the rush one quarter task force is exploring alternatives and supporting mobility and economic development a twenty four member board of local and regional representative serve on the taskforce they are holding open houses community events to open all avenues for public participation a wide range of citizens value and use transit services demographics are changing we have an easy population many people are opting into transit and personal there is a rise in reverse commuting a suburban businesses and suburban densities grow the rush one quarter task force is a value would challenge people coming down into the city so people that work a lot of our downtown corporations or work for government there's a lot of government organizations in downtown st paul they can ride the rush line that way one things the that it does is when we have either to the going to be light rail or a guided busway is it it's going to alleviate some traffic you know that the fact that folks are on a bus or a light rail as opposed to driving their car that's good for the environment congestion good for traffic patterns so we think it's a good thing overall like when you go to chicago in order to get it you've got to go through a turnstile you know or even knew you were in a chair the rush line corridor taskforce and we're very excited to be at the beginning stages of what will it look like what are the potential routes the potential modes and making sure the trail and transit king co exist and how do we make all of this fit together and that's what the  project development study is about that's why we are reaching out to as many people as we possibly can whether it's you know pop up meetings and social media the open houses that we're having we've gone into cub foods in different places where it's just you know set up and have people comment to us the website we want that information positive negative concerns option solutions all of that is so important to us at this space and  message to everyone is please look at it go to the website look at it and give us your input because that's how we can make the best decisions it's very important for the public to get involved to learn more about the rush  proposal it's really designed would be to provide greater transit options for our area and the system would ultimately provide more cost effective ways for transportation and its link as a part of an development you know it's it's been very interesting you know something that mayors do these days is they work on transportation issues and so i said this the rush lying corridor taskforce i also said on the gateway commission and we're just ahead of this so it really gives me a great up to see with what has been happening there and then on the met council's transportation buys report so one of the big things in transportation now really though is economic development so if this line comes up you say wh ave to go north and south to build more businesses where people can get off and shop or go to the dentist or all those things that they need to do so it could bring in some new economic development taria and for a t county commissioner and i chair the rifling order task force and want to welcome you here tonight we do have some other elected officials in the audience and i'm going to try to do my best i know city council member that's politics council member sandy always here oh and representative peter fisher is here i know that tonight is a very busy first for everyone so i'm really glad that you're able to make it here tonight did i miss any elected officials yes  maker township so we are very early in this process for a very important reason and that is we want to get your input we're trying to reach out in every possible way we can and that means to negative concerns so lucia that you're thinking would make a good word and thing that you can give to us is going to help the policy advisory committee and the task force that everybody along this line understand what this could and or should look like so it doesn't matter what type of input just please get it to us and you'll see that there are many different ways to do that as well so with that i do i want to say thank you for being here a great turnout and it has been a great turnout at both of the previous open houses as well thank you and enjoy the evening and you know all of the passwords on the policy advisory committee are available  paul duluth case rec center we're here and we're going to be coming back in june with some more information and i'll be going over that momentarily so really why are we here tonight is really to get you up to speed on the project what we've been doing since we last had open houses in may at the end of may of last year we've been doing a lot of work on on the project and most of that it has to deal with what are the needs in the quarter what are the what is the purpose of the of the project that we're trying to build here or look at and then really the last bullet is listening to you we're really want to listen to you and that's why after this presentation we'd like to talk to one hundred one in groups i think we've been already been doing that a lot already but we continue to do will continue to do that to at least seven and if you want to stay later we can try to stay later as well than two so to start with this this map kind of shows where we started with in two thousand and eight and two thousand and nine regional railroad authority completed a an alternative analysis and the two lines that came out of that out of about twenty to twelve different alternatives that we looked at that they made the most sense was the blue line which is from union depot up thirty five to thirty five to force like a more and so this is what we started with because that was what was came out in two thousand and nine that's what we brought in may to you so we've been doing a lot of work since that time after listening to everybody in may at those open houses as well as throughout the whole engagement process so where are right now in this sort of gumbo machine of a funnel is where we're going to be doing and i'll turn some of valuation on three tiers the first one that we're in this is really what we're doing tonight is we