Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutTransportation Board - Minutes - 04/20/20161 MINUTES of the CITY OF FORT COLLINS TRANSPORTATION BOARD April 20, 2016 6:00 p.m. Community Room 215 North Mason Fort Collins, CO, 80521 FOR REFERENCE: Chair: Eric Shenk Vice Chair: Annabelle Berklund Staff Liaison: Paul Sizemore 970.224-6140 BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: CITY STAFF PRESENT: Eric Shenk (via Skype) Gary Thomas Annabelle Berklund York Olga Duvall Cari Brown ABSENT: Boardmember Tim Sutton Boardmember Pat Jordan Councilmember Ross Cunniff Paul Sizemore, FC Moves Program Manager Lawrence Pollack, Budget Director Mark Jackson – Deputy PDT Director Amy Lewin – FC Moves Seth Lorson – City Planner Dean Klingner – Capital Projects Manager 1. CALL TO ORDER Vice Chair Berklund called the meeting to order at 6:06 pm. It was agreed that the Vice Chair would run the meeting since the Chair was present virtually via Skype. 2. AGENDA REVIEW Sizemore stated the agenda items may be taken out of order so that a quorum would be available for action items. Thomas made a motion, seconded by York, to adopt the agenda changes as proposed. The changes were adopted unanimously. 3. PUBLIC COMMENT Hartmut Renger introduced himself and expressed concern about infrastructure and street maintenance issues, particularly College Avenue. He suggested the City should take over College Avenue maintenance from CDOT. Additionally, he asked if this Board taking public comment will do any good in terms of influencing Council. Thomas replied the Board advises Council and has been effective in moving transportation issues up the priority list, for example the Keep Fort Collins Great vote involved half transportation issues. 2 Renger expressed concern regarding increased development without increased infrastructure. He opposed the City’s spending on carbon neutrality stating those funds should be used for infrastructure. Alan Braslau stated a ring of highways around the city would have changed its character completely. 4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES York made two typographical changes to the minutes. Sizemore stated the minutes will be revised as noted. Thomas made a motion, seconded by Brown, to adopt the minutes as revised. The revised minutes were adopted unanimously. 5. COUNCIL LIAISON Councilmember Cunniff was unable to attend. 6. BICYCLE ADVISORY COMMITTEE REPORT Thomas made a motion, seconded by Brown, to appoint York as the primary BAC liaison and Berklund as the alternate. The motion was adopted unanimously. York stated the BAC was working on its interim work plan for 2016 and the alignment of its work plan and annual report with those of the Transportation Board was discussed. Additionally, he stated a discussion was held regarding the definition of the liaison role between the two boards. The BAC is also working to formalize its onboarding process, heard a presentation on the College and Prospect intersection and an update on the Fort Collins bike share program. York went on to report on the Built Environment Working Group meeting and Lincoln Middle School walking audit. 7. DISCUSSION/INFORMATIONAL ITEMS • 2016 Budget Process Overview – Pollack/Jackson Lawrence Pollack outlined the budgeting schedule, process, and public involvement process. He detailed the creation of the strategic plan document stating it drives the budgeting process. Additionally, Pollack detailed the Budgeting for Outcomes process which involves the writing of offers for budget funding among seven outcome areas, each of which involves a team of staff and citizens which review the offers for each area. The Budget Lead Team, which consists of City Manager Atteberry and his direct reports, looks at the budget offers across all outcome areas. Following the submission of the City Manager’s recommended budget by the first Monday in September, the Council process, which consists of four worksessions, two public hearings, and two ordinance readings, occurs. Berklund asked how the groups contacted during the public engagement process are determined. Pollack replied that comes from the Communications Office with the goal of ensuring representative groups. He stated public open events have also occurred. 3 York asked what the transportation budget looked like two years ago, in terms of overall dollars. Pollack replied he did not recall the total allocation and briefly discussed general fund dollars allocated to transportation. Brown asked how the removal of the TABOR revenue cap would affect the transportation budget. Mark Jackson replied that this would involve a significant uphill political climb, but acknowledged it would have an impact. Jackson discussed the important windows of opportunity for the Board to send messages to the Budget Lead Team and Council. Jackson stated that while tax revenues are up and the local economy is very healthy, the budget has been greatly impacted by general operating costs. He stated that while the budget will likely allow current levels of service to continue, challenges will occur regarding funding some of the new items such as Sunday Transfort service, additional transit routes, and new programing for alternate modes. Jackson stated the good news is that the City is positioned as well or better than it ever has been from a transportation funding standpoint in a long time. York asked if the FC Walks program offer will be submitted. Jackson replied in the affirmative. Sizemore stated the offer is approximately $100,000 per year. Brown requested detail on FC Walks. Sizemore replied it is a proposal made the past couple of budget cycles for a program to support pedestrians and use of pedestrian facilities modeled on the FC Bikes program. Brown suggested possibly working with the Commission on Disability when the time comes to support offers. • Bike Share Launch Update – Lewin Amy Lewin discussed the bike share system which is unique to Fort Collins as it involves a combination of self-serve automated stations as well as a staffed location. Lewin went on to discuss the Zagster bike share system and its stations and noted sponsors are funding the operations of the program. Additionally, Lewin stated Fort Collins has been able to offer bike helmets for a $5 sales price. Lewin detailed the pricing and check-out procedures for the bike share program. Thomas asked if a senior discount exists. Lewin replied it does not at this point, but could be examined in the future. Thomas asked about seat and height adjustments for the bikes. Lewin demonstrated those adjustments on the bike she brought to show the Board. Berklund asked about usage thus far. Lewin replied there have been 363 trips as of this morning and there are currently 36 active members. Berklund asked if there have been conversations about putting stations on the CSU campus. Lewin replied in the affirmative and stated conversations are moving forward. Brown suggested partnerships with hotels as being sponsors and possibly having stations. 