Webinar: https://connectdot.connectsolutions.com/pdl3iv5wrulj
AT&T Operator: Please stand by for Realtime captions.
Ladies and gentlemen, take you for standing by. At this time, all participants are in listen only mode but we will provide instructions during the question-and-answer time. I would like to turn the call over to the U.S. Department of transportation Volpe Center. Please go ahead.
Value Capture: Special Assessment Introduction Slide
Hello. On behalf of the federal highway administration I would like to welcome everyone to today's virtual peer exchange value capture special assessment. My name is Charity Coleman and I will be facilitating today's webinar in helping to address any technical problems. As you can see on the screen, we have a great set of presenters for you today. They will share their experiences and expertise on the topic of professional assessments on the transportation contact. We will introduce them in more detail. For you to the make the presentation. In the top left corner of the screen you will find call and information. In the lower left corner is the chat box. You can use that to submit questions to our presenters during the webinar. You can also ask questions by pressing star one on a telephone. You will receive more instructions about that later. If you have technical difficulties please use the chat box or window to send a private message to me. You can start a private conversation with me by clicking the button in the upper right corner of the chat part and select start chat with host. The webinar will run until 3 PM today. We will have time at the end of the webinar for Q &A. The presentation slides will be available to download at the end of the webinar. The slides in the recording of today's event will also be posted to the FHWA website. If you are interested in applying for professional’s development hours please let us know. Before we begin I would like to ask participants to fill out the poll questions that are showing on the screen. I will give you a few moments to do that. These questions are meant to help us understand your affiliation, your knowledge of the topics [Indiscernible]. I will give you a moment or two to respond to the poll questions. While you are doing that I would like to introduce the moderator for today's virtual peer exchange this is Sasha Page from IMG Rebel of financial advisor is based in Washington, D.C. He has over two decades of experience on infrastructure finance, project development, and private public partnerships. He is focused on how value capture can assist you in your infrastructure with the federal highway EDC-5 program and public agencies in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Miami, and Raleigh-Durham. Before we announce our first presenter thank you for answering the poll questions.
Sasha Page: Thank you. It looks like we have a lot of great groups in many different backgrounds. It appears that many people are somewhat knowledgeable or have heard about special assessments. We appreciate any of your comments. As always, I will point out in the chat part please give your responses there. I understand that right now projects are funded by state taxes and a variety of other taxes including vehicle registration fees. I think that most will understand how the process works and other important things. I will start now. I think Poland has finished so as people are taking advantage of this I want people aware later on the operator will let you know if you can ask questions on your phone after each presenter makes their presentation or afterwards. I will introduce our first presenter, Ben Hawkinson. He works in transportation policy studies where he has worked in topics such as vehicles or mileage based user fees. He attended Northwest University and graduated from George Mason University.
Ben Hawkinson: I would like to welcome everyone on behalf of the federal highway. Let's get started. What is every day counts? Every day counts as a to deploy proven innovations to our state partners. It has a safety, reduces congestion and improves. It is capitalizing on the value created by transportation. So why are innovative funding options needed? The U.S. has been underfunded its highway system for years resulting in a backlog. The bulk of the backlog about $420 billion repair existing highway, while $123 billion is needed for bridge repair, $167 billion for expansion, $126 billion for system enhancement. FHWA estimated each dollar spend on road, highway, and bridge improvements. It is [Indiscernible] and lower vehicle maintenance costs and reduced emissions as a result to the. The federal highway programs focus on highway construction planning and is not result in routine maintenance. The project process generally, but 90% for interstate projects. This includes roughly 25% [Indiscernible]. According to CBO, they project that from FY 21, 26, dedicate service transportation revenue and spending will average $18 billion annually. They projected gap between revenues and outlays of about $94 billion. We face a gap of almost 117 billion. So, what is value capture? It is strategies used by public agencies to share a portion of the increase property value created as a result of public infrastructure investment. The planning and implementation for value capture will rely primarily on local government initiatives. These local public agencies value capture provides the opportunity to raise funds to match federal grants which increasingly emphasize the importance of private and public nonfederal participation. So why is it important? Value capture provides alternative funding to supplement traditional sources. It allows for the beneficiaries to help contribute to its cost. It can provide much-needed funds for matching shares and project delivery. Here are some value capture techniques which we have had in the past which were done and you can look at the concessions advertising, naming rights. Again, there's much more information on the page. In summary, infrastructure improvement creates value to adjacent land uses and those are increasing with more of the amenities that communities want including transit, pedestrian connections, etc. They help with economic development initiatives to create vibrant communities I will submit that value capture is a new and different way of doing business and requires looking at funding projects through a new lens. It's like some of the corporate logos that are not seen right away. Like the arrow in the FedEx logo or the line connecting AMC in Amazon floater. It's a little bit different. Finally, the U.S. D.O.T. and federal highways support value capture. Reach out to us with any input on the program and how it can help you and your community value capture. Today, our speakers will be focusing on three specific value capture tools. Transportation improvement districts, sales tax districts, and community improvement districts. Enough from me and onto the experts.
Sasha Page: Thank you. Are there any questions for Ben?
You can dial star one at this time. We do have a question.
I will read this question from Avery. I'm sorry, is there a question from calling in?
AT&T Operator: It looks like they removed themselves. No question at this time.
Let me ask two questions. The first will be from Avery. Does value capture translate directly into dollars? I assume what they are asking is there revenue generated from value capture that can flow into different projects. Ben, will you address that?
Ben Hawkinson: For example, you can have special assessment fees that can raise if there is some sort of a highway or bypass that goes into a city. Funding for any polls for that sort of thing can be captured back. And returned to the community around the specific infrastructure improvement.
Sasha Page: Thank you. I will ask this other question from Tonya. Can someone address the intersection of "Value Capture" and how that may lead to gentrification - but then how to mitigate that?
