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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTransportation Board - Minutes - 06/19/2002REGULAR MEETING MINUTES of the TRANSPORTATION BOARD June 19, 2002 5:45 p.m. City of Fort Collins - 215 N. Mason Street Community Room FOR REFERENCE: CHAIR: Christophe Ricord............................472.8769 VICE CHAIR: Bruce Henderson..............................282.1319 STAFF LIAISON: Don Bachman....................................224.6049 ADMIN SUPPORT: Cynthia Scott....................................224.6058 BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Dan Gould Tim Johnson Tom Kramer Christophe Ricord Brent Thordarson Heather Trantham CITY STAFF IN ATTENDANCE: David AveriR Dean Erickson Randy Hensley Mark Jackson Cam McNair GUESTS IN ATTENDANCE: Natalie Brown BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT: Neil Grigg Bruce Henderson Edward Jakubauskas Ray Moe Brad Miller CITY STAFF CONT. Kathleen Reavis Cynthia Scott Marlys Sittner 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Ricord called the meeting to order at 5:55 p.m. 2. PUBLIC COMMENT None. 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES There was a motion and a second to approve the May 2002 Transportation Board minutes as presented. The motion carried by a unanimous vote. Transportation Board APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes June 19, 2002 Page 2 4. COUNCIL LIAISON REPORT None. *****NEW TRANSPORTATION PLANNING STAFF MEMBER, DAVID AVERILL, WAS INTRODUCED TO THE BOARD.`* 5. MASON STREET TRANSPORTATION CORRIDOR UPDATE - K. Reavis Ms. Reavis stated that the Request for Proposals have gone out and are due June 26. A pre -bid meeting was held on June 11. The RFP was clear and needed no addendum. Interviews for the top 3-5 firms will be held on July 10 Et 11. Reavis attended a Modeling workshop that was put on by the Federal Transit Administration. She found it very helpful. Frazier is currently in Washington DC garnering support. Copies of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) NewsLone newsletter were distributed as an FYI. 6. ACTION ITEMS a) FARE STUDY @ D-A-R ELIGIBILITY - M. Sittner Sittner gave a PowerPoint presentation on the findings of the study and what City Council had to say about it at their recent Study Session. There were four questions that staff asked of Council during that session. 1) Change or continue DAR service levels; 2) Youth Fare (increase to .25); Elderly/Disabled Annual Pass (increase, unknown amount); Fixed Route Fare (increase of 25%). She asked the Board for feedback on what Council said with regard to the same four questions (Dial -A -Ride Eligibility, an increase in the Elderly Annual Pass, an increase in the General Fare to $1.25 and charging a quarter for Youth Fares). The Board discussed the fare increases briefly, not taking long to realize there was a consensus that above all, the focus should be on ridership. They also agreed that it would be especially detrimental to begin charging a youth fare because ridership could go down and the same could be said for any of the proposed increases. There was a motion by Gould that the end result of all these individual decisions should always be directed to increasing ridership and that even if there are economic problems with that, that it will serve the transportation goals of this board Johnson seconded the motion. Discussion: Thordarson stated that it should be clear that any change or increase in fare structure should be done so that it minimizes negative impacts on ridership. As an example, if, according to projections, adding any kind of youth fare would significantly reduce ridership, another means of increasing fare revenue should be pursued The motion carried by a unanimous vote. 15., Transportation Board APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes June 19,2002 Page 3 b. TRANSPORTATION MASTER PLAN UPDATE - Jackson Jackson stated that the reason this item is dubbed an "action" item is because he would like to talk to the board about what the expectations are of being a part of the TMP process. Staff has a suggestion to run by the board and see if it's something they'd be interested in and therefore make a decision about. Other than that, no other action is needed tonight. Jackson introduced RA Plummer from PBSBJ, the consultant on this project. Ray Moe with LSA has been added as a contributor as well as Coley Forest. The City Plan team has offered their contract to Edaw who are working in conjunction with Ben Herman and Clarion Associates. Both teams have some new faces as well as some continuity from the old team, which is a nice mix. Update: As mentioned, both teams have selected their consultants and are working on finalizing the Scopes of Work. The two teams will share a technical advisory committee and will also share a citizens' advisory committee at least through the end of this year. The applications for the committees can be found on the City's web site. Members of City Boards and Commissions are welcome to apply. The applications are due July 5 and staff hopes to have the first meeting in August. All told, Jackson said staff is looking at an 18- month process. There are two major phases to accomplish. One is the first "where are we" and "where are we headed" type of phase -- what the community wants to be when it grows up. It is hoped that this particular phase will be finished by March 2003. The second phase for City Plan