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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTransportation Board - Minutes - 06/21/2006MEETING MINUTES of the TRANSPORTATION BOARD June 21, 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 Cass 224-6058 BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: James Clausen Don Edmondson Sara Frazier Neil Grigg Jeannette Hallock-Solomon Tim Johnson Ed Robert Gary Thomas Brent Thordarson Kevin Westhuis CITY STAFF: Don Bachman Kathleen Bracke Cynthia Cass Mark Jackson David Kemp Clark Mapes Kurt Ravenschlag Nicole Richter Ken Waido ABSENT: Rick Price OTHERS IN ATTENDANCE: 1. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by Chair Thordarson at 6:01 p.m. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board June 21, 2006 2. AGENDA REVIEW No changes. 3. PUBLIC COMMENT None. Page 2 of 8 4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES (May 2006) There was a motion and a second to approve the May 2006 meeting minutes as presented. The motion carried by a unanimous vote, 10 — 0. 5. COUNCIL LIAISON REPORT None. 6. DISCUSSION/INFORMATIONAL ITEMS a. BIKE WEEK UPDATE — D. Kemp "DK" Kemp, the City's new Bike Coordinator, stated that he was hired recently as an ombudsman between the local bicycling non -profits, local cycling citizens and the City. He said that he worked in Flagstaff for three years and while there, worked on an event called "Bike to Work Week." He feels that bike week is much more encompassing; it's about all the fun and joy that goes along with biking too. He stated that the first thing he did was to create a bike week committee. He gathered a pool of volunteers and representatives from the local cycling non -profits. Kemp then explained each Bike Week event in detail and said that the web site is chock full of information. He added that he's been successful in getting donations from companies and getting help from the local bike shops and bike clubs to help plan and implement the Bike Week events. Board Member Comments/Questions: Grigg: This is very impressive and it sounds like you have a lot of "buzz" around these events. It makes me think, because part of our goal in the City is to make the city better for bicyclists, I wonder if we can figure out some way to see if this series of events has an impact or if it's just "buzz". There are three populations that it would be interesting to know how it impacts them. One would be the bicycling community, another would be bicycle oriented businesses, and the third would be people who are not part of the bike community, but people whose support we need. I'm not sure if that's part of your job description to figure things like that out, but after this is all over, it would be nice to know. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Page 3 of 8 Transportation Board June 21, 2006 Johnson: Having bike maps available at the breakfast stations is a good resource for people to figure out they get from one place to another and not use the same routes that cars take. Kemp: I agree. Johnson: I picked up a Colorado bike map for the whole state and I didn't find it particularly useful, but they did do one thing that was interesting and that was to put down the number of vehicles on each road and that might be something that we might think of doing too, because people can then select different streets based on what they might expect to see out there. Kemp: Interesting. Thanks, I'll look into that. Westhuis: I just wanted to compliment staff and say that 4-5 months ago it sounded like Bike Week was probably going to be dead, so congratulations! Robert: So do you have the interest of Channel 5? Kemp: Yes we do. We're on it. Frazier: I would like to concur that you really have some excitement going here and I like the comparison of the two pedals. Do you have something coming up after this like for children? I think it's really neat to have bikes and for parents to know that there are some safe places and routes that they can go. Kemp: Aside from having a child event for Bike Week, there will be some opportunities during back to school time to plan activities for the kids at the schools and parents and emphasize bike safety. Johnson: I did a little bike safety thing at City Park as part of a wellness program and I had a good stack of maps. The kids who were most interested in the maps were late grade school and junior high school age. They were excited to have their own map and as time permitted we traced routes on the map for their most common trips. Robert: Just an observation, when I go through a high school parking lot, I see room for 20 bikes and I see about 200 parking spots. City buses have racks for bikes, school buses do not. My point is that many of the students who go to high school have to have their own car. They rationalize it by saying they have after school things that preclude them from taking the bus. So if there were some way we could get them one way with a bike at least, it might help. Funny thing is, when these same kids go to college, they're all on a bike again! b. NORTH COLLEGE SUB -AREA PLAN UPDATE — C. Mapes Clark Mapes stated that this plan was first done in 1994 and many things have changed since then. The point of updating it is to get more specific and clarify how staff can make some of the remaining issues from that plan work and be positive. First and foremost staff wants to clarify how to make progress in this area. Mapes gave a presentation that included the following highlights: - Updated Goals: Ideas to consider • Improve the image and consumer perception of the area • Foster a positive investment climate • Adapt standards to existing development APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board June 21, 2006 Page 4 of 8 • Retain small local