Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutAir Quality Advisory Board - Minutes - 10/24/2000OCR-l0-ab MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS AIR QUALITY ADVISORY BOARD REGULAR MEETING 281 N. COLLEGE AVE. October 24, 2000 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, Raymond Sons, Mandar Sunthankar, Linda Stanley, Chris Kavanaugh Board Members Absent Jim Dennison Staff Present Natural Resources Department Brian Woodruff, Terry Klahn Transportation: John Daggett, Tom Frazier Guests None The meeting was called to order at 4:35. Minutes With the following changes, the minutes of the September 2000 meeting were unanimously approved: — York: Page 4, next to last bullet: change "I thought I saw something on public television" to "Someone told me there was something on public television". — Edwards: Page 2, 3rd bullet, change "Edward" to "Edwards" — Sunthankar: I" page, The meeting was called to order at 4:30 p.m. TransFort Strategic Plan, John Daggett Daggett said this plan is a work in process. The last time I was here we talked about what the transit system should do, and what its purpose is. The process is to learn about the existing system. We need to know what works well and where people are boarding. We know who's riding — greater than 50% of the ridership is youth and CSU students. What's surprising is that seniors are only at 4%. That's the fixed route, as opposed to Dial -A -Ride. This project is not looking at Dial -A -Ride, although staff and the consultants recommend that happen in the near future. The fixed routes represent 96% of the ridership compared with 4% Dial -A -Ride. Twenty-eight percent of the budget goes to Dial -A -Ride with 4% ridership, while 72% of the budget goes to the fixed route. Dial -A -Ride provides service to about 2.4 passengers per hour; the fixed route provides service to about 26 persons per hour. In a stakeholders interview we've heard that staff and customer service are very positive. The reliability of buses being on time is a problem, as is the frequency of service. The short-term priorities are to increase the frequency of service, have more direct routes, and provide longer hours of service. Air Quality Advisory Board October 24, 2000 Page 2 City Council has directed staff to focus on productivity and try to get ridership up. We're trying to develop high productivity routes. 1. Minimize duplication between routes. 2. Parallel routes no greater than t/2 mile apart. 3. Convenient access to major centers of demand from all parts of the City. 4. Simple, straight routes. 5. Convenient, fast transfers 6. Two-way service on all route segments. 7. Focus services on high -density areas. When the University is in session it generates an enormous transit demand. That demand disappears during summer and breaks. The University is geographically central in the City so many trips pass through. The Mason Street Corridor will create several new points of access on the East Side of campus. The L.ory transit center is not on the Mason Corridor, but is useful for other routes. The Mason Corridor requires convenient east -west connections. Scenarios 1. The first scenario is a no growth, minimal design. It looks like the current system. All we've done is fix the obvious problems. Still allows east/west access. 2. Extensive re -design. High frequency of service in the three spines, with the frequency falling off as you move away from the spines. 3. Moderate Budget Growth with the Mason Street Corridor. The patterns from number 2 are in this as well. As you increase frequency you increase ridership. Move toward the 2020 City Plan goal. We are currently involved in the public presentation process, and working on the design of the three scenarios. We've found that the productivity we thought we would achieve hasn't met our expectations. There are three non -performers. We'll test to see if reassigning these resources into the corridor will help increase productivity. This fall we have a new traffic model that allows for modeling of auto and transit options. It's an analysis tool, but it can't look at the impacts of investment. It can perform Mobile 5 analysis. It's very high tech, yet very labor and time intensive. My request is that any requests for service from the model come through Brian and staff, rather than calling us directly. Discussion • Stanley: When you say "moderate growth" for scenario three, what is that? The City Plan long-term goal is about a $19 million a year operating cost. It's about half that today. The Mason Street Corridor has been incorporated in. • Levine: I would love to see a population overlay, or projections. All of the growth is occurring in the south. We stayed with the current passenger trip length. You are right, the average trip length will increase, and the air quality numbers will be higher. We're moving toward the City Plan design. We're trying to begin to build the grid. Transit follows Air Quality Advisory Board October 24, 2000 Page 3 development. We don't think Mountain Vista will develop out by 2010. If it were to develop we would have to put service in. • Levine: I understand why you focus on the core, but we need to capture VMT for the best air quality. Success begets success. If you can demonstrate people will ride in large numbers we will have more success expanding into the outer