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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAir Quality Advisory Board - Minutes - 01/21/2003MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS AIR QUALITY ADVISORY BOARD REGULAR MEETING 281 N. COLLEGE AVE. January 21, 2003 For Reference: Linda Stanley Chair 491-1765 Eric Hamrick, Council Liaison 226-4824 Sarah Fox, Staff Liaison 221-6312 Board Members Present Nancy York, Mandar Sunthankar, Linda Stanley, Katie Walters, Cherie Trine, Ken Moore, Jim Dennison, and Everett Bacon Board Members Absent None Staff Present Natural Resources Department: Lucinda Smith and Sally Maggart Advance Planning: Ken Waido Transportation Planning: Mark Jackson and Kathleen Reavis Transfort: Tom Frazier Guests Bob Felsburg, Consultant, Felsburg, Holt & Ullevig The meeting was called to order at 4:30 p.m. Conrad Van Dyke came by to say good-bye. He is moving and has resigned from the board. Minutes With the following changes, the minutes of the November 26, 2002 were unanimously approved. • Katie Walters noted that her last name had been misspelled. Annual Report Katie Walters will make the following changes and e-mail the final report to boardmembers and staff: • Public Smoking Recommendations: Insert "not' to ...... that the matter be referred to the ballot' • Add: Electric Supply Policy recommendation. • Add: Radon action. Linda Stanley and Walters will go through the 2002 minutes to make sure everything is included. Welcome New Members Cherie Trine and Ken Moore were introduced and welcomed. Air Quality Advisory Board January 21,2003 Page 2 of 6 Master Transportation and City Plan Update Ken Waido, Chief Planner in Advance Planning, noted that boardmembers received a listing of characteristics that deal with the future size and character of the Fort Collins community. He said that staff will be providing Council with a recommended list of characteristics at the January 28 Study Session. On February 15, Council will be asked to adopt a listing of characteristics that will lead to changes in the City's principles and policies. Mark Jackson, Chief Planner in Transportation, said that a citizen group developed the list of transportation characteristics that follow existing policies in City Plan and the Master Transportation Plan. The Transportation Board finalized a comprehensive list of recommendations to Council. Jackson will send that list electronically to Lucinda Smith for distribution to boardmembers. • Moore: Are the numbers used for Mobile 6 provided by the State? • Waido: We have worked with the State demographer, as well as economic consultants and the regional MPO. • Moore: I question whether the State is truly accurately counting vmt for up here. • Jackson: We are using a better travel forecast model than in 1997. We are not dependent on the State. • Bacon: The model is calculated to the ground count on the road and done through GIS. • Sunthankar: What points have changed from the past and how will they be addressed in the future? • Jackson: There are two critical; one internal to the City is the goal for reduction of vmt because vmt growth has outstripped the population. We have seen a big change in travel patterns and the regional aspect of vmt was not incorporated in 1997. We are taking a more regional look this time with population and forecast data based on the Northern Colorado region and extrapolated into the Fort Collins area. • York: What is Phase 2. • Waido: Based on what characteristics are adopted, we will do an exhaustive evaluation of City Plan and the Master Transportation Plan to make sure the characteristics match. Some policies may stay the same, some may change, and some may be added or deleted. • Trine: It seems like the Growth Management Area would be an important thing to look at. Has that grown with the update? • Waido: The recommendation currently formulated by the Citizens Advisory Committee and staff is that the existing boundary is going to remain in place except for expansion in the northwest to include the CSU Foothills Campus and expansion into the Fossil Creek Cooperative Planning Area south of the Fossil Creek Reservoir. One thing that is driving the expansion is to generate additional sales tax revenues. • Stanley: Why include the CSU Foothills piece? • Waido: CSU is currently doing master plans for all three campuses. The preliminary discussions about Foothills include a public/private partnership on part of it that could range from one to four million square feet of office and research activity. It is important because of the private aspect and the impact on City services. • Stanley: Who pays? • Waido: Impact fees would be assessed. • Stanley: Only for the private? Air Quality Advisory Board January 21, 2003 Page 3 of 6 • Waido: Right. • Trine: Does CSU pay the same fees? • Waido: The only fees they would pay are utility extension fees. • Stanley: The cost to bring the road up to City standards seems enormous compared to leaving it in the County. If CSU wants to make roads better, let them do it. I do not see an economic reason to bring this into the GMA. • Waido: From a health and safety perspective, we don't want to leave it in the County hands. • Stanley: CSU will develop it if they think the City will pay improvement