Transportation plans unveiled

Thursday, June 13, 2002 | 10:02 a.m.

Planned projects

Among the road projects programmed for the next three years by the Regional Transportation Commission and funded locally:

An updated model of the Las Vegas Valley's transportation future is available for public review.

The Regional Transportation Commission, the public agency responsible for mass transit and road planning for the area, updates its three-year Transportation Improvement Program and 25-year Regional Transportation Plan every year.

Commission staff members are taking public comment on the combined plans -- totalling nearly 500 pages -- until July 9. People also can comment on the three-year and 25-year plans at the RTC's regular board meeting July 11.

The plans are required before the local agency can apply for or receive hundreds of millions in federal grants and loans to support a wide range of transportation projects, including the bus system, the planned monorail extension from the Strip to downtown, and road maintenance and construction throughout the region.

RTC General Manager Jacob Snow said Wednesday that probably the single most important element of the new Transportation Improvement Program is that the plans show conformity to pollution control plans submitted to the federal government.

While the area does not meet federal clean air guidelines, Clark County staff have submitted plans to the Environmental Protection Agency to control carbon dioxide and fine particle pollution.

The EPA's acceptance of the plans effectively terminated deadlines looming over local agencies -- the RTC, Clark County and the cities in the valley -- that could have ended federal support for road and transit projects.

Charity Fechter, RTC planning manager, said the three-year plan includes projects that the agency believes will be funded, as opposed to the 25-year plan which is more theoretical.

A project list accompanying the Transportation Improvement Program includes funding amounts, funding sources and the dates for construction.

"This is our best guess when we think things are going to be done," Fechter said.

The three-year plan also is important because it integrates federal, state and local transportation priorities, she said.

One of a handful of local groups that has taken a sharp interest in transportation priorities has been the local arm of the Sierra Club. Jane Feldman, conservation committee co-chairwoman for the group, said the organization would carefully review the plans.

"We want to get some meaningful input from professional transportation planners, an independent perspective," Feldman said.

The group has traditionally supported mass transit and development policies that would restrict the need for new highways. The Sierra Club also has sued to require additional environmental review on the widening of U.S. 95 in the northwest valley.

The RTC's plans focus on both roadwork and mass transit. The plans note that rapid population growth in the 1990s -- an 85 percent growth rate to a total county population of 1.3 million in 2000 -- has also stressed the region's transportation infrastructure.

A key element of the response to the growing number of congested roadways is the agency's hope to pass a tax package funding transportation needs for the next two decades. The plan calls for public support of a tax-increase package, including an increase of the county sales tax from 7.25 percent to 7.5 percent, to pay for transportation needs.

The plans also call for increased support and access to pedestrian and bicycle facilities throughout the region.

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