Amador County – Sutter Creek City Council last week awarded a bid to construct its alignment of Prospect Drive with Bowers Drive, and is awaiting approval of a loan of $250,000 from the Regional Traffic Mitigation Fee program.
City Manager Sean Rabe said Sutter Creek has already requested the additional funding from the Regional Traffic Mitigation Fee Committee, which voted to approve the additional funding. Rabe said “the next step is for that approval to be ratified by each of the cities and the County,” as part of the program, which is administered by the Amador County Transportation Commission.
Rabe said prior to Sutter Creek City Council’s approval Monday, June 19, ACTC Executive Director Charles Field sent an email expressing concern that there wasn’t adequate funding for the project. The issue was cleared up June 20, he said, “assuming that the cities and the County ratify the RTMF committee’s action.”
Sutter Creek City Council last week awarded the $1.6 million bid to George Reed Construction.
Jackson City Council on Monday and Plymouth City Council on Thursday were to consider the request for the additional loan for the Prospect Drive-Ridge Road-Bowers Drive intersection, borrowing up to $250,000 from the Regional Traffic Mitigation Fee program, from funds previously obligated to the Sutter Street Extension Project in Jackson and the Western Ione Roadway Improvement System project.
Field in an annual report for the Regional Traffic Mitigation Fee Program fiscal year 2010-2011, said the Ione and Jackson projects were still owed funds borrowed for the Prospect Drive alignment in the previous year. He said repaying the two projects “will continue to receive ‘first call’ for new revenues until the loans are repaid.”
In the report, Field said that in March, Sutter Creek advised ACTC of the potential that construction bids for the Prospect intersection could exceed engineer cost estimates. The bid opened June 12 exceeded estimates by $240,000, and per request, the fee committee approved additional funds from the Jackson and Ione projects, “on a condition that both accounts will be repaid in full before Regional Traffic Mitigation Fee funds are spent for any other purpose and the Sutter Street Extension and the (Western Ione Roadway Improvement System) projects will continue to be priorities for future funding in the program.”
Jackson and Plymouth councils this week also were to consider a recommendation by Regional Traffic Mitigation Fee Committee to raise fees by $838 for a “single family dwelling” to $3,878; and lower “high-volume retail” by $2,736, to a fee of $3,344 per 1,000 square feet of building space.
The Committee also recommended adopting a “standardized appeal process” to “provide clear direction to both agency staff and potential appellants who believe their project’s trip-generation characteristics are not accurately represented by the fee schedule.”
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
