Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOUNCIL - AGENDA ITEM - 09/04/2001 - RESOLUTION 2001-116 ADOPTING THE DESIGN GUIDELINES AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY ITEM NUMBER: 29 FORT COLLINS CITY COUNCIL DATE: September 4, 2001 STAFF: Kathleen Reavis SUBJECT: Resolution 2001-116 Adopting the Design Guidelines for Grade-Separated Pedestrian, Cyclist and Equestrian Structures. RECOMMENDATION: Staff recommends adoption of the Resolution. FINANCIAL IMPACT: No direct financial impacts are associated with adoption of these design guidelines. Implementation of these design guidelines may increase the construction costs for some grade-separated structures, however long-term costs may be reduced due to lower maintenance/repair costs and by avoiding the need to construct expensive retrofits to built structures in the future (such as adding access ramps from cross streets, security lighting, drainage improvements, etc.). EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The City of Fort Collins is committed to designing and building community transportation facilities to accommodate all modes of travel as well as to encourage the use of alternative modes such as walking and bicycling. The objective of the "Design Guidelines for Grade-Separated Pedestrian, Cyclist and Equestrian Structures" is to establish design solutions for future grade-separated crossings in order to foster a more pedestrian and bicycle friendly transportation system throughout the Fort Collins community. The City's Transportation Board and Planning and Zoning Board have formally endorsed this project. BACKGROUND: If designed properly, grade-separated crossings can help to reduce conflicts among vehicles, bicycles, and pedestrians along the City's principal arterial roadways which often serve the community's highest concentrations of commercial, retail, and employment corridors. The high speed and/or volume of motor vehicle traffic creates safety hazards for people who are trying to cross DATE: September 4,2001 2 ITEM NUMBER: 29 these roadways in order to travel to their employment destinations, residential areas, schools, adjacent transit stops,or nearby retail centers. Particularly as Fort Collins grows in population and travel demand, these types of grade-separated crossings will become more and more critical to balancing the needs of maximizing roadway operations with the need to provide convenient pedestrianibicycle porosity or connectivity throughout a multimodal transportation system. The objective of the "Design Guidelines for Grade-Separated Pedestrian, Cyclist and Equestrian Structures"manual is to establish design solutions for future grade-separated crossings in order to foster a more pedestrian and bicycle friendly transportation system throughout the Fort Collins community. In addition to covering designs for grade-separated facilities either over or under roadways, this manual also addresses crossings of waterways, railroads, and other potential barriers and includes design considerations for equestrians as well as for bicyclists and pedestrians. These guidelines are not intended to prescribe where and when grade-separated crossings must be provided. Instead, they provide a user-friendly format for determining design considerations and solutions when a grade-separated crossing is determined to be appropriate in terms of overall system design for bicycle/pedestrian facilities. It does offer suggestions in terms of conditions that may lead to the decision to incorporate a bicycle/pedestrian grade-separated crossing as part of the transportation system. Other resources such as the City of Fort Collins' street standards and other national publications should also be consulted in determining the final design for a specific project. The guidelines will be very useful for City staff as well as the private sector for such upcoming projects as the Mason Street Corridor and other multi-use trail systems throughout our community. Funding for this project was provided through a grant from the North Front Range Transportation and Air Quality Planning Council. Attachments: I. Design Guidelines for Grade-Separated Pedestrian, Cyclist, and Equestrian Structures, dated June 2001 2. Endorsement from the City's Transportation Board 3. Endorsement from the City's Planning and Zoning Board RESOLUTION 2001-116 OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FORT COLLINS ADOPTING THE DESIGN GUIDELINES FOR GRADE-SEPARATED PEDESTRIAN, CYCLIST AND EQUESTRIAN STRUCTURES WHEREAS,the Council of the City of Fort Collins is committed to designing and building community transportation facilities to accommodate all modes of travel and is committed to encouraging