Contacts: ACT Project Manager Rob Zako, 541-343-5201; Lane County Transportation Planning & Traffic Division Manager Celia Barry, 541-682-6935

Today the Lane County Board of Commissioners finalized a proposal for the Lane Area Commission on Transportation, or Lane ACT.

The proposal still needs to be approved by the Oregon Transportation Commission (OTC).

The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) divides the state into 12 areas, most of which already have ACTs. ACTs are advisory bodies to the Oregon Transportation Commission. ACTs can look at all aspects of the transportation system: policies, major projects, congestion, safety, intermodal linkages, freight, relation to development, health issues, or environmental impacts. ACTs also look at all modes of transportation: air, marine, rail, roadway, transit, bicycle and pedestrian. The primary responsibility of ACTs is to make recommendations to the OTC on which state highway and other transportation projects to fund.

Lane County is one of just two areas in the state yet to have an ACT.

As proposed, the “Lane ACT is an advisory body established to provide a forum for stakeholders to collaborate on transportation issues affecting Oregon Department of Transportation Region 2, Area 5 [roughly Lane County] and to strengthen state/local partnerships in transportation.”

As proposed, “LACT will use a consensus decision-making process and will foster mutual respect and a collaborative approach to problem solving. Members will seek to advance broad interests and look for win-win solutions. … In rare cases where consensus cannot be reached, decisions will be made by an 80% supermajority of the voting members present.”

As proposed, the Lane ACT will consist of 31 voting members. These will include representatives of Lane County; each of the 12 incorporated cities in Lane County; the Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua & Siuslaw Indians; the Port of Siuslaw; Lane Transit District; the Central Lane Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO); the Lane County Roads Advisory Committee; the Central Lane MPO Citizen Advisory Committee; and ODOT.

In addition, the Lane County Board of Commissioners will appoint 11 other voting members. One of these will be appointed to representative the Highway 126 corridor east of Springfield, which does not include any incorporated cities. The other 10 will be citizens-at-large appointed to represent—to the greatest extent possible—airports, rail (passenger and freight), trucking, public transit (bus and rail) riders, bicyclists and pedestrians, business, freight, tourism, public safety, public health, schools, neighborhoods, senior citizens, special transportation needs, minorities, environment, land use, parts of Lane County not otherwise well represented on LACT, and other interests.

The proposal approved by the Lane County Board of Commissioners is based on recommendations from the Forum on an ACT for Lane County (FACT-LC), an ad hoc advisory body the Lane County Board of Commissioners created last December to develop a proposal. The FACT-LC completed its work last April, and its recommendations were endorsed by most of the involved cities and other jurisdictions.

The proposal from Lane County differs from what the FACT-LC recommended and what other jurisdictions endorsed only in terms of the number of citizen-at-large voting members and who appoints these. The FACT-LC proposal was to have just up to six such citizen-at-large members, and to have these be appointed by LACT itself.

As proposed, LACT will also provide for non-voting members to participate in discussions. These can include members of the OTC, representatives of other areas, state legislators, members of Congress, and others invited to participate on matters for which they have special interest or expertise.

As proposed, LACT will develop a vigorous public involvement program.

Additional information about the meeting and the process to form an ACT for Lane County is available online:
http://www.lanecounty.org/Departments/PW/TransPlanning/Pages/LaneCountyACT.aspx

Amber Fossen

Public Information Officer

Lane County Government

125 E. Eighth Ave.

Eugene, Oregon 97401

(541) 682.3718