4 Thomas asked if maps are available with the bikes. Lewin replied a map is on the app and maps are available at businesses and the bike library. (**Secretary’s Note: York left the meeting prior to the consideration of the following agenda items.) 8. ACTION ITEMS • Downtown Parking Recommendation – Lorson Seth Lorson discussed some of the recommendations for downtown parking which involve using cell phones for payment and encouraging employees to park in appropriate locations. He stated the overall goal is to encourage individuals to park appropriately, based on the length of stay, for each downtown trip. He stated on-street paid parking is an important recommendation and briefly outlined next steps in the process. Shenk requested additional information regarding the monitoring system. Lorson replied the monitoring system would be a technology involving the placement of a sensor under each parking space which will provide occupancy data and inform people of parking availability in real time. York (via Duvall) asked why there is no mention of pick-up and drop-off spaces for Uber or other services. Lorson replied that issue did not rise to the top of importance regarding downtown parking management; however, he stated loading zones and those types of things can be included without major policy decisions. Thomas commended the direction; however, he expressed concern regarding a lack of definitiveness in the staff recommendations. He questioned what exactly he would be supporting on a vote for this item. Lorson replied the language in the recommendations involves definitive language with the exception of the management changes, which will require additional efforts with staffing. Thomas stated he could not support this due to a lack of specificity, though he does agree with the direction of the item. Lorson noted policy recommendations such as this do not always include exact details but stated he would look into getting additional detail in the recommendation. Shenk asked if these recommendations have gone before any other boards. Lorson replied the Downtown Development Authority and Parking Advisory Board have seen the recommendations with the Parking Advisory Board suggesting a pilot program using the monitoring system to help evaluate whether a full-blown on-street paid parking system would be required. Additionally, he noted transparency and education are important aspects recommended. Shenk expressed concern regarding the lack of data and staff’s recommendation of setting a hard date to implement a paid parking program. Lorson stated these recommendations are based on not only input from the community, but also on the City fulfilling the needs and policies of existing policy documents, including the goal of parking being self-funded. 5 Duvall made a motion, seconded by Brown, that the Board support the downtown parking recommendations. Thomas stated he believes the recommendations are premature; however, he reiterated he supports the direction of the recommendations. Lorson reiterated implementation details for action items often occur following adoption of an overall broad policy. Thomas stated that some of the inclusions in the recommendations do not meet the standards of qualifying as policy. The motion was approved on a 3-2 vote with Thomas and Shenk voting in the negative. Lorson stated he would continue to follow up with Thomas’ questions and concerns. (**Secretary’s Note: The Board took a brief recess at this point in the meeting.) • College and Prospect Intersection Design – Woodward/Klingner Dean Klingner stated this project is slated for the 2017 construction season and noted the necessary right-of-way acquisition is driving the discussion regarding intersection alternatives. He noted the authorization for eminent domain process requires good faith negotiation that can go on for up to ten months. Klingner went on to discuss the importance of the intersection in town in terms of the convergence of mid-town, old town, CSU, I-25 access, nearby trails, and the MAX route. He stated the intersection ranks in the top five busiest intersections in town and has little continuity in terms of bicycle and pedestrian routes. Klingner detailed the proposed design and the ways in which it improves operation of the intersection. Thomas asked if pedestrian call buttons can be placed in the pedestrian refuge median to increase time allotments for crossing. Klingner replied that could be discussed with operations. Klingner went on to further discuss the intersection plan and requested a Board recommendation. Thomas made a motion, seconded by Brown, that the Board support the recommended intersection alternative. The motion was approved unanimously. 9. REPORTS • Boardmember Reports Thomas reported on a Coloradoan article regarding ozone which implied there was no way health standards could ever be met. He noted the Regional Air Quality Council does not agree with that opinion and stated it published a letter in opposition to the article. Additionally, Thomas reported on a Senior Issues Forum at the Harmony Library. Duvall commended Transfort for its efficiency and partnerships with regional non-profits 6 and asked if anyone attended the Transfort route improvement meetings. Brown replied she attended the meeting on March 31st and commended the presentation. Duvall commended the organization and presentation. Berklund commended the new Bikeway signage. • Staff Report Sizemore reported on the bike projects open house and stated the Foothills mall underpass has moved into a final design phase and construction is anticipated to start this summer. Additionally, Sizemore reported on the reduction in train delays since changes in switching operations were made. He stated the May meeting will likely be another full agenda. 10. OTHER BUSINESS None. 11. ADJOURN The meeting adjourned at 8:45 p.m. by unanimous consent.