I do not think that you have dealt with that directly. I believe additional speakers will help to touch on that. Ben, do you want to weigh in on the early that further speakers?
Ben Hawkinson: I do not know if it leads to gentrification but I think that our speakers might have some ideas.
Sasha Page: We Will Parks that question and go back to that if there are no more questions I will move to Dan. Dan as the director of Transportation for Midtown alliance in Atlanta, Georgia. They are dedicated to building a fiber experience in the heart of Atlanta. He is responsible for the developing and implementing projects and programs that make Midtown highly accessible and “green.” and less impactful to the environment. Dan received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Dayton and a Masters of City Planning from Georgia Tech. With a longtime board member with the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition.
Dan Hourigan: Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for having you on the call today. So, quickly. Here is me. I have been with the alliance for about 20 years now. The benefit of seeing how the organization is involved. With that, I will start with talking briefly about who we are and the place in which we work. To set the stage, the Midtown alliance was formed about 40 years ago and created at a time when Midtown was a pretty seedy place with very little investment. We have a small group of commerce property owners that created organization. Flash forward to 1997, we completed the district's first master plan. It was very much based on community participation and charted a course for Midtown that focused on what you see on your screen. Superior walk ability, design influence, sense of community, feeling of safety. We were not a very safe place to start with, and abundant and high-quality choices. How we get around and what we do. We are a nonprofit. We are a 501(c)(3) and in order to implement many of the programs and projects that came out of our master plan, we needed a funding source. We will talk about that. Midtown, the place. Many of you are familiar with Atlanta because of our airport. Midtown is a one seat trip on the Marta rail system. We are they geographic center of the region. Our district is about 1.2 square miles in area. We are pretty diverse mix of business, culture, education, and research organizations and entities. We are home to a number of Fortune 500 companies and innovation districts, given the proximity to Georgia Tech and Emory University. We are also the heart of the arts. The Center for puppetry arts and design and others are here. It is part of who we are. Again, we are a residential district and growing. We have four Marta rail stations providing pretty easy access from the region. We are walkable to those rail stations for most of the businesses and residents in our district. Just give you a sense of what would look like and our scale a geography, the next slide really shows our growth. We are growing tremendously over the last 10 years. Like so many downtowns we've had a huge influx in residential growth but we are also seeing a lot of office growth related to technology district innovation. This just kind of shows what is in the pipeline, what is under construction now, and how we are doing. Kind of moving forward to what we do before we get to how we do it. What we do is work with the city transportation and public improvement programs and projects. This can mean everything from sidewalk enhancements to new bike lanes. Safety is one of our major initiatives. Getting people off the street safely, slowing traffic down through signal timings. The number of initiatives, and then public space. We are really focused on creating places to really add green space and active spaces in the district. There's not a lot of green space. We are actively working to improve that scenario. We also work on bridge enhancements. This is the 10th Street bridge which is the core of our district connecting Georgia Tech and the core of the district. This is a before-and-after. Really looking at multimodal place connected bike lanes. We can't continue to let people drive alone to work so we have a program in partnership with the Atlanta regional commission who works with employers and commuters and telecommuting more and more these days, of course. That is an important part of what we do. We work to activate spaces and spaces for people to eat lunch and run into each other this is a rendering of a privately-owned space that we are using as public space for people to recreate and walk their dogs and play games. Like a many other community districts with focus on public safety. We hire off-duty Atlanta police officers to patrol 24/7. We have cameras throughout the district and we act as ambassadors to the district. We also work on clean and green programs, making sure that the district is as clean as it can be and free from graffito. We hire landscapers to maintain our trees and public spaces that we have created. Really getting into the heart of what we do and how we do it.
We are a nonprofit membership-based organization. Our membership is made up of the employers that are here as well as the residential buildings, cultural institutions, and that is what has sustained us for the last 40 years. In 2000, we created the community improvement District which is similar to a business improvement District. It's more commonly known as that nationally. We are the idea to fund the planned investments and programs and projects that came out of blueprint Midtown. It raises about $8 million annually now. We do this through a property tax. This property tax I should note is on commercial property only and it excludes residential properties even if they are commercial like apartment buildings. Perhaps other speakers can touch on why that is. It's kind of an interesting story. Funds have been raised in part to leverage other grants. City, state, and federal funding. Over the years we have been able to leverage about $400 million through that public and private funding to date. Since the inception we have raised about $100 million. Again, that money comes into the district
[Indiscernible] it has really exploded in a good way. We have what is best our money on. This is the most recent annual budget. You can see these items on the bottom of the screen there are related to projects in the public right-of-way, streetscape enhancements, parks, [Indiscernible] represents over half of the budget this year. Public Safety represents about 10%. So that gives you a sense of where our money goes to. Just to get into a little bit of a [Indiscernible] so the municipalities and in our case the city of Atlanta which defined the powers that the CID has. There's about 25 CIDs throughout Georgia. Again, they are formed by commercial property owners which can levy an additional property tax. They cannot pass legally binding laws like local governments can. We provide supplemental services again such as landscaping, street sweeping, improvements, as far as how they are created, there is a process, of course. We start by creating a boundary in the district and getting the majority of the commercial property owners, in our case again it's nonresidential property owners that voluntarily consent to being involved were included in the district. You get at least 75% of the value of the properties, as well as the majority of the property. Once you have that the Commissioner certifies the district, our city and county approved it through the resolution and the board of directors developed an agreement of cooperation. The board is elected and has representation from the city of Atlanta on it. Of course, taxes are collected by the county, Fulton County here. They are remitted back to the CID. We raise about $8 million per year through that improvement District. So was at, I will stop there and answer any questions you might have.
Sasha Page: Thank you. We really appreciate that. If you have some questions for Dan, please put them in the chat room and I guess he can ask people to call in as well.
