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TRANSIT BOARD PRECEPTS AND GUIDELINES THE COURTHOUSE SQUARE DEVELOPMENT February 3, 1998 A number of basic questions and issues have been discussed by the District and the public over the past several years as the Courthouse Square project has taken shape. The following information presents fundamental questions that have been posed by the transit board as it has deliberated on such issues as the transit center location and concept, feasibility of joint development, project sizing and budgeting, and related issues, and highlights some of the positions and guidelines that have emerged over this period. • Should the District relocate its current downtown transit center? Several issues drive the response to this question. First, the current facility is physically inadequate to accommodate the volume of today's ridership on the system, and has been inadequate for the past year. Safety issues and A.D.A concerns introduce serious operational shortcomings, and present disconcerting and potentially costly liability issues to the District. Additionally, the District is under a mandate of the City of Salem to vacate the facility. This mandate is not based on political whim or the vagaries of an existing council-the basis of the request is an urgent and growing need for street capacity in the downtown area, a need which is only going to expand with the rapid population growth in our area. The District has been successful in attracting nearly $8 million in Federal grant funds to relocate a new downtown transit center. But the availability of grant funding, by itself, is not sufficient reason to move ahead with a new transit facility. The question certainly must be asked, however, if it would be good public policy, given the needs and rationale for the facility that do exist, for the District to not proceed forward with a new center for the Salem/Keizer transit system in a timeframe which allows the use of the grant funding. There exists a solid base of research and documentation dating back to the 1983 "interim" development of Cherriot Station; and the District has indicated that the relocation of the station to a dedicated, off-street facility remains our highest priority. • Does the Board intend to change its "pulse" system of operation? It has occasionally been suggested by lay persons in the communiry that going to some system other than a pulse system (whereby most or all routes come together at a central ternunal area) would eliminate the need to have a downtown transit center. This issue has been examined on numerous occasions over the years, with the latest study being completed in 1994. Every study has indicated, without equivocation, that