areas. • Edwards: The daily CO emission savings look to be about''/z ton per day, best case. The savings are a rather small part of the total pictures. • Woodruff: The numbers do look low. I'm wondering about assumptions you've made. In 1996 when City Plan was modeled the presentation said we could expect transit ridership of five percent. How do your assumptions here compare? We've approached it differently. Instead of assuming a transit ridership figure, we have a mode -choice aspect to the model that says, "If I have a trip to take, I have decisions to make about time and distance. " You chose a mode of travel on the basis of how long it takes you to get there. • Woodruff: What is the level of funding? If you rank the spending of dollars on transit with peer cities, then Fort Collins would be ranked low. In terms of dollars spent, you're not talking about a lot of money per capita. We achieved about a 1 % trip capture with $3 million. • Levine: City Plan was based on a 2.2% growth rate. When your modeling was done, was a new growth rate plugged in? We still use the same population control numbers. The City's demographer has not finalized the growth rate in the long term. • Stanley: There's no budget for transportation. • Levine: With the budget the percentages may not go down, but stay very much the same. People coming in are contributing massive amounts of VMT. • Stanley: A lot of them won't ride transit, the recommendation from City Council is no more dollars. They're not going to fund it. That's going to be a trend that sticks around for a while. • Frazier: Linda is accurate. The current trend is to deal with maintenance issues, and traffic signals. That's where Council is. It will be a couple years down the road before they fund transit at a much higher level. The caveat is the Mason Street Corridor. If all the players come together there will be an increased level of service along the Mason Street Corridor. • Stanley: The budget deficit is millions of dollars. I don't see a rosy outlook for transit. • Levine: Is there general funding? There is a contribution from the federal government, but no contribution from the state. • Sons: I'm startled at the percentage of the budget that goes to Dial -A -Ride compared to total ridership. Have you ever considered a way to privatize that service? We tried that option, part of it worked, and part of it didn't work well. We had some quality control issues. It's working better today than in the past. There may be an opportunity in the future • Sunthankar: What is the purpose of Dial -A -Ride? It's to service the disabled community and the senior population age 60 or over. • Sunthankar: Can this program increase the ridership of seniors? Yes, it's possible, by increasing the frequency of trips, and having longer hours during the day and on Sunday. • Schroeer: A lot of seniors have trouble with a walk to the corner, a walk of a block is out of the question. • Woodruff: A one -percent mode split now goes to transit. With total daily trips doubling in scenario three, it may be going to 2% mode split. Is that keeping pace with the City's goals Air Quality Advisory Board October 24, 2000 Page 4 for mode shift? No. If this trend continues, for any number of reasons, the trend is that we're moving further away from our goals for air quality and traffic on the street. • Levine: What is the current time differential between transit and time projection? The model doesn't allow you to choose a trip unless it's your best choice. • Levine: You'd think the cars would tend to slow down over time. With Mason Street, transit should look better. I couldn't agree more. That is what will happen, the question is when. If you were to go to Boston and came back to Fort Collins the difference is day and night. Transit isn't going to compete as well as it does in the larger communities. • Levine: City Plan has certain built in predictions. The board would like to see, with real numbers, mode shift, growth rate, how far we will be off the City Plan, with both scenarios. The hard part is the new growth rates. That's an Advance Planning request. We don't have those numbers. • Levine: Just pick a number, like 3.2. That's the last six years average. • Woodruff: It's more complicated than that. While we might pick an area -wide number, the demographer has to decide how many people and jobs will be in each zone. It's pretty labor intensive. Your question is appropriate, but the answer is very labor intensive. • Stanley: At some point it needs to be done. • Woodruff: These issues will be looked at. I will try to nail down by next meeting when City Plan will be re -run, and how far off we are from when we adopted City Plan. Review and Update Action List 1. Verify siting of the new library and performing arts center is downtown. — Linda Stanley reported that although she doesn't have an absolute, to the best of her knowledge it is true. 2. Memo to Council: 2001 budget priorities — Pending 3. Memo to Council: Recommending Mason Street master plan - Pending 4. Poll AQAB members regarding interest in committees Clean fuels — Mandar Sunthankar, Linda Stanley AQAP mid -course correction — Linda Stanley 5. Draft 2001 AQAB Work Plan — Will be worked on tonight Review Council Six-month Plannine Calendar October 24: Land Use Code Parking Requirements Regional I-25 Corridor November 21: City Plan