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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAir Quality Advisory Board - Minutes - 06/26/2001O�-ob -off MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS AIR QUALITY ADVISORY BOARD REGULAR MEETING 281 N. COLLEGE AVE. June 26, 2001 For Reference: Eric Levine, Chair - 229-5225 Eric Hamrick, Council Liaison - 225-2343 Brian Woodruff, Staff Liaison 221-6604 Board Members Present Nancy York, John Schroeer, Eric Levine, Jim Dennison Board Members Absent Harry Edwards, Linda Stanley, Dan Voss, Mandar Sunthankar, and Chris Kavanaugh Staff Present Natural Resources Department: Brian Woodruff, Terry Klahn, Sarah Fox, Lucinda Smith, and Sandy Hicks Transportation Planning: Mark Jackson Advance Plannine: Ken Waido Guests Judy Dorsey The meeting was called to order at 4:40 Agenda Planning Review Council six-month planning calendar Future Agendas • Update on truck mobility study (July) — Woodruff had a request to clarify what issues the Board would like to review. The truck study looks at different alternatives for getting the trucks out of town; it doesn't focus on air quality impacts. Levine said he would like to hear the strategies for keeping trucks from taking the Highway 14 corridor and that instead of an analysis, he would like to see what's being done to prevent the problem in the first place. • CO Redesignation (July) opportunity for recommendation to City Council • AQAB organizational issues (Summer) • North College Corridor Project (Summer) John Schroeer suggested arranging future agendas so that presenting guests are first on the agenda, and other items, such as approval of minutes, and agenda planning are later in the meeting. Minutes The minutes of the May 22, 2001 were unanimously approved. Review Action Loe This item was not discussed. Air Quality Advisory Board June 26, 2001 Page 2 of 5 1. When the radon program is reviewed by City Council, put a copy of their packet materials in the Board's packet — When Available 2. Arrange for distribution to AQAB members of minutes and memos to City Council from the T-Board, P&Z Board, and NRAB — Continuing 3. Ask members via email if there is interest in a committee on the CO redesignation issue. Election of Chair and Vice Chair This item was postponed to the next meeting due to lack of a quorum. ClimateWise Campaign Results, Sarah Fox and Judy Dorsey Sarah Fox provided a brief history and overview of the ClimateWise Program. Judy Dorsey reviewed the ClimateWise monitoring and reporting procedures. Nancy York asked why the City of Fort Collins is not listed as partner. Fox said that as a public agency the City can not be a ClimateWise partner, but was required to do an action plan. York requested a copy of the plan. Lucinda Smith will provide her a copy of the plan as soon as it is available. Fox said they would continue to provide technical assistance to the current partners, and also start talking about implementation. There is a good relationship with the first group of sixteen partners. The goals of the program are to provide technical assistance, public recognition, networking opportunities and program management. John Schroeer said he is impressed with the program. Eric Levine would also like to see the City's action plan. N. Colorado Regional Communities I-25 Corridor Plan and Fort Collins I-25 Sub -Area Plan Woodruff said this is the opportunity for providing comments to Council at a regular meeting. Jackson provided some background on the projects and explained the difference between the I- 25 Regional Corridor Plan and the I-25 Subarea plan. The regional plan is nearing the point of adoption. The sub area plan follows with a couple months of lag time. The subarea plan is dealing with land use and other issues. Jackson said this isn't a normal transportation planning effort, rather it's a reactive planning project. Discussion • Levine: When did this process start? This plan started about 2 years ago. There have been open houses, forums, and many presentations. • Schroeer: How did the forum in Johnstown turn out? Pretty good, I was able to answer to a lot of questions, and clear up some confusion. • York: Why are people gravitating toward I-25, and moving away from the communities? Part of it is visibility. Also, the region got a wake up call with the success ofLoveland's venture with the outlet mall. Mobility and access is key for a lot of tech industries. • York: What is the level of traffic on I-25, how many thousand a day? I would guess 75, 000, but it's just a guess. • York: I would like to know what it is, and I'd like to have the growth projections. Air Quality Advisory Board June 26, 2001 Page 3 of 5 • York: If Council approves this, specifically what are they approving? They would be setting the framework for additional cooperation in the region. Some of the "nuts and bolts" are not going to occur until the subarea plan gets adopted. We're not going to implement design guidelines or make changes to the master street plan. • Levine: I thought we would receive a copy of the plan. I'm very concerned about the public process. The transportation element is a massive parallel road system. I've heard the natural resources element was given a stingy amount of the planning resources. How many of the residents of the communities, who are paying the taxes, are really involved and informed and have participated. Sorry about you not getting the plan, we'll ask Joe to get you those. As far as the level ofparticipation, I think it's been a robust public process. At the open houses the rooms have been packed —they've been well attended. Our web site received a good number of hits. There