That is star one if you have a question from the phone.
Can you address the issue about gentrification that has come up in a related point? Has that been an issue in this district, and what has your nonprofit address that, and if so in what way.
Dan Hourigan: Yes. So, it is an issue here and in many places in Atlanta and many other cities across the United States, of course. It seems to be more of an issue in the outlying neighborhoods than in Midtown. We have certainly seen rental rates from residential rates, of course go through the roof in addition to commercial office space rates go through the roof here. The challenge for our city to deal with as a district we struggle to deal with that on our own given the complexity of the city that we work with. We were closely with the city on a complete zoning rewrite about 20 years ago, which created some tools to encourage more affordable housing. The impacts were relatively limited, unfortunately. It is a struggle that we continue to grapple with. I know that we have been working with the city Council and Mayor on a citywide approach. We have certainly not cracked that nut and it is something that is important for us to figure out.
Sasha Page: Thank you. There are a couple of questions in the chat box. I will jump to James because etiquette deals with gentrification but I will go back to the previous ones as well. James says gentrification is a loaded term. It would be less charged to discuss it as displacement. Has that occurred in your area specifically and are there any additional thoughts you might have on that?
Dan Hourigan: Displacement has happened. For example, on the eastern edge of the district which traditionally have been residential with single-family homes, some quad plexus and overtime has evolved to become high doesn't -- high density residential towers and many people have been priced out of Midtown. There has also been a nightlife scene that has by and large been priced out of Midtown and replaced with other bars and restaurants. But a different clientele and a different type. So, there has been displacement and we have not found the secret sauce to deal with that yet but we are committed to working on it.
Thank you.
Sasha Page I think that the co-lead of this value capture program, Stefan Natzke, might have some thoughts. Would you like to jump in here?
Stefan Natzke: Thank you. Just general speaking probably. Value capture itself does not lead to gentrification. Value capture is really based on context and setting and how it is structured and everything else. Value capture can help provide some elements to help folks. It also indicates where growth is happening on its own with any of without any type of subsidy or incentive. In those cases, it's an opportunity to capture some of that and some things that may be beneficial for the programs. Value capture provides an opportunity to maybe create a better linkage between transportation but any economic development project or program really ought to be kind of a broader discussion from planning and zoning and transportation and housing authorities in all of those different things. In which case, you can structure a plan that will help address potential gentrification issues. Also, it can help with medication. I will and by saying this most probably. Value capture is based on the concept of the beneficiary. When you have entities that are benefiting from the infrastructure they ought to be able to pay in proportion to the value they receive and kind of reimburse that community at large. I believe that there and hopefully it doesn't generate more questions for
Sasha Page: We have two more quick questions. We hope we can address some of the questions at the end. You mentioned the remaining properties remaining exempt or any additional taxes.
It is Dan by the way. Sure.
Sorry.
Dan Hourigan: No worries. The property owners can consent to create the districts but if you are within the boundary of the district that has been created, you ultimately get swept in and you are subject to pay the additional tax that is how it works.
Sasha Page: Thank you.
One last question. Does Midtown Atlanta participate in statewide planning?
I am sorry I missed the question. Does your organization participate in statewide transportation planning?
Dan Hourigan: We are seen as a stakeholder by the state so whenever they deal say a statewide plan, we engage in that and connectedness conversations. There are state right of ways that come through so we certainly work with the state D.O.T. on those. So, we are as a stakeholder involved in the state’s overall plans.
Sasha Page: Thank you very much.
Let's move to the next presenter. That is Kim Menefee. She is the executive director of the Cumberland Community Improvement District (CID) and brings more than 20 years of experience in senior marketing, communications, public/government affairs and community engagement to the position. My apologies. I think I have jumped the gun here. No that is correct. I believe that we wanted to have Kim next. That is the wrong presentation. My apologies. Prior to arriving at the CID, Kim served as WellStar Health System’s senior vice president of Public/Government Affairs. She has long been involved wholly various leadership positions on not-for-profit boards. She holds
a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from the University of Georgia’s Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. I think that we are looking for her presentation which is Cumberland.
Charity, are you working on that?
Charity: I am loading it right now. There we go.
Sasha Page: Thank you.
