C-TRAN Boundary Reductions Considered

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C-TRAN Boundary Reductions Considered

For immediate release: January 25, 2005

Vancouver, WA: On Saturday, January 22, the C-TRAN Public Transportation Improvement Conference (PTIC) of January 2005 convened for the purpose of discussing the boundary lines of the Public Transportation Benefit Area (PTBA). The PTIC was formed by a resolution of the C-TRAN Board of Directors at its January 11, 2005 meeting. The PTIC’s voting-eligible membership is comprised of the three Clark County Commissioners and one elected representative each of the cities of Vancouver, Camas, Washougal, Battle Ground, Ridgefield, La Center and Yacolt.
At its January 22 meeting, the PTIC voted on the initial boundary line of the delineation of the PTBA boundary to include the City of Vancouver and its Urban Growth Boundary (VUGB), and the city limits only of Camas, Washougal, Battle Ground, Ridgefield, La Center and Yacolt. As depicted on the proposed service boundary map which is attached, the cities of Camas and Washougal are contiguous to the Vancouver UGB; therefore, the combined areas would be served as a contiguous service area.
The city limits of the Cities of Battle Ground, Ridgefield, La Center and Yacolt, however, would be connected to the Vancouver UGB via “non-service” transportation corridors. This means transit service along these corridors would operate in a closed door, express mode and passengers would not be able to board or disembark buses while traveling in these areas.
The PTIC has formally requested each city included in the initial boundary delineation described above to take formal action to either “opt in” or “opt out” of the boundary, and to communicate that decision to the PTIC by the 15th of February.
The PTIC is scheduled to meet on February 15, at 5:15 p.m., at C-TRAN’s Administrative Office to consider the decision made by each city on whether to "opt in" or "opt out" of the proposed PTBA boundary and to schedule the public hearing where all citizens are welcome to comment on the boundary that has been delineated by the PTIC. The public hearing is tentatively scheduled for March 22 (not March 15th as stated in today's Oregonian article) at 7:00 p.m. The location for the public hearing has not yet been determined.
Following the public hearing, the PTIC is scheduled to vote on the boundary and adopt a resolution fixing the boundaries of the PTBA (C-TRAN). The Board of Clark County Commissioners will then have 30 days to veto the establishment of the benefit area and each of the cities included in the benefit area will have 60 days to withdraw from participation in the benefit area. Concurrently to the time frame just referenced, the County Commissioners and the cities will select the members that will serve on the C-TRAN Board of Directors, according to the existing state law governing PTBA’s. Following the 60 days, the new boundary and new C-TRAN Board of Directors becomes effective. A discussion on whether additional funding is needed to support the newly defined district would then occur.
When C-TRAN was approved by a vote of citizens in 1980, the service and taxing boundary was established county-wide. Following the elimination of half of its tax support from the state of Washington in 2000, C-TRAN was no longer able to provide service to rural areas in Clark County. In the November 2004 general election, citizens were asked to approve Proposition One, which would have restored the funding C-TRAN lost in 2000. Voters rejected Proposition One, which prompted the C-TRAN Board of Directors to approve a Service Reduction Plan in December 2004 that would eliminate 46% of C-TRAN’s service. The service reduction is scheduled to be implemented on September 25, 2005. That action approved by the Board also called for the agency to:

Solicit public input and adopt a new fare increase in early 2005;
Realign the organization from its existing five departments into three;
Freeze all management salary increases for 2005;
Develop and adopt a new service (and taxing) boundary for C-TRAN;

C-TRAN is Clark County’s public transit system and provides 27 bus routes throughout the county and downtown Portland. In 2003, C-TRAN provided a total of 6.91 million passenger trips. For more information on C-TRAN’s services, please call C-TRAN’s Passenger Service Office at (360) 695-0123 or visit C-TRAN’s Web site at www.c-tran.com.

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