costs. • York: A cost -benefit analysis would be good to see how much we would have to pay. • Stanley: How much open space is there in the Fossil Creek area? • Waido: Quite a bit. • York: What is the rationale for expanding? • Waido: Part of the Fossil Creek Area Plan is in City Plan. Also, it is defensive based on what Windsor is doing. • Walters: Is it based on business? • Waido: We think it's going to happen anyway. It is better to fall under the City. • Jackson: If we can't capture costs, the impacts will still be coming in and we will be left holding the bag for impacts. • York: Has the CAC recommended the expansion. • Waido: Yes. • York: The reason vmt growth is exceeding population growth is because we are sprawling. • Waido: Sprawl and the affluency of society and the number of autos per household. • Jackson: We are looking at a different matrix beside vmt to help measure mobility as a concept, hours of delay, percentage of congested lane miles and what transit can and cannot do. Part of the mission is to try to come up with a recommendation to develop a mobility index to use longitudinally to track mobility. • Walters: I am happy to hear that. Vint is not always correct. York: What is the Conifer Corridor? • Jackson: Mason, Harmony and Conifer were identified as corridors in the 1997 City Plan. Conifer is a more direct express connection between the Mountain Vista area and the Transit Center on Mason Street. It connects the northeast quadrant with the central business core. • Sunthankar: How does the failure of the tax revenue initiative impact the Mason Street Corridor Plan? • Jackson: It has the potential to delay the project. The City is aggressively pursuing federal funding, and Council will be discussing placing another initiative on the April ballot. We will move forward with the engineering and environmental impact study. We are still committed to building the bicycle/pedestrian part of the Corridor. Nancy York made a motion to recommend acceptance of Characteristics TRI, TR2, TR4, TR5, TR6 and TR7. TR3 is left out because of conflicts. The motion also endorsed DRP5b which keeps the current GMA boundary. Cherie Trine seconded the motion. After the following discussion the motion passed with a vote of 5 in favor (Walters, Stanley, Trine, York and Dennison), 2 opposed (Moore and Sunthankar) and 1 abstention ( Bacon). Air Quality Advisory Board January 21, 2003 Page 4 of 6 • Trine: I believe vmt and mobility conflict. The greater mobility, the greater vmt. I would like to see actual numbers that show mobility is a better indicator of pollution prevention than vmt. • Bacon: From an air quality perspective, vmt is not what it used to be. We used to have big polluting cars but now there are very small amounts of emissions from cars. From an air quality perspective, vmt is the best indicator, but from a land use perspective and how a City grows, it is not as big an issue. • Moore: Vehicles do the most polluting on acceleration and deacceleration. Smoother traffic flow will cut down on emissions. • Dennison: Cars may be getting cleaner, but they are bigger and are consuming more fossil fuels and creating more tire dust. I would rather see CDOT pour some of the money into getting light rail going, rather than more highways. I also tend to think there is a lot to be said for growth boundary extension. I would hate to see Windsor or Timnath come in and put in their kind of development. Fort Collins would do it differently. • Stanley: I am in favor of keeping the GMA the same overall. The County needs to be more accountable for what they are putting in. • Sunthankar: I do not know whether the AQAB should be dealing with the growth issue and expansion. I am concerned about pollution and do not want limitations on growth. We need a better business atmosphere and job opportunities. If the air quality standard can be maintained, I do not worry about growth. • Stanley: I care about how much we sprawl out. If the GMA stays at the current level, we would be more likely to have transit and bus opportunities. The GMA is an air quality issue because of how we get around. • Sunthankar: Is sprawl going to stop? • Waido: We are looking at it more from a regional perspective. All communities in northern Colorado are going to grow and our decision will have an impact on the region. Fort Collins does have limits to expansion. Staff is supporting no boundary change at this time other than the two exceptions. This could change in five years. • York: RE I c. is sustainable and does not mean that Fort Collins loses its role as regional leader. Nancy York made a motion to strike the lastphrase in RElc., "meaning Fort Collins gradually loses its historic role as regional leader'; and approve it. Cherie Trine seconded the motion. After the following discussion, the motion was passed with 5 in favor (Ken Moore, Linda Stanley, Nancy York, Cherie Trine, and Katie Walters) and 3 abstentions (Everett Bacon, Jim Dennison and Mandar Sunthankar). • Walters: Are you encouraging surrounding communities to build their own malls? • Waido: Fort Collins has captured more of the regional sales tax in the past. RE lc recognizes that as other communities grow, they will have their own Home Depots and Target stores. We will see a decline in sales tax revenues and