Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutTransportation Board - Minutes - 10/18/2006MEETING MINUTES of the TRANSPORTATION BOARD October 18, 2006 5:45 p.m. City of Fort Collins Municipal Building 215 N. Mason Street — Community Room FOR REFERENCE: CHAIR: Brent Thordarson 679-2165 VICE CHAIR: Gary Thomas 482-7125 STAFF LIAISON: Mark Jackson 416-2029 ADMIN SUPPORT: Cynthia Langren 224-6058 BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: James Clausen Don Edmondson Sara Frazier Neil Grigg Jeannette Hallock-Solomon Ed Robert Gary Thomas Brent Thordarson Kevin Westhuis CITY STAFF: Don Bachman Kathleen Bracke Mark Jackson Cynthia Langren Kurt Ravenschlag Pete Wray ABSENT: Tim Johnson Rick Price OTHERS IN ATTENDANCE: Kurt Kastein Nancy York 1. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by Chair Thordarson at 6:01 p.m. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Page 2 of 8 Transportation Board October 18, 2006 12. AGENDA REVIEW I Item 6.d. WINDSOR-FORT COLLINS INTERCHANGE IMPROVEMENT PROJECT was moved up to 6.b. 3. PUBLIC COMMENT None. 4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES (September 2006) There was a motion and a second to approve the September 2006 Transportation Board meeting minutes as presented Robert noted that on page 3, third paragraph from the bottom, the word "pitch"should be "bench". The motion carried by a unanimous vote, 9 — 0, with the correction. 5. COUNCIL LIAISON REPORT None. 6. DISCUSSION/INFORMATIONAL ITEMS a. REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY (RTA) UPDATE — C. Davidson & K. Kastein Jackson introduced MPO Executive Director Cliff Davidson and gave some background information on the RTA. Davidson distributed a hand out entitled: North Front Range Summit Transportation Choices — Draft Executive Summary. How will growth, increased traffic fuel process and other factors affect our ability to move people and goods in the future North Front Range region? What are the future transportation priorities for the region? How will we fund them? These are some of the questions facing the North Front Range. The MPO and its member jurisdictions held a summit to begin regional dialog on these issues. The summit, held in June 2006, was a regional gathering through which participants helped identify priorities for the future transportation system of the region. The summit also provided opportunity for dialog on how the region interacts and a consensus approach as to how to plan for our regional transportation improvements. The RTA Sub -Committee was formed on October 2005 to explore the potential of proposing a ballot measure that would accomplish two things: 1) form a Regional Transportation Authority and 2) provide financing for regional transportation improvements in the North Front Range region. Kastein explained that the RTA can be considered a funding mechanism. He stated that he thinks it's key that the Transportation Board really understand the regional picture a APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board October 18, 2006 Page 3 of 8 little better and weigh in on what you think our role ought to be. You need to decide if you would suggest that Fort Collins be a big player in this because there are some key things to consider. Do we want to spend dollars outside the city? If we define the RTA as a funding mechanism that doesn't necessarily go to the RTP to fund the fiscally constrained plan and instead buys light rail for example, you'll get 2-3 votes from council agreeing with that and the other half would probably say that regional solutions aren't right because we're spending local money outside the region. This is a big effort that's only just starting. We're trying to build a coalition of folks that are interested in being a part of crafting a solution that would work for an RTA. It starts with principles and values and ends up with a project list and a dollar amount that we think we could raise with some sales tax revenue. There would be a regional sales tax. In my mind, it would be hard to imagine 1 % passing, but it did in Colorado Springs which is a tougher nut to crack than Fort Collins is, although when you put 13 entities together in Northern Colorado, I think that's a tougher nut to crack. Vice Chair Thomas asked Kastein what he needs from the Board. Kastein stated that there needs to be a representative from this board on the coalition. Jackson explained that there is a group getting together, sort of a coalition vision group if you will, that meets once a week to hammer things out and is formed with different segments of the North Front Range Community. He added that Board Member Johnson is involved, kind of sitting on the outside at this point and is aware of what's going on. He could inform the group as they move forward. The group is led by the MPO. They're trying to break out of the perception that the business community is running the table. To clarify, Kastein said that this is a parallel group. We're building a coalition to drive the effort as described, but there is this parallel group that is a vision and principles group that is trying to establish parameters that this coalition will operate within. Grigg commented that the Board and Transportation staff needs to stay on top of regional issues. Perhaps this could be placed on the Board's Work Plan and try to have a specific goal to build advocacy and participation at the same time. Be pro -active and not just sit back and hear updates. The first thing is maybe we could begin to have some maps that include everyone's economics into it. b. WINDSOR-FORT COLLINS INTERCHANGE IMPROVEMENT PROJECT — E Wray Wray explained that the purpose of the plan is to develop action strategies to implement improvements to the Interstate 25. Highway 392 Interchange with particular emphasis on developing alternative funding mechanisms to allow the project to go direction into final design. The Plan