have a universe of alternatives for alignments or roadways or trails that a transit investment can be on and also different looking at different modes so over the next couple months and coming back to you in june we're going to be looking at what makes the most sense and what should be on a pass fail there's a pass to should it continue on in a real qualitative level or do we just fail it and set it aside then starting in june after we come back out we'll be starting to do the second tier a detailed evaluation really getting into those questions that you have right now how much is it going to cost to build it how much is going to operate it how much as to how we're who's going to be funding it how many people are going to be riding it where the station's going to be what sort of economic development is going to be there where who's houses are going to be impacted what business is going to be impacted so that's will be doing there and then at the end when we hit probably the end of this year around between thanksgiving and christmas we will be refining what we call a locally preferred alternative in a truly is a local perform perform alternative we that's why we're here tonight to listen to you the whole implementation process so right now we are right in this area here and usually this takes about two to three years to do this pre project development really what we're trying to do is due to detailed analysis initiate environmental studies and then really identify that alternative the next step if if we have an alternative is really to look at that project development is moving it forward into project development doing a true environmental review adopting further adopting  the alternative then engineering then construction so from this point which we began in two thousand and fourteen in till until possible construction and operation you're looking at somewhere between about ten to twelve years to do that so what we've done so far these are from the time that we started the project in april of last year until tonight all the different meetings and community events and presentations and pop up displays and many open houses and so now we're into our second round of open houses now and i think what's more important is we've done a lot of work here locally in maplewood in st paul and even in going up in the white bear lake we've done walking tours of the of the trail i think two or two or three walking tours of the trail we've gone to  different markets fasts up in white bear lake we've gone to the white bear avenue parade we really tried to reach out in a real local level and really these are the other things that commissioner ryan howard had mentioned that she doesn't know much about the the tweeting the other social media and everything but there's different ways of trying to to get on to to get information i think the email is an important one so if you if you have an e mail definitely give us that and we can get you information about what we're doing and where we're going to be in your neighborhood in the next open houses and everything like that additionally we can also text you when when these open houses are occurring to if you if you have a cell phone and can accept apps we can do that then too so there's many ways of trying to get involved so to kind of talk about the work that we've been doing from starting in june of last year until now and really trying to find out what the purpose of the project is and really trying to dig down into that and really the overall purpose is to provide transit service that satisfies the long term regional mobility accessibility needs for business in the traveling public and that long term really is out about twenty forty we're really looking at not just in five years not just in ten but really looking long term out into that and then finally also is catalyzing sustainable development within this study area within the corridor that you've been looking at the at the maps there then too so further on with that we take that perfect project purpose and we say so what are the needs what why are we doing this you know what really is is impacting for us to make an investment in transit or or something in this corridor and there's really four major project needs i'll go through those one at a time the sustainable growth and development and all these graphics and everything are all in the back of the room so if you wanted to spend more time in looking at them you could ask us questions from twenty ten to twenty forty population is forecasted to grow just in this quarter by twenty four percent so from about four hundred forty five thousand to five hundred fifty five thousand people so there's a lot of growth that's going to be incurring in there and this data comes from the metropolitan council and from the u census additionally employment is increasing as you can see about thirty percent increase in employment in this quarter as well in that thirty year time frame that we're trying to looking at additionally that that population and employment growth will fifty thousand person hugo expecting a lot of growth in there as it is a gross towards forest like and then in forest lake as well and then on the right hand side the employment side a lot of jobs coming to st paul this is all forecast in the next thirty years by the metropolitan council as well the need number two is people who rely upon transit so as we as as the population grows older with the baby boom now retiring and even then  with the newer members of society with the millennial as they call them not really wanting to to have a car they would rather ride transit or bike or walk in the last twelve years and just in this quarter there was an increase of the elderly population by thirteen hundred people additionally poverty in the corridor up from over those twelve years by fifty five percent in the in the whole quarter the number of people with with accessibility to cars continues to grow where they don't have a car they don't have that accessibility so they really are transit captive to or walking or are taking transit to that and then also the median household income declined in the quarter by about eleven percent so there's really half represent what's on highway