Agenda Item #14.1
For Council Meeting of: February 1, 2022
CITY OF SANTA ROSA
CITY COUNCIL
TO: MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
FROM: YURI KOSLEN, TRANSIT PLANNER
TRANSPORTATION AND PUBLIC WORKS – TRANSIT DIVISION
SUBJECT: RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING FILING A GRANT APPLICATION FOR FTA SECTION 5310 FUNDS FOR PURCHASE OF REPLACEMENT ADA PARATRANSIT VEHICLES AGENDA ACTION: PUBLIC HEARING AND RESOLUTION
RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended by the Transportation and Public Works Department that the Council: 1) hold a public hearing to receive public comment and to determine whether any private non-profit is readily available to provide paratransit services within the City; and 2) by resolution, authorize the City Manager or designee to execute and file a grant application with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) under Federal Transit Act Section 5310 (FTA Circular 9070.1G) to purchase five replacement ADA Paratransit vehicles.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Section 5310 program funds are appropriated to urbanized areas across the United States to support transportation services for older adults and persons living with a disability. Applications for the 5310 grant process in California are administered by Caltrans in conjunction with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC). Caltrans requires the local jurisdiction to hold a public hearing as well as adopt a resolution prior to applying for 5310 funds. Santa Rosa’s application will request funding for eligible ADA Paratransit vehicles.
BACKGROUND
1. The City of Santa Rosa (City) provides next-day ADA paratransit transportation services during CityBus hours and within three-quarters (¾) of a mile from existing CityBus routes as part of the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This service is currently provided using City owned vehicles and operated by our contractor, MV Transportation (MV). MV continues to provide a high quality service that is not only demonstrated by their performance, but by the feedback provided from riders and attendees of the City’s Paratransit User Group. Santa Rosa Paratransit Service will remain a critical transportation option for persons living with disabilities into the future. Of the eleven accessible buses that make up the City’s Paratransit fleet, five will soon exceed their useful lifespan as established by the Federal Transportation Administration (FTA) for this type of vehicle. These five are model 2014 vehicles with an average of 170,000 miles. At the estimated time of replacement these vehicles will be over 6 years old and will have exceed 190,000 miles.
2. The FTA 5310 Grant will allow the Transit Division to replace these aging vehicles with new accessible vehicles. Avoiding the increased maintenance costs and inefficiencies associated with aging vehicles is essential to maintaining high-quality service.
3. The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Section 5310 Program is authorized under Title 49 U.S.C. 5310 providing funding to states and designated recipients to improve mobility for seniors and individuals with disabilities. Caltrans is designated by the Governor to administer the Small Urbanized (populations under 199,000) federal apportionments in California. The Federal Programs administered by Caltrans are guided by a State Management Plan. Project selection follows a competitive application process established by Caltrans and the California Transportation Commission (CTC).
The 5310 program provides capital and operating support to meet the needs of senior and individuals with a disability. The Santa Rosa urbanized area (UZA) is one of five UZAs within the Bay Area. The City’s project meets the needs of individuals with disabilities and is identified as a need within MTC’s Bay Area’s Coordinated Public Transit—Human Services Transportation Plan. This process concludes with Caltrans submitting a grant application to the FTA and, once approved, sending out final agreements to successful applicants within the next two years.
4.The City is an eligible subrecipient when, after holding a public hearing, the City Council determines if there are non-profit organizations readily available to provide similar paratransit services to individuals with disabilities within our service area. To ensure that non-profits within the Santa Rosa UZA have been notified of this opportunity to comment on the City’s 5310 application, City staff published a notice of the public hearing in the Press Democrat and directly emailed the public meeting notice to over thirty-five non-profit and governmental organizations. Transit Division staff, to date, have received no correspondence indicating that a non-profit is readily available to provide paratransit services instead of the City. “Readily-available” is defined as willing, interested and capable of providing the proposed service at a comparable cost to the identified clientele in the same service area, with the same hours of frequency, and at the same level of service.
PRIOR CITY COUNCIL REVIEW
On February 14, 2017, the City Council, by Resolution No. RES-2017-025, approved a grant application to Caltrans for FTA 5310 funding.
On August 27, 2019, the City Council, by Resolution No. RES-2019-135, approved a grant application to Caltrans for FTA 5310 funding.
On November 19, 2019, the City Council, by Resolution No. RES-2019-171, authorized the purchase of four paratransit vehicles partly funded with Caltrans Section 5310 funds through a CalACT competitive contract.
ANALYSIS
1. A successful application to the FTA for 5310 grant funding will cover the majority ($420,200) of the estimated cost of the five paratransit vehicles .
2. There is no required match to the estimated cost of the vehicles as funding by the state toll credits will cover the typical 20% match.
3. Grant-funded vehicles will only be used for providing service to ADA paratransit eligible riders within the City’s service area.
FISCAL IMPACT
Approval of this action does not have a fiscal impact to the General Fund. The expected cost to replace the five vehicles is $550,000 . The FTA 5310 grant will cover over 75% (about $420,000) of the estimated cost of the vehicles. The additional 25% (about $130,000) of the estimated cost would be drawn from the Transit Division’s annual allocation of Transportation Development Act Article IV funds.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
This action is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) because it is not a project which has a potential for resulting in either a direct physical change in the environment, or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment, pursuant to CEQA Guideline section.
BOARD/COMMISSION/COMMITTEE REVIEW AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Not applicable.
NOTIFICATION
Public Hearing Notice published January 20, 2022 with email to community partners sent concurrently.
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment 1 – Public meeting notice and email to organizations Resolution
CONTACT
Yuri Koslen
707-543-3335
[email protected]
RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING FILING A GRANT APPLICATION FOR FTA SECTION 5310 FUNDS FOR PURCHASE OF REPLACEMENT ADA PARATRANSIT VEHICLES PAGE 3 OF 3