startup business character • Recruit desirable uses • Set locations or other limits for uses with negative impacts • Actively cater to tourism traffic - Updated Goals: Key Ideas • Consolidate or replace North College access along abutting properties for safety of motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists • Provide a system of alternative access and circulation to augment N. College itself • Develop "Context -Sensitive Solutions" with CDOT if needed to reflect unique circumstances and mitigate negative impacts of the highway • Adapt local standards to constraints of existing development and to economic and community design goals Updated Goals: Ideas & Questions • Develop a more complete community design pattern of streets, blocks, sidewalks, and facing buildings • Highlight City entryway with landscaped signs/sculpture at ends of corridor • Make area have unique, positive image and identity • Highlight the river corridor as a positive focus that binds the area to downtown Updating this plan is going to center around some workshops with property owners. Mapes said that he would return in August to give another update. c. TRANSPORTATION FINANCE OVERVIEW —D. Bachman Bachman stated that board requested a refresher on transportation finance. Basically where does the money come from; how is transportation funded? This is very timely because the City is in a budget "pickle" with an estimated $6.8M General Fund shortfall going into 2007. The board will have an opportunity to provide input as the City goes through the process, looking at combinations of service cuts and revenue enhancements probably starting as soon as next month. The various service areas have been tasked by the City Manager to come up with potential service reductions. This is in response to the Council asking for a greater menu of choices at a recent Work Session. That exercise is going on right now. Bachman distributed pages out of the current 2006-07 Budget. The pages are called comparative budget statements. There are three funds: Transportation Fund, Transit Fund, and the Street Oversizing Fund. Bachman went through the statements briefly, explaining each of the three funds above. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board June 21,2006 Page 5 of S With regard to issues with the Pavement Management fund, Robert stated that much of the difficulty is that the public has made an assumption that there is no problem with Pavement Management financially. The public perception is that it was solved, so if staff goes back out and says they need "x" number of dollars for Pavement Management, people are likely to be just a little upset. Bachman then further explained the reasoning behind the formula in that fund. Johnson requested that next month, staff bring the pie chart from a Pavement Management presentation that illustrates the total cost for maintaining our system. Thomas asked why so much (inaudible)... He stated that if you look under other revenue expenses, there's an $8M negative. It looks like that's where you'd be collecting the money and then you go out and build some streets with. But why 2005 and why such a huge (inaudible)...? Bachman said he would find out. Thomas added that then the fund balance goes from $6M down to a million due to that. Bachman said it could be the Timberline project which includes money from the SID and the developer contributions as well as the fact that the adjacent streets will be paved as well, for access to the Police Station. He thinks that's likely what it is, but will get a precise answer. Chair Thordarson commented that in the Transportation Services fund statement, there are interest earnings that show up in 2004 and 2005, but not in 2006 or 2007. The other funds all have earnings that are ongoing. Bachman stated that it probably got lost in the BFO process and it will be checked out. Staff will be back each month with updates. d. N. COLORADO TRUCK MOBILITY STUDY COUNCIL UPDATE — M. Jackson Jackson stated that last time he came to the board about this, the board's recommendation was to recommend to Council that those funds be used for transportation infrastructure purposes. On May 23`a, staff went to Council and basically staff was directed to craft ballot language that basically repeals the 1999 citizen initiative and then also allows those funds to be used for other transportation infrastructure needs in the northeast quadrant of the city. The Council for True Bypass group is against this decision and says they are going to challenge it. 7. ACTION ITEMS None APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board June 21,2006 Page 6 of 6 8. REPORTS a. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS Robert: Survey. There was a survey that the City put out on the economic health of Fort Collins as well as other kinds of things. The survey included a new section on budgeting priorities. Residents were asked if the City should be placing more or less effort in certain areas. Nearly 60% of the residents indicated we should be placing more effort on economic health and transportation. It was way out front of anything else. Streets/parking observation. We have streets where there is diagonal parking on one side and parallel on the other. We now have vehicles, when diagonal parking, that extend as much as 25'. I actually measured a couple. What that's doing is cutting down on the travel lanes considerably making it a bit unsafe. Has the city ever changed the travel center line of the street? Maybe we should be looking at readjusting the center line of travel. Jackson: This is why we in Planning have been outspoken critics of diagonal parking. Not only from that perspective, but from a bicycling safety perspective. There are other City departments with the opposite view so