Kim Menefee: Thank you for the invitation to be here. It is really great to be able to share the success of the Cumberland CID. The Cumberland CID is located northwest of Atlanta. It is great to hear we are just North of Midtown Atlanta located in the Northwest part. Cumberland is one of the largest submarkets in the southeast. We represent this area in Cobb County. We have 190 commercial owners in the CID that pay an additional property tax. We leverage those funds to advance transportation and infrastructure and beautification projects. We are on point to deliver by 2024 we will have leveraged at least $2.5 billion with the projects to help grow the Cumberland market. I want to piggyback a little bit off what Dan shared related to the development in Georgia. The Cumberland CID was the first. In the early 1980s Cumberland business leaders and our Chamber of Commerce saw the need to improve the transportation enhancement in the area. They recognize that Cobb County did not have the funds to address the needs of this job market. They actually lobbies the general assembly and worked to adopt a constitutional amendment and it was passed and approved in 1984. So, in 1988 that CID was formed. It was enacted by the board of commissioners. As Dan mentioned earlier this 51% of the property owners representing 75% of the property value that create the CID. They also mention that was made up of commercial property owners. We do not have residential property owners in Georgia CID. Moving forward. This is very much a new style of development for a major league baseball team. They made a significant impact on our market bringing greater development into the area. They found the impact of $20 billion on the state of Georgia. The market has continued to grow jobs with businesses and jobs in the area. This is the addition and the growth of the residential sector. We have over 25,000 residents. Five years ago, we did not have any young professionals in the market. Today, 68% of those residents are millennial or Generation Xers. We are home to some national brands that we are very proud of like Home Depot, Genuine Parts, HD Supply, Synovus, Thyssenkrupp, and more. I want to talk a little bit about the CID. And our goals. First of all, our goals are to improve access, connectivity in the district. We focus on transportation projects that improve the area. Roads, bridges, interchanges, work to create beautiful environments for pedestrian, bike, multimodal users and the districts. The photograph that EC there, we are very fortunate to have Park service land in the CID. We have two units within the CID. We actually Park Manor -- partner with them Park service and we are launching one of those units that was built in the 1970s. We develop pocket parks throughout the district as well as have a significant amount of our budget allocated to improving landscaping. We continue to work to enhance the green space areas around the district. Of course, we continue to support integrated transportation and transit solutions to connect to other markets throughout the region. [Indiscernible] developing us as we have. Our number one sponsor in Cobb County the commission and State Road and told authority as well as the federal state and officials this is the work that we do is advance in the greatest critical infrastructure. This is just a snapshot of some of the projects that we have been successfully completed. This was the catalyst for transforming. It creates connectivity throughout the community as a whole. Increasing the ability throughout the district and it really is an excellent example of what you see here. It included federal and state funding and local funding with Cobb County. A current project that we are working on is the Akers Mill Ramp. This is part of the project completed by the Georgia Department of Transportation two years ago. This is a Tollway system that connects north of the CID. We felt because of the transportation needs and the commute that we have for folks coming into the district on a daily basis to have direct safe access from that system into the district. The CID led this project and worked to put together funding with the total cost of the project of 44.2 million. We are in the right-of-way for certification. We hope to have that the summer. Construction will begin in 2021 and open in 2023. I thought it would be helpful to give you a breakdown on how we worked to put the funding together. It will be built in two phases. Phase 1 was completed as part of the original project putting the infrastructure in place. The CID leveraged our funds with the final funding that was absolutely integral to the project. We received those funds just last year. We are absolutely thrilled because by those coming in we were able to complete the funding to move forward.
Of the projects that we focus on are really focused around community enhancement. That was actually one that we open last summer. It was a one mile extension of this trail. That is now three miles. We did an in partnership with the county as well as DDOT it is a major connection to the National Park Service. We also just launched. We have a 60-mile trail network that is either planned or completed what we are seeing is that those living in the area really needed a better way to understand all of the access that we have in the district as we have grown and become a broader community with those really residing and enjoying the district beyond even the 9-to-5 we wanted to make sure that they had a good way to do it. The site has been tremendously popular. We continue to invest in streetscape and landscape. I mentioned the fact that we do commit a good portion of our budget not only to assist Cobb County but also to assist GDOT. We work to beautify landscaping around major intersections around it . We have a bike share program that has been very popular that we launched in 2018. To date we have 35 bikes in the network around the district. Our goal has been to connect that regionally. We are working on that next step today. When you think about considering putting the CID in place. All of the areas around the Metro Atlanta region. It is really looking. Those community leaders were able to bring these ideas home and develop local and community business support to really learning about how it can be created, establishing goals, networking to develop support and working with officials to make that happen. There's one study I will draw your attention to that was conducted. This was showing how they were developed. With that, I will be happy to take any questions.
Sasha Page: First I will address the questions that are in the chat room. If folks want to ask questions we did not have a chance to ask questions. It may apply to Cumberland. If it is appropriate for us to have Dan speak to us at this time. How do we address projects funded by CID?
We have a board made up of seven board members. They represent approximately 75% of our property owners in the district. Their primary goal has been highly focused on improving transportation and infrastructure. Assisting the county in doing so and really creating that connectivity. As we mature and we enhance our goals, that is where we have taken on the additional mobility options and also looking at how we can enhance the character of the district. They do focus a lot of their energy and our project I guess selection and creating that connectivity. It is between 75 and 285. We have four quadrants around those two major highways. They are very focused on connecting those areas. In terms of how they prioritize, it is making sure that they operate very smoothly and we continue to invest in those enhancements.
Sasha Page: Thank you. I will turn to Craig Hoshijima. This is for Dan but I figure it can apply for you as well. Has any other CID revenue been used for construction or operations of related public transit capital investments? Is that something you would want to address.
Kim Menefee: One thing about our county as we do not ask you we are looking at ways to enhance that. We have a successful bus link program that we are able to take passengers into Atlanta and we partnered there. We have not been called upon in this way to invest in that level at this point. We will always be a partner in determining how best we can assist. They are bringing greater transit to the community.
The question is, I recall there being a controversy around [Indiscernible] has the CID advocated for financially supportive of a Marta stop near the ballpark
Is the CID advocating for this or are they supportive of a to stop near the ballpark?
There are a couple of things that I will be happy to try. First of all, one of the things that attracted them to the CID is the development that we have created. When they looked at where the fan base came from the northern suburbs of Atlanta. We knew that this would be an area that their fans would definitely gravitate to. The County added a circulator to do the options and move people around the district. In addition to one of these things where the ballpark sets. There have not been issues at the time trying to come through from the park quite honestly, we have not seen that. Partially because of the road system that has been built over the years. They are ready to be the transit solutions into Cobb County and the region. We are committed and will continue to work to that end.
Sasha Page: Thank you.
I think we have to move on to the next presenter. There is a question asking about if you could repeat the reference for the CID work are there any more links that you can maybe just type in in the chat room it is being addressed now. Moving from Atlanta to Missouri, I think we have pollen here. The Missouri River 36 project manager for the Missouri D.O.T. Paula Gough, P.E. is a 1995 graduate of University of Missouri - Columbia College of Engineering with a B.S. in Civil Engineering. Paula began her career with MoDOT in 1995 with positions in design, planning and project management. In 2007, Paula was selected as the Northeast District Engineer for Missouri Department of Transportation. The Northeast District covers 17 counties, over 440 employees, over 4500 centerline miles of highway and 1100 bridges.
