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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTransportation Board - Minutes - 06/20/2001REGULAR MEETING MINUTES of the TRANSPORTATION BOARD June 20, 2001 5:45 p.m. City of Fort Collins — City Hall West — CIC Room 300 LaPorte Avenue FOR REFERENCE: — 2 .Z CHAIR: Christophe Ricord 472.8769 VICE CHAIR: Dan Gould 482.1074 STAFF LIAISON: Don Bachman 224.6049 ADMIN SUPPORT: Cynthia Scott 224.6058 BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Dan Gould Bruce Henderson Tim Johnson Tom Kramer Brad Miller Ray Moe Christophe Ricord Brent Thordarson Mary Waning Steve Yeldell CITY STAFF IN ATTENDANCE: Don Bachman Randy Hensley Cam McNair Ron Phillips Cynthia Scott GUESTS IN ATTENDANCE: R.A. Plummer Chair Ricord called the meedng to order at 5:50 p.m. ABSENT: Heather Trantham Transportation Board DRAFT Regular Meeting Minutes June 20, 2001 Page 2 Warring noted that there are five minutes allocated to 4.b. N. Colorado Regional Communities I-25 Corridor Plan, which doesn't seem sufficient. Warring proposed to add more time to the item. Jackson responded that the reason the time for that item is short is that the Board has already acted on the regional plan and a courtesy update was all that was planned. He said he would cover the adoption process and dates. Warring commented that the document in the packets contains a lot of info that the board has never seen before. Chair Ricord stated that Ken Waido, who was to be the other presenter for 4.c., couldn't make it to tonight's meeting so this item can be tabled until the July meeting. Shelving this item will then free up 40 minutes that can be spent on item 4.b. per Warring's request. Chair Ricord then noted that item 4.d. will be moved up on the agenda, to immediately follow item 4.a. 1. PUBLIC COMMENT None. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Ma ilp There was a motion by Johnson and a second by Thordarson to approve the , 2001 Transportation Board minutes as presented The question was called and the motion passed unanimously 9 — 0. 3. COUNCIL LIAISON REPORT None. 4.a. N. COLORADO TRUCK ROUTE MOBILITY/SH-14 RELOCATION STUDY UPDATE - JACKSON Jackson introduced R.A. Plummer who is the project manager for the consultant team (PBSJ). Jackson and Plummer presented the update using PowerPoint. Highlights from the presentation included: • Study Schedule • Upcoming outreach that includes the North Front Range Transportation & Air Quality Planning Council and the Wellington Town Board • Current place in the study process • Commercial Vehicle Operations (CVO) Regulatory Agencies/Roles including CDOT, Department of Revenue, Public Utilities Commission, Department of Public Safety — Colorado State Patrol • Evaluation Criteria for non -route based strategies, which includes: Safety; Cost; Strategy Utilization; and Legality (Interstate commerce) Transportation Board DRAFT Regular Meeting Minutes June 20, 2001 Page 3 • Evaluation Criteria for alternate routes: Safety; cost; traffic operation; route utilization; environmental resources; right of way/relocations; directly affected properties • Community Planning/land use • Length of route • Financial strategies • Marketing strategies • Regulatory enforcement strategies • Physical strategies • Unrealistic screening of strategies Upon conclusion of the presentation, the floor was opened to the board members for questions and comments. Overall, the comments were positive and several ideas were discussed. Jackson thanked the board for their time and stated that he would be back to give another update at the next step of major milestones - - perhaps two months from now. 4.b. AIR QUALITY REDESIGNATION - THIEMAN Suzette Thieman stated that she is with the North Front Range Transportation & Air Quality Planning Council which is a Metropolitan Planning Organization, but is also a group that is called the lead air quality planning agency in this region. The group not only deals with transportation issues, but air quality issues. For the past year, staff has been working on a project called the Redesignation for the City of Fort Collins. Thieman presented data via overhead slides that shows in the past, the city has exceeded the National air quality standards for carbon monoxide. The city has not exceeded that standard since 1991. The effort is to redesignate from being nonattainment for carbon monoxide to attainment. The State legislature made a request back in 1991 that said they would like any area that is eligible to redesignate to attainment to do so expeditiously - - in our case, it is 10 years later. It is also the goal of the Air Quality Control