is going to be refinement of the City Plan document, code issues and things of that nature. Jackson stated that it appears that the TMP is going to be on a more accelerated schedule. We are going to try to stay synced up with the City Plan process as much and as long as possible. That should be at least until the end of this year. The goal, at a minimum, is to have a preferred recommendation for a transportation system ready for this council in March 2003. This is going to be an aggressive timeline, which is why the role of groups like this will become more important as I'll discuss in a minute. Brief Overview of the Transportation Plan. The first 2-3,months will be spent doing data collection, background research and trying to get a sense of where Fort Collins is. What has changed since 1997 when the last City Plan and TMP were enacted. How well has that vision for CP and some of those transportation goals congealed and taken form that were envisioned 5 years ago? In late September, an open house is being planned to go to the community and say this is what we found, here is the information and also to get a feet for what the community's issues and questions are. The second phase is going to be working closely with the CP team in doing "what if" scenarios. The third part will be the final analysis and recommendations for the transportation system. What does it mean if you do this, what are the trade-offs if you go with this format, etc and try to bring that final recommendation (scenario) into focus for the March time frame. Transportation Board APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes June 19,2002 Page 4 Board Role: Because we don't have a transportation specific citizens' committee, that's why we thought this board could have a real pivotal role in what we're doing. This board could serve as a transportation specific sounding board of citizens that could help us through this process. We'd like to present that option to you and see if that is something this board is doing. We'd come to you on a pretty regular basis and work in depth with you to make sure we're getting a sense of what the community wants to look at and that we're answering the questions and issues that you have. Jackson said that there are a number of different ways that it could be done. It's difficult to compete for time on a busy monthly agenda with this board, but staff can try to carve out time if the board would like. Another option would be to have an additional meeting every other month. Staff will continue to come with monthly updates. Chair Ricord: From my perspective, this is a huge issue for transportation. What I hear you proposing is that staff would come to the meetings every other month with a brief summary, similar to what Reavis does for the MSTC updates. Then every other month actually have a meeting separate from the regular board meetings to specifically address these issues. I support having another meeting as this item is of the utmost importance. How do the rest of you feel? Kramer stated that he would support an additional meeting, as did Johnson. Johnson stated that perhaps the entire board doesn't have to be there. Similar to the finance subcommittee, maybe 4-6 members could attend the additional meetings. There was consensus to proceed in this way. Issues/Concerns: Johnson stated that while it is early in the game, one thought he has is the notion of mode interconnectedness. Jackson said that this is a major philosophical underpinning of the City Plan vision too. Gould stated that another element is the relationship between increases in total congestion and keep mass transit moving in potentially dedicated places so there can be affordable mobility in the face of increasing congestion. There could be physical facility questions about segments of dedicated transit ways and things like that. c. DOWNTOWN STRATEGIC PLAN - Hensley Since the attendance at tonight's meeting isn't any better than last month, Gould asked if anyone else indicated any interest in volunteering. Hensley said there was not, so Gould said that he would be willing to. Johnson stated that he would act as back-up for Gould. Hensley stated that there was a change in the meetings that the board should be aware of before committing as a volunteer. The meetings will be from 7:30 - 10 a.m. on 6/26, 7/17, 9/18, 11/20, 1/22, 2/19, 3/19, and 5/21. Hensley stated that it would be fine to send either one or two representatives, whichever the board prefers. The kick-off meeting will be June 26 at 281 N. College. Meetings after that will be held at 215 N. Mason. Johnson and Gould said that they will both try to make as many meetings as possible. Transportation Board APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes June 19,2002 7. REPORTS Page 5 a) BOARD MEMBER REPORTS Thordarson: Street Sweeping. I noticed there have been street sweepers in my neighborhood (Quail Hollow) on a more regular basis. Is this something new or am I just noticing it for the first time? Hensley: I'll check with Larry Schneider in Streets and let you know. Impact on Shields Street. What has been the impact to Shields Street since the Taft Hill Road closure in terms of asphalt deterioration? McNair: We don't have any data to know what that might be. This is the year however, that we do measurements of pavement conditions. Drake Road Detours. I noticed there are some detours on some of the culvert or bridge structures out on Drake/Overland Trail. It looks like trucks