City staff on Tuesday unveiled a new project prioritization process for deciding which transportation improvements the city will fund and prioritize. In an April 23 memo to the mayor and City Council, Assistant City Manager Robert Goode wrote that the project prioritization process – which aims to incorporate transparency and community values previously lacking in the process – would usher in a new “paradigm” at the city. The evaluation criteria, which go to council on Thursday, could most immediately affect which projects get selected for a proposed November transportation bond election. (Also Tuesday, that bond package’s scope was downsized from $100 million to around $85 million because of new projections that suggest the city’s total bonding capacity is closer to $170 million than $200 million, due to lower property tax valuations. Council’s Audit and Finance Committee also raised questions about whether a November bond referendum was advisable.) The project prioritization process entails measuring projects’ effectiveness against specific objectives: efficiency, environmental stewardship, investment and economic development, mobility choices, neighborhood connectivity, regional coordination, safety, and sustainable growth. And for each bond package, the proposed transportation projects will be validated against these questions: Is there geographic balance? Are there any catalytic projects? Do they enhance access to transit developments? Are we creating a diversity of modes? Can the project be quickly implemented? Are we preserving existing infrastructure? Is there any pertinent new information or missed opportunities that need to be addressed? See the report and Transportation Director Robert Spillar’s presentation to the citizens task force evaluating the bond package at www.austinstrategicmobility.com.
This article appears in April 30 • 2010.