the use of alternative modes oftransportation including,without limitation,walking and bicycling; and WHEREAS,in furtherance ofthe foregoing commitments,the staff of the City has developed a manual to establish design solutions for future grade-separated crossings in order to foster a more pedestrian and bicycle friendly transportation system throughout the City,which manual is known as the "Design Guidelines for Grade-Separated Pedestrian,Cyclist and Equestrian Structures";and WHEREAS, the Council has determined that it is in the best interest of the citizens of the City that the"Design Guidelines for Grade-Separated Pedestrian,Cyclist and Equestrian Structures" be adopted. NOW,THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FORT COLLINS that the "Design Guidelines for Grade-Separated Pedestrian, Cyclist and Equestrian Structures", dated June 2001, on file in the office of the City Clerk and incorporated herein by this reference,be and hereby is adopted to serve as an advisory and guiding document in determining design considerations and solutions when a grade-separated crossing is determined to be appropriate. Passed and adopted at a regular meeting of the City Council held this 4th day of September, A.D. 2001. Mayor ATTEST: City Clerk ATTACHMENT Draft minutes to be approved by the Board at their May 16, 2001 meeting. REGULAR MEETING MINUTES of the TRANSPORTATION BOARD April 18, 2001 5:45 p.m. City of Fort Collins—City Hall West—CIC Room 300 LaPorte Avenue FOR REFERENCE: CHAIR: Christophe Ricord 472.8769 VICE CHAIR: Dan Gould 482.1074 ADMIN SUPPORT: Cynthia Scott 224.6058 BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: ABSENT: Dan Gould Ray Moe Bruce Henderson Tim Johnson Tom Kramer Brad Miller Christophe Ricord Brent Thordarson Heather Trantham(late-unexcused) Mary Warring Steve Yeldell CITY STAFF IN ATTENDANCE: GUESTS IN ATTENDANCE: Matt Baker Natalie Brown—DAR Liaison Don Bachman Rich Follmer- FHU Marcus Bodine Mich FHU Ann Mane Ferry -Tess Jones - CDOT Tom Frazier Jana McKenzie, Claudia Benedict Randy Hensley Mike Herzig Cam McNair Ron Phillips Kathleen Reavis Cynthia Scott Chair Ricord called the meeting to order at 5:50 p.m. Transportation Board DRAFT Regular Meeting Minutes April 18,2001 Page 7 Plan could be split into phases in order to make it more doable since it has such a high price tag. With transit I see that we are replacing, but not purchasing new busses and we have new ones on all the other lists and I am concerned we're going to get behind the curve with being able to handle any plans. Trantham: I think the list looks pretty good and I agree with just about everyone on the board in terms of prioritizing this list. I would like to see projects that are more beneficial to the existing community. Chair Ricord: Generally, what I am hearing and what I agree with is that the modal shift possibilities should have first priority. I agree with the idea of phasing the Bicycle Plan, but I think the whole plan should be a priority. If it were phased, I think it is more politically palatable. In staying with phasing, some of the things that we see in attachment 3, specifically along Lemay and Lincoln, are three individual projects. Those three total almost S30M. Two of those are good candidates for phasing. It may be more palatable as far as tax initiatives are concerned. On attachment 4, I think the Surface Parking-Downtown River Corridor should be dropped. Chair Ricord thanked everyone for his or her comments. He said that the board is not required to make a formal recommendation, but is to provide Fischbach with a list. Hensley asked what form the board would like their comments to be presented to Fischbach in. There was a brief discussion about what form the memo should take. Chair Ricord liked the suggestion to group individual comments together to form a bulleted list and asked that the board be copied on it. Johnson then suggested that the Transportation Board's Finance Committee,which is scheduled to meet on the 0 Thursday of the month, could focus on this issue only at their next meeting. Those members are Henderson, Ricord,Thordarson and Johnson. The group could take a look at it and see if anything is missing. It was suggested that the memo the group comes up with could be e-mailed to everyone and hard copy sent to Ricord. 