are out on the far side of the bridge structures. I was interested in that. McNair: That is because of the bridge inspections we did for the Horsetooth Dams Hauling project. There is significant hauling from the gravel pit at Taft Hill/US 287 to the dams and we did bridge inspections on all the routes that they were going to use and some of the bridges are deficient. We are concerned about having 100 trucks a day with excessive weight pounding on those, so two things have been done. One was to set up a bypass to run those heavy trucks over on the edge where the traffic normally doesn't run in order to lessen the impact on the bridge structure. The other thing being done is having a specialty firm coming up to do some post tensioning on those structures to increase their rating. As soon as that work is done, we'll take those bypasses out and trucks can run normally across those. Gould: Observations. Relative to the MSTC and the patterns of movement along that, the second large building of the Natural Resources Research Center, which is a federal complex at Spring Creek and Centre, they have sheltered bicycle parking, which is great. Hensley commented that this City building has indoor bike parking as well. Secondly, I saw a group of six federal bureaucrat looking people walking back from perhaps Sears (shopping center area) and had crossed the BNSF track at grade, illegally, and then were going back to their center there. It reiterated these east/west pedestrian connections that have to be acknowledged somehow. That pedestrian pressure is building up. Trantham: Cameras. What are the white cameras at Drake/Taft? McNair: These are video detection cameras for autos at the light. It keeps us from having to cut loops into the pavement to do the same thing. Johnson: UP Tracks Trail. The first part down to Drake from Edora Park is pretty much complete. What you see is a planning process that looks like someone laid it out after an FAC meeting. It meanders far too much and I would like staff to suggest to Parks and Rec when they continue the trail, is that this is not really a scenic route. Think of it more as a Transportation Board APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes June 19, 2002 Page 6 bike expressway. The second part, with regard to safety, is that it is starting to be discovered by kids and I'm starting to see some bad movements across Drake. I think that underscores the need for long- term commitment to an underpass at arterials as we move forward on this. Chair Ricord: Study Session on 6/12. The discussion at Council was lively. One point that was discussed was a linkage between the excise tax and the /, - cent sales tax in terms of the language on the ballot. Our recommendation from last month suggesting the greater excise tax of 2% made it into their packets, but there wasn't much of a discussion about it. I wonder if the board feels it necessary to weigh in further regarding the discussion about the linkage of the two. What could happen is that one proposal may pass and the other will not if they are separate ballot issues. Potentially you could have the 1/,-cent tax and then the excise tax not pass or vice versa. If you have any thoughts on that we should talk about it. A lot of people are wondering what the law says about it - if you have to actually separate them. Johnson: I think we should continue to look for ways to link those together. Similarly, we're looking for ways to tie the TMF to long-term capital and actually outline and explore mechanisms. I haven't heard any details on mechanisms they've looked at, but it must be looked at. That is a separate issue from the tax issue and will be considered separately by council so maybe we don't need to weigh in on that immediately, but 1 would think that we could ask and suggest a couple of mechanisms ourselves. It was agreed this item would be placed on the July agenda. Staff will inquire what the legal findings are from Bachman and Phillips. b) STAFF REPORTS McNair: Street Oversizing. McNair distributed a hand-out entitled: 2002 Street Oversizing Capital Expansion Fee Update. This topic will be on the next Board agenda. Taft Hill Road. Taft is currently being paved and will open on time. There will be one lane going each direction for a little while so median landscaping and sidewalk work can be finished. Shields/Prospect. Beginning Friday night at 9 o'clock, the intersection of Shields and Prospect will be closed completely in order to get it milled out and paved. It will reopen Monday morning and be completely operational. Gould commented that he was impressed with the signage on the Shields project including what to do if an emergency vehicle needs to get through. Downtown. The streetscaping project will be finished tomorrow. College Avenue Closure. In order to install a storm pipe under College Avenue, it will be closed for a couple of nights, June 26 £t 27 (subject to change). This is on College south of Oak Street. Transportation Board APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes June 19, 2002 Scott: Next Agenda: CSU Strategic Plan (?) • E. Mulberry Corridor Plan (?) • Downtown Strategic Plan Update • Transportation Master Plan Update • Mason Street Transportation Corridor Update • Transportation Capital Funding • Street Oversizing Program Update 8. OTHER BUSINESS None 9. ADJOURN Chair Ricord adjourned the meeting at 8:25 p.m. Respectfully submitted, 411� 0CW- Cynthia Scott Executive Administrative Assistant Page 7