Paula Gough: I wanted to start with a little bit of an overview of transportation in Missouri. We are a diverse state geographically. We have a very large highway system in the state of Missouri. We have the seventh-largest highway system but we are 48 the revenue per mile. That sets the stage of why many of our communities have had to find creative solutions to deliver needs in the area. The Northeast district is one of seven districts. We have a lot of decentralized decision-making and planning in the state of Missouri. The communities in the Northeast district range from intrastate along 72 very rural. We have quite a few funding challenges. The planning process in Missouri, while the urban areas of St. Louis, Kansas City, for the rural part of the state about 20 years ago we actually formalized they serve as the transportation committees in the area. [Indiscernible] as the planning organizations they serve in a great collaborative an advisory capacity. That is very important as we talk about the highway 36 project.
In Missouri, we have a number of different partnership development programs ranging from cost share that is actually allocated funds that are competitive and communities can apply for and the amount available per year range from $25 million up to $45 million for the reason there is that range is that the highway commission suspended the program for a few years and have reinstituted it so it will be faced up to $45 million. Typically, that is at least a 50/50 cost share. There's also participation which covers the range of as the community wants to add something to a project going through their community. The next story are the ones I'm going to talk about that they were all instrumental for the highway 36 project. The Missouri transportation finance Corporation, the abbreviation which is the Missouri state infrastructure bank. We have nearly $60 million currently available to loan. Transportation development districts and transportation Corporation.
I want to provide a little bit of history because it sets the stage for the success of the 36 products. Kirksville Missouri is located in Adair County on U.S. 63. It is home of Truman State University as well as the school of osteopathy. Is actually the very first school is a steal to be in the nation. It draws and a lot of people from around the nation and actually around the world. Kirksville is north of the community of Macon. It was a rural Tulane 63. It had a lot of safety challenges. With our funding challenges, this project was not in the mix to be funded. The city of Kirksville started working with the Missouri Department of Transportation to be creative on how could they try to get their projects and participate in the funding of that project. It laid the groundwork for a lot of the future projects. The city of Kirksville and the community and counties really started working collaboratively and had significant community and local support. They actually passed a tax that was only with in their jurisdiction that paid for a portion of the county. They utilized it to upfront the cost and then paid what they had financed back with their sales tax. That was important because everybody in the region as well is across the state. It was a wake-up call of my goodness what were they able to do and how are they able to do it. They were notably the first community to pass the tax to pay for the project outside of their limits. That brings us forward to US 36. The projects we will talk about rents from Macon on the Westerleigh border to Hannibal on the eastern border. Macon is the same community that was part of the program projects. The US 36 is a highway that parallels I 70 it was formally the community of St. Joseph starting in the 70s and 1980s. One of the common questions that we get is why haven't those 52 miles been completed. Starting in the late 1970s and 80s, the Missouri D.O.T. had a robust program building bypasses on communities and four-lane projects. As the reality in the mid-90s of the funding challenges as costs started to escalate the we were forced to really scale back our program to focus on doing a better job taking care of the existing system and having less funds for the gas on the corridor. This was a sizable gap. One of the good things was that much of the environmental work has been completed so that really set the stage for the communities to be able to move forward. So, this is a map. The actual name of the development district is US 36 I 72 that is because it actually comes into Missouri from Illinois for a very small portion. It ends at the intersection of U.S. 61. There is a whole of the presentation there if you want to know why we have the interstate that stops. That is beyond the scope of this presentation. The transportation need was to complete the for lining. There was significant support and I cannot underscore enough the importance of that support. Via federal officials and state and local officials and the planning commission. County officials, schools, chambers, trucking companies. They really turned to the city of Kirksville for guidance of how they were able to accomplish that. So, this 36-group started meeting monthly along the corridor Missouri D.O.T. had a seat at the table to talk about how can I do this and what can be done. A few things came into being about this time that allowed the project to even become possible for the communities of this size to be able to accomplish a practical design is one of them. Being able to finance through the state infrastructure was also critical. A little bit of the timeline. I would like to try to find out how long the highway 36 Interstate 72 corridor had been in place. I was not able to find when the group actually started, but for a number of years there has been a group between Kansas, US 36 corridor and Missouri that has met informally once or twice a year. There was a corridor Association. Did not really have any governmental affiliation or any ability to tax. There was a group of people concerned about this project. In the late 90s, as I mentioned, a grassroots organization of local officials began meeting to find a way to accomplish that. In June 2003, that is when the US 36 Interstate 72 transportation Corporation formed. It was a significant first step that allowed them to enter into a cooperative D.O.T. outlining a willingness to pass the local sales tax. We can we provide in terms of engineering. We have legal counsel that was familiar with transportation corporations they were able to provide the legal guidance owned what they needed to do to move forward with this process. In January 2005, the transportation Corporation proposed and formed the transportation development district. In August, there was successful passage of that sales tax and I will jump ahead to June 10. That was the ribbon cutting and celebration. A little bit more about the sales tax. I mentioned that the environmental work has been completed previously. This original project as laid out in the environmental work was nearly $200 million. We were building a lot of bypasses around communities. It's a significant number of interchanges. It was just a lot of work that really price the project where it was very expensive. At the same time, I mentioned practical design came on to focus in Missouri. Practical design was really a philosophy that