it's been an ongoing debate for some time. Edmondson: Four Seasons Neighborhood Issue. The issue was brought up at our annual Homeowner Association meeting. Wabash, one of the central east/west streets through the HOA, had No Parking signage on that road and a bike lane. In this block between Century and Shields, Wabash and Arbor is a big apartment complex that was built about four years ago. The problems are being created by the fact that the people in the apartment are parking all over the street even though there were parking spaces for them within the apartments themselves. I haven't started counting yet, but I'm going to go out and start patrolling and counting at peak parking times, how many cars are in the street and now many empty parking spaces there are inside the apartments. We asked Mr. Bracke, who made the decision to take out the bike lanes and the no parking signs along this block of Wabash, to change it. Now Four Seasons homeowners who use that street a lot to get over to Shields and family bike rides and such are upset because all the parking has narrowed the street and made it more congested. Bracke told me that he wasn't going to do anything about it. He told me he changed it once and he's not going to change it again. If he thinks that's the end of the discussion, he's wrong. I don't think we're going to let go with it. I'm going to take it up with Kurt Kastein and we're going to push this on our end. We also have an issue with this apartment who has the parking and for some reason is not being used. Are they charging for that? I don't know. We do know that in order to get their building permit, they had to have had a certain number of parking spaces, some of which were open, APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board June 21, 2006 Page 7 of 8 some of which were enclosed, but they apparently didn't tell the City that they were going to charge rent for all the enclosed spaces so the members aren't using the enclosed spaces. At least that's our supposition. Jackson: Bottom line is, there's a philosophical difference of opinion between Bracke's professional judgment and the HOA. City standards, safety, mobility? Bachman: Perhaps we can get Eric to report back to the board on this issue. Edmondson: Thank you, appreciate that. I think the real villain is the apartments. Grigg: Georgia. Last week, I couldn't help but notice how much better condition the two-lane roads in Georgia were compared to ours. It was a joy to drive on them. Clausen: Loveland Transportation Board. I was just curious if we have any relation at all with the Loveland Transportation Board. Thomas: Yes, as a matter of fact, I'm on that board. Thomas: A week from tonight, at 6:30, Karen Wagner is going to be the guest of the Public Transit Advocacy Group (PTAG) at a public meeting at the downtown public library. This is for her to talk about Senate Bill 1-10% for Transit Task Force. Will be a good time to hear her take on how much of that money might make its way up here. The North Front Range MPO had what they called a Transportation Summit and they had government officials, they had providers, they had activists, and others. Tim Johnson was there too. The idea was to begin the discussion of what would an RTA look like. They broke attendees up into tables of eight, there was a map of the MPO area, you had a little play pieces that you could stick on the map and you keep putting these down until you've spent $1.3 billion, which is a 1% sales tax for the MPO. The purpose of this exercise was to really begin to get an idea of what people would want to see if this RTA goes forward. Dump the Pumn Day was last week. The idea was to take the bus that day instead of driving your car. We didn't have enough time to really plan for it this year, but next year will be better. Passenger Rail Society Meeting. I attended the NFR Passenger Rail Society meeting last week in Denver. That group is still out there very actively trying to get rail transit up and down the Front Range. Thordarson: Taft Hill Proiect. Looks like it's progressing nicely. A lot of dirt has been moved. In terms of the detour, there is a lot of traffic that's going northbound on Shields and then turning left on Harmony and the timing of that arrow there still seems to be pretty short. About three cars are getting through, but there must be 30-40 cars waiting in line to make that turn APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Page 8 of 8 Transportation Board June 21, 2006 during the busy times. Bachman: I know they're working on it, but it's pretty tough. I'll check into it more. Video clip of roundabout movement in Shanghai was shown. What's so interesting is that there was continual pedestrian and vehicle interaction and it all seems to function very nicely. b. STAFF REPORTS Bachman: Engineering Proiect Updates. Updates on construction projects were given. Jackson: Community Survey. Overall, Transportation received a good mark. Laurel Street Striping Update. At the end of the outreach process, Eric Bracke did go ahead and make the call to remove parking along Laurel and adding bike lanes. Next Aaenda • Northwest Sub -Area Plan Update • Budget Update • Bike Week Numbers • Mason Construction Update • NFR MPO Regional Transportation Plan There was a request for a tour of the new de-icing facility at some point in the future and staff will also plan for a walking tour of the Mason Corridor when the time is right. Thomas said that he could arrange a trolley ride for the board. Robert said he'd to hear the latest on Dry Creek at some point. 9. OTHER BUSINESS 10. ADJOURN Chair Thordarson adjourned the meeting at 9 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Cynthia Cass, Executive Admin Assistant City of Fort Collins — Transportation Services