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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTransportation Board - Minutes - 05/19/2004REGULAR MEETING MINUTES of the TRANSPORTATION BOARD May 19, 2004 5:45 p.m. City of Fort Collins -Municipal Building Community Room 215 N. Mason Street FOR CHAIR: Bruce Henderson 8984625 VICE CHAIR: Heather Trantham 206-4255 STAFF LIAISON: Don Bachman 224-6049 ADMIN SUPPORT: Cynthia Cass 224-6058 BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Dan Gould Neil Grigg Bruce Henderson Tim Johnson Christophe Ricord Gary Thomas CITY STAFF IN ATTENDANCE: Don Bachman Cynthia Cass Tom Frazier Mark Jackson Cam McNair Ron Phillips Rick Richter Lucinda Smith ABSENT: Joe Dumais Claudia Eberspacher Ray Moe Brent Thordarson Heather Trantham GUESTS IN ATTENDANCE: Margie Joy Mary Warring Rick Gabel 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Henderson called the meeting to order at 5:57 p.m. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board May 19, 2004 Page 2 of 9 12. AGENDA REVIEW I Chair Henderson noted that a quorum was barely present and that Board Member Grigg needed to leave at S p.m. Therefore, he warned that the action items would have to be completed and voted on before then. No changes were made to the agenda as presented. 3. PUBLIC COMMENT None. 14. APPROVAL OF MINUTES (APRIL 2004) There was a motion and a second to approve the minutes of April 21, 2004 as presented, Discussion: None. The question was called and the motion carried by a unanimous vote, 6-0. 15. COUNCIL LIAISON REPORT I present. 6. ACTION ITEMS a. FINAL DRAFT AIR QUALITY PLAN UPDATE — L Smith Smith stated that Council will be asked to adopt only the Policy chapter of the Air Quality Plan (AQP). She explained that this has been done in the past in terms of the Natural Areas Policy Plan and also for Solid Waste Reduction. Council sets policy, but staff basically develops the program to implement the policies. That's why staff is asking Council to just adopt the Policy chapter. However, staff has had Council review the Plan and tonight, if the Board would like to, they may consider making a recommendation to Council on the Policy chapter and also if there are any comments on the whole plan, Smith said she would welcome those. She stated that there was a Study Session with Council last week and one of the major outcomes was that staff asked them if they wanted to retain, as a principle, the concept of a long-term vision, that it would be the City's long term vision to reduce the Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) growth rate to the population growth rate. Some of the Council feedback on that questioned a couple of things. One was how is population a good indicator or metric against which to compare VMT growth and secondly, is that appropriate for the Air Quality Plan? She said that she understands that's a relevant issue to this Board because it's still part of the Board's mission statement. She added that she doesn't think Council was saying it's not a worthy objective per se, but she believes they were saying that it's not appropriate in the AQP. Therefore staff is removing anything that's a policy in City Plan, Transportation Master Plan and the AQP on reducing VMT APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board May 19, 2004 Page 3 of 9 growth rates, population/growth rate. Smith apologized for not mentioning that in the memo to the Board. Smith said that most of the other policy changes that she outlined that occurred since she last met with the Board are relatively minor and routine, except for two items that she did bring to the Board's attention. Smith then opened the floor to Board comments and questions. There was a lot of discussion about whether the board should pass a recommendation on aspects of the Plan that don't pertain to Transportation. Chair Henderson attempted to rein the discussion in by stating that there are three options for the Board: 1) Make a recommendation on just Policies; 2) Policies and Strategies; or 3) The whole Plan He stated that what Smith is after is the Policies recommendation. Smith said that some clearly do not relate to the Transportation Board's mission. Many of them are so broad that they could relate indirectly, such as Enforcement for example. Thomas made the following motion: We think that Air Quality is important to the quality of life and well-being of the citizens of Fort Collins. We therefore recommend that the City Council adopt the transportation policies as presented in the Air Quality Plan and request that staff review with us strategies pursuant to those policies as they are being formulated Gould seconded the motion. Discussion: Smith stated that the word Transportation might be confusing because the transportation policies specifically have already been adopted. So if it said, the "transportation -related air quality policies" it might help with reducing any confusion. Thomas stated he would accept that as a friendly amendment. Ricord: In policy 1.1.5., page 2, where it speaks of air quality indicators, in the comment section, is there a mistake on the frequency? Smith: Yes, that is a mistake. What we will be doing is updating the indicators at least twice in a five-year cycle. Ricord: Okay. The other question refers to policy AQ 15.3, again under the "Comments" column it looks like staff doesn't want to delineate certain specific kinds of risks. Can you tell us a little about the staff decision to not identify those risks? Smith: That list of risks, that was included previously in the Policy, we don't know if it's comprehensive and it seemed more appropriate to staff to not try and... with the background or investigation into issues, select a list of risk type issues. There might be some other things that we're missing so in order to simplify the policy and move away from the very health related aspects that it calls out, we felt it was reasonable to exclude those types of risks or problems associated with their toxics. It doesn't mean that they wouldn't be looked at. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board May 19, 2004 Page 4 of 9 Ricord: But certainly all the risks that are delineated here are clearly identified as resulting risks of air quality issues. So you wouldn't necessarily say they're not. I'm not sure that that's a good argument for not having it. It doesn't affect the motion on the table, but I would like to go on record as saying that it does need to be listed. Thomas: What makes that work for me is if you look at the context of the principle it falls under. Ricord: I just think it's better to be more specific than not. Johnson: In the beginning you mentioned the notion of cost benefit elements and they were taken out — I would like to comment that the city is here for the long-term so I'm not sure why it would even be considered short-term. Smith: It is not something that was taken out of anything that had ever been adopted. It was proposed as a new policy, but then taken out. You're right, the City is here for the long-term, but it may be an evolution in practices to begin and embrace life cycle costing which is one aspect of looking long-term. Even that term, long-term, is kind of vague. If you start looking at the issue of sustainability, how long-term will you be looking? Chair Henderson asked that the motion be repeated. Thomas read: We think that Air Quality is important to the quality of life and well-being of the citizens of Fort Collins. We therefore recommend that the City Council adopt the transportation -related air quality policies as presented in the Air Quality Plan and further request that staff review with us strategies pursuant to those policies as they are being formulated Johnson asked to make a friendly amendment to the motion by adding the word improving before "Air Quality" in the first part of the sentence. Thomas accepted the friendly amendment. The question was called and the motion carried by a unanimous vote, 6 — 0. Smith thanked the board and stated that she would come back with the transportation issues. Chair Henderson reminded the Board that Board Member Grigg is leaving at 8 p. in. so there is one hour left to get through the second action item. b. CARPENTER ROAD—M. Jackson Jackson provided the Board with background information, updated info and the next steps regarding the issue via a PowerPoint presentation. Many hand-outs were distributed to the board. Jackson stated that staff recommends to Council that they consider adopting the Memorandum of Agreement (MOLD to CDOT that transfers the jurisdiction. He said that staff also recommend that in the next three years, in a short term time frame that CDOT, with cooperation from the City and Larimer County would undertake a feasibility and APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board May 19, 2004 Page 5 of 9 alternatives analysis of the corridor, do a preliminary identification of what some of the potential alignments and design issues may be, all in an effort to minimize the road footprint near these sensitive areas. And finally, the recommendation is that any future improvements of the corridor embrace context sensitive design or context sensitive design solution principles and methodologies. He then opened the floor for discussion. After a lengthy discussion, Johnson summed up the discussion by outlining the following four points: 1) Design standards, something similar to or comparable to Fort Collins City Design Standards, 2) Minimal footprint to minimize environmental impact and mitigation, 3) Corridor Study that brings in a lot of things such as roundabouts, consideration of the alignment of the road, etc 4) Capital Needs and Maintenance Shift Grigg made a motion that the Transportation Board supports the MOU to transfer control to CDOT of Carpenter Road provided that it faithfully represents Fort Collins Transportation Planning as expressed through corridor studies (concepts like roundabouts, looking at potentially realignment, Prospect Streetscape), incorporates the design standards at least as good as Fort Collins, exercises responsible environmental stewardship in roadway construction and operation, and protects Fort Collins from exposure to excessive Capital and Operating costs. There was a second Discussion: Ricord: A lot of this information was handed out tonight. Would it not have been possible to include it in the packets? Jackson: Had it been possible, I would have. Ricord.• I would submit that in the future when we have a discussion of this magnitude that the information be in the packet if at all possible because to really give this any kind of credence tonight during the discussion to look through all this was unrealistic. Secondly, I would like to have seen the memos from both the Natural Resources Advisory Board and Planning and Zoning. Jackson: I don't think they've prepared them yet. They were going to communicate directly with Council, not us. Ricord: But wouldn't it have been possible for us to see those? Jackson: I'm certain that it was possible, but I'm not certain that they had it done in time that you would have something to react to tonight. I note your concern on the inserts. I try and get complete information to you as timely as possible, but sometimes it isn't possible. Chair Henderson called the question and the motion carried by a majority vote, 5 —1 with Ricord opposed APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board May 19, 2004 Page 6 of 9 Chair Henderson: I had some concerns too with the speed with which this is moving and a lot of it does have to do with getting a lot of information at the very end. I talked to Randy Fisher about this a couple nights ago and I know that some of the specific Natural Resources Board concerns had to do with the NEPA process and around that $ 1OM had been invested in the Duck Lake area for environmental projects and that sort of thing and just concerns that that doesn't get lost in the process if we wind up with a 6-lane road and the proper mitigation isn't done. In general I think there is