continues today about building what is needed and building a very safe and practical project. Through the process of value engineering and implementation of practical design, we were able to bring the proposed project estimate down to around $100 million for construction. This was significant because it made local financing of half of that cost of $50 million was an attainable amount of funding that the communities would be able to provide through a sales tax. We needed to find a way to make a realistic and reasonable amount that they could provide. That was the construction cost. They provided the engineering and the right-of-way acquisition. They cover the cost of right-of-way acquisition, construction, inspection, and we also provided the technical assistance with financing. The local entities were responsible for performing the transportation Corporation and development district and all of the necessary legal work to have the election and pass the sales tax. The ultimate goal was to improve the safety and conductivity of these communities. I would like to note that these four communities only have a population of around 50,000 people. The fact that they were willing to tax themselves to provide $15 million is pretty significant. The other thing that was agreed to was that the sales tax would begin on or before March 1 of 2006 and on or before the date that was 15 years beyond that sales tax. We believe that it was critical as they went out for a vote that they were very specific on what the community would be getting and that this money would not go for anything else. This is a recap about the project cost. The estimated construction cost was $100 million and reprogrammed it for $95 million. We were receiving awesome bids and were able to get a contracted amount to $74 million. We also received a $7 million earmark that we split between MoDOT and the D.O.T. They were able to take it out for $34.3 million and how they were able to pay that back through the sales tax. The tax began January 1, 2006 and was busted and in 2021. They were able to repeal August 21, 2017 because they were able to acquire enough money through the sales tax and they could end the sales tax early and paid off the loan 2.5 years earlier than anticipated. They did a great job of telling the community is what they were going to do, being very transparent, and following through when they said they would stop collecting sales tax when they have enough money to pay for the project. There had to be a final election to dissolve it so that took a little bit of work of explaining why they needed to go to the polls to vote to end the tax. These are just a few pictures of the ribbon cutting and celebration. These communities pay half of the bill for this project they can still continue to take a lot of ownership. This project, as well as the 63 has led to other communities trying to follow suit. Warrington, and this district also 100% funded and interchanged because we did not have funds to contribute. They once again used the sales tax to pay their portion and utilize the state infrastructure of the NTSB for the upfront cost. Lessons learned, community and grassroots support is critical. Foster early collaboration between the D.O.T. and local officials and planning partners. Be very transparent about everything you are doing. Have a variety of options as well as utilizing the central office to be the technical experts. It is really the one working side-by-side with the transportation Corporation. Then they continue to have that state infrastructure be well-publicized and understood so that it can be utilized. Things to consider that we would do different and have done different is considered the operating cost to expand the system. It costs more to operate but what we have been able to do is seek ways to the minds as I mentioned, the people along this corridor take ownership and pride and enjoy the safety of having their families travel on a safe four Lane Highway.
Sasha Pahe: Are there any questions for Paula? Please put them in the chat room and press star one. I have one question for you. It appears that Missouri with US 36 but also US 60 three with the value capture publications it was also funded in a similar way with local sales tax in the district. What is it about Missouri that seems to gravitate to the solution for value capture?
Paula Gough: I think part of the issue is in that statistic that we are the seventh largest highway system but the 48 in revenue per mile. Our communities have been very creative because the needs continue to grow. These are not wants, they are true needs across the state. Working through our regional planning partners as well as having strong community relationships and really fostering that creativity, it is really out of necessity that the communities have tended to be willing to step up and find creative ways as well as people being more willing to support something at the local level that they know exactly what they are going to get and the level of trust with their local community leaders and following through.
Sasha Page: Thank you. I think given the time we will move to last but not least speaker. That is Noelle Dominguez. She is the Coordination Section Chief for the Fairfax County Department of Transportation in Fairfax County, Virginia, which is the largest local jurisdiction in the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Area. She oversees a team that coordinates the County’s relationships with transportation partner agencies in Virginia and the National Capital Region, including the region’s MPO, the Transportation Planning Board; the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA); the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC); the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA); and the Virginia Railway Express (VRE) commuter rail system. Fairfax County’s government relations liaison on transportation issues at the federal and state levels, and has provided ongoing staff support to various regional and statewide organizations. Prior to joining Fairfax County, Ms. Dominguez served for six years as a staff member for Member of Congress, working on various issues, including transportation, appropriations, judiciary, banking, and small business matters
Noelle Dominguez: Thank you everybody for having me. I am the coordination section chief for the Fairfax County Department of Transportation here in Northern Virginia. With a little bit of a background, Fairfax County is a locality in the national [Indiscernible] we are about 400 square miles and we have 1.1 million residents. This tax district is what I will be talking about today. This is located in the Western and the Fairfax County in part of the national capital region. Fairfax County is also located to the west [Indiscernible-speaker too far from audio source] including Dulles international Airport, located around our neighbor to the west and also a population of over 400,000. These segments incorporated by the highway transportation improvement district. It connects Virginia around the North to South of U.S. 50 in western Fairfax County.
Sasha Page: Noelle, could you get a little bit closer to your microphone? It is harder to hear you.
Noelle Dominguez: Is that better?
Sasha age: A little bit. If that's what you have than that's what we have to work with.
