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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTransportation Board - Minutes - 10/19/2005MEETING MINUTES of the TRANSPORTATION BOARD October 19, 2005 5:45 p.m. City of Fort Collins Municipal Building Community Room 215 N. Mason Street FOR REFERENCE: CHAIR: Brent Thordarson 679-2165 VICE CHAIR: Gary Thomas 482-7125 STAFF LIAISON: Mark Jackson 416-2029 ADMIN SUPPORT: Cynthia Cass 224-6058 BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Sara Frazier Jeannette Hallock-Solomon Ed Robert Gary Thomas Brent Thordarson Lee Watkins Kevin Westhuis CITY STAFF: Cynthia Cass Gary Diede Mark Jackson Ron Phillips Sheri Wamhoff 1. CALL TO ORDER ABSENT: Neil Grigg Bruce Henderson Tim Johnson OTHERS IN ATTENDANCE: Mr. Edmundson The meeting was called to order by Chair Thordarson at 6 p.m. 2. AGENDA REVIEW There were no changes to the agenda. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board October 19, 2005 Page 2 of 7 3. PUBLIC COMMENT None 4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES (AUGUST & SEPTEMBER 2005) August 2005 Minutes: There was a motion and a second to approve the minutes as presented Discussion: Chair Thordarson stated that he would like to add some wording in parentheses to his report on page 11. The heading should read: US 287 (between Fort Collins and the Wvomine border). The motion carried by a unanimous vote, 7— 0. September 2005 Minutes: There was a motion and a second to approve the minutes as presented. The motion carried by a unanimous vote, 7— 0. 5. COUNCIL LIAISON REPORT None. 6. ACTION ITEMS a. TRANSPORTATION DEVELOPMENT REVIEW FEE — Diede & Wamhoff Diede stated that there is a possibility that the City Manager may approve this without taking to Council. This is an issue that he has the authority to approve on his own. Either way, staff wanted to get the Board's feedback on it. Diede stated that as part of the City's budgeting process for 2006 and 2007, the proposed budget includes the creation of an added fee to cover 80% of the development review costs for the Transportation Service Area. In 2006 we need to collect about $488,000 and in 2007 about $513,000. For the last month and a half, staff has been developing a proposed fee structure. The first step was to gather information on how fees are collected in other cities in the Front Range and Larimer County. Data on the different development -related activities in recent years was compiled. On September 26, staff hosted a meeting for the development community, at which budget requirements were explained, and an opportunity given for them to comment on their experiences with various approaches and air their preferences on how to develop a fee structure. Taking into consideration all the comments received, staff then created a fee structure that includes three alternative scenarios for the most significant activity, Preliminary Development Plan submittals. Diede then went over all the options to the board, explaining each one in detail. The board discussed the fee issue and settled on Option 41. They felt this was the most fair and equitable option. There was a motion and a second to recommend Option #1 and the board recommends the City look at ways to streamline theprocess to save the developers money and time. There was a second. The motion carried unanimously, 7- 0. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Page 3 of 7 Transportation Board October 19, 2005 There was a motion and a second to authorize Chair Thordarson to write a memo to the City Council supporting Option #1 and include a statement in the letter that reflects their concern that additional development fees could act as a disincentive to economic development and their desire for staff to continue to investigate ways to streamline the development review process, along with the possible use of incentives to promote more up -front planning preparation on the part of the development community. The motion carried unanimously, 7— 0. b. COUNCIL POLICY AGENDA — M. Jackson Jackson stated that this item is on the agenda in case the board would like to send some sort of commentary or advice to Council on the Transportation portion of the Policy Agenda. A revised draft Goals sheet was distributed to the Board along with a sheet on what the Council thought their potential approaches and actions would be to reach those goals. The floor was opened to the board for discussion. Thomas: It says: Focus transportation improvements on multi -modal system, bike, pedestrian, and airport opportunities. What happened to transit? Jackson: Good point. I'll make note of that on our comment sheet. Hallock-Solomon: I think we need to add something that says we're pleased they want to improve the economic health in Fort Collins. Watkins: