County may get transport panel

Lane County appears to be on the verge of getting its own ACT — an Area Commission on Transportation.

In 1996, the Oregon Transportation Commission, which oversees the state Department of Transportation, authorized the creation of the regional advisory panels to expand ways for local citizens to get involved in how the Transportation Department makes decisions on its road, bridge and other projects.

Oregon has 10 ACTs and all consist of areas covering at least two counties. The only areas in the state that do not have ACTs are Lane County and the Portland metropolitan area that includes all of Multnomah and Clackamas counties and most of Washington County.

The Lane County Board of Commissioners has always been the local lead on state funding transportation issues for the county, taking comment from communities and making recommendations to the state.

But with the creation of the local ACT, that’s about to change. A majority of commissioners in the past has been resistant to establishing an ACT, board Chairman Bill Fleenor said. The feeling among some commissioners has been that if the Portland area didn’t have to have one, why should Lane County?

But the state Legislature didn’t agree.

Last year, lawmakers passed a bill sponsored by state Sen. Floyd Prozanski and state Rep. Paul Holvey, both of Eugene, requiring the county, in consultation with local transportation stakeholders and elected local officials, to create an ACT by Sept. 30 of this year.

In October, the board hired traffic consultant Rob Zako and appointed him project manager for a forum to establish a Lane County ACT. Since then, the panel of about two dozen participants has met three times and will meet for perhaps the final time Wednesday to finalize proposed bylaws for the establishment of a countywide ACT.

Under the existing system, “part of the problem is that we just don’t include enough people,” said Lane County Commissioner Rob Handy, who has taken a lead on transportation issues for the board. “So many people have felt left out of the (transportation) decision-making.”

The county commissioners are not transportation experts, Zako said. The county ACT will “try and bring together others with knowledge” from around the county, he said.

The ACT is likely to end up being established with a similar structure and makeup as the forum, which includes Handy as Lane County representative, Mayor Kitty Piercy as city of Eugene representative, and representatives from Springfield, Coburg, Cottage Grove, Creswell, Dunes City, Florence, Junction City, Lowell, Oakridge, Veneta, Westfir.

Other members represent the Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, Lane Transit District, the Port of Siuslaw, Lane County’s ODOT staff, the county’s roads advisory committee and citizens advisory dommittee, the Central Lane Metropolitan Planning Organization and the Oregon Economic Revitalization Team, among others.

The Lane County ACT also is likely to include a representative from the McKenzie River area east of Springfield, which has no incorporated city, plus about a half-dozen citizens from other interest groups, such as senior citizens and schools, Zako said.

The state is looking for consensus from Lane County when it comes to funding transportation projects, Handy said. A lack of consensus by the county on past issues has led the state to pass on funding certain projects, he said.

Local politicians were at loggerheads for years over the West Eugene Parkway project, which the state eventually cancelled.

ACTs in other parts of the state have exploited the lack of consensus in Lane County when competing for funding, Handy said.

“To bring all these stakeholders to the table early and often is not only good government, but it will help the county get our fair share of state transportation funds,” Handy said.

ACTs can look at all aspects of the transportation system: policies, major projects, congestion, safety, intermodal linkages, freight, relationship to development, health issues or environmental impacts.

ACTs also look at all modes of transportation: air, marine, rail, roadway, transit, bicycle and pedestrian.

The Lane County commissioners are expected to discuss the bylaws on April 27 and vote to approve them in May or June. The bylaws will then be forwarded to the Oregon Transportation Commission for approval this summer.

“The ACTs have been born out of, if not controversy, at least tension,” Zako said. But the first three forum meetings have gone smoothly, he added. Participants have gone into the process “with trepidation and suspicion,” but “people are warming up to each other,” he said.