Amendment Process November 28: Street Oversizing Fee Update December 12: Transportation Maintenance Funding December 19: Street Oversizing Fees • Levine: Transportation maintenance funding tends to be a big item, but I don't know what input we could have on that. Agenda Planning — AQAB 2001 Work plan (Nov) — By-law amendments (Nov) — Bike Depot Feasibility Study (Jan) — Climate Wise campaign results (Jan) Air Quality Advisory Board October 24, 2000 Page 5 2001 Board Work Plan, Brian Woodruff Woodruff said this draft is similar in format to this year's work plan. Eric and I tried to come up with high priority issues that seemed to make sense. This is a starting point for discussion. The Work Plan is one of two required reports to City Council. They want to see what you have in mind for the coming year. There is usually no feedback; it's simply accepted for information purposes. • York: It seems that global warming, and meeting our responsibilities, is missing. Do you have in mind reviewing the Local Action Plan for Greenhouse Gas Reduction? • Levine: We have Climate Wise scheduled for January. • York: It dovetails with VMT growth and tail pipe emissions. • Levine: We'll put it on the list. • York: I guess it's because of the dilemma. Some people think global warming is not actually happing. • Woodruff: City Council went beyond that — they decided not to argue whether it's happening or not. Rather, they adopted a set of strategies that are prudent and workable. We were able to avoid getting into an argument that can't be solved by the City of Fort Collins. • Levine: By taking some very small, non -confrontational steps the City avoided taking big steps that would have been a lot harder to get done. I'm glad we have something. At the start of a thousand mile journey you take one step. • Woodruff: How would you like this put in the re -draft? • Kavanaugh: If there is already a plan, how do we advise City Council? • Levine: It's a multi -year plan. There is no time frame for implementation of the items. • Stanley: We could be reviewing and making recommendations concerning implementation. • Edwards: This is a thoughtfully executed document. What action is needed? • Sunthankar: What about air quality monitoring? • Schroeer: I would like to see that go forward. What was approved and how do we proceed? • Woodruff: An additional monitoring site will be built. The State is behind it, and the City has a budget for its part of the effort. What would the discussion be? I could keep you informed about the progress. • Stanley: How long will it take? • Woodruff: There will be a gridded emission inventory in the spring. The State's objective is to have the new site running by next heating season, about a year from now, in the fall of 2001. • Edwards: It sounds like it's well underway. • Schroeer: I would like to see to it that everything happens the way it should. • Woodruff: We can have an update every three months. Harry Edwards made the following motion: Move for the adoption of the plan as amended with the additional two items. • Levine: I have one additional item. Last year silica dust was reclassified from a suspected human carcinogen to a proven carcinogen. It seems like there's a disconnect between the Air Quality Advisory Board October 24, 2000 Page 6 rules, regulations, VMT numbers, various transit strategies, and why all of these numbers and stuff exist, it's the human health equation. The Colorado Department of Health regulates all of these. If the pollutants change and are found to be more harmful or safe, I would say it's part of their job. I'm thinking of Boards and Commissions in the City of Fort Collins — we're the closest to looking at the human health implications of what we do. Every other board is involved indirectly. I'm thinking of a white paper, a project of this board without too much staff time, listing various air pollutants. It could be for us, for staff, for future members of the AQAB, for City Council, or whatever. • Schroeer: So, more of a fact sheet than a white paper. • Edwards: There's a motion on the floor, I suggest the Chair call for a second or rule on the motion, then you can make your amendment. Linda Stanley seconded the motion • Sunthankar: What are you going to conclude with those items? Are you limiting yourself to the pollutants, or are you going after chemicals too? • Levine: Primarily pollutants. Won't want to go beyond pollutants that are now regulated by the federal government. Amended Motion: Move for the adoption of the plan as amended by the addition of global warming and Eric's fact sheet/white paper (air pollutants fact sheet). The motion was seconded by Linda Stanley and unanimously approved. Short Discussion Items Reschedule December Meeting Woodruff reminded the board that their regularly scheduled December meeting will fall the day after Christmas, and asked if they wanted to cancel or reschedule the meeting. Linda Stanley suggested tentatively rescheduling the meeting for December 19. The date will be finalized at the November meeting. LUTRAO Woodruff said the annual report would go to the Growth Management Committee in January. We will try to summarize the issues, where we've been, and where we will go. The LUTRAQ Team has been focusing on the issue of capital improvements. The City Manager asked for an inventory of capital projects, whether