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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTransportation Board - Minutes - 07/21/2005MEETING MINUTES of the TRANSPORTATION BOARD July 21, 2005 5:45 p.m. City of Fort Collins Traffic Operations Facility 626 Linden Street FOR REFERENCE: CHAIR: VICE CHAIR: STAFF LIAISON: ADMIN SUPPORT: BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Sara Frazier Neil Grigg Jeannette Hallock-Solomon Bruce Henderson Tim Johnson Ed Robert Gary Thomas Brent Thordarson CITY STAFF: Don Bachman Eric Bracke Cynthia Cass Gary Diede Tom Frazier Mark Jackson Ron Phillips I. CALL TO ORDER Brent Thordarson 679-2165 Gary Thomas 482-7125 Mark Jackson 416-2029 Cynthia Cass 224-6058 ABSENT: Lee Watkins Kevin Westhuis Heather Trantham OTHERS IN ATTENDANCE: Dottie Spivak Rick Price Debbie Brown The meeting was called to order by Chair Thordarson at 5.57p.m. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board July 20, 2005 12. AGENDA REVIEW Page 2 of 11 Chair Thordarson stated that there will be one change to the agenda. Phillips will make a brief presentation on the Timberline Special Improvement District and will be asking for a recommendation to City Council. 13. PUBLIC COMMENT Rick Price: I'm here to follow up on the suggestions I made at your meeting in June to point out: 1) That still, almost two months after Fort Collins was awarded the League of American Bicyclists "Bicycle Friendly Community" award, the city PR department has yet to send out a press release to this effect. Hardly anybody knows about this award except the people in this room. (The Outside Magazine award at least made it in the newspaper last week!) 2) To ask if you subscribe to the City of Boulder's bicycle and pedestrian e-newsletter: The header on this weekly newsletter reads: This e-newsletter is an opportunity to share information on bicycling and walking in and around Boulder, hear from you and advise on upcoming items of interest. Please forward this to others you know who would find this information useful. If you would like to subscribe visit http://www.ci.boulder.co.us/it/listsubscribe.html. By not publishing such a newsletter the City of Fort Collins is missing out on a tremendous PR opportunity with cyclists and pedestrians in the community. I've included the latest copy of the Boulder newsletter for you and I've pasted an imaginary Fort Collins Bicycle and Pedestrian Newsletter with this statement. 3) Finally, I'm here to ask if the board has considered convening a citizens group, a task force, a working group — call it what you like, to address critical issues relative to implementing the Fort Collins Bicycle Program Plan, especially in view of the current budget crisis. On a humorous note, here is an imaginary article: The asphalt along the Poudre Trail is in "desperate need of repair", according to Fort Collins City Manager Darrin Atteberry and Mayor Doug Hutchinson. They have asked Parks and Rec to get this project into the capital improvements list and have guaranteed funding will be forthcoming. "No matter what the cost," said Hutchinson. "My butt's so sore from bouncing along that trail I just want to see it fixed." (It's not clear whether the Mayor was referring to fixing HIS riding surface or the TRAIL surface. But we look forward to accommodating him.) (The above statement was given verbally as well as in hard copy.) Dottie Spivak. I live in Fort Collins and I'm here to talk also about bikes, in particular, three roads: 1) Horsetooth east of College — the bike lane disappears and it's really, really dangerous. You see people riding on the sidewalk and that's not safe because the cars don't expect a bike to be coming at them or across that intersection at 12-15 mph. 2) Harmony going east of Seneca - you lose Harmony; it goes from four lanes to two lanes — it's a huge project, but it's not only bad for bikes, but it is bad for cars. A friend of ours recently APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board July 20, 2005 Page 3 of 11 contacted his council person to see what can be done about that. Right now it's not too bad because vehicles are willing to share the road and for the most part, people are pretty good there but then the speed limit is only about 35-40 mph. However there is an awful lot of bike traffic that heads east and west on that road so it would be great if that could be fixed. 3) The last one, as you're heading north on Taft Hill, south of Harmony, you're heading up that hill and you're seeing houses again. The place I'm referring to is if you had just crossed where the bike trail goes under Taft Hill at Cathy Fromme. Okay, about three weeks ago, I was coming back on a bike from Loveland and I was going downhill, had picked up speed and they added on the east side, an asphalt curb so the bike lane narrows and it looks from a bike like there's about 12 inches and I didn't think quick enough. I stayed in the bike lane. I should have moved over and taken the lane as they say, but traffic goes 55-65 mph and a propane truck almost took me out. In effect, the bike lane disappears and that's really dangerous. In connection with that and I don't know what can be done about it, but we need a Bicycle/Pedestrian Coordinator. That particular curb should have never been put in. Now a hazard has been created and as Rick has said, a task force or some person or some task force is needed to look out for cyclists' interest. Right now that Taft Hill thing is really a death trap for bikes because your inclination is to stay in the bike lane but it gets narrower and narrower. If there