sixty one and then the lower half is what's on i thirty five e there's traffic volumes in this area are increasing from one nine hundred ninety eight to two thousand and twelve on highway sixty one you see a nine percent growth just on highway sixty one and similarly there are the five goes from about two million cars per day to about two point one million cars per day but about one hundred thousand growth in there or three percent also the quarter area commute times on the right hand side is actually you see the the negative number at the bottom that's for the zero to twenty minute commute times now you're really looking at in between two thousand and two thousand and twelve a seventeen percent increase on there than two then lastly there is increasing demand for transit in the quarter as you can see on the left hand side in downtown st paul going northbound there's about a ten percent increase in demand for northern oriented routes whether that's going up to maplewood to white bear lake to hugo two to force lake as well a little less going on the west side and negative three percent and four percent going east and south and then finally on the right there is an increase in demand for express and suburban local routes so this all kind of builds up all this data really builds up to what are we trying to put into this quarter what's important and what are the needs in order to  build a transit investment that meets those needs in effect if anybody can hear me please let me know and i'll continue to try to talk loud so what comes out of that is really project goals that are support at the development and evaluation so we took these what we saw as the needs and we devote started to develop these different alternatives is alignments that you see on the maps here tonight so this is really what we're what we're looking at and also we also looked at what the public was telling us as saying you really need to look at highway sixty one or white bear avenue or painter or whatever it might be and then really based on the defined project purpose and need we now know what kind of investment that we have what are specific goals are we trying to improve the for that investment so what we did is along the top there you can see the four needs that we just spoke about the per those project needs and we have project goals and how they relate to the each of those needs so the first one of this briefly go through this is really we need to increase the use of transit and it's efficiencies to attract all users whether it's somebody who lives in force lake and only want to take an express bus to downtown in the morning and then come back in the afternoon in the evening to go home and for those that are using the bus all day long to at the shopping to to work to school or whatever it might be we also need to improve sustainable travel options between and within the study area communities so looking at those different options not just about cars but also looking at bikes and pedestrians and transit as well then to and hansing the connectivity of the quarter the regional transportation network so looking at the green line that's now operating looking at the goal line out to woodbury that's now under study  with a with an environmental impact statement so connecting that and then those are the major lines and then also looking as you go north how do you connect to the rest of the transit system in the region as well then to the fourth this supporting sustainable growth and developments that reflect the vision of the local community so the local communities all the way from st paul all the way north to force lake they've done a lot of work on what they want their land use plans and their vision to be so we want to reflect whatever we build through those policies and plans they have sustainable plans and that includes the metropolitan council as well who who is now has their thrive twenty forty out plan as well contributing to the improving regional equity and sustainability and  looking at ways of not only about travel in a car but looking at all different modes as well than two and then finally i think one of the most important ones and that's why we're here tonight is really developing and selecting an importantly a community supported project or projects as we move forward so these evaluation of alternative kind of went through this on that gum ball funnel is really the tear one we're looking at transit mode in alignment separately so that's what we're really doing tonight we have that's why we kind of separated the modes over there and the elements are there we're looking at them and we're going to be looking at them quality in a qualitative in some quantitative sense and trying to say ok over the next couple months what makes sense to set aside and what makes sense to keep moving forward to the tear to where we get much more quantitative focus and we start to pair together the mode and the alignment so say like on the sleeves an example of highway sixty one what could fit if we have highway sixty one as a alignment what sort of mode could fit on there and how would it be impacting that on highway sixty one or white bear or the trailer or whatever it might be and then tear three which is that last thing that we do refine the alternative make sure that it's very cost effective to build and and do it that way you know what could come out of it a local preferred alternative is just improve the bus system that's out there right now or it could mean you know building a light rail or a bus rapid transit as well so those are all on the table right now and that's why on the mode map we have a local bus as one of the modes so we look at here this is the these are the transit modes that we're going to be looking at they are either rubber tired with the local bus the arterial rapid transit similar to what's being built on snelling avenue in st paul right now they call it the airline that's being could be running by the end of this year also looking a bus a bus rapid transit on the freeway as well and then really three rail modes and you can kind of see the what they look like in sort of in scale by over there at the mode table we're looking at street car we're looking at light rail that