Road Programs/Special Districts

Road Programs prepares the Road Division budget and develops and administers the transportation multi-year program and updates the annual Capital Improvement Program.  This Section also administers the County’s Special Districts, secures funds for road improvement projects through Measure M and other grant fund sources, and administers the County’s DBE/WBE program.

Measure M

One of the primary sources of grants funds for County road projects is Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) Measure M grants.  These funds became available through an Orange County voter-approved twenty-year ½ cent sales tax, enacted in 1990, to pay for transportation improvements throughout Orange County.  This twenty-year sales tax was recently extended for another thirty years last November 2006, through voter approval of “Renewed” Measure M.  The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) administers these transportation funds.

To simplify the administrative burden, OCTA has combined the Measure M grants most used by the County and cities into one programming process called the Combined Transportation Funding Program (CTFP).  The CTFP program includes:  Smart Street, Regional Interchange Program (RIP), Intersection Improvement Program (IIP), Transportation Demand Management Program (TDM), Master Plan of Arterial Highways Program (MPAH), Growth Management Area Program (GMA), Arterial Highway Rehabilitation Program (AHRP), Grade Separation Projects, and Grade Crossing Safety Enhancements.

The County has been very successful in supplementing its share of gas tax funds with Measure M CTFP grant funding, allowing the county to implement many of its roadway improvement projects sooner.

To obtain more information on OCTA’s Measure M and Renewed Measure M programs, please visit OCTA’s website at:  www.octa.net

Programs

Programs secures grant funds for the planning, design and construction of road and bridge projects within unincorporated Orange County. Grants are received from the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) through Measure M, and through the State and Federal government.  Programs staff actively monitor project development to ensure critical milestones are met and projects stay within budget.  Staff extensively coordinates with various governmental agencies, including the County of Orange, cities, OCTA and Caltrans, as well as private consulting firms.  Programs staff also prepare cooperative agreements with other agencies for the implementation of capital projects.  Staff identify possible projects for inclusion within the Capital Improvement Program (CIP), and assists in preparing the road component of the County’s budget to ensure adequate funding for transportation-related projects is secured.

For more information on the County’s Road Programs, please contact Joe Sarmiento at (714) 834-4040.

Proposition 42 and Proposition 1B

Prop. 42, passed by California voters in 2006, provides funds for the maintenance of County roadways, and for implementation of drainage improvements associated with these roadways.  The County’s Board of Supervisors adopted a City Aid Program (CAP) to share $10 million of the County’s approximately $19 million annual allocation, to Orange County cities, starting in FY 2008-09.  The remaining $9 million will fund County  Prop. 42 eligible projects.

Prop. 1B, also passed by California voters in 2006, provides bond funds for road capital and maintenance projects.  The County’s approximate $61.6 million allocation of Prop. 1B funds will be applied towards transportation improvements within Orange County as determined by the County’s Board of Supervisors.

For more information on the County’s Prop. 42 and Prop. 1B road improvement programs, please contact Steve Soo at (714) 834-4367.

Special Districts

A “Special District” is a local political subdivision of a state whose purpose is to provide a single public service (such as for water supply, roadway infrastructure or sanitation services), within a specific geographic area.  Special Districts are authorized and formed pursuant 1) to State Law (Community Facilities Districts); 2) to the Mello-Roos Act of 1987; or 3) to provisions of the Streets and Highway Code (Assessment Districts), by a local agency such as the County of Orange.  Special Districts are governed and administered by the governing board of the local agency.

Special Districts represent a mechanism for the delivery of publicly-owned roadway infrastructure, through a public-private partnership. Special Districts approve and sell financing bonds that are guaranteed by the value of the land that is indentured to repay the bond sale amounts through tax assessments over the users or residents of the Districts.  Special Districts are created through an agreement between the County and a land owner.  The agreement funds the design and construction of required infrastructure (including roads) for new development.  Following agreement, bonds are sold and the County retains proceeds from the bond sale.  As the land owner completes the construction-specific infrastructure, the land owner is reimbursed through the acquisition process for the cost of those improvements from the bond sale proceeds.  After completion and acceptance of the improvements, the County assumes ownership and maintenance of all completed improvements.

The County of Orange also creates Road Fee Programs to fund the design and construction of Master Plan of Arterial Highways (MPAH) facilities, within unincorporated Orange County and its cities.  The area within which the fees are assessed is called the area of benefit for the fee program.  Collected fees are used to fund transportation improvements consistent with the MPAH for that specific fee program and area of benefit. 

The design of the Foothill Transportation Corridor South is underway through the Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA).  The review of the corridor plans will be coordinated by the Special Districts section to ensure unincorporated Orange county facilities in the vicinity of the corridor are not adversely impacted.

For more information on the County’s Special Districts, please contact Mehrdad Soltani
at (714) 834-2943.