Governance - Metropolitan Transit Commission Session Series: Integrating Land Use and Transportation Planning: A Case Study of Charlotte-Mecklenburg County
Boyd Cauble	© & Author Info

Abstract

Introduction

In 1997, the N.C. General Assembly approved a bill allowing Mecklenburg County voters to increase the sales tax a half-cent dedicated to improving transportation. This increase, approved by voters in November, will add roughly $50 million annually to Charlotte-Mecklenburg's resources for designing and developing busways, passenger rail and other transit alternatives.

An organization would be established to manage that revenue and oversee transit operations. The recommendation from City, County, and Town managers was to form a Metropolitan Transit Commission (MTC). Under this proposal, an eight-member body would plan and oversee future transit service countywide. These are the key elements of that recommendation.

Guiding Principles

• Provide for coordinated transit operations on a countywide basis.
• Assure that Town interests are represented.
• Retain for the elected bodies the responsibility of approving long-range transit plans and the capital and operating programs that support these plans.
• Ensure that public involvement is a component.
• Be flexible and expandable so jurisdictions outside Mecklenburg County could become part of the system.

Responsibilities of the MTC

• Develop and periodically update a long-range transit plan for Mecklenburg County.
• Prepare biennial transit operating programs and five-year capital programs for all transit services in the County.
• Conduct a public involvement program during the development of the long-range transit plan, biennial transit operating program, and five-year transit capital program.
• MTC would not own assets or receive federal grants; these powers would reside with the County and Municipalities.

Composition of the MTC

• Eight members (one from each participating Municipality and the County) would comprise the MTC. This number would expand if additional jurisdictions become part of the transit system in the future.
• Members would be senior staff or citizens with the appointments made by the respective elected bodies.
• Chair and Vice-Chair would be selected biennially by the members of the MTC.

Staffing

• Technical and management staff support of the MTC would be provided by the City of Charlotte with a Town representative from the MTC and the County Manager assisting the City Manager in the selection and evaluation of the person serving as the staff director.
• A transit technical committee of senior staff from the County, each Municipality, NCDOT's Transit Division, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Commission, and contracted private transit operators would work with the MTC and its staff on transit planning and programming.
• A citizens' advisory group, appointed by the governing boards of the participating jurisdictions, would assist in the public involvement program and provide continuing citizen input to the MTC.

Transit Operations

• Transit services in accordance with the long-range transit plan and operating and capital programs would be provided through one or more private contractors and/or other governmental entities.
• Jurisdictions could choose to staff and operate their own transit service that is coordinated with other service in the County.

Allocation of Financial Resources and Approval by Participating Jurisdictions

• The long-range transit plan and the biennial and five-year transit operating and capital programs would reflect proposed transit service investments in the Towns that equal or exceed the sales tax revenue shares for those communities, unless a community expressed a desire for less service. Jurisdictions also could pledge funds other than sales tax revenues in support of more service.
• The long-range transit plan and biennial and five-year capital and operating programs would be submitted to the governing bodies of the County and Municipalities for review and approval. Any jurisdiction providing their own funds (either their direct allocation of the sales tax revenue or other funds) in support of the transit plan and programs would make their own budgetary decisions related to their funds.
• Approval by the Charlotte City Council and the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners would be required before the long-range transit plan and transit operating and capital programs could be implemented. A mechanism would be established to resolve differences between the two bodies that could block plan and program adoption, should they occur.
• Any governing body could request the MTC to re-examine and consider revisions to elements of the plan or programs within a prescribed review and approval period.
• Failure by one or more Town boards to approve the long-range transit plan and biennial and five-year capital and operating programs could result in the elimination of some or all of those transit services in the plan and programs that were targeted for those jurisdictions. If such Towns were entitled to a direct allocation of sales tax revenues on a per capita basis, they could use those sales tax revenues to provide transit service different from that proposed in the plan.

Other Features

• This organizational structure would not require new enabling legislation. It would be created by interlocal agreement among all participating local governments.
• Physical assets, such as transit vehicles and rights-of-way, would be owned by County, Municipal, and possibly State governments.
• The County or Municipal governments would make applications for federal grants, with grant funds committed to improvements in the long-range transit plan and capital and operating programs.

Transit operations would be organized in a manner that satisfies federal labor protection requirements.

Boyd Cauble, Executive Assistant to the City Administrator, Charlotte, North Carolina