I'm a big proponent of the bus system. There are a lot of people in town that think the buses are half empty most of the time, but people need to realize that there are a lot of employment centers and homes that are not currently serviced by the bus system. ,Until you get a system that can do that, people aren't going to use it. Robert: I looked in some of the other areas of this policy agenda such as community safety and environmental and didn't see transportation mentioned. There are factors; should they go in there? Jackson: Great comment. We noticed that too. Robert: Should we just send something in on email and you can compile it? Thordarson: I'm thinking we'll do a memo from the Board. When do you think it really needs to be in by? Do we have a month to mull it over? Jackson: I honestly don't know what their schedule is. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Page 4 of 7 Transportation Board October 19, 2005 Thordarson: We could do this at the upcoming retreat. It would tie in with our Work Plan really well. Jackson: I've written down your comments and will bring that with me. The board agreed to table this item until it can be discussed further at the upcoming retreat on November 5. ***As of 8:15 p.m. there is no longer a quorum*** c. BOARD RETREAT AGENDA — M. Jackson Jackson stated that the retreat is slated to start at 8:30 a.m. but not sure when the board wanted it to end. It was agreed that it will go until 12:30. Location wise, it can be held at the Fire Station as the board requested, but it was discovered that no food is allowed in their conference room. The board suggested the Carriage House at the Avery House, Chamber of Commerce, New Belgium, and the City's Streets facility. The board agreed that Streets would be best since they would like to have a tour of it anyway. The board asked that their council liaison, Kurt Kastein, be invited as well. Chair Thordarson said that he would extend the invitation to him directly via email. Agenda for the retreat will be: 2006 Work Plan, Council Policy Agenda, Mobility Index, and Streets tour. 7. DISCUSSIONANFORMATIONAL ITEMS a. CITY BUDGET — R. Phillips Phillips distributed a question and answer sheet that Transportation Services provided to the Council recently. It gives a good overview of what's been going on in this area. Phillips explained that staff has negotiated with Shamrock Taxi to provide Dial -A -Ride night service next year for a maximum of $60,000 and will be on a per ride cost. Staff thinks that this one will go through. Thomas commented that this was a great solution to the problem. Phillips went over the rest of the items on the list including the Bike Coordinator and the Transportation Demand Management department as well as some of the vacancies that occurred in the service area as a result of the budget process. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Page 5 of 7 Transportation Board October 19, 2005 8. REPORTS a. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS Frazier: Pedestrian Crossing on Elizabeth. Last night I had a brief discussion with a gentleman from Estes Park. He was still a little shook up that he almost got ran over on Elizabeth Street at that pedestrian crossing. He said to me, what I have said to you is that you think they're going to stop! Chair Thordarson: I noticed the lights are red now when they flash. Did that change? Didn't they used to be yellow? Frazier: Maybe there could be a fairly large sign that says to the pedestrians: Do not cross until traffic is stopped. It's almost worse to have that light there and give that false security to a pedestrian then to have no light and the pedestrian is really more aware that they have to be careful when crossing. Chair Thordarson: I thought a flashing red light means you have to stop; it's the law. Jackson: So it might be an enforcement issue. I'll check into it. Robert: US 287/N. College Update. Could we have a report on the US 287/N. College to the bypass project at a future meeting? They're about to come up with Plan `B" or something and I've not heard anything about that project. Jackson: Kathleen Bracke, my Senior Transportation Planner, is the City's liaison to that project. I'll make sure we get that on an agenda. Drainage Issue. On Vine Drive close to N. College, right by Hersh Trucking, there's a pretty big backup of water that exists in the west bound lanes. Hallock-Solomon: Airport Master Plan. The Airport Master Plan, is it on the next agenda? Jackson: Last we heard, the plan is to have that on for November. Thomas: RTA. I've heard that it's been resurrected. There's a study group within the MPO working on it. It would be nice to have an update on where that stands. Street Car Society. The society wishes it had a street car light at Shields. When