LITTLE ROCK — The long-range transportation planning agency for central Arkansas wants to take a closer look at forming a regional mobility authority to finance transportationrelated projects such as the North Belt Freeway.
The proposal was oneof three actions the Metroplan board of directors took Wednesday, a week after the Arkansas Highway Commission said it couldn’t afford to build the $500 million freeway without significant financial help from the region.
The board voted to form a task force that will use the next six months to study howthe region could establish an authority, what its funding options are and develop proposals for the Legislature to consider adding more options to the state law allowing the authorities to be formed.
“That’s our future: Take care of our problems ourselves,” said Conway Mayor Tab Townsell, a member ofthe board and whose idea it was to form the task force.
Under Act 2275 of 2005, a single county or any number of contiguous counties and their first-class cities can form a regional mobility authority. The law allows them to issue bonds and enter into contracts to build transportationrelated projects of regionalinterest, to own and operate such projects and to exercise the power of eminent domain. Among other things, the law authorizes such authorities to build roads, bridges, tunnels, sidewalks, bike paths, ports, parking facilities and publictransit systems.
The ability to raise revenue initially was limited totolls and county sales and use taxes approved by popular vote. Quorum courts also could impose a privilege tax on owners of cars and trucks to help “finance or support” the authority.
The board also voted to send out for comment removal of the North Belt from itsfinancially constrained longrange transportation plan and restoration of $6 million in its latest transportation improvement plan to help widen U.S. 64. Last month, the board voted to use that money to acquire right of way for the North Belt.
Both actions were required after the Highway Commission said the proposed freeway wasn’t among its committed projects, which made the state highway improvement plan and the Metroplan transportation improvement plan in conflict. Federal regulations require them to be the same.
The votes also set the stage for the board to consider at next month’s meeting some of the board’s ideas to fund the North Belt freeway construction. In addition to forming a regional authority and the creation of a region-wide sales tax, the ideas include:
The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department providing $6 million to purchase rights of way as early as 2016 and not 2013, as Metroplan wanted.
Metroplan committing to 50 percent of construction costs and the remainder of the right-of-way costs, which include $8 million in 2013-2016 and $18 million in 2016-2019.
The Metroplan board adopting a resolution supporting tolls on the North Belt and partner in a $500,000 toll feasibility study and a $1.5 million investment grade toll study with Metroplan paying for half of the cost of the studies.
The board adopting a a resolution to partner with the Highway Department and cover the shortfall between construction costs and toll revenue.
The Highway Department also wants the board to pass a resolution supporting the proposed temporary half-cent sales tax that, if approved by voters in the November general election, would finance a $1.3 million road construction program focusing on fourlane highways.
Maumelle Mayor Mike Watson, the board president, estimated the total North Belt costs to Metroplan amounted to about $214 million.
Opinion on the proposals was divided during a spirited discussion among board members Wednesday.
North Little Rock Mayor Pat Hays called the tolling ideas “reasonable.”
Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola balked at the notion that local governments should be required to partner with the state to build an interstate, which hasn’t happened in Arkansas. But Frank Vozel, a top state highway official, said such partnerships involving interstates have taken place in other states.
Pulaski County Judge Buddy Villines said allowing Sherwood to develop the property along the proposed North Belt route likely would provide more economic impact to the region than building the freeway.
The freeway would run from U.S. 67/167 south of Jacksonville to the interchange of Interstate 40/Interstate 430. One of the road’s purposes would be to accommodate workers from across central Arkansas traveling to jobs in Maumelle and west Little Rock. It also is part of a planned central beltway.
Long-range transportation plans for central Arkansas have included the North Belt project since 1947. The project was included as part of the Highway Department’s 1991 highway-improvement program. The department chose a route that received federal approval in 1994, but that approval lapsed after the Metroplan board declined to put the route on its long-range transportation plan. An effort to select the latest route began in 2004.
The longer the North Belt project takes, the more the cost escalates. When approved as part of the highwayimprovement plan in 1991, the North Belt’s projected cost was $55 million, almost onetenth of the total today.
The North Belt project’s eastern leg - Interstate 440 - opened in 2003 from U.S. 67/167 east to I-40 at a cost of $70 million.
Townsell said though the North Belt would be built as an interstate, the reality is that it would carry mostly traffic from within the region.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 06/28/2012