Work is only now beginning in earnest on developing a new vision for the Central Arkansas Transit Authority that supporters say they hope will lead to better transit options for the region and a dedicated tax to help pay for them.
The authority staff last month contracted with Nelson/Nygaard, a national planning consultant company that focuses on transit, to help develop service options beyond traditional bus routes, an analysis of the agency's finances and possible re-branding of CATA, Jarod Varner, the agency's executive director, said Monday.
Nelson/Nygaard has a contract that will not exceed $350,000, Varner said. Of the money the firm will receive, 80 percent will come from federal transit planning money, he said.
Supporters believe that vision includes a dedicated tax for CATA, which now relies on contributions from Pulaski County and the cities it serves -- nearly $12 million in 2013. The agency also collects about $2.2 million a year in fares and receives about $2.7 million annually from the federal government.
Varner said he will take up a suggestion from one board member and consider alternatives to a dedicated tax. Those alternatives could include modifying the agreements with the cities to allow the agency more autonomy with respect to making routing changes. Under the current agreement, the agency has limited authority to make route changes because those changes can alter the funding formula, requiring some cities to pay less and some to pay more.
But Jimmy Moses, a board member from Little Rock, said at a meeting of the strategic planning committee Monday that transit supporters cannot afford to blow the opportunity to create a dedicated funding source for CATA.
"If we fail to fund this properly, it's going to be 25 years before we get another shot at it," Moses said.
The planning process will include influential decision-makers as well as members of neighborhood associations, Varner said.
"This will be a very fluid, stakeholder-driven process that is vetted, hopefully, by every single person in central Arkansas," he said. "There are no preconceived notions of what their answers are going to be.
"The process will be more valuable than any of the documents that are created."
Lawrence Finn of North Little Rock, a member of the CATA board and chairman of the strategic planning committee the board formed last year, said he expects the process to take about eight to 10 months.
"This is going to be an exercise that's thoroughly engaging," he said. "We're going to take it from the grass roots to the significant community stakeholders. It's really bottom up, top down."
Finn said he believes the development of a long-range strategy and vision for CATA is building upon a separate planning initiative from Metroplan, the long-range transportation planning agency for the region. That initiative, Imagine Central Arkansas, is winding down, but it found broad support for transit in its public outreach campaign that sought input on the transportation needs for the region.
"Whether that transit means great cycling trails or whether that means the light rail or trolley system, whether that means buses or some combination of all of it, folks are engaged in transit and interested in seeing it thrive," Finn said. "We're really poised to start looking toward implementing what those visions could be."
Metro on 08/05/2014