we're running the street car in the summer, we come up to Shields to stop. There is a sign that tells cars to yield to the street car, but no one knows we're there. People are not used to looking over their left shoulder first and we've have had numerous near misses where people turn in front of us. What would be perfect is if the lights would stay all red except for us so we can get across. It would have to be some sort of pressure switch that knew we were there. Jackson: I'll ask Eric about that for you. Channel 14. I'm going to be on channel 14, pushing being a member on this board. The Channel 14 group interviewed me over at the Transit APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board October 19, 2005 Page 6 of 7 Center. They decided that it's too late for this cycle, but the next cycle around it will be aired. Chair Thordarson: Board Member Grigg. Neil is not with us tonight because his wife took a fall down some stairs recently so he's helping her out at home for the next few weeks. Not sure if he'll be able to be with us at the retreat or not, but if not, that's what's going on. Board Member Henderson. Bruce has had surgery recently and that's why he's not with us tonight. Drake Road, west from Taft to Overland. This was presented as a project that is going to be going on this summer and it looks like it's been tabled -- just had a question if that's the case. Bike Lane on Southbound Shields around Rocky Mountian High School. The transition from asphalt to concrete at Rocky Mountain Way and Swallow are both pretty hard. The question is whether or not those can be smoothed out at all. b. STAFF REPORTS Jackson: Mason Trail. On Monday, November 7 from 3 — 4 p.m. will be the groundbreaking ceremony for Mason Bike/Ped Trail. Kathleen asked me to make sure you all receive invitations. Bicycle Meeting. We met with representatives of two community cycling organizations. One of those is headed up by Dr. Rick Price who's been in front of this board many times. He and Archie Solsky, the owner of Lee's Cyclery, have formed one group called "Friends of the Bicycle Program". They're more advocacy oriented. They're the ones who are really pushing Council to add the Bike Coordinator position and to not forego the importance of bicycle travel in Fort Collins. The other group is headed by a couple of CSU professors. They're more interested in acting as a communication liaison; getting the word out to the bicycling community and such. We sat down and met with them for over 3 hours. We had lots of discussions about what they want, what they feel is needed, and we counterbalanced that with here's what we can do if the budget goes through. In the current worse case scenario, there's going to be very little we can do. Transportation Planning is preparing to backfrll a couple of things, but we're not in the marketing, education and outreach business. We're planning, development and design. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board October 19, 2005 Page 7 of 7 One of the things that we did offer to both groups would be to provide them on a regular basis some sort of an article from the City perspective in terms of what's going on with bike programs, bike capital projects and such. If there there's going to be construction projects on major bike routes, give people a heads up and also offer them links via our website to some of the other resources we have in terms of what the construction schedule is going to be. Then they can drop that info into their internet newsletters and such. What really came out of the meeting is that the bicycle community seems quite willing to help backfill or help with some of the bike events. Chair Thordarson: Did they seem willing to help fund the bike coordinator position at all, as kind of a partnership? Jackson: No, it didn't come up. Where I think it will come up, is one of my staff, David Averill, is going to be updating the Bicycle Master Plan in 2006. These two groups have agreed to be part of an advisory panel. We're doing it all ourselves, no consultant services. They've offered to do some of the trail rides to note the conditions of the system and identify problems. Next Agenda • US 287 Update (if ready) • Airport Master Plan (if ready) • TDM Presentation • Budget Wrap-up • BOB Wrap-up Items for upcomine meetings: SH 14 Relocation — Non -Route Based Strategies project Chair Thordarson noted that the December meeting falls on December 21. If there is a lack of agenda items, it was suggested that the board cancel the meeting and hold a social event instead. 9. OTHER BUSINESS None 10. ADJOURN Chair Thordarson adjourned the meeting at 9 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Cynthia Cass, Executive Admin Assistant City of Fort Collins — Transportation Services