Green Line Extension - Southwest LRT

[Tom H.]

Timeline of the 3 agency meetings:

HCRRA: 8/30/16, 1:30 pm
CTIB: 8/31/16, 9:30 am
MetCouncil: 8/31/16, 4:00pm

CTIB staff and the Board’s legal and financial advisors are working to develop appropriate conditions to be
included in a resolution adjusting CTIB’s funding commitment that would minimize the Board’s risk, require
re-payment of the CTIB contribution to the state’s share, if there is legislative action to provide new
funding for transit expansion in the region, and other appropriate financial conditions. A draft resolution
will be forwarded to Board members and posted on Monday, August 29.

I assume the other agencies will draft similar language. Is there any significant risk that any of these approvals doesn't actually happen?

[DanB]

HCRRA approves 6-1.

[VacantLuxuries]

CTIB approves 6-4. Two down, one to go.

[Qhaberl]

Nice !!!!!!!


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[Archiapolis]

CTIB approves 6-4. Two down, one to go.

Not to pick nits but 6-4?! I know NOTHING about CTIB other than the "T" stands for transit. What am I missing about this vote and this body?

If it's too complicated, I can remain ignorant...

[Silophant]

Collar county reps hate transit that isn't in their county, and this project is just in Hennepin.

[VacantLuxuries]

Washington County was pretty pragmatic about how the failure of SWLRT would mean Gateway would likely be off the table.

[Silophant]

How does the voting work, exactly? Each county has two members and two votes, but the votes are weighted by population? Someone mentioned up thread that Hennepin and Ramsey Counties could force this through even with all three others opposed.

[DanB]

The votes are weighted for 2016-2020 as follows:

Anoka County: 10
Dakota County:13
Hennepin County: 47
Ramsey County:18
Washington County: 7
Metropolitan council: 5
The weighting is done based on population and sales tax revenue with the met council getting 5 votes and one seat.
I am not sure what happens/if it is possible for the two rep of a county to vote differently.

[talindsay]

IIRC they can't have passed it 6-4: there are 100 votes distributed among the member counties (95) and the Met Council (5). So while six people may have voted for and 4 against, the different members' votes carry different weights depending on who they're representing.

EDIT: what DanB said. So the question is, how did people vote, and what was the actual vote?

[acs]

So probably Hennepin, Ramsey, and Washington + Met council voting yes with 6 votes carrying a weight of 77 and the rest voting no with a weight of 33. Not that close really.

[DanB]

The 4 no votes were from Dakota and Anoka.

[talindsay]

Yeah, 77 to 23 sounds likely (or maybe 72 to 23 if Met Council abstained), which points to why Dakota wants to leave.

[VacantLuxuries]

3 for 3. SWLRT lives.

[Anondson]

Janice Bitters at Finance and Commerce on the voting today (unlocked): http://finance-commerce.com/2016/08/wit ... is-filled/

[matthew5080]

Best news I've heard all day!

[Mcgizz]

Is it at all possible that the state reimburses the three entities that committed more money at a later date? Say when/if the DFL take control of the legislature this November or is that not possible?

[DanPatchToget]

How many lawsuits are there against Southwest? The only one I can think of is the Lakes and Parks Alliance, but why is that going to trial in September 2017? What are the chances that they win the lawsuit?

[Anondson]

There was another lawsuit by apartment management companies in Minnetonka, I believe it was over environmental reasons for the route going through the marshy forest that their apartments were built up to. The same apartment company begged the LRT line to place a walk up station where the line will cross Smetana.

[Silophant]

Is it at all possible that the state reimburses the three entities that committed more money at a later date? Say when/if the DFL take control of the legislature this November or is that not possible?

If I understand correctly, the bonds aren't actually going to be issued until July, so if the 2017 Legislature decides to be less terrible, there's plenty of time to pretend this didn't happen.