is debris, you can't escape the gravel because that asphalt curb is about 5 inches high and there's nowhere to go. Basically we still have some old streets that need help and a Coordinator would have prevented this problem from occurring. Chair Thordarson stated that he could address the first couple of issues for sure. Actually #2 is one of the Building on Basics projects. It's slated to be on the election ballot in November. That would be an improvement to Harmony from College all the way to Seneca so providing that the voters approve it, that particular one will be addressed. He further stated that Horsetooth will be a pretty expensive proposition at this point and that he doesn't think that there is funding that's identified for that. Jackson stated that it is on the Transportation Master Plan's capital needs project list and is noted as a high priority bicycle project. However, as Chair Thordarson alluded to, it really is a matter of available resources. Johnson stated that there are number of situations like that in town that the board is aware of that are on the Master Transportation Plan, but there is lots of work yet to do like that. Old arterials, such as East Prospect, Drake and lots of places, perhaps dozens of places, have similar problems as the one you're talking about. We need to address these as a community and that's an important thing we need to get at, but it all takes capital. That's one of the things that we've been chasing hard. We failed twice; once in 2002 and again in 2003 to get the capital that we need to begin to add these to our project list. We are aware of them, but don't know where to get the money from. Price: I would just like to suggest that one of the problems that the bike community addressed in May and then again in June when Bike Colorado had their open forum to talk about bicycle issues in this town, we identified about 60 issues. As I recall about 17-18 were very positive and about 42 of them were sometimes general, sometimes specific issues. I'm convinced that the traffic planners and this board are aware of most of those. I'm also APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board July 20, 2005 Page 4 of 11 convinced that the community that brought those to light isn't aware necessarily that you are aware and if communication is the real problem here, and an on -going list or complaint board on the City's web site, is great. Would help communicate to us and help build consensus. It would let those of us who are out there pedaling identify those things and bring them to you and to know that you are on our side. I know you're on our side. I know it's a question of money. Council needs to know that. I think there could be some synergy developed there through communication, through a community bike/ped newsletter and it may come to pass that the North Front Range Bicycle group may start publishing a newsletter. I think that the City is missing out on a real PR opportunity. Johnson: Just so you're aware, the trail system is administered by Parks and Rec. I think that making these comments to the Parks and Rec Board is very appropriate. Either sending them to them or going there in person and letting them know about the different trail functions and off-street functions would be helpful. I've done that myself from time to time. We had a very good response for the UP Trail at the Drake crossing. There was a misalignment when they built the portion south of Drake. In the last year they took care of that and put in a signalized light there as well. Price: My quick response to that is that it would sure be nice to have somebody in the City coordinating all these so that if I call someone about a problem, I at least get the right person who can send me to Parks and Rec or Transportation and so on. Phillips: You can always call us. Mark Jackson is the Transportation Planning Manager. We have a Transportation Master Plan that addresses all of those issues. There is a lot of coordination. Yes, we are without a Bicycle/Pedestrian Coordinator at this present time, but that is not necessarily key to solving some of these issues. Solving the issues is: we are all lined up and ready to go if there can be money. You are pretty much preaching to the choir with this group. Price: I know that and I don't want to take up any more of your time except to say that the bike community can and will help pass this initiative in November. If we could see some coordination at the City level... if I wrote the copy would you post it on the Transportation Department web site? I have on my blog a directory of who to call at the City for problems or issues in Parks and Rec, Traffic and Planning. I found a young lady at the City, Melissa, who was very helpful and could tell me who I needed to call. But the public doesn't know this. I posted it on my website, will you post it on yours if it conforms to your policy and practice? Phillips: I believe that information is on our web site. Price: I would love to see it. I can't find it. Thank you for your time. Debbie Brown: I second what Dottie and Rick had to say. In terms of talking about just specific intersections, I have to say that Timberline and Prospect is the most dangerous intersection in town. I'm a bicycle commuter, riding to and from work. I also ride a lot for recreation. I've seen so many close calls at that intersection, but one was just the luckiest thing for the guy involved. I was traveling south on Timberline just far enough back from these two cyclists to watch what happened and not be involved myself. The guys crossed Prospect, going south on