will go to the cooperating agencies including the City of Fort Collins, Town of Windsor for adoption by their respective governing bodies. The existing interchange is obsolete with the new growth in Windsor and in southeast Fort Collins in recent years. The need for a new interchange is great, but there is no money for it. In January 2006, the City of Fort Collins and the Town of Windsor entered into an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) regarding land use and development at the APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board October 18, 2006 Page 4 of 8 I-25 and SH 392 interchange. The purpose of the IGA includes the need to cooperate among Fort Collins, Windsor, Larimer County, and the North Front Range MPO on design and funding interchange improvements. Staff has identified three alternatives for this interchange: 1) Full Diamond configuration 2) Tight Diamond configuration and 3) Single Point Urban Interchange (SPUI). Wray explained each one in detail. The full diamond configuration is probably the one that staff will recommend. Vice Chair Thomas: I'm having a hard time seeing the difference between that and what we've got today. Jackson: The primary difference will be the location of the frontage roads. The ramps will be pulled out a little bit, there will be better spacing that will improve queue lengths, and we'll be able to time the lights better. Wray said that he will continue to provide updates to the board as needed. Jackson commented that he wants to stress that he hopes staff hasn't given the impression that this is just another plan. c. DOWNTOWN RIVER DISTRICT PROJECT UPDATE — K. Bracke Bracke distributed copies of a letter from the Downtown Business Association in support of the project. The letter will be sent to the City Council for inclusion in their next packets. Bracke stated that she met with the Downtown Development Authority this afternoon and that they, too, will be drafting a letter of support. This board has that same option open to them should they so desire. Bracke gave an update on the project, covering several of the alternatives for Willow, Lincoln, Linden, Jefferson, Intersections, Streetscape Concepts, Parking, and Transit. The next steps are: • Select the preferred alternatives — September— October 2006 • Refine Alternatives Design —November 2006 —January 2007 • Finalize Designs, Cost Estimates & Priorities — February — March 2007 The board discussed whether they wanted to send a letter of support to council. Westhuis made a motion stating that the Board endorses the continued progress and movement of the Downtown River District Plan in the ways the Board heard this evening. There was a second by Grigg. Discussion: Hallock-Solomon: I'd still like to make sure there's something in there for the roundabout. Westhuis: We heard that tonight and I think that's included in my statement that we're endorsing the things that Bracke has put in front of us without getting specific. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Page 5 of 8 Transportation Board October 18, 2006 Hallock-Solomon: Do we agree with the DBA's letter? I like their letter and we could add transit. Westhuis: I'll modify my motion to include that we're going to ditto the DBA, plus explore the transit and transportation alternatives that have been recommended or looked at. Grigg: I second that. Langren read the motion back to the board: The Board endorses the continued progress and movement of the Downtown River District Plan as presented tonight and the letter from the Transportation Board will ditto the DBA letter plus continue to explore transit alternatives/opportunities. The motion carried by a unanimous vote, 9-0. d. BUDGET UPDATE — D. Bachman Bachman gave a brief update from Council's last meeting related to the budget. Many people were there for the Dial -A -Ride issue. e. NORTH COLLEGE SUB -AREA PLAN — C. Mapes Staff not present. 7. ACTION ITEMS NONE 8. REPORTS a. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS Edmondson: Executive Summary. Thinking over our last meeting, I'm not comfortable with the way the information was given to us on the Dial -A -Ride issue. All we had to go on were the little panels from the presentation which were not adequate and did not describe everything. My view is that from now on, if you bring a recommendation to this board with only this kind of support for it, I'm going to vote against it, I don't care what it is. We should have had more of an Executive Summary. Something that would have had on one page, "this is what is going to the commission" and we didn't have that. We were setting ourselves up to be sandbagged by that kind of a presentation. Thomas: I fully understood exactly what we were doing and that was over a tinny little speaker phone 400 miles away. Edmondson: I invite you to go into this presentation and find all the details that are going to the commission because with regard to fares and such, it's not there. Thordarson: It may not be spelled out I guess. I think all the information was there, but we needed to clarify at the end what was being asked of us. Maybe we need the Requested Action Item listed on the APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Page 6 of 8 Transportation Board October 18, 2006 material somewhere. I agree that we needed to find the information on several slides. Thomas: When the MPO presents to their Council, they actually have the motion drawn up for someone to make. That's not always a good thing, as the board might want to make up their own motions... Edmondson: I think in terms of what staff is recommending, we need to have a decision document on just one page that says what's being recommended. Period. If I don't see that kind of documentation, I'm going to vote against it. Grigg: We don't have to reconcile all this tonight. We need to work on this some more. Thordarson: This sounds like something we can talk about