a lot of nervousness on people's part because this is such an environmentally sensitive area and I think if the MOU reflects the points that Tim brought up, it will certainly go a long way towards doing that, but we need to be careful to make sure that we do communicate that to people and to make sure that in crafting the MOU that it really addresses the nervousness and concerns of people around the environmental sensitivity. Mark Jackson stated that it has indeed been an aggressive schedule and that staff is trying to incorporate what they are hearing from the different boards as far as their issues and concerns including those things heard from Mr. Fisher and the Natural Resources Board and have tried to build clauses into the draft MOU that we're working on. The NEPA process is obviously very rigorous, but people have such an investment in the environment along this corridor already and there is so much concern about lack of control that a lot of that is being heard. Thomas: Can someone clarify how the motion will translate into action. Chair Henderson: This gets written up automatically in the minutes and there will be a letter that will be sent. Thomas: Considering that everyone has a sensitivity in making sure that the points Johnson brought up are tightly crafted, it would be a good idea to have a letter review process. Chair Henderson: I'm perfectly okay with doing that. It was agreed that the letter could take a couple of weeks to draft and that Jackson will verbally update Council on what the board decided tonight when he meets with them on Tuesday. Chair Henderson stated that he could also send an email to Council letting them know that the board did approve this, but are also very concerned about the wording of the letter and would like some time to finalize it and it won't be there until next week. It was also agreed that if a member can attend the meeting it would be beneficial as well. Jackson and Gabel thanked the board for their time and their support. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board May 19, 2004 Page 7 of 9 At this time, 8 p.m., Board Member Grigg had to leave, so a quorum is not present from this point on. 17. DISCUSSION ITEMS I a. OVERVIEW OF DRAFT 2030 REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION PLAN—M. Joy Joy gave a PowerPoint presentation that included the following highlights: • MPO Responsibilities - Long range Transportation Plans - Transportation Improvement Programs - Conformity Determinations - Grassroots Input • Purpose of Regional Transportation Plan - Create an inclusive and comprehensive transportation plan for the region - A one -stop plan that captures all the federal and state transportation dollars projected to be spent within the NFRMPO - Implement a systematic, regional process to create a prioritized and coordinated project list for the state plan - Follow Federal procedures to update on a 3-year cycle • 2025 Regional Transportation Plan - Listed over 400 projects Over $4Billion in total projects • NFRMPO's Responsibilities for the RTP - Creates a unified plan - Facilitate a process to allow for more local input - Coordinate the planning process (local, region, and CDOT, USDOT) - Identify Transportation Needs - Identify Air Quality Impacts - Give Colorado Transportation Commission the priorities for NFR region Update on a 3-year timeframe General RTP Steps - Visions, Goals and Key Strategies - Inventory of Existing Transportation System - Socio-Economic and Demographic Profile - 2030 Travel Demand Modeling and Mobility Demand Analysis - Corridor Visioning - Project Identification - Preferred Plan — Project List - Draft Plan Public Input Final Plan APPROVED Reguiar Meeting Minutes Transportation Board May 19, 2004 • Key Strategies • Corridor Visioning • Project Selection Process • Six Evaluation Criteria - System Continuity - Congestion Mitigation - Safety Enhancement - Multi -modal Enhancement - Timely Implementation - Land Use Compatibility • Revenue Sources • DRAFT Preferred Plan Page 8 of 9 b. PAVEMENT MANAGEMENT PROGRAM - R Richter Due to the lateness of the hour, there was consensus of the group to have this item back on the agenda in June. Chair Henderson thanked Richter for waiting patiently for so long. 8. REPORTS a. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS Thomas: Dial -A -Ride Committee. For some time they've been talking about expanding their mission from just DAR to include transit in terms of accessibility. They're looking at a proposed Mission Statement, which Thomas read to the remaining four board members and asked for feedback on. Henderson: Sneed Humes. I was just going to pass around this article on speed humps that I collected in my travels over the last month and a half. It's actually a great thing and at the end they make this little comment that it's a cost effective alternative to roundabouts in terms of safety. b. STAFF REPORTS Phillips: Timberline. This was actually Johnson's idea. There have been a number of Council members that have questions about the Timberline/Prospect interim project and how it's funded and what it means and so on. So what we've done is work with the new Engineering consultant that's been chosen to do the engineering for this project and on this display, we've tried to show the Street Oversizing portion in yellow, the green is the City Capital portion, the red is the developer's local street portion and blue is the voluntary portion. The top project is the interim project and the bottom one shows the ultimate project. Phillips went through and explained the display in more detail. The Board members expressed how much they liked the display. Bachman: Next enda: ■ Pavement Management Report — FIRST on agenda! APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board May 19, 2004 Page 9 of 9 19. OTHER BUSINESS I �10 ADJOURN Chair Henderson adjourned the meeting at 9:13 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Cynthia Cass Executive Administrative Assistant City of Fort Collins — Transportation Services