may need to look at diversification of the tax base. • York: The key to Fort Collins' regional leadership is a transportation plan that is independent of automobiles. I support everybody having their own activity center because it is more sustainable. • Dennison: Are we considering any of the other RE's? Air Quality Advisory Board January 21, 2003 Page 5 of 6 Stanley: It is up to the board. Transportation is important to the AQAB. Are there other things in terms of air quality? Dennison: No, not much in terms of air quality. I would like to consider adding RE2 to the motion because it covers transportation, environmental planning and land use. Jim Dennison made a motion that the board recommends Characteristic RE2. Ken Moore seconded the motion. The motion passed with 4 in favor (Dennison, Moore, Walters and Sunthankar), 2 opposed (Stanley and Trine) and 2 abstentions (Bacon and York). Short Discussion Items I. New AQAB meeting date: It was decided to change the meeting date to the 4`h Thursday of the month. The 4:30-7:30 p.m. meeting time will stay the same. 2. AQAB Retreat: It was decided to meet on Thursday, February 6 from 5:00-9:00 p.m. in the meeting room at Old Chicago. Staff will make the arrangements. Agenda items: Review new policies/decisions on communicating to Council, review Robert's Rules of Order and discuss Air Quality Policy Plan issues. Election of Vice Chair: Katie Walters was unanimously elected Vice Chair Cost Benefit of Climate Rise Program. Lucinda distributed a memo related to the City's costs to reduce emissions through the Climate Wise program. Mason Street Transportation Corridor Project Kathleen Reavis, Sr. Transportation Planner, presented an update of the project. The project extends from Cherry Street to % mile south of the Harmony. She noted that the focus of the project is on mobility enhancements and choices offered to the community. It has the ability to turn railroad corridor space into usable and beneficial space for the community. • Reavis: There will be a separate bike/pedestrian path. We are looking at an underpass under the railroad tracks at Drake Road. • York: I think Prospect Road would be better. • Reavis: We did not look that closely at Prospect. We looked at Drake and Horsetooth as most likely and Drake is working best because it is more centrally located. • Frazier: We are working with CSU on a long-range bike plan. It may be a way to use Center Avenue to tie into Laurel. • Reavis: We are looking at a 60/40 split with FTA funds. • Sunthankar: With long term capital funding projects, by the time the project is finished, it has doubled in cost. • Reavis: We need to continually refine numbers. FTA recognizes the change in dollar amount. • Frazier: The potential of the underpass is part of funding for planning, not part of construction. If it can be done, the intent is to go out and find federal dollars with a local match. • Bacon: Are grade crossings included in the funding. • Reavis: No. • Walters: Where will buses and cars be combined? Air Quality Advisory Board January 21, 2003 Page 6 of 6 • Reavis: Downtown from Cherry Street to CSU campus. • York: Will bikes and pedestrians be able to cross and go the mall, Alfalfa's and K-Mart? • Reavis: We are looking at Troutman for an underpass. Swallow provides another connection between Drake & Horsetooth. The railroad is emphatic that there cannot be an at grade, surface level crossing. It has to under or over the railroad. • Walters: Will buses still run on College Avenue? • Frazier: There is a long, long range plan for three corridors in the next 25 years. The service along College will eventually move to the west. • Stanley: Is there anything the Board can do to make sure this goes forward? • Reavis: If there are areas of the project that you like and want to support, or areas of concern, it might be helpful to tell Council. We would like to come back to the Board as we move forward. • Felsburg: A summary from the open house will be given to Council. • York: This is a shot in the arm economically for the central business area. With the economy and the looming war, have you thought about developing other means of funding like a special tax district or incremental tax financing? • Reavis: The FTA requires a financial management plan that we are updating now. We will be refining it and looking at those options. • Frazier: The State of Colorado is in a great position with Senate representatives on key transportation committees. This fall, the government will be assigning funding for the next six years. • Stanley: It is important to go to the open house, talk to your Council person and give comments. • York: Perhaps we could write a memo at our retreat to send to Council. • Bacon: Looking at the project from all sides, it's a win -win. We need to show strong support. • Sunthankar: Will there be park and rides? • Reavis: Yes. • Reavis: We sent out over 4,000 notices on the open house and are developing an e-mail information list for updates on the project. • York: You should use posters for those not on the list and those who do not get the newspaper. • York: We need a liaison to the Transportation Board to strengthen the relationship. • Walters: We can bring that up at the retreat. Adjourn The meeting adjourned at 7:50 p.m. �1J i