funded or not. This is the first step toward a systematic way of deciding. The LUTRAQ Team saw an opportunity to prioritize the list as to how well the projects would reduce VMT growth, and we came up with our consensus of the top thirteen projects from the point of reducing VMT growth. We also set forth principals as to how to do this prioritization next time around and identified issues we thought were important in capital improvement. At the next LUTRAQ meeting we'll plan implementation of other items on the work agenda. Air Quality Advisory Board October 24, 2000 Page 7 • Levine: I participated in the kick off meetings. Will there be any more of those participatory meetings, and if so, when? We don't have anything on the schedule as yet. There are three items we will be discussing in more detail. 1. Regional VMT reduction strategy. We don't have one yet, as we're focusing on reducing VMT in the City. 2. The question of jobs/housing balance. There is no policy in Fort Collins. We do have a policy on affordable housing. We need a policy that there should be houses for all of the jobs. We are importing employees from outside of Fort Collins. It affects the VMT growth. 3. We need to look at the issue of pricing for trips: parking, tolls, special fees, in order to bring some free market forces to bear on trip -making behavior. Parking is the number one candidate. No one is eager to get out in front of the public and talk about how parking has to cost something. The project would come up with a strategy, and gradually build community support. The only place where parking costs anything is CSU, and guess what, there's a lot of transit use there. On all three of these issues we would want the advice and encouragement of boards and commissions. • Edwards: What happened to the by-pass discussion, has that disappeared off the radar screen? The City is not allowed to look at a truck by-pass that is within the urban growth area. The transportation planners are between a rock and a hard place. The State will not support it. It would have to be built with local funds and it costs a fortune. It looks pretty dead to me. Second Hand Smoke Sarah Fox has put together the plan for public input. At this moment there is a pause. The Latimer County Health Department and Poudre Health Services District have completed their five year tobacco plan. The plan calls for improving local second hand smoke ordinances. The surprise was that they have formally asked the City to enter into a partnership to complete the plan. It will take a couple weeks to sort out the partnership. This is a positive step, but the public outreach is on hold until] the leadership is all on the same page. We should have more information by next month's meeting. CO Redesi nation We're actively working with the State Health Department and the North Front Range Planning Council (MPO). A request will be put together for designation as an attainment area. This includes preparing a ten-year plan to maintain air quality standards. In September, 2001, the Air Quality Control Commission will hold a public hearing and adopt a final product. It then goes to the Legislature, the Governor, and the EPA. In May we plan a meeting of the technical advisory committee to outline control measures and an emissions budget. This is the real guts of the decision making. I would think in July we'll have the Council approving it. We haven't yet put in a role for the AQAB, but there needs to be one. 0 Levine: Are we using mobility report card numbers? Yes, I believe so. Air Quality Advisory Board October 24, 2000 Page 8 • Levine: We need to be assured we're using the correct population growth numbers for the modeling. I looked at the Colorado Springs plan, it's a bogus plan. The numbers are way too low. I would welcome accurate, up to date numbers. Woodruff will report back next month. The modeling work should be completed by the first of December. • Edwards: I agree with Eric's concern. A reasonable population growth rate needs to be used in the model. The modelers need to be encouraged to take into account the extra low emission vehicles. We don't want to over -estimate emissions for new cars. The EPA determines what assumptions we can use. It's a federally mandated plan. Our plan is required to keep emissions below the 1998 baseline level. We don't yet have a good idea whether, in 2015, they're going to be above or below. If they are above, we have to introduce strategies to bring them down, or we can use more sophisticated techniques to show that emissions won't be violated, even though the emissions are going up. Adjournment The meeting adjoumed at 7:15. ACTION i.IST — fram "vtnhnr')d mnnt:no ACTION ITEM WHO BY... DONE 1. Memo to Council recommending 2001 Brian, Eric ASAP budget priorities: TransFort, new monitoring site, business outreach, population update 2. Memo to Council recommending Mason Brian, Eric, November Street master plan Ray 3. Report to AQAB on the schedule for Brian November • Updating the population growth forecast • Re -modeling of City Plan with updated population, trip generation, and mode split assumptions 4. Explore adding "thanks for not idling" Brian, November campaign to Breathing Lessons Sarah 5. Report: Will the transportation model used Brian November for CO redesignation use updated population growth and Mobility Report Card data?