Timberline. One went straight and the other guy turned right to get APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board July 20, 2005 Page 5 of 11 on the bike path and he called his buddy over. So the other guy turned around and went on the sidewalk and then on the bike path. Two seconds later, a car that was traveling south on Prospect in the lane, had the right-of-way, he's going through that big area where it goes from a bike lane on Timberline north of that intersection to nothing. It's such a narrow area there that a car going east on Prospect decided to make a right-hand turn without looking and he pulled right in front of this car. The guy laid on his horn and of course, there is nowhere to go. No wiggle room at all in either direction. The guy drove up on the sidewalk and if it had happened two seconds earlier, there is no way he would have survived. It freaks me out to ride through that every time and I know that it's been an issue. I just wanted to make sure it stays at the forefront in terms of what's happening. The other thing I would like to say, and this may be an easier solution because it shouldn't cost too much, is all the garbage that is in the bike lanes on certain streets, particularly on Timberline. Also, Lemay going south is a bad one. We've seen street cleaners cleaning our cul-de-sac, which doesn't really need it because there are other streets out there that are heavily trafficked and Timberline usually has hardware, metal, nuts and bolts and things in the lanes. There are also now a lot of branches down on Lemay. As a cyclist you're in the bike lane and you really have to swerve to avoid that stuff and you are putting yourself in danger by having to do that. Hopefully that is something that could be solved fairly easily. Chair Thordarson: The Timberline/Prospect concern should be addressed in pretty short order. That's actually one of our agenda items tonight. It's the first one if you all would like to stay. And in terms of the debris in the bike lanes, all you need to do is call the City and they will take care of it. Phillips: That number is 221-6615. It's the Streets Department and they will get someone out to sweep the lanes. They are swept on a regular basis, but if debris is reported, they will get out there and take care of it. If there is construction drag -out, call Engineering at 221- 6605. Jackson: I would like to add that for Debbie, Dottie and Rick, you are always welcome to call me directly if you are not getting the numbers or not able to find what you need. My number is 416-2029. 4. ACTION ITEMS a. TIMBERLINE SPECIAL IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT — Phillips Last night we had a first reading at the City Council meeting of the appropriation ordinance and resolution pertaining to the formation of a new Special Improvement District (SID) for the Timberline Road project from Drake to Prospect. This district is being established to allow the developers who put up $2.5 M. to help fund that project; it's an $8.6M project, to assist them in getting paid back at least some of the money that they have put forward for that project. The reason that we are talking about this with you tonight is because the APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board July 20, 2005 Page 6 of 11 presentation was well received, Council voted 7-0 to approve all the items, but one of the council members was critical that there was not a recommendation from the Transportation Board on this issue. We did not think to ask you for that. We've been here three previous times, talking with you about the project over the last year and a half and there has always been good discussion and no dissention, but we didn't provide them with a letter of recommendation. So we have drafted something for you to consider. If you don't mind, we can just go to the next room and see the PowerPoint presentation on the big screen in there. The group viewed the presentation where Phillips updated the board giving an explanation of the project to date, giving detailed information. Grigg made a motion to approve support of the SID plan that Phillips presented subject to the memo being drafted There was a second by Johnson. The motion carried by a unanimous vote, 8 — 0. The board then returned to the conference room. Phillips distributed a hand-out for the Board's review. Phillips explained the content of the letter. The board had a brief discussion that centered around some basic wordsmithing. The board wanted to make sure that the letter reflects that they have been kept up-to-date on the topic and how they have been involved in the past. After the discussion, Jackson read a draft that included a paragraph on funding as it relates to the Building on Basics. Everyone liked the letter and there was consensus and that the letter was good to go as is. Chair Thordarson and Jackson will get together to get it finalized. Phillips stated that in the future, when staff anticipates things like this coming up, it will be put on the Board's agenda as an action item. ************************************************************************ TRAFFIC OPERATIONS TOUR —Eric Bracke Bracke gave the group a tour of the facility. ****************************************************************************** 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES (JUNE 2005) There was a motion by Henderson and a second by Hallock-Solomon to approve the minutes of June 15, 2005 as presented DISCUSSION: Chair Thordarson stated that he would like to fill in the inaudible section on page 10, middle of the page. That paragraph should read, "The question is more this: If you've changed the City budget would you take another look at the list and do you think some things will just fall off because they're no longer priorities?" The question was called and the motion carried by a unanimous vote, 8-0 with the revision. 