Publication Detail
Task 4 Report: Funding and Financial Mechanisms to Support Advance Mitigation
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UCD-ITS-RR-15-04 Research Report Urban Land Use and Transportation Center Download PDF |
Suggested Citation:
Lederman, Jaimee, Martin Wachs, Melanie Schlotterbeck, Gian-Claudia Sciara (2015) Task 4 Report: Funding and Financial Mechanisms to Support Advance Mitigation. Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis, Research Report UCD-ITS-RR-15-04
When developing or improving transportation infrastructure in ways that impact ecosystems, habitats, and species, transportation agencies are obliged through compensatory mitigation to offset these impacts with the conservation and restoration of natural resources. Traditionally, transportation agencies plan and implement such mitigation project-by-project and late in the project development cycle. In contrast, the practice of advance mitigation aims much earlier in project development to estimate impacts from one or multiple projects, assess the mitigation required, and undertake mitigation to satisfy those requirements.
There is wide acknowledgment that early, more comprehensive mitigation promises potential benefits, including reduced project delays and costs and improved mitigation quality. Yet, shifting from conventional, project-by-project mitigation will require new ways of planning and funding transportation mitigation activities. The Statewide Advance Mitigation Funding and Finance Study (SAMFFS), funded by the California Department of Transportation, informs current understanding of advance mitigation with three pieces of research:
1. a background report contextualizing experiences with the advance mitigation of transportation projects (Task 2, UCD-ITS-RR-15-02);
2. a business case examining the potential costs and benefits of advance mitigation (Task 3, UCD-ITS-RR-15-03); and
3. analysis of how mitigation could be funded (and planned and implemented) far ahead of the typical project delivery time-line (Task 4, UCD-ITS-RR-15-04).
This Task 4 report, “Funding and Financial Mechanisms to Support Advance Mitigation,” addresses the funding and financing of advance mitigation. Growing acceptance of the view that advance mitigation is good policy is leading policymakers to focus on making it happen. This means that attention is needed to finding the financial means to facilitate it. The report demonstrates that the state requires both new sources of revenue and creative methods of financing in order to accomplish advance mitigation on a substantial scale. Correspondingly, it makes the case for partnerships and outlines examples of partnerships in financing advance mitigation that have already occurred and others that are in development in California. It further addresses some of the most promising revenue sources and financing tools.
There is wide acknowledgment that early, more comprehensive mitigation promises potential benefits, including reduced project delays and costs and improved mitigation quality. Yet, shifting from conventional, project-by-project mitigation will require new ways of planning and funding transportation mitigation activities. The Statewide Advance Mitigation Funding and Finance Study (SAMFFS), funded by the California Department of Transportation, informs current understanding of advance mitigation with three pieces of research:
1. a background report contextualizing experiences with the advance mitigation of transportation projects (Task 2, UCD-ITS-RR-15-02);
2. a business case examining the potential costs and benefits of advance mitigation (Task 3, UCD-ITS-RR-15-03); and
3. analysis of how mitigation could be funded (and planned and implemented) far ahead of the typical project delivery time-line (Task 4, UCD-ITS-RR-15-04).
This Task 4 report, “Funding and Financial Mechanisms to Support Advance Mitigation,” addresses the funding and financing of advance mitigation. Growing acceptance of the view that advance mitigation is good policy is leading policymakers to focus on making it happen. This means that attention is needed to finding the financial means to facilitate it. The report demonstrates that the state requires both new sources of revenue and creative methods of financing in order to accomplish advance mitigation on a substantial scale. Correspondingly, it makes the case for partnerships and outlines examples of partnerships in financing advance mitigation that have already occurred and others that are in development in California. It further addresses some of the most promising revenue sources and financing tools.