Subject:     BIKE:  CAMPO meeting Monday; tomorrow 
Date:        6/10/01 12:59 PM
Received:    6/10/01 1:12 PM
From:        Roger Baker
To:          austin-bikes list

An interesting meeting; should be "fun"; bike angles too;

This CAMPO meeting is to be held at 6:00 pm tomorrow in the LBJ
Auditorium near Keeton and Red River. Held there instead of smaller JC
Thompson Conference Center because so many anxious neighborhood-oriented
folks, opposed to the widening of the central city stretch of MoPac, are
expected to attend.

The rumor I hear is that Kirk Watson is now putting his influence toward
trying to send the MoPac road planning process back to the neighborhoods
for a complete overhaul. Which amounts to a victory for all the
progressive forces who favor smart growth and neighborhood preservation
over highway-induced sprawl. This would be a major progressive victory
against mindless road expansions if true.
 
(since Watson lives in West Austin, it should help boost his popularity
in what is now rumored to be a state run at soon to be vacated by
Dewhurst Land Commissioner slot, rather than Attorney General where it
would be hard to win). -- Roger

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Numbered Agenda items (anyone can sign to speak for 3 minutes on any
item except #5, which is closed).

1. Minutes approval
 
2. Results of a public opinion poll funded by CAMPO and done by
consultant. May be interesting, but CAMPO seems to be skilled at doing
flawed studies to legitimize its foregone conclusions.

3. Appointments to CAMPO by Cap Metro; CAMPO director Aulick recommends
that CAMPO members should vote for Trevino and Walker; take that vote to
the bank.

4. Public comment closed (on this item only); this is the night's BIG
item that brings out the crowd, and where TxDOT's planning process may
actually meet defeat.

5. Amendments to TIP, which is the upcoming three year plan to actually
build stuff. Mostly book-keeping it looks like.

The Texas Turnpike Authority (TTA) looks like it will be disbanded by
the legislature who wants to use similar authority to build LOTS of new
roads, but roads all over the state far beyond merely those that Real
Estate Council lobbyist (and TTA head) Pete Winstead wanted to build. 

This transfer of control from TTA to its parernt body of TxDOT is
causing over a billion dollars worth worth of Pete's favorite toll road
projects to be shifted a year into the future. Heads will roll at TTA,
etc. And the idiocy of building roads with money borrowed from Wall
Street will be played out on a much grander scale now approved by the
state Legislature. 

6. Will Wynn is pissed that the money set aside for Koenig Lane
"improvements" got approved to be sent to surrounding areas like Cedar
Park and Leander and Travis County because TxDOT would not agree with
Koenig neighborhood vision. Wynn wants a revote; there must be some
fierce horse trading going on behind the scenes.

7. Bee Caves wants to recind its approval for SH 71/620 elevated
intersection. This is a big deal, because local entities like Bee Caves
are usually ordered what to do by TxDOT, and threatened with a cutoff of
funds if thhey don't play ball, and not vice versa.

8. Unified Planning Work Program approval for Oct. 2001-Sept. 2002. This
item is the real guts of policy formulation in terms of funded CAMPO
studies; at first glance there is not much change. (Certainly the
proposed CAMPO funding reveals no inclination to look at big picture
factors like global warming, or a peak at world oil production, or sharp
increases in transit ridership compared to roads, or the rapidly
deterioration funding situation for state and local roads, etc). But it
does keep the Peer Review recommendations on life support.

9. There are about $20 million of bike and other projects listed for
submission; the real issue is how many dollars in total projects will be
submitted versus how much total fundng is available. There is also a
local match bidding war side to winning approval; by shifting the local
match mainly to one project you could nail down state level approval.

10. Citizen Communications (called "sitcom" by some). This is where you
can say anything related to transportation to the handful of tired
politicians who have not already left. CAMPO chair Gonzalo Barrientos
has to stay to the bitter end as CAMPO chair, but the downside is he may
be pretty grouchy by then.

-- Roger

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