The Rock Region Metro board of directors voted in a special meeting Monday to ask the Pulaski County Quorum Court to refer an ordinance to voters in the March 1 primary election that would dedicate a 0.25 percent sales tax for transit that would raise an estimated $18 million annually.
The proposed ordinance is expected to be added to the Quorum Court's agenda in time for tonight's agenda meeting. The ordinance needs to be referred to the Quorum Court's regular meeting on Nov. 24 and adopted before it can be referred to voters.
The dedicated sales tax is the linchpin of the transit system's proposed $23.3 million service expansion the board approved in July and is the latest in a series of maneuvers to upgrade the agency's transit service. It also has been a year in which the agency discarded its old name, Central Arkansas Transit Authority, equipped its fleet with free Wi-Fi for passengers and acquired more than a dozen buses that run on compressed natural gas. Officials say they are more environmentally friendly than the diesel-powered buses they replaced.
The board approved the resolution on a unanimous voice vote at its noon meeting, the official notice for which went out two hours earlier, the minimum amount of time required by state law to notify the public of a meeting of a governing agency or board.
Nine directors were present at Monday's meeting, including two -- Little Rock Finance Director Sara Lenehan and Tony Vestal of North Little Rock -- who participated by telephone. Absent were Little Rock City Manager Bruce Moore, Art Kinnaman of Pulaski County and Darrell Brown of Sherwood.
"A one-fourth cent sales tax is our only option," Allie Freeman, the board chairman, said before the vote. "It will provide bus rapid transit along major corridors in Little Rock, provides cross-town routes in North Little Rock, increases frequency on major routes throughout the system and provides fixed local routes for the first time in Sherwood, Maumelle and Jacksonville."
Others directors present at the meeting included Jay Freeman of Pulaski County, Matt Lindsey and Jimmy Moses of Little Rock, John Todd of Maumelle and Bentley Wallace and Lawrence Finn, both of North Little Rock.
"It's pretty exciting stuff," Finn said after the vote. Finn chaired the board's strategic committee, which did the early work in crafting the plan adopted in July. "We've been working on this for 18 months. We're taking it to the voters."
The transit board's vote comes at a time when state and local officials are in discussions over an estimated $600 million project to widen the Interstate 30 corridor through downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock. The project, called "30 Crossing," includes replacing the I-30 bridge over the Arkansas River, improving interchanges and, under one alternative, widening I-30 in places to 10 lanes though still largely remaining within the corridor's right of way.
The project has sparked discussion over whether it comes at the expense of alternative modes of transportation, including transit. Early studies of the corridor discounted commuter rail or light rail as realistic options, given its cost and the lack of population in the region to support those modes.
"What 30 Crossing has done is elevated community interaction because the community is seeking alternatives," Jarod Varner, the Rock Region Metro executive director, said after the meeting. "What is out there? What we found through this is our region is behind in developing alternatives to highways.
"Really, this action by the Quorum Court and going to the voters is the first opportunity to developing a strong alternative to highways."
The latest transit plan includes hardened shoulders in the corridor that could be reserved for future bus rapid transit, a form of transit equipped with high-capacity buses. Where possible, the routes will feature dedicated lanes -- lanes set aside for particular types of vehicles -- to provide fast and frequent service.
The rapid transit routes would feature level platform boarding in which fares are collected before boarding, much like on high-speed rail lines.
Varner acknowledged, after a question from Lenehan, that the agency remains in discussions with Little Rock over the scope of the bus rapid transit. It initially was planned to total 11.7 miles.
But with half of the mileage needing to be on dedicated lanes to qualify for Federal Transit Administration funding, city officials didn't think it was realistic to devote almost 6 miles of the planned routes to lanes reserved only for buses.
Monday's vote was the culmination of a lot of work, public outreach and "listening, really listening" to the community, Varner said.
He noted the resolution the board adopted in July supporting the transit system upgrade, dubbed Move Central Arkansas, includes keeping the ongoing support from the system's partners in addition to the sales tax increase to fund the upgrades.
The cities of Little Rock, North Little Rock, Sherwood and Maumelle, and Pulaski County collectively contribute about $12.5 million annually to help fund the transit agency's operations. Little Rock contributes the most, about $8.6 million in 2015.
Varner expects the annual contribution from all of the agency's partners to be smaller in the 2016 budget, which will be considered at the board's regular meeting later this month.
Metro on 11/10/2015