at our retreat too. Jackson: And from a staff perspective, if the board feels they're not getting the information they need or if you need it presented in a different way, all you need to do is tell us what your expectations are and we'll make it happen. Robert: Bus Stop Safety. I'd like to recommend to the City transit folks that the next time they look at routes that they take a look at where transit stops are from a safety viewpoint as well as from a passenger viewpoint. We have some nice bus stops with some lighted signs, they're covered, and others are just benches sitting against a ditch somewhere. No traffic, no lights, just dark. We have a neighborhood shopping area around the Super Wal- Mart, Home Depot and so on. That's a pretty busy spot and we have no transit spot within that block. You have to go out onto Lincoln Street, a block away, behind an apartment complex or walk down the street into the darkened environments of the east Lincoln area. So when you look at it, it needs to be looked at from a safety and a passenger viewpoint. Alleeiant Airlines. There may be some action in the works for them to serve more than Las Vegas and I seem to recall when we went through the Airport Master Plan and listened to the pitch, that the City or someone was not exactly in favor of us supporting regional commercial service, so I'm not sure where we are when I read this new input. Can we find out where we are? Bachman: I'll get some clarification on that. I believe they're testing the waters, they're looking into whether or not there's a business model for expanding to other markets. They haven't said that they're going to for sure. If they do decide they're going to do that, it is an FAA funded facility so we can't say no. We can make recommendations from a APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board October 18, 2006 Page 7 of 8 safety standpoint and such and they would be required to do some upgrades, but we can't tell them that they can't operate the service. Robert: I bring it up to say that we should keep on top of what's happening because we may want to make a position or the Council may ask us. Hallock-Solomon: Timberline. It looks beautiful and I was impressed that Prospect was open 3-4 weeks early. Great job! Westhuis: Prospect Road. I'm just going to repeat what I heard about Prospect. It looks the same as it did before — two lanes for two lanes for 5 months of being closed. That's a little frustrating. The bike lane is good, but there's thing off the road that was added. What's that one? Jackson: It's a combined pedestrian/bike trail. Westhuis: So isn't that redundant? Again, I'm just repeating what I've heard. Bachman: The natural areas folks put that in. Westhuis: Well, from an automobile perspective, you have exactly the same thing as you had before. Jackson: I think the important thing to remember about the project is that it was funded by the Community Choices project in 1997. That's what the ballot called for. Thomas: MPO. I sat in on the MPO meeting the other night. FoxTrot is the best bus route around here between Loveland and Fort Collins and Larimer County has decided they may withdraw their money, which is giving Loveland and Fort Collins a little bit of heartburn in terms of who will make up the difference. I did hear some passing discussion at the MPO that they might put in some of the money that Larimer County is taking out. That would be a positive development if that were to occur. Grigg: Mason Trail Opening. It was a great celebration for the Mason Trail. There was a lot of praise for former board member Dan Gould for sticking with it. Tim Johnson gave a nice history of some of the efforts. CSU Parking Lot. If you'd like a real exercise in agility, go over to CSU and try to navigate a vehicle through the Engineering parking lot with bikes, peds, people turning left, etc. I just invite you over to see if you can survive. Thordarson: Mason Trail. I was at the Carmike Theater last Sunday, came out from the movie and looked over at the Mason Trail. Looking in one direction I could see people stacked up going all one way, then I looked in the other direction and people were going off in the distance the other way. It was really exciting to see that it's so well received right away. 392 Interchange. Somebody actually asked me today about the SH 392 interchange so it was a very timely question. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board October 18, 2006 Page 8 of 8 b. STAFF REPORTS Jackson: Mankato, Minnesota Visitors. Kathleen Bracke, Kurt Kastein and I hosted a group of 70 visitors. Every year they choose a sister city to come do an intercity visit. These aren't staff people, these are business and community leaders, and educators and they come to look and see how other communities are doing things well and they chose Fort Collins this year. They started the morning with a breakfast dialog with Frank Lancaster with Larimer County, Dann Atteberry, the Mayor and folks from the Chamber of Commerce. Then we took them on a bus tour around Fort Collins. They got to see the Traffic Ops Center then to this room where Kurt gave them an overview of what we're doing. He gave a real good regional perspective. I talked a lot about our master planning efforts, our level of service for all modes and such. Kathleen talked about a couple of projects like Mason and Downtown River District. Then they ended the tour at the Downtown Transit Center. Board Appreciation Event. Just a reminder of the Board appreciation event is coming up on November 8 at the Lincoln Center. 9. OTHER BUSINESS The annual board retreat to work on the Work Plan was scheduled for Saturday, October 28 from 8:30 to noon. 10. ADJOURN Chair Thordarson adjourned the meeting at 9:18 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Gx"Ux- - 4ft�- Cynthia Langren, Executive Administrative Assistant City of Fort Collins — Transportation Services