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Valley Metro study to be revealed

Posted 8/20/20

Northwest Valley residents who want more public transit options will have a chance to learn what could be available in the future during a September public meeting.

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Valley Metro study to be revealed

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Northwest Valley residents who want more public transit options will have a chance to learn what could be available in the future during a September public meeting.

Valley Metro will conduct an open meeting 2:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 10 to review possible expansion options, funding sources and hear input from residents. Because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the meeting will be conducted virtually. Visit valleymetro.org/northwestvalley for information about registering for and joining the meeting.

Valley Metro and the Maricopa Association of Governments partnered in December 2018 to explore the transportation needs of the unincorporated communities of Sun City and Sun City West. The Northwest Valley Sun Cities Transportation Study was tasked with determining the demand for Sun Cities-area transit services and identifying both service concepts and funding strategies that meet the community’s unique needs.

“We have been working for five years to get funding for transit in the West Valley, but so far we’ve gotten nothing,” said Bonnie Boyce-Wilson, Northwest Valley Connect board member.

Northwest Valley Connect was formed through a partnership between Benevilla and Sun Health to help residents find transit options. They do this through a call center on the border of Peoria and Sun City, finding volunteer drivers using their own vehicles, providing rides using its own vehicles and advising callers about other options.

The first phase of the Valley Metro/MAG project documented the study area’s existing conditions. This included a comprehensive survey administered to Sun Cities residents to identify their priorities for transit in their area. Using the key findings from that effort, a series of transit service options and possible future funding strategies were identified.

Sharon Hettick, another Northwest Valley Connect board member, said she had not yet seen the service options but was trying to obtain documents ahead of the virtual meeting.

“In addition, I have sent the information about the Zoom meeting date to all our current state legislators for Sun City and Sun City West,” she stated in an Aug. 11 email.

She added Valley Metro officials are developing one-page information sheets about the options and costs and are expected to include them on the website, valleymetro.org, when they are ready.

“We are really glad they are providing this opportunity for resident input,” Ms. Hettick said. “We encourage Sun Cities residents to participate in this virtual meeting.”

Residents who need help doing that can call NVC at 623-282-9300.

Getting public transit services in the Sun Cities has been an uphill battle, but Ms. Boyce-Wilson, Ms. Hettick and NVC board members continue to push for more transit options for senior residents from Valley Metro and Maricopa County.

Valley Metro officials spent $65,000 on a transit survey for the Northwest Valley. Those results were to have been presented and discussed during a public meeting March 17 in Sun City West. But closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic forced a postponement.

While Ms. Boyce-Wilson and Ms. Hettick would like to see more transit in the West Valley as a whole, their primary focus is on Sun City and Sun City West. Both lie in unincorporated areas of Maricopa County and, therefore, do not have their own municipal governments.

Ms. Boyce-Wilson said cities can create circulator transit programs if they can get residents to approve a tax to fund it. Peoria created the POGO program, continues to operate Dial-A-Ride and this year launched a new program called Autonomous Shuttle.

Surprise, on the other hand, is not doing as well as residents refuse to approve a transit tax.

“The people there want it (transit), they just don’t seem to want to pay for it,” Ms. Hettick said.

As unincorporated communities, Sun City and Sun City West have no local governments with authority to tax residents.

Public transportation in the Valley is funded, at least in part, by a half-cent sales tax — voter approved as Proposition 400 — that is due to be extended soon. But Ms. Boyce-Wilson said those funds go into a single pot and are administered by MAG.

The Sun Cities are represented at MAG by Clint Hickman, District 4 county supervisor.

“Each West Valley mayor can push for more transit in the West Valley,” Scott Isham, Mr. Hickman’s chief of staff, stated in an a February email. “Cities and towns across the Valley have chosen to impose special taxes for transit services.”

He said Sun Cities residents could incorporate, vote in a mayor and also tax themselves more to add transit. They could also lobby the state Legislature to allow them to create a special transit taxing district.

“Ultimately, it is the voters and taxpayers in the Sun Cities who will have to fund the transit services they desire,” Mr. Isham stated.

It does come down to money, and the county has none for transit. While Maricopa County has jurisdiction in the unincorporated areas, it does not receive any tax revenues earmarked for transit services other than Dial-A-Ride, according to Mr. Isham. The largest source of transportation funding the county receives is from the Highway User Revenue Fund and is restricted to roadways and cannot be used for transit capital or operational costs, he added.

The county receives three funding sources to provide paratransit transportation services in unincorporated areas of the county, according to Mr. Isham. Arizona lottery funds — $818,000 — are the only funding source the state provides for transportation services, he explained.

“The funds are used in full, and the county has to provide $1.2 million of supplemental funding to serve people with disabilities who are ADA certified for paratransit,” Mr. Isham stated. “The Legislature hasn’t increased the gas tax in 29 years to pay for roadways so there will most likely not be any new state funds for transit.”