6. COUNCIL LIAISON REPORT None. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Page 7 of 11 Transportation Board July 20, 2005 7. DISCUSSION/INFORMATIONAL ITEMS a. BUILDING ON BASICS/FINANCE COMMITTEE UPDATE — B. Thordarson Chair Thordarson went over the last recommendation to Kurt Kastein dated July 7. Robert stated that Kastem asked him if the list of four projects contained in that recommendation were in priority order. Chair Thordarson concurred that it had been asked of him as well. He stated that the board did not intend for that to be in priority order. Chair Thordarson then gave a recap of the BOB item at the July 12 Work Session. The outcome was that Council asked staff to go back and look at how things could be maneuvered around and look at adding N. College into the proposal. Phillips concurred with Thordarson's summary and added that it probably means that in order to add College, it will probably mean something has to come out of other transportation items which is very unfortunate. He stated that staff has developed some scenarios that would take $lM out of intersections. CLRS is taking some out of their projects as well to try and get $2M into the N. College project. Also, due to operations and maintenance cost, we have to cut about $3M to make up for that. Robert asked if the board needs to express to Council their concern about taking any more funds out transportation. Chair Thordarson stated that he feels he would like to say something, even if it is brief, just to emphasize that the board feels the original list should stand as it was. Anything additional will mean additional money. The board agreed to send another follow-up memo to Council. Thomas made a motion that the board authorizes Chair Thordarson to draft a letter that captures the sense of support for the original list and that the list of additional projects is recommended to be considered for inclusion only if funding allocation changes result in additional monies become available for transportation. b. BUDGETING FOR OUTCOMES UPDATE — D. Bachman Bachman stated that the departments have all submitted their offers, we've had comments back from the Results Teams on the offers and staff has done some work to streamline some of the offers and such. They have been submitted to the results teams and this week the Results Team are working on their priorities. They will then go to the Lead Team which is the City Manager's office. As far as Transportation goes, for the most part, we're still requesting funding for all our Programs. We've had to do a nip and tuck here and there. The question is whether or not everything on the table will be funded. There really isn't much more to say at this point. Thomas stated that if they start cutting into transportation, he'd sure like to know. Phillips stated that there will be opportunity for the board to weigh in at some point, probably in the fall. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board July 20, 2005 Page 8 of 11 c. REFERENDA D PROJECT LIST UPDATE —D. Bachman Bachman referred to a memo from Karla Harding with CDOT regarding this issue (the page was inadvertently not copied for the packets) as well as an agenda item summary and resolution that was submitted to the Metropolitan Planning Council (MPO). They are recommending the endorsement of three projects to be included in a $1.2 billion bond package. Bachman briefly went over each project and explained the process. When the legislature made their compromise on this TABOR matter, the State Transportation Commission wanted to make a recommended list of projects, actually they were approached by CDOT administration to come up with a list of recommended projects statewide that would go into this $1.2 billion bond measure. They assigned to each CDOT district, a share of this $1.2 on the highway side that would be available to this bonding. Those funds were divided among the regions the same way that the other State monies are divided, based on a specific formula. The region 4 amount was something like $137M. They made an initial recommendation which is shown on the memo. They ultimately came up with a compromise which is described in Harding's memo to recommend the three projects from the North Front Range in addition to an interchange at 119 at the IBM entrance. Bachman then refereed to a page he pulled from the CDOT web page that shows the final list of projects. There was a brief discussion on the lack of projects in Larimer County and a percentage of the funds going to transit. d. 2005 BOARD RETREAT PLANNING —AM Jackson stated that this item is on the agenda due to Board Member Frazier's request that the board start planning now for the retreat — not that the entire retreat will be planned right now, but to at least settle on a date and what the board would like it to look like. Chair Thordarson stated that one question is would the board like some formal presentations from staff? In the past this was how it was done, and in later years the retreat has been spent solely working on the Work Plan for the upcoming year. Since there are a lot of new members, it might be good to have some presentations. Jackson will look to see what's been done in the past, and see if a theme can be created for this one. Specific topics might be: Streets tour, accident data, SmartTrips Program, how to work with the City in terms of PR, Safety theme, Willow Street Corridor Streetscape project and the work plan. The group agreed that they would target October 29 or November 5 for half a day. A poll of the absent members will be taken. 