Downtown skywalk project comes back to haunt Cedar Rapids

CEDAR RAPIDS - State and federal transportation officials are telling the Corridor Metropolitan Planning Organization to make major changes in its operation or face the possible suspension of about $4-million in annual federal aid.

The demand comes in part after two MPO member cities, Marion and Hiawatha, complained to transit officials when the Cedar Rapids majority on the organization's board steered $1.4 million in federal funds, administered by the MPO, to a yet-to-be-built section of downtown Cedar Rapids skywalk.

The skywalk funding - which seven of eight non-city of Cedar Rapids members of the MPO board voted against - was singled out for criticism in a review report this month by the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration.

The skywalk vote came on the heels of something of a revolution at the MPO, after the board's Cedar Rapids majority in 2012 pushed through a change to require the MPO to use 80 percent of its federal funds for trails and bike lanes and 20 percent for street projects. Most of the money had gone to streets before then. Board members from Hiawatha, Fairfax and Robins and one from Marion objected at the time to the move.

In its new report, federal officials said the board's Cedar Rapids majority 'uncooperatively” influenced the board's decision to back funding for the skywalk and redirect funding to trails.

'The Corridor MPO exhibits obvious project selection and project implementation concerns, and does not comply with federal regulations,” the federal report concluded at one point.

In a letter to the MPO dated Sept. 12, Paul Trombino, director of the Iowa Department of Transportation, said the department concurs with the federal observations and findings. He said the department will work with the MPO as it develops an action plan to address the requested changes in its operation.

Trombino said the DOT has been 'aware of growing concern” among member jurisdictions of the Corridor MPO about the organization's project selection process. The DOT also has been concerned about the organization's funding decisions because they are 'inconsistent” with the MPO's own long-range transportation plan, he said.

'These concerns … bring into question the validity of the overall planning process,” he said.

Linn County Supervisor Lu Barron, current chairwoman of the MPO board, on Tuesday said the city of Cedar Rapids will address the concerns at the MPO's Oct. 16 meeting as required in the federal review report.

Barron said the May MPO vote to shift money to the downtown skywalk project appears to have been a 'tipping point” in the unhappiness of some MPO jurisdictions with the MPO operation.

The federal transit review of the MPO was a regularly scheduled review that took place in June, said Cathy Cutler, planner in the DOT's Cedar Rapids district office.

The review report issued this month also pointed out that changes in the MPO's bylaws in the last few years increased Cedar Rapids' representation on the board from 42 percent to 56 percent and came with a provision that Cedar Rapids must hold a majority of MPO board seats.

The changes in bylaws 'have hindered the regional planning process by favoring Cedar Rapids,” the report said.

Barron said the bylaws change reflects that Cedar Rapids has the majority of the population in the county and the majority of the roads.

In addition, the review report raised a concern that the 13 Cedar Rapids members of the 23-member MPO board consist of just three elected City Council members and 10 city employees. Having so many city employees rather than elected officials on the board 'can have a negative impact on the board's regional decision-making,” the report said.

Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett said Tuesday that Cedar Rapids is putting together its answers to the concerns of the federal transit agencies and the DOT.

However, Corbett said the makeup of the MPO board should have a Cedar Rapids majority because Cedar Rapids has a majority of people in Linn County.

Corbett said he realized that there has been 'some push back” on the MPO decision to fund trails and 'some heartburn” about the shift of funding to the downtown skywalk project.

Much of the trails money now is going to the completion of the CEMAR Trail, which will connect downtown Cedar Rapids to downtown Marion, a project that has languished for more than a decade.

'We think in the long term our communities will be much better off with a comprehensive trails and bike-lane system,” Corbett said. 'In a more modern city, you take care of more than just streets. There is a lot of old stodgy thinking in the traditional transportation industry - that everything has to go to a road. And the majority of the MPO policy board doesn't agree with that. We think there are other ways to move people around the community.”

Corbett said the change in the MPO board's funding decisions to favor trails over streets has not come in a vacuum.

The city of Cedar Rapids, which can call for a vote on a local-option sales tax for the county because it has a majority of residents in Linn County, called for the November 2013 vote that extended the 1-percent tax for 10 years beginning on July 1 in the metro area. Communities in the metro area now have the ability to use that money for street projects thanks to Cedar Rapids' push to call for a tax vote, he said.

'The city officials in Hiawatha, Robins and Marion weren't complaining when Cedar Rapids called for the vote,” Corbett said. 'They were grateful.”

Linn County Supervisor Brent Oleson, a member of the MPO board, said Tuesday that the criticism of the MPO by federal and state transportation officials is coming because they sense 'the frustration” of the smaller cities in the metro area and his own dismay.

Oleson said the Cedar Rapids-controlled vote on the skywalk funding 'blew the top off this whole thing.” The skywalk wasn't a trail or a street, which made it 'problematic” for funding, he said.

Oleson said he does not necessarily disagree with MPO-controlled funds going to trails. What he said he finds demoralizing is to see the Cedar Rapids delegation empty out of their own pre-meeting into the MPO meeting.

'Thoughtful debate” has been replaced by Cedar Rapids''predetermined course of action,” he said.