slide describes the overall structure, again, to the folks on the phone who are P3 literate, this is probably something that is very common. We have entered into a long-term project agreement with the Department of Transportation. We, Rural Business Development Grants and our partners are providing equity financing. We have raised debt in the bond market and at FHWA. And we the developer have some contracted major services to technical firms that are best able to manage the risk. To talk a little bit about the value capture elements of this project using the same format categories described earlier. So, capacity building. We were required to ensure that there was enough job opportunities for locals and there was a 20% local hiring goal on this project. It required on-the-job training to provide workers with the ability to learn skills, to position them to perform work. From a development opportunity perspective, and this credit is due to CDOT, they spent a lot of time engaging with in investing in the local community. They provided over $2 million of support for affordable housing projects and two parts of the city. They are adjacent to the project. They also require that the private sector be evaluated on some of the programs that they planned on instituting to give back. Which I thought was quite innovative. Divine innovation design innovation was part of the process and I will show you some renderings of the park that is used above being built above the road. And from a revenue enhancement perspective, not only does the project provide a benefit to the road users who will estimate benefiting from travel time savings over a period of 25 years, but as I mentioned, the road will create a revenue stream through revenues from users so there is value creation to CDOT by virtue of the project. This is a rendering of the park that will currently be on top of part of Central 70. Thay mentioned the air rights development. It's not quite air rights development in using the air rights above a piece of infrastructure to build high-rise, mixed-use, commercial real estate, although we have been seeing more of that. Just in the context of our responsibilities. Our responsibilities are to make sure this looks like this after construction but it's the city's responsibility to operate its, maintain it and program it. And this is an idea that, again, that is due to CDOT's vision of bridging two communities that otherwise were not necessarily well connected. In addition, other Value Capture initiatives under the category of developer contributions. Part of our give back is a mobile food market. And actually in two years there has already been over 6000 people served. This is something we do on a monthly basis to provide fresh, quality food to people in and around the community. And one of the other efforts that we feel is represented of Value Capture is supporting local businesses. The concessionary is supported by a local program that offers scholarships to women with culinary arts interests. We have also engaged in supporting local small businesses who need advice on company formation, etc. So, again, not necessarily Value Capture in the context of creating revenue but Value Capture in the context of developer is contributing to a project, hopefully over a long period of time. And with that I will conclude and maybe see if there are any questions.
Thank you, John. Again, for everyone who is participating today, there is the opportunity to either enter a question in the chat pod or to ask the question over the phone. And I guess at this time, operator, we will check again with the audience to see if anyone wants to ask a question by phone.
Of course. As a reminder that is Star, 1 to ask a question over the phone. And we do have a phone question. Color, please go ahead.
Hello. My name is Molly with the city of Dallas. Could you talk a little bit more, you said that you are hearing more interest in developments over the highways and putting in buildings and such? Can you talk a little bit more about that?
Yes. Sure, Molly, and there has been some good examples of these processes that have started. They haven't actually concluded. Where, when we think about the typical ways, from our perspective and a P3 project, the private sector gets repaid, it's typically through user fee, tolls, or through government appropriating dollars to the private sector so long as the private sector performs. And in the context of the letter I think what we are seeing is municipalities and states trying to figure out how to raise enough revenue to pay back the private sector so long as they perform. And, so, we have seen municipalities take pieces of infrastructure, and say, is there any opportunity, in addition to the public infrastructure, the road or the courthouse, to allow private sector participants to develop the remaining portion, the remaining parcels or utilize the air rights above the infrastructure to develop other revenue-generating pieces of infrastructure? Like high-rise buildings, mixed-use, etc. And then the city would in turn use the benefits of that, increased tax revenue, other potential revenue generating streams that flow to the city, and pledge that additional revenue to the private sector who is managing and maintaining the public infrastructure. So, it's a way to create a revenue stream for city municipality and use that revenue stream to pay the private sector. The challenge becomes when the public infrastructure and the private development are married in a way where one group is effectively responsible to do both. We have seen it work well where the city procures the public infrastructure, maybe incentivizes the team to bring on a private developer to think about development rights, but have the city manage the revenue and the risk associated with that private development outside of the public development. And I'm happy to share with you some case studies as to where it's worked. As I said, the city in Denver is on the verge of something that we think makes good sense.
Yes. I would love to hear more about that.
Okay.
Okay. Operator, do we have any other phone questions?
Not at this time.