everybody knows about operating on the green line between the cities and then diesel multiple units a little bit longer vehicle but it's being utilized a lot now in other parts of the country than two so these  that we're going to be looking at during this tier one and then also the other potential alignments the potential damage for tear one is basically the purple lines and then the blue lines and you can i think a lot of people have been seeing that over on the table behind here and then over here the blue lines represent what we brought out to you in may of last year at the open houses this is what came out of our two thousand and nine study that made sense so since then we've been listening to everybody we took stuff that we that we heard from  from the from the open houses we also talked about you know what we what we heard at all the other things that pop up meetings the community events that we've been doing so we've added this all in there and you can kind of see from the top the blueline as i said t thousand and nine study the public engagement and then we also have for that sort of regional connectivity the green line as it comes down university avenue and heads towards the union depot and also the gold line which is coming from woodbury area that's bus traffic transits being studied right now and that goes right to the union depot as well so this is what we're looking at the universe of alternatives at this point next steps we're here to listen to you tonight we'd love to talk to you anybody with like commissioner rinehart had mentioned anybody with a name tag would be able to answer any questions and and then also if you could we'd really like you to fill out the comment sheets if you've got if you did not get that make sure you get a copy of it in can fill it out tonight in the next open house we're not sure what the date yet but in june will be coming out again it might be in the same different areas have been really trying to have different different venues as well and then finally what we're going to be looking at that is the results of that  really look forward to we all look forward to talking to you a little bit more one on one or in groups around table at the different boards if you have questions feel free to ask anybody with the name tag just before we break with there are a couple more elected official is senator fong heard here as well and i'm lost for so but he was here so i just wanted to let everybody know we have a couple more elected officials here and thank you again come on back to we're happy to start so we're excited about the possibilities but most importantly now we want to get your ideas your input on how it can most effectively work for you and for our kids and our grandkids in the future that's what it's all about providing reliable transportation transit in the future and what's the most cost effective way we can do it this is something that's very important to our community our business community is very engaged very emotional because they can see the benefits of being able to g people their homes jobs back and have a reliable source going that's going to continue to help support them and support good jobs in our area i want to make sure that you stay engaged in the process i would encourage you to continue to follow what's going on because this is a process that we're going to get the best by hearing from everybody involved in the area thank you for taking time getting follow the process thank you one of the main reasons that the federal government has changed its requirements is because they understand that when you have transit corridors that it really one of the main things said it offers is the opportunity for economic development they look at affordable housing they look at reverse commutes you know people rushing forward are is actually eighty miles long it's from union depot in downtown st paul to shankly right now what we're looking at is basically between union depot and white bear lake in union depot in forest lake but the whole corridor are is impacted by the yes and so what we want to do is we want to make sure that harness all of the opportunity there and maximize it and that's really part of that a big part of that is economic development and what i really encourage people to get involved i hope they'll come to the open houses that they will read everything they can about this because the last thing we want is somebody to be surprised about rushlight know what's wrestling i've never heard of that so if you're watching today i hope people will listen and see what we're doing give input we really want the community to make these decisions you know there are the counties are involved all the way at the line and then there's certain cities that are involved like maplewood so we're involved on the committees but we really want that public input we don't want surprises at the end that somebody didn't want this sir they did want that and how were they supposed to know to do that call me call victoria rinehart call you know anybody on the list for the wrestling quarter website and and get involved let us know what you and come to try to come to some ideas or some conclusions probably towards the end of this year i think there'll be some recommendations for one of the plans that are being presented so they can go to the website rush line dot it's decided to go with a with a light rail option or we need to know that the decisions that are going to be married we're going import from the public and we need to make a sound decision if we're going to proceed with one of the t decisions are made by folks that are on the court or are and are the employees that they give us on the court about what they want to stations where would you like them where are you going and again the reverse commute i think is going to be really important where you have people that there are jobs in the northern suburbs and north of st paul where the employers there want to have folks from the city coming from the city of st paul coming out to there and vice versa and so it's something that is good for  aspects of the corridor it's not just about get us from st paul to forest like it's everything in between and that's where we need the