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HomeMy WebLinkAboutResponse To Constituent Letter - Read Before Packet - 9/27/2022 - Letter From Mayor Jeni Arndt To Transportation Board Re: 2023/24 City Managers Recommended Budget Mayor City Hall 300 LaPorte Ave. PO Box 580 Fort Collins, CO 80522 970.416.2154 970.224.6107 - fax fcgov.com September 27, 2022 Transportation Board c/o Aaron Iverson, Staff Liaison PO Box 580 Fort Collins, CO 80522 Dear Chair Indy Hart and Board Members: On behalf of City Council, thank you for providing us with the September 22, 2022 memorandum regarding “2023/2024 City Manager’s Recommended Budget” wherein you offered your specific support for offers that support multi-modal transportation, address the climate emergency and are equitable. As you know, Council is reviewing the Budget during the next several work sessions and we invite you to tune in via FCTV cable TV, or watch online at fcgov.com/fctv. We are grateful to the Board for each member’s service and your continuing work on transportation in the community. Best Regards, Jeni Arndt Mayor /sek Cc: City Council Members Kelly DiMartino, City Manager Indy Hart, Chair Cari Brown, Vice Chair Transportation Board DATE: September 22, 2022 TO: Mayor Arndt and City Councilmembers FROM: Indy Hart, Transportation Board Chair, on behalf of the Transportation Board CC: Kelly DiMartino, City Manager RE: 2023/24 City Manager’s Recommended Budget The Transportation Board has reviewed the 2023/24 City Manager’s Recommended Budget. The goal of the Transportation Board is to promote the implementation of a balanced transportation system that is consistent with the City’s sustainability goals and provides choice, mobility, access, congestion mitigation, and safety for all people. The Transportation Board would therefore like to emphasize their desire for Council to prioritize funding offers which support multi-modal transportation, addresses the climate emergency, and are equitable. The Transportation Board realizes that not all offers, despite their merits, can be funded. However, there are t wo unfunded offers that the Board feels should be considered for funding in the 2023/24 budget: 1. The Transportation Board supports funding offer 51.27, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) System Upgrades scaled to $275,000 per year, which is in line with prior Council commitments. We feel this is a key initiative to continue the efforts to improve accessibility to everyone in the community. 2. The Transportation Board also supports funding offer 36.9, Neighborhood Traffic Mitigation Program Expansion. We see this offer as an important program to support neighborhoods and slow traffic. This program we feel helps improve conditions for bicycling and walking as well, which is an important part of the City’s multi-modal goals. The Transportation Board also wishes to highlight additional unfunded BFO offers as being priority for funding in the 2023/24 budget, as shown in the table below. BFO # BFO Offer Title Type 51.10 West Elizabeth Enhanced Travel Corridor Full Design 1-Time Enhancement 51.32 North College Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) 100% Design 1-Time Enhancement 27.14 School Transportation Safety Assessments and Strategic Infrastructure for Youth Continuing Enhancement 27.15 1.0 FTE Shift Your Ride Travel Options Program Professional Enhancement 54.7 Parks Hard Surface Trails Infrastructure Replacement: Asset Management - Enhanced Finally, the Transportation Board acknowledges the efforts of the Bicycle Advisory Committee over the past year and supports their budget recommendations as noted in the attached letter. Thank you for your consideration of funding these additional budget offers. Respectfully submitted, C. Indy Hart, Transportation Board Chair Memorandum To: City of Fort Collins Transportation Board From: Jordan Williams, Chair, City of Fort Collins Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC) Date: September 21, 2022 Re: BAC Recommendations to support active modes-related BFO offers 2023-24 On behalf of the City of Fort Collins Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC), I would like to offer our recommendations for several BFO offers put forth for the next budget cycle. The BAC’s overall purpose and mission is to review, recommend, and proactively identify capital improvements, educational initiatives, and Active Modes plan priorities while promoting bicycling, e-bikes, and other active modes as viable forms of transportation within our city and region. With the BAC work plan in mind, we have reviewed the City’s 2023-24 Budget Offers and discussed priority areas as they align with the BAC’s guiding principles. We support all the active modes-oriented offers listed in the budget proposal as they all, either directly or indirectly, enhance safe bicycling and help reduce motorized travel in our community. In addition to pledging support for all the active modes-related BFO offers being considered in this budget cycle, we would like to highlight a few specific offers that that we believe will have particularly significant impacts on the future of safe bicycling, multimodal transportation, and the achievement of the Climate Action Plan goals of the City of Fort Collins. These unfunded offers from the City Manager’s recommended budget are ranked in no particular order: • 27.14 - CONTINUING ENHANCEMENT - School Transportation Safety Assessments and Strategic Infrastructure for Youth: With the success of the original enhancement offer from 2022, continuing this program will help the City meet its Vision Zero goals from an equity-focused perspective that serves youth and other underrepresented communities. • 27.15 - ENHANCEMENT - 1.0 FTE Shift Your Ride Travel Options Program Professional: To reduce traffic and support the city’s climate goals, more people need to utilize active modes of transportation. While funding the Shift Your Ride program (27.13) is helpful, staff need more capacity to implement this initiative in conjunction with other partners such as the North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization. • 36.9 - CONTINUING ENHANCEMENT - Neighborhood Traffic Mitigation Program Expansion: The active modes infrastructure included in this offer provides a more complete streets/Vision Zero-friendly opportunity for the City budget to align with its goals surrounding equity and safety. • 54.7 - ASSET MANAGEMENT-ENHANCED - Parks Hard Surface Trails Infrastructure Replacement: As our trails receive increased usage for recreation and transportation, building more connections across our 15-minute communities is important, but we have to take care of the existing infrastructure. The scalability of this program could be helpful for initial implementation in this budget cycle. Thank you for your consideration of the BAC’s recommendations. Signed: Jordan Williams, BAC Chair