Noelle Dominguez: Okay. I do want to note that route 28 continue South into our neighbor to jurisdiction. Those segments are not part of the tax district. A little bit of our creation this recognizes the need for improved transportation infrastructure that would lead to improved conductivity as well as support plans and projected growth. As part of that effort the Virginia code language was created to allow for the creation of an independent taxing district to support the transportation improvements. This was to be a property tax increase on commercial and industrial property. I do want to note that it may be formed only under the direction of owners that have 51% of the land area. And that the tax district is required to contribute 75% of the funding for all projects in the district. The state contributes the remaining 25%. Just a little bit of background. I believe if we have about 1400 acres in the tax district so based on that petition from those landowners following the enactment of this legislation the Board of Supervisors for both Fairfax and Loudoun County created the route 28 highway transportation improvement district to fund improvements on route 28. This largely included widening from these segments of the roadway and construction of separated interchanges. Here is just a close-up of the entire district. You can tell the area shaded green are the segments that are included within the text district. People notice the gray area close to the roadway that is not quite noted as green. That is actually Dulles international Airport. You can see the line running from the bottom left to the top right. That was the boundary between the counties and that will show you what it looks like in this region. Continuing on to governance. The district itself is comprised of nine members. We have four elected officials from Fairfax and Loudoun County each as well as the Commonwealth of Virginia Secretary of transportation. In addition to the commission we have a landowner’s advisory board which is made up of 12 landowner representatives, six from each county are elected by taxpaying landowners. We currently have approximately 3000 property owners that receive nomination forms every four years as part of the election. We also have six members. Three from each county that are for a four-year term. The advisory board and the commission itself generally meet annually. No additional meetings can be or have been called as necessary. Generally speaking, they would usually meet in February, March, April and would give the recommendation on various matters to the commission itself. Then, if the commission changes or requires actions by localities, that gives time for the localities to ask prior to the new fiscal year. So briefly here are just some of the projects that we have completed. This was created to widen the long segment of route 28 as well as various interchanges. We have completed about 15. One is due to be completed this summer. We have one project remaining and that is widening the road. Once that is done they would have essentially completed their work. I want to note that a funding strategy is in place so we are working to move that forward as well. Here are a couple of pictures of the project that we have completed. First off is the Parkway interchange. This was the first to be completed and it opened to traffic in 2003 and is still heavily utilized today. We have a couple more to the top left. We have four-lane roads added near the Dulles airport exit. That any change, the next road over is called frying pan road. There are multiple interchanges in that section. That was completed in 2017. Lastly, route 846 interchange was also completed in 2006. I mentioned there have been about 15 projects completed. There are more pictures. I just did not bring them up. So, moving on to the revenue history. The district currently has a tax rate of $.17. They are limited to $.20 per hundred-dollar valuation. At that point, the recommendation was made to reduce the tax rate to $.18 we hope that $.18 for the next decade or so. The recommendation was just made to reduce the tax rate to $.17 per hundred-dollar valuation. This is based on information provided earlier this year. These are from the last advisory board meeting in February and March. The estimate and 2021 may be a little bit different. I think that they are fairly strong it will and when they are paid off. How we fund these projects is like I said we have done a lot of work in the district. The tax district itself has worked with Loudon County and the Commonwealth to support these projects. We support this Commonwealth. They had issued the contract revenues on behalf of the districts. The revenues on as well as the Virginia share as I mentioned earlier. This is empowered by the act and are subject to annual actions by the recessive board. In 2013 to the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority. This is fun insignificant projects and route 28 does qualify for this. The 30% returned to the individual tally locality cinnamon project needs. Part of this process is applied to funding for several projects. That would have otherwise been funded by the tax district. This funding is provided with the funding. Had this funding not been approved you can see it would have taken longer for the final projects to be completed. Just a last note on that they support the commitment to the district. Just click advantages and lessons learned that we found out from this project and as it moves forward, the utilization of the tax district can be advantageous for the large-scale high cost projects. The district can be vulnerable to larger economic trends. As I mentioned we did see the revenues reduced or the amount of revenue reduced slightly. That did. They plan and construct projects we have the team in Fairfax and Loudoun once the roadway is built. I do want to say that the use of the landowners advisory committee is essential to moving forward. It is far and away a benefit. We do think these annual meetings are to update the advisory committee members as you have seen moving forward, we have other service districts in Fairfax County and each one stressing the requirements but I do believe that besides route 28 is we have the state one of the improvement district and phase 2. This is part of the expansion of the silver line project in Fairfax County. So, route 28 as I noted earlier is near the Dulles Airport. You have some landowners that may be part of both tax districts. With that, I believe that is my presentation and I am happy to answer any questions.
Sasha Page: Thank you very much, Noel. That is great. First of all, folks on the phone, if you want to ask the question please press star one. And if we have any folks in the chat room, can we get that back? Also, if anybody wants to put any questions in the chat that would be great as well. While we are waiting for the questions, you mentioned that in 2008/2009 where revenue get used to the recession at that time [Indiscernible]. As of right now i.e. seeing any thoughts about how a project like this or a district like this reacts to a recession that we may be going through or are going through.
Noelle Dominguez: We saw a slight decrease in the availability of funds to move forward but it was not to the extent that we expected. With this current situation, I'm not sure how this would impact us at this moment. We make the revenues come in once or twice a year. That is something that we are keeping an eye on
It just so happens that during the last three sessions that was right around the time that the commission had voted to reduce the tax rate. It did impact the revenue available.
Sasha Page: Any other questions or comments? We have one. To the narrow boundaries capture the entire area for improvement. Is that a problem?
Noelle Dominguez: I think I would say that these improvements largely benefit a large portion of northern Virginia. Not just those landowners but they do have specific impact on the landowners themselves. There is a lot of happening and a lot of business has moved and. It ties into the Dulles toll road which ties into the Fairfax District. That is right below the tax district boundary and we have the interchange with Interstate 66 which runs into Washington, D.C. And further out into Virginia. We have a lot of movement. The average ET was about 135,000 in 2016. That was expected to grow to 180 by 2036. It is not just restricted to the landowner but it is necessary for them.
Sasha Page: Okay. Great. To my questions and then we will open it up to all of you. Question from Avery, we are considering approving new interstate access. Funding is available for the D.O.T. The Interstate Access will benefit the housing and shopping malls in the area. any ideas to capture value, since there is no funding shortage, and if value is captured, can the state DOT be the benficiary?
Noelle Dominguez: For access to the interstate. We already have access. We have a large interchange there. It is right where the tax district boundary is. In fact, I am not speaking on behalf of the Commonwealth, there is large ongoing projects being undertaken. That interchanges been upgraded as part of that project. They do really made it to the. We have other projects that are funded with local and state and regional sources so it is something that we just have a system around.
Sasha Page: Just to be clear here, the D.O.T. is a partner of the district for the money that is raised to this district.
[Indiscernible]
The revenue pays back the bonds and those are offered by them do contribute about one quarter of the projects. They maintain the roadway once that is completed.