Commission to redesignate. The things that the redesignation could effect are some of the air quality programs such as the inspection and maintenance program; oxygenated fuel requirement in the wintertime; relaxation of standards for industries; and funding. Because Fort Collins is currently a nonattainment area, we receive a little over $1M a year in federal funding called Congestion Mitigation & Air Quality funds. A maintenance plan was developed so that in the event the emissions start to go back up, there are things in place to help bring them back down. The floor was opened to the board for comments and questions, which was brief. Transportation Board DRAFT Regular Meeting Minutes June 20, 2001 Page 4 4.c. FORT COLLINS I-25 SUB -AREA PLAN UPDATE & N. COLORADO REGIONAL COMMUNITIES I-25 CORRIDOR PLAN - JACKSON Jackson apologized for Waido's absence. He stated that the crux of the sub -area plan is land use based so it is really the right thing to do to hold off on it until next month. He stated that he would like to give the board some dates and bring them up to speed on where the I-25 Regional Corridor Plan is at in the adoption process. In terms of the regional plan, staff took feedback by making the rounds of boards and commissions of all the participating municipalities and agencies. Public outreach, forums and a number of different methods were used and the feedback was used in drafting the final draft document. It is now moving towards adoption. Fort Collins is fast in line in moving forward with adoption. On June 21, the Planning & Zoning Board will make a recommendation of approval. Staff went to City Council two weeks ago and did a presentation/update for both the regional and the sub -area plans. City Council will hear the regional plan and decide whether to adopt or not at their July 17 meeting. Loveland is moving in quick step behind Fort Collins and will most likely be the second. Larimer County is moving forward as well as Berthoud. Staff is optimistic that there will be a corridor wide adoption process. The sub -area plan will be presented next Monday evening, June 25 in the Council Chambers. The Fort Collins Planning & Zoning Board will be holding an open public forum on the land use elements of the sub -area plan. This would be an excellent opportunity for anyone who has issues, concerns or questions. The forum will be from 6:30 — 9 p.m. Board comments/questions: Johnson: When this board talked about this last, we wanted to express that if it is development driven, then development should pay for it since we are so short on transportation capital funds for our city. For this part of it, I'm not sure that our board approved this kind of stuff and I am strongly opposed to it being in there. "Sloppy" language use throughout the document was discussed, such as the word provide meaning that it will be done, when in fact it may not. Thordarson: I agree with Johnson's comments. Miller: I agree also. We do need to move ahead and the ROW items need to be taken care of soon. I don't want us to get caught in a trap on the funding side of things and decisions will need to be made every step of the way. Phillips: I agree that better wording could have been used, but the intent was not to put the responsibility one place or another, but was meant in general terms that this would happen. However, in light of the sensitivity of this subject, we should Transportation Board DRAFT Regular Meeting Minutes June 20, 2001 Page 5 have been more careful with the language and we'll try to work out a way to change that before the document is presented for adoption. Jackson: I think a lot of the issues that you are expressing are valid in terms of the wording. I do want to say that some of the other concerns or feelings you may be having I think you will find are addressed in the sub -area plan to a greater degree. The issue about funding, development funding mechanisms, more detailed more micro -leveled costs and such, you will see in the sub -area analysis. Gould. I agree with Johnson's comments. Yeldell: It seems that this went from transportation specific guidelines for the ROW to a transportation plan for the corridor in general. Warring: Based on all the comments I have made in the past, I agree with Johnson, but I believe it goes beyond the wording. There are several examples throughout the plan that reinforce this attitude that development is not really going to pay for it, i.e. page 42 talks about rebates to developers for sales tax. I don't believe that should even be a consideration. It also talks about an RTA is a tax and while businesses pay that tax as well in general, it is meant for the