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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAir Quality Advisory Board - Minutes - 03/27/2001MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS AIR QUALITY ADVISORY BOARD REGULAR MEETING 281 N. COLLEGE AVE. March 27, 2001 For Reference: Eric Levine, Chair 229-5225 Scott Mason, Council Liaison 226-4824 Brian Woodruff, Staff Liaison 221-6604 Board Members Present Nancy York, John Schroeer, Eric Levine, Harry Edwards, Dan Voss, Mandar Sunthankar, Linda Stanley Board Members Absent Chris Kavanaugh, Jim Dennison Staff Present Natural Resources Department Brian Smith, Susie Gordon, Terry Klahn Transportation Planning: John Dagget Transfort: GayLene Rossiter Advance Planning: Joe Frank Guests Paul Rosenberg Joseph Martin The meeting was called to order at 4:35 Woodruff, Sarah Fox, Theresa Ramos -Garcia, Lucinda Minutes The minutes of the February 27, 2001 meeting were unanimously approved as written. Review Action Lop 1. When the radon program is reviewed by City Council, put a coy of their packet materials in the Board's packet. These materials will be provided when they are available. 2. E-mail to AQAB members the membership of City Council's Legislative Affairs Committee - Done Review Council six-month planning calendar April 17: Council Boards and Commissions Liaison Assignments Nancy York would like to invite the new liaison to an AQAB meeting. May 8: Northern Colorado Truck Mobility/SH 14 Relocation Project Air Quality Advisory Board March 27, 2001 Page 2 North College Corridor Improvement Project - Woodruff will find out the status of these issues and determine if the board should address them prior to the study session. Nancy York attended the "Walkable Communities Workshop". She said it seems the City of Fort Collins is after speed rather than the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists. Levine said the planning and coordination process between this board and the NRAB, Transportation Board, and the P&Z Board is not getting done. He made a recommendation last month that staff support make the call if a "heads up" is needed. The LUTRAQ process may not be working as far as the board goes. Voss suggested sending, in writing, the criteria of the review process, including the general guidelines of what impacts the AQAB. Levine requested the minutes and memos from the other boards be included in packets. Agenda Planning • CO Redesignation: recommendation to Council & MPO (Apr) • Regional Plan conformity: recommendation to MPO (Apr) • City budget 2002-03: input to the City Manager (Apr) • A.Q. survey results (May) • Climate Wise campaign results (May) Transfort Strategic Plan, Tom Daggett Daggett said both the P&Z Board and Transportation Board unanimously recommended adoption of the plan. Council will hear the plan on April 17`s. Daggett presented an overview of the plan. Discussion • Voss: What percent of funding comes from CSU student tuition? Approximately $500, 000 a year out of a 3.4 million operating budget. They represent 38% of the ridership. • Voss: When you talk about eliminating various routes so there can be more frequency on the major routes, won't the additional stop and go generate more air pollution? What studies have been done? There has not been a spot anaysis. • Stanley: Are we ever really going to get there? What has to happen to make Council see this, and move in a positive direction? My opinion is we currently don't have enough pain in terms of driving, and parking. There's not enough density to support transit needs for the most part. What I hope to do in the Mason Street Corridor is identify opportunities. • Stanley: You're right about the pain. As long as we're willing to put a billion dollars or so into the I-25 corridor, it's a transportation tax to build more roads. I see us building out this Mason Street Corridor and ending up with a failure of a system. As a society and government we don't have the courage to do the hard stuff. Our numbers tell us the Mason Street Corridor will be a success. I'm a believer in that piece ofservice. From an objective standpoint that's where you're getting the biggest bang for the buck. York: It concerns me that you said transit follows development. I would hope that in a future scenario it would be well known that development should conform with transit. Transit can Air Quality Advisory Board March 27, 2001 Page 3 lead to redevelopment. Levine: I would like to see a PM10 and PM25 chart. The only analysis in on sweeping. I've never heard of that as an analysis tool for transit ridership. York: I would like to see a change to a cleaner technology, like hydrogen. What kind of cost increase would that be? The hydrogen and pure electric technology is not there yet. If you went out and bought one you'd be taking a risk. When there's mass production the price will come down. Motion: The Air Quality Advisory Board recommends that Council adopt the Transfort Strategic Plan. - Voss: The plan looks nice, but can we add an offset on congestion? When there is an increase in frequency in high -density areas, there should be an offset study in terms of air pollutants. - Edwards: I would suggest that the air quality graph you brought here with you be included in the packet that goes to Council. - York: My recommendation would be to consider a way that people can take their bikes on board and have it be safe. - Voss: I wouldn't add that to the motion, the technology is not there. The motion was unanimously approved. Motion: Recommend that Transfort staff investigate to the greatest extent possible, means for people to carry their The motion was unanimously approved. I-25 Corridor, Joe Frank Joe Frank provided a briefing on the Northern Colorado Communities I-25 Corridor Plan. The plan is still in the comment phase. We're about fourteen months into the process. We're looking at having it wrapped up for Council to consider for adoption in June and July. Discussion • Levine: You talk about visioning. You're talking about widening Harmony and/or Vine, that's not visioning, it's road widening. Vision is a concept. We've tried to duplicate the idea of roads being multi -modal corridors. That's a concept we're trying to impart to the entire corridor. For most of the communities out there, it's visionary. • Edwards: Is there any plan to put an air quality component in this study? We're doing a Air Quality Advisory Board March 27, 2001 Page 4 more detailed look at land use, part of that is an air quality impact. It's not part of the scope ofservices to do an air quality evaluation. • York: How far away is this parallel road system from I-25, and how far is residential development from there? It's about a mile off the interstate. The standard is that residential development should not be within %< mile ofI--25. • York: I concerned about the health effects of living near a heavily traveled road, the cancer rate in children will go way up. The entire corridor is in somebody's plan right now, there will be development. • Voss: Are there any flood plain issues? The standards for riparian corridors and setbacks are similar to Fort Collins'. Some communities don't even have setback requirements. I thought the design standards would generate a lot of controversy, but we have a set of standards people are agreed on. The funding is a big issue, but the technical part is pretty much agreed upon. This plan is a starting point for regional discussions. • Stanley: It's a plan fora lot of road building. I'm worried about the congestion. We've spent over 10 million dollars in that area on natural areas. Have you though about the impact of the extra congestion on those natural areas? After seeing this, maybe we should just have let it be developed. When we purchased that land we knew that Co. Rd.. 32 would be a major arterial, that's not new. • York: Did you go to the Walkable Communities session? This is not "walkable". The creation of the activity centers with sidewalks and development is designed to be walkable. • York: The activity center stuff is brilliant, it's the in-between stuff I'm worried about. I think this is a plan for automobiles, and when it's done, that's all it will be. It doesn't ignore autos, but I disagree that it doesn't plan for transit. Fort Collins is moving toward that, and going one step at a time with the other communities. This is a conceptual plan. If we can get this in place, then we can start bringing in some of those ideas with the other communities. Many of them are not at a "Walkable Communities " level yet, this is a big step. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 7:30 p.m. ACTTnN T.TCT _ frn.., MAr..6 'V7 ACTION ITEM Y WHO yv"BY... DONE 1. When the radon program is reviewed by City Sarah When Council, put a copy of their packet materials available in the Board's packet. Air Quality Advisory Board March 27, 2001 Page 5 I. Arrange for distribution to AQAB members Brian April of minutes and memos to City Council from the Transportation Board, Planning and Zoning Board, and Natural Resources Adviso Board