NEWS RELEASE

April 19, 2012

Contacts:
Dan Ferguson, Jackson County, Missouri, Public Information Officer, 816/881-3271
Tom Gerend, Mid-America Regional Council, Assistant Transportation Director, 816/701-8303

Open houses to review potential public transit options in Jackson County April 24–26

To continue the regional conversation on ways to enhance public transit in the Kansas City metropolitan area, and to receive input on potential options along the I-70 and Rock Island Corridors in Jackson County, the study team for the Jackson County Commuter Corridors Alternatives Analysis is sponsoring three open houses.

The first open house will be from 4 to 6 p.m. April 24 at St. Paul's School of Theology, Dunlap Hall, 5123 E. Truman Road, Kansas City, Mo. At the open house, attendees will learn about the shortlist of alternatives being considered, including information about projected operations, ridership, costs, economic development impacts, and potential impacts on people and the environment. From the shortlist, the study team will determine a locally preferred alternative (LPA), which identifies the type of transit the community wants in the corridors, the route and the preferred financial strategies to support construction and operations. It is expected that the LPA will be determined in early summer.

To complement this formal open house, additional opportunities for comment will be available to the public. Project boards will be displayed at key locations in the corridors from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Project partnership and consultant team staff will be on hand to answer questions from 4 to 6 p.m. These meetings will take place according to the following schedule.

April 25, 2012
Places Restaurant
John Knox Village
1011 NW Chipman Road
Lee's Summit, Missouri

April 26, 2012
Conway Hall Lobby
Rockhurst University
1107 Rockhurst Road
Kansas City, Missouri

The study is largely funded by a $1.8 million competitive grant from the Federal Transit Administration. The grant funds are being used by the study team to conduct this alternatives analysis along the I-70 and Rock Island commuter corridors as well as a study completed in fall 2011 that identified a preferred route and use of streetcars for a starter line in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. The Federal Highway Administration awarded a separate $652,000 competitive grant for a companion alternatives analysis along the U.S. Highway 71 corridor, including Kansas City and Grandview in Jackson County and Raymore and Belton in Cass County.

The study team includes Jackson County, Missouri, the city of Kansas City, Missouri, the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority and Mid-America Regional Council. The partners hired a consultant team led by Parsons Brinckerhoff. Also on the team are Olsson Associates, TranSystems, Taliaferro & Browne, KOA and Shockey Consulting Services.

More open houses will be held in other Jackson County communities in late spring. Dates, times and locations for those events will be announced as soon as they are available. For materials and updates on the commuter corridors alternatives analysis as well as other regional studies, visit MARC's Smart Moves website at http://www.kcsmartmoves.org/projects/jacksoncounty.aspx.

Please notify the Mid-America Regional Council at 816-474-4240 at least 48 hours in advance if you require special accommodations to attend this meeting (e.g., qualified interpreter, large print, reader, hearing assistance). We will make every effort to meet reasonable requests.
For information regarding bus service to these events, please visit the website of the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority at http://www.kcata.org/.

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