average citizen. I really don't think either of those should be included in this plan as funding mechanisms because that is transferring the cost away from the development community. Warring disputed the cost of interchanges in the document (eight interchanges at the cost of $175M). She stated that this seems to provide a framework and an expectation. I keep having the sense that this study is not complete. We have not touched on how much it is going to cost to fund it and I worry about how antagonistic the communities are going to get if we've all signed on to this plan and then they realize what they are in for fiscally and that they will start dropping out of this plan. In addition, I feel that the open lands piece has really gotten the short shift. There is no real vision of what you are going to preserve. It is talked about, but there is no definition on it. Chair Ricord asked if the board wanted to send a memo to Council regarding the concerns spoken of tonight. General themes were developed from the comments made earlier and the board discussed and agreed upon specific wording for the memo. It was agreed that Bachman would e-mail the comments from this discussion to all board members and Chair Ricord would have the final review and then sign it. There was a motion to send a memo to Council. There was a second and the motion carried unanimously. 10 — 0. Transportation Board DRAFT Regular Meeting Minutes June 20, 2001 Page 6 5. a. 2002-2003 BUDGET - BACHMAN Bachman stated that there are two recommendations from the Transportation Board Finance Committee: 1) Consider the draft memorandum regarding 2002-2003 budget comments, as requested by the Transportation Board Finance Committee members; 2) Approve final memorandum to the City Manager and Council regarding ongoing street maintenance funding. Bachman presented a brief slide show of financial data. There was a motion to take the May 12 letter re: Improving Traffic Law Enforcement in Fort Collins" from the packet that deals with pavement management and submit the remainder to Council. Secondly, in the second letter, the draft letter dealing with the 2002-2003 biennial budget, after letter "c." it should read as follows: "Last year we emphasized that there is a need for improved funding for traffic law enforcement in Fort Collins." There was a second. The motion passed unanimously 10-0. 6. a. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS Thordarson: Bike Deoot Article. I saw a nice article in the Denver Post about their depot project. Yeldell: Allard Conference Attendance. There was an interesting array of speakers. One topic of discussion was about regionally stationing cost where excessive funds are being used for an extended period of time causing deficiencies elsewhere. Federal DOT does deal with that, but that has to actually come from the State. Hydrogen Task Force. The committee will be meeting next Wednesday morning. The plan now is working on a report for the City manager that would recommend starting with a single fuel cell powered bus for the Mason Street Corridor. It is looking very possible at this point. There is funding available that may even supercede the cost of the bus. Moe: Institute of Transportation Engineers/Transportation Planning Council. A group within ITE is called Transportation Planning Council and is generally the area that I hang out in so to speak. Once a year they solicit from project managers that have worked on projects for submittal to the "Best Practices Award." This year I submitted Mason Street Transportation Corridor. They made a decision at the end of May. You could say it is similar to an Oscar award to those of us in the transportation field. I called at the end of May to check on the status and was told that it was one of the five finalists. I waited a week and called again, but the person I needed to ask wasn't in. I contacted him where he was and finally found out that the Mason Street Transportation Corridor won! Chair Ricord: Bus Bench Ads. I have noticed benches around town with a CDOT message on them that say, "Share the Road." Transportation Board DRAFT Regular Meeting Minutes June 20. 2001 Page 7 7. b. STAFF REPORTS Bachman went over the tentative agenda for the July board meeting: • I-25 Sub -area Plan • N. College Project • US 287 Widening Project Phillips: MPO Executive Director. The MPO is making a decision tomorrow night on the selection of a new director. 8. OTHER BUSINESS There being no other business, the meeting adjourned at approximately 9:30 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Cynthia Scott Executive Administrative Assistant j',O,j _ 0 plc' &ta " (6 111 Mf