This is John from federal highways. I have a comment. So, monetizing the air rights above property acquired using title 23 funds for highway purposes, and I use Jill's login to type my comments, but that is highly regulated. It isn't federal highway's position to necessarily approve across-the-board the use of airspace above existing highways for commercial use. And that's in the regulations. I think that's been typed up a couple times during this presentation so, if there are any questions, talk to the division Realty officer or specialist before you commit to doing any projects above federal highway airspace. Just my comment.
Okay. Thank you, John. So, John Dionisio, there were some questions about the role of the HPTE in the Colorado Central 70 project. It looks like there has been some response there but I'm not sure if you have anything to add about that.
Yes. I think Donnie's response was great. CDOT Executive Director, I think Kiewit was created maybe more than a decade ago to think about innovative ways to procure projects. When we went to one on one meetings during the phase on the other side of the table was CDOT. CDOT technical staff was HPTE in their Executive Director as well as the AG so, as a subdivision of CDOT, who was party to the contract and they were presence, but so was CDOT as the overseer of HPTE.
Okay. We have a question from Minnesota DOT. About the $2 million for housing. They are looking for more detail on that if you have it.
Yes. So, there was a commitment by the private sector, and they Scott case, our team, to invest back into the community and there was, and I believe that was something that was either explicitly, or implicitly value during the procurement. So, local contribution and community programs was something that's critical and we actually think in the context of these procurements that should continue to be focused on. I say that, not answering your question, the $2 million was actually money spent by CDOT prior to and during the procurement tube, and local community, to provide for enhancements. Sidewalk improvements. Utility improvements. Pavement improvements, etc. As a way to give back to the community. There is a woman at CDOT called Rebecca White, and I think she is still with CDOT but she was really instrumental in these programs and if there is an interest in it thinking about creative ways to give back to committees and get communities and involve before big. Hermits, she would be a wonderful resource to speak to.
Great. Thank you for that. We do have a question from Donnie Hamilton about how airspace is handled, as in the Central 70 project. The highway is actually lowered. I don't know -- I guess that's a better question for federal highway.
I'm sorry, I missed the question?
In the case of the Central 70 where you are lowering the highway, you are essentially creating more airspace or opportunities to use the airspace differently because the highway has been lowered.
I think David already answered that question.
Okay. Great.
Let me answer that briefly.
He already answered that. He said the airspace can be the lateral limit of the right-of-way.
I do see Dave's response now.
-- The infrastructure isn't airspace.
Okay. Great. Thank you for that.
I do see, I don't see any other questions. I don't see any other questions an operator, we do not have any other phone questions in the Queue?
Not at this time but as a reminder that is Star, 1 if you would like to ask a question over the phone.
Okay. Well, -
I think we have one typing.
Okay. Let's give Dave a chance to type. And while we are doing that I will just put up -- we are having some pleasantries exchanged. So, I am going to put up the schedule for our future webinars.
We have the next one on October 24. The topic is capturing value from existing assets to fund previously unfunded infrastructure projects. That will be from 1:00 until 2:30 PM on the 24th. You can register for that webinar by clicking on the link that you see there on your screen. And before folks sign off, we do have some closing questions that we would like you to answer, bringing them up on the screen right now. Now, in the current layout you should see now, on the left-hand side there should be a window or pod that has the presentations available for download. You simply click on the file that you are interested in and hit the download file button at the bottom of that window or pod. If you are interested in applying for professional development hours are educational credits for today's webinar, you can request confirmation of your participation today. To do so you can send an email to valuecapture@dot.com. And the federal highway will respond with confirmation of your participation.
We do appreciate the responses that folks have given to the pole that is on the screen. We have just a few more questions that I will bring up in just a second. They will help us understand how well the webinar met the needs and expectations of the audience. I am just going to give a couple more seconds for folks to respond to the questions that are currently on the screen. And then I'm going to switch it over to our evaluation questions and I guess I would ask Thay if you have any closing remarks would like to make before we and the webinar.
Yes. I just want to thank John Hibbard, Gary Carter , and John Dionisio for being presenters today. It's not often that we can have such knowledgeable presenters and we appreciate your time that you have shared with us today. I also want to thank the Value Capture Implementation Team who stood by and answered questions and thank you for joining us and thank you and have a good afternoon.
Thank you, Thay. Thank you, everyone, who participated today. I'm just going to leave these Poll questions up for folks to respond to. There are additional questions in the chat pod, Federal Highway will respond to them and materials will be posted to the federal highway website. As well as a recording of today's webinar. Thank you, everybody for your participation.
That concludes our conference for today. Thank you for your participation and for using AT&T teleconference service. You may now disconnect.
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