Sasha Page: Okay. Great. One last question for you. How was district for WMATA silver line established.?
Noelle Dominguez: To use a different code section. It is also required used by landowners. 51% of the landowners available. They have their own tax rate and the revenues are going to pay back the cost of the phase 1 and phase 2.
Sasha Page: What I would like to do is turn it to the entire group. We have just a little more time. I would like to ask all of you to address questions in a very short order so that we can move through a couple of these. My first question is how are you addressing operations and maintenance cost of the new infrastructure. Many of you talk about new projects. Let me start with Dan, Kim, Paula, and Noelle.Â
Dan Hourigan: As I mentioned we are building more and more infrastructure on behalf of the city and partnership with the city and as maintenance needs and it has played a major role in maintaining that and we have had to increase our budget fairly substantially over the last 5 to 7 years to really deal with that. We maintain all of these 2500 or so to do that to make sure that we survive and last. That extends to a lot of things. With sidewalks we have a $100,000 annual budget to maintain sidewalks constantly torn up by utility companies.
Kim Menefee: I would echo a lot of the same type of structure that mention. We actually maintain a tremendous amount of assets within the CID. The streetscape, the sidewalks doing the enhanced lighting, we do depend on the County to help us to maintain our trails and, of course, other transportation related types of projects. We have a very large significant budget that is dedicated to maintaining our assets. We devote a good bit of our budget to maintaining in that way as well.
Sasha Page: Thank you.
Paula Gough: That has been one of the challenges with the landing of the U.S. 63 and 36 projects because there was support from the locals to build the infrastructure which was fantastic but there was not additional revenue for the operation. We basically have just shifted resources around and spread it around. We have taken the stance with newer projects in the 70 interchange in Warrenton. Not only to the community fund 100% of that project, we also negotiated and legally transferred the mileage and came up with an equivalence with miles of highway equivalent so that we feel like. They keep the maintenance responsibilities the same and neutral. It is to try to keep the size of the infrastructural neutral to what it is today.
Sasha Page: Thank you. Noelle.
Noelle Dominguez: In Virginia, the Commonwealth is responsible for maintaining. Once they are turned over they will handle that.
Sasha Page: You can talk now pose the question earlier about dealing with things like jails and facilities and homeless in districts for they ask that of Dan and Kim. I would like to ask does anybody online that would like to ask a question please ask a question if you have one.
They asked another short question for all of the participants. How you get people come together, how you get the public and private actors, different level of governments. What’s the best way for them to agree on the project complicate like this? How and what is the best way to get them to this project.
Noelle Dominguez: The project was started before I started with the county but I think that everybody sees the need to improve mobility, and reduce congestion in our region. They have a significant amount of capacity issues that we all try to address. We have this good economic situation but we do see that traffic impact to impact the ability for people to get to work. Our residents and business community and the localities an agency we organize and come together to see what needs have to be met when the legislation is passed and consolidated by all of us. By our agencies and our business community and working with the legislature to give that legislation passed to get us money. We all work together to provide additional money for the Metrorail system. It is something we have been working on for a while and we will continue to do so.
Paula Gough: Luckily with the U.S. 63 projects we had some very strong community leaders as well as one of the residents, university-- I think he was president at the University in Truman who had quite a few transportation connections that really led the charge to get the local leaders organized. Similarly, on the 36 corridor. The chairman of the highway commission really worked to bring together a bipartisan group along the corridor. As I mentioned having the regional planning commissions and utilizing them for transportation planning even in a rural area has really continued to serve as a hub for having those regional relationships as well as the foundation that are plugged into the regional planning commission process so the regional approach has been critical but also having that strong one or two champions that is willing to put in the work to really continue to bring people together. The D.O.T. cannot do that and we can be at the table but the projects where they have a strong leaders definitely have a greater success.
Sasha Page: Good point.
Kim Menefee: From a CID perspective in Cumberland with our history and success we really have a tremendous amount of community support already. We really built that trust with the community and we put that reputation over the years. We took the lead on that project to really bring together community leaders. Those that take advantage of using a system such as that. Working with our community. It is very much getting that community support through the business community and various organizations to support.
Dan Hourigan: We partner with our city to execute projects. So, each project engagement plan and it is robust to say the least. It makes projects take a longer but out the end of the day. That is part of it at the core of what we do for.
Sasha Page: we have time for another question and then I think I will turn it over to charity. Stephen Tocknell, my question was, are there are homeless facilities and/or jails that are problematic in downtown districts like midtown Atlanta? that might also be a problem in the Cumberland CID. I will read that and others in the district like Midtown Atlanta. We will start with Kim and then down.
Kim Menefee: We have those issues being in a suburban area although the district has changed a great deal we have not experienced those types of issues that you are asking.
Dan Hourigan: We certainly do unfortunately have homeless folks in our district. There are churches and other facilities that have feedings or deliver meals for the homeless. It does create is going to call them problems but it is a reality of our world and our city as far as more trash to clean up, there is perceived public safety issues but to that end as an organization we have shifted some of our public safety emphasis to really more social services delivery. We have staff that work to identify homeless folks in the district versus pushing them into another part of the city.
Sasha Page: Thank you. I want to thank all of the presenters today for their participation. Charity, please wrap it up.
Charity Coleman: Thank you. Before we wrap it up I want to thank you all for joining today's webinar. Want to mention as a reminder we have some topics and dates for future value capture virtual peer exchanges. You will see here on the slide that the next webinar will be on August 20 from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Eastern. The topic of the event will be advertising, naming rights, and sponsorship. You can register by clicking on the link in the slide. Before we completely conclude today's webinar if you could take a few moments to complete the evaluation. That helps us improve future webinars. You can just respond to the questions on the screen.
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For speakers. Please do not hang up. We will go to the debrief room momentarily. That will conclude today's webinar. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect. [event concluded]
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