maybe people who are latching on right now, but there are many people who have tracked this from the beginning. • Levine: I'm concerned about moving infrastructure away from the core. Does this help solve a problem, or is it helping to create the problem? Eventually this land will be developed. This land will not lie fallow; the development pressures are coming. • Levine: Couldn't some of the same resources be put into encouraging more alternative transportation in the core areas. This calls for a vast amount of dollars for which there could be lots of other uses. One of the things I've been hearing, that doesn't sit well with me is that alternative transportation modes are an afterthought. When we started this, the premise was that alternative modes would be the spine for the transportation element. What we built on was the approved recommendations. • Levine: One of my concerns is that I haven't seen the real commitment to alternative modes. I'm convinced the parallel road system will happen, but I'm not sure about the alternative modes coming in. There's no commitment of funding. We're really getting behind; we're a city that's growing, VMT-wise. I don't think it's lip service. The purpose is to preserve the right of way. If development pressures do come, you have at least been proactive enough to do some fashion of support arterials. • Levine: There is no land use element. The land use element is in the subarea plan. • Waido: There's not a land use plan between the pages of the regional document, but each community has a land use plan, what they didn't do was a transportation plan. • Dennison: I get the feeling we may not be the only ones who don't know enough about this plan. It's an enormous, complex document that will shape the future of northern Colorado along I-25. I wonder if it might make sense for the City Council to take more time before they act on this. I would like to have a better understanding before we take whatever action we're going to take. • Levine: I agree. At the Transportation Board Ron Phillips was uncomfortable with parts of the plan. • York: I agree too. • Schroeer: I feel as though I've had every opportunity to become prepared. We'll have the expansion, and I'm in favor of making sure that, once it shows up, we're ready. What little I know about this plan seems to make sense to me. • York: I don't know if the ordinary citizen received the mailings. For what it's worth, the open houses and forums were always listed and advertised in the paper. • Waido: Trying to generate public interest is difficult. • York: I would like to encourage Council not to vote on this July 17cn Air Quality Advisory Board June 26, 2001 Page 4 of 5 • Schroeer: How do we know how knowledgeable Council is on this? Maybe they're completely prepared. • York: But have the people had the opportunity to become knowledgeable? I've heard a lot of people say this is the first they've heard of it. I'm going to ask my Council representative to have a public meeting in our district. I would hope other districts in the community would do the same. Is there a time line for this? • Waido: The document is ready for adoption. Fort Collins was asked to be a leader, to be the community to set the precedent and adopt the plan. This plan won't make changes to the Master Street Plan, that is one reason we're in the forefront. Other communities are looking to us and saying, "If Fort Collins won't adopt it, then we're not going to either. " • Jackson: There's an "urban legend" growing that everything will be going to six lanes. The only area that calls for six lanes is part of the crossroads area. • Dennison: I feel like a little more discussion at the City level might give a better decision. • Schroeer: We need to let Council decide if/when they're ready to make a decision. We can tell them we're not in a position to make a recommendation. • York: I would like to add a recommendation that they take more time, and do more citizen outreach. • Schroeer: We've been asked to advise them on air quality. We don't know how much time they've spent on this. • Woodruff: Do you feel if we had another month, or two or three, we would have a recommendation based on air quality? I don't see it myself The land uses are in place; there's a presumption they will develop. This corridor plan would create some additional roadway infrastructure to handle that traffic. What we're missing is away of reducing the number of vehicle trips — that's where the real action is. Because this is a reactive plan, you could spend another six months and not come up with a recommendation based on air quality. • Levine: It's a monstrous amount of resources. If you commit to multi -modal transportation, like Mason Street, I see the outcome as different. • Dennison: Does this plan commit money to the highway? It's a vision plan; it doesn't attach specifics. It promotes a unified, regional outlook. • York: It's a stepping stone to the subarea plan; that's the significance of our recommendation. This is the most significant land use plan we've seen. This will change the face of Fort Collins and our region. • York: I would like to be able to get those numbers, of travel on I-25. • Dennison: Anything that deals with question of public input could be conveyed through a memo. Jim Dennison made the following motion: The Air Quality Advisory Board has several reservations about the I-25 Regional Corridor Plan, but is not prepared to offer a specific recommendation to Council at this time. The motion passed unanimously. John Schroeer would like the opportunity to review the memo to Council, before it is sent. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 7:30 p.m.