8. REPORTS a. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS Hallock-Solomon: Soap Box. I noticed a Soap Box today from someone really unhappy with putting in the traffic circle. I thought at some point we may need to address that. I wouldn't mind writing one on it if APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board July 20, 2005 Page 9 of 11 someone could supply me with the facts. Phillips: Yes, someone can provide the points for you. Frazier: SmartTrins Article. I noticed a good article on the SmartTrips program in the Coloradoan. They included some statistics of how many trips were saved and now many miles and everything. It was excellent. Henderson: Pedestrian Signals. I was in Albuquerque a couple of weeks ago and I saw something there which seemed like a great idea. It was a count down timer for pedestrians at crosswalks. Phillips: We do have some here, but not as many as I would like to have. They are expensive. Robert: Concern. On north Lemay where I travel most of the time, at Main Street, there is a new self-made street connection; an onramp from Main Street going north onto Lemay. People use that dirt mudhole more than they do the regular intersection. It creates a bit of a problem at times because North Lemay can be very busy. I would suggest maybe a couple of posts or something to stop that traffic. Thordarson: Work Session on June 28. Thomas and I did talk to Council regarding our periodic review. We got a very favorable review from Council. They basically stated that they really appreciate what we do. They find this board to be a very valuable board. We did talk to them about a couple of our concerns such as how we were pretty close to being short a quorum for quite awhile and also not getting any feedback on a regular basis from our liaison or Council in general. In terms of a quorum, we asked if there could be a special process for adding members out of cycle and apparently, they don't have to wait til the appointed time to add members to the board. They can pretty much appoint members whenever they feel there is a need. It might just be something in the future that we have to monitor and ask our liaison to take a look at appointing additional members if necessary. In terms of regular feedback from the council, they basically told us that they definitely value whatever input we provide to them and use them regularly. They did say that they were pretty reluctant to be committed providing feedback on a regular basis due to all their other time commitments. However, it seems that we may actually get quite a bit of feedback since we asked for more feedback. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board July 20, 2005 Page 10 of 11 Overall I think that we should just continue on with our mission and I think that council really values what we do and overall I felt it was a good review. Thomas: There were two issues however, one was the size of the board. When we raised the quorum issue, one council member said that we were an awful big board. Perhaps you should scale it back to nine members or seven. We pushed back and said that it is the right size board as it is. The second issue, which occurred right as we were wrapping up, was that Ohlson asked us if the staff bringing you everything you want to hear? He said that he has heard from present and past board members that they're not. I was a little shocked and we said that we weren't' aware of any such issue. Jackson: If that is ever a feeling of anyone on the board, please let us know as soon as possible. If you feel that you're not getting materials timely enough or if you aren't getting adequate materials or just an issue period, please just let us know. b. STAFF REPORTS Jackson: Next Agenda: • Rob MacDonald — Pikes Peak RTA • CDOT/392 (Carpenter Road) Update Bachman: Prospect is now open. Vine Drive is closed. They are currently working on building culverts now. Frazier: Mason Corridor Undate. This is finally going out to bid, the bike/ped portion. The Youth Corp has started some work south of Harmony at the site, doing some rubbish removal along the ditch area. Transit Center at CSU. This is also going out for bid soon. Construction start is in September and will be completed in July of 2006. Transfort/DAR. Year-to-date public ridership is up. For fixed route, this is the first time in almost two years. The DAR ridership continues to be up. The drivers are doing well in terms of safety. There are fewer collisions and injuries. Phillips: Finance Committee Meeting? At the last meeting when Kurt Kastein was here and we discussed meeting about the budget I suggested there might need to be a special meeting of the board. In looking at the calendar, I was wondering if the Finance Committee might want to meet on September 14 APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board July 20, 2005 Page 11 of 11 because staff will have budget information ready and perhaps by having a preparatory meeting, more time could be taken at that time and you wouldn't need as long at your regular meeting on the 21 st. Just a suggestion. Chair Thordarson agreed that is a good idea. 9. OTHER BUSINESS None 10. ADJOURN Chair Thordarson adjourned the meeting at 8:45 p.m. Respectfully submitted, 4q� &1" Cynthia Cass, Executive Admin Assistant City of Fort Collins — Transportation Services