Keeping Up With Rising Costs of Street Repairs

The Local Fair Share Program will provide flexible funding to help cities and the county of Orange pay for the escalating cost of restoring the aging street system. In addition, cities can use these funds for other local transportation needs such as residential street projects, traffic and pedestrian safety near schools, signal priority for emergency vehicles, etc.

City Requirements to Receive Funds
This program is intended to augment, rather than replace, existing transportation expenditures and therefore cities must meet the following requirements to receive the funds:

1. Continue to invest general fund funds (or other local discretionary funds) for transportation and annually increase this commitment to keep pace with inflation
2. Agree to use M2 funds for transportation purposes only, subject to full repayment and a loss of funding eligibility for five years for any misuse
3. Agree to separate accounting for M2 funds and annual reporting on actual expenditures
4. Develop and maintain a pavement management program to ensure timely street maintenance and submit regular public reports on the condition of streets
5. Annually submit a six-year capital improvement program and commit to spend M2 funds within three years of receipt
6. Agree to assess traffic impacts of new development and require that new development pay a fair share of any necessary transportation improvements
7. Agree to plan, build and operate major streets consistent with the countywide Master Plan of Arterial Highways to ensure efficient traffic flow across city boundaries
8. Participate in traffic forums with neighboring jurisdictions to facilitate the implementation and maintenance of traffic signal synchronization programs and projects. This requires cities to balance local traffic policies with neighboring cities — for selected streets — to promote more efficient traffic circulation overall
9. Agree to consider land use planning strategies that are transit-friendly, including bike and pedestrian access and reduce reliance on the automobile
   
   

Distribution of Funds Based on Formula
The funds under this program are distributed to cities and the County of Orange by formula once the agencies have fulfilled the above requirements. The formula will account for population, street mileage and amount of sales tax collected in each jurisdiction.

Current Measure M Projects

The current Measure M has funded over 1,380 County and city streets and roads improvement projects. By 2011, a $4.2 billion investment will be made toward county-wide transportation improvements. To learn more about these projects, click here.

Information

Kristin Johnson

Associate Community Relations Specialist

(714) 560-5386  |  kjohnson@octa.net