4.e. DESIGN GUIDELINES FOR GRADE SEPARATED PEDESTRIAN, CYCLIST & EQUESTRIAN STRUCTURES—Reavis Reavis stated that the manual was included in the board's packets in hopes that they would have time to look at it before tonight. There will be an Open House on the 25"' and a notice was distributed. Photos of grade separated crossings in Fort Collins and other areas were shown. Reavis then referenced the manual and explained why it was developed in the first place. It was important to get the guidelines created so that going into a project up front, staff would know what the components are that need to be looked at. Not just a structural and functional issues, but the visual, the security, landscaping, constructibility, etc. as well. She also pointed out that the manual includes sections on ongoing issues associated with these facilities in terms of the operations and maintenance and how to minimize those costs over time. The document itself is not a regulatory document,it is a guidance document in terms of design techniques and when someone needs to do an under or Transportation Board 'DRAFT Regular Meeting Minutes April 18,2001 Page 8 overpass, the manual is the resource to use. The regulatory side is found in the City's Street Standards manual and it is important to remember that the manual is not meant to stand alone, it needs to be used in concert with the Street Standards manual, the ASHTO Guidelines and other regulatory documents. Reavis stated that this manual will be going to City Council for approval with a resolution, not as an ordinance. She said that if there is anything this board could do to support this project as it moves forward, it would be appreciated. Reavis asked for feedback from the board. Gould: I think it's great, but I am still wondering what should be the guidelines for the cut-through areas. Perhaps it would be better to be proactive and just design for the inevitable cut-through traffic. Feldell made a motion to approve the document as presented There was a second by Warring. Discussion: Trantham: I think it's pretty complete and seems like a document that will be useful and I hope it does get used and followed. Henderson: Great job! Miller: Looks good. Gould: I support it. Warring: It's nice. Chair Ricord called the question. The motion carried unanimously. 4.d. HARMONY ROAD ACCESS MANAGEMENT PLAN—Reavis Reavis introduced Rich Follmer, consultant, and Tess Jones, CDOT, who have been partners in developing the plan. Jones distributed hard copies of the presentation and a copy of the draft Executive Summary for the project and a copy of the Access Plan handout that has been used at some of the public meetings. Reavis stated that she gave an update to the board a year ago. At that time,the Harmony Road Access Control Plan and the S. College Avenue Access Control Plan bundled together as one project. Over the past year, staff finalized a lot of the planning issues on the Harmony corridor project and they felt it was probably better to bring this part of the project forward rather than holding it back because many issues are still being worked out on the S. College Corridor. The goal is to come up with a long-range access plan for the Harmony corridor that works for the agencies involved as well as the business and property owners along Harmony Road. The cornerstone of the project is safety and equitable access and mobility along the corridor. It is known that improvements will come about over time. The plan intent is to improve safety and traffic flow for all modes of transportation. She mentioned that this is a joint project between the City of Fort Collins, CDOT, and Felsburg Holt and Ullevig. Reavis said that there was an extensive public outreach on the Community Planning and Environmental Services ATTACHMENT 3 Current Planning City of Fort Collins Memorandum TO: Mayor and City Council Members FROM: Jerry Gavaldon, Chaff• 4- O T & RE: Draft Design Guidelines for Grade Separated Pedestrian, Cyclist and Equestrian Structures DATE: May 4, 2001 At the April 27, 2001 Planning and Zoning Board worksession, Board members reviewed the Draft Design Guidelines for Grade Separated Pedestrian, Cyclist and Equestrian Structures and would like to offer the following comments: • First, we would like to recognize Kathleen Reavis and the consulting team for the effort put into the draft document. The Board was particularly impressed with the document's high quality graphics and user-friendly layout and text. • The Board looks forward to the development of criteria defining when and where new grade separated structures are appropriate. This seems like an important next step toward implementing the design guidelines. We appreciate the ability to comment on such an important issue. Should you have any questions regarding our comments, please feel free to contact me. cc: Planning and Zoning Board Members Kathleen Reavis, Transportation Planning Gregory Byrne, CPES Director Cameron Gloss, Current Planning Director 281 North College Avenue • P.O. Box 580 • Fort Collins, CO 80522-0580 • (970) 221-6750 • FAX (970)416-2020