Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutOUTBoard minutes 0404161 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 APPROVED 6/15/16 MINUTES Orange Unified Transportation Board April 4, 2016 MEMBERS PRESENT: Alex Castro, Bingham Township Representative; Heidi Perry, At -Large Representative; David Laudicina, At -Large Representative; Amy Cole, At -Large Representative; Jeff Charles, At -Large Representative; Ed Vaughn, Cedar Grove Township Representative; Art Menius, At -Large Representative; John Rubin, At -Large Representative; Erie Smith, Chapel Hill Township Representative; Gary Saunders, At -Large Representative; MEMBERS ABSENT: Brantley Wells, Hillsborough Township Representative; Ted Triebel, Little River Township Representative STAFF PRESENT: Abigaile Pittman, Transportation /Land Use Planner; Max Bushell, Transportation Planner; Meredith Pucci Administrative Assistant OTHERS PRESENT: Matt Day, Principal Planner, Triangle Area Rural Planning Organization (TARPO) AGENDA ITEM 1: Call to Order and Roll Call Heidi Perry called the meeting to order. AGENDA ITEM 2: Approval of Minutes for March 16, 2016 Minutes were approved MOTION made by Art Menius. Seconded by Alex Castro VOTE: Unanimous AGENDA ITEM 3: Consideration of Additions of the Agenda AGENDA ITEM 4a: North Carolina Department of Transportation ( NCDOT) Strategic Planning Office of Transportation (SPOT 4.0) Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) and Rural Planning Organization (RPO) Project Priority Lists and Scores (Max Bushell) OUTBoard Action: Make a recommendation to the BOCC. Max Bushell delivered his presentation. Matt Day stated that NCDOT has no idea when the scores will be released. Heidi Perry asked if there was a possibility they would be ready for our next meeting. Max Bushell said that he hopes so and that there is a BOCC meeting on April 19, where we are hoping to present the scores. Matt Day stated the RPO association is already working on a letter to send to the Secretary requesting they release the scores. 1 APPROVED 6/15/16 Max Bushell explained to the Board that map ID 4 actually cannot be funded at the Regional Impact funding level because it is a secondary route and is not eligible for funding, except at the Division Needs funding level. Heidi Perry asked about improvements for bicycle and pedestrian traffic. Matt Day explained that there are two pots of funding. There is a regional pot and a division pot. The bike and pedestrian is only eligible in the division pot. Alex Castro asked, whether multi lane with pedestrian and bicycle facilities is just modernization? Matt Day explained that multi lane means that they are adding extra lanes so they are saying to make it a 4 lane road. Jeff Charles said that, while they are doing that, they wanted to go ahead and put the bicycle lanes in. As it is in the MPO jurisdiction, it can potentially get funded. Max Bushell explained that highway projects can get funded in any of the three categories. Matt Day said that you're allowed to add bicycle as an incidental piece of a highway project. Max Bushell said that NCDOT does not build roads anymore without two foot shoulders. That is the new standard Matt Day added to Max's comment that the new standard applies only to a new road. Road repaving projects, Matt continues, do not have to include the addition of two foot shoulders. Jeff Charles said that Orange County is not going to get a lot of new roads. Everything is about resurfacing and making things bicycle friendly. Max Bushell suggested that ultimately what we really need to decide here is the top three projects in each category, as those are the projects likely to receive funding. Heidi Perry asked if this is the list they had already come up with earlier in the year? Max Bushell said that no, it is not. It is the list he put together based on his assessment and the prioritization process used in the last round of prioritization. Ultimately, at this level, the projects that will likely get funded are mostly interchanges or highway projects. Art Menius asked about the necessity of improvement on i Hwy 54. Abigaile Pittman explained that the corridor study that they are doing has been designed to answer the question as to what is really needed on Hwy 54. Matt Day explained that what the Board needs to think about with these rankings is what they believe is the most important should be ranked high. He continued by stating that since they don't have the scores, it may be advisable for the group to identify the projects they don't like, and then just accept the NCDOT rankings from highest score to least for the remainder of the projects, then place the projects they don't like at the bottom of the list. He stated that this is what Chatham County did. David Laudicina explained that he travels Hwy 54 often and in the morning it is pretty congested and that people who work in Chapel Hill often times cannot afford to live there, so they are commuting and taking Hwy 54 in to work. Heidi Perry asked if it is congested from the lack of another lane or because there isn't smooth traffic flow. PA APPROVED 6/15/16 David Laudicina thinks that it is a traffic flow issue and that signal improvements may be able to help. Alex Castro agrees with Heidi that signalization could improve Hwy 54 more than adding lanes would. Jeff Charles said that signalization causes a lot of potential problems and that it is not a simple fix. Max Bushell explained that he needs to break number two under TARPO into two projects. Matt Day explained that DOT required they leave the widening project in there. Max Bushell said that from what he is hearing, the operational improvement project should be a top priority. Matt Day agreed with Max Bushell. Jeff Charles asked how many of the projects on the list have a chance of getting funded. Max Bushell said that for DCHC not very many of these are likely to get funded, based on the level of competition between projects across the funding region. For TARPO however they do need a complete prioritized list. Amy Cole asked if they are talking about construction with the on -ramp and off -ramp or are they talking about the actual overpasses on 1 -85 and Hwy 86. Matt Day said that generally with an interchange project you're replacing the bridge and the ramps all at the same time. Amy Cole asked if the bridge will be widened and accessible for bicycles and pedestrians. Matt Day said typically yes. Jeff Charles asked if they can wait on voting until they see the scores from NCDOT. Heidi Perry explained that if they waited they wouldn't be able to give input. Matt Day said that the TARPO meeting when they will actually vote on it is May 191h so if the Board meets before that day you can submit comments then. Max Bushell said that he thinks the top three or four will be funded. Matt Day said that from his experience interchange projects, interstate widening projects, and intersection projects scored well. Max Bushell explained that since they have spent an hour on this already he suggested they move the two 1 -40 projects to the bottom of the list as the group did not think those should be funded at the Regional Impact level and then they should go with the NCDOT scores in order from most to least for the remainder of the projects, because this is one small part of a larger public process and this will maximize the funding to Orange County. Alex Castro asked if someone could restate the motion. Max Bushell said the motion is to accept the NCDOT scoring as is in the DCHC MPO, but with the two 1 -40 projects at the bottom and to otherwise rank the projects based on NCDOT scoring. For the TARPO, he said we rank the 3 APPROVED 6/15/16 projects based on NCDOT scoring but the NC 54 widening projects will go to the bottom. The Burlington- Graham MPO projects will remain as prioritized. MOTION made by Jeff Charles; Seconded by Alex Castro VOTE: Unanimous AGENDA ITEM 4b: Bicycle Safety Task Force (Abigaile Pittman) OUTBoard Action: Receive and review Bicycle Safety Task Force applications, provide comments and recommendations, and forward to the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC). Abigaile Pittman delivered the presentation OUTBoard members reviewed the submitted applications and expressed approval of all 14 submittals, noting that there were no applicants from the law enforcement and Chapel Hill /Carrboro Chamber of Commerce membership groups. Abigaile Pittman reminded the Board that the membership groups in the Resolution are guidelines. There was agreement that Heidi Perry and Jeff Charles would serve as liaisons to the Bicycle Safety Task Force. Jeff Charles, Heidi Perry, Alex Castro, Art Menius and Erle Smith expressed concern about not having Orange County law enforcement representation on the Task Force. They felt that constructive input from law enforcement at Task Force meetings will be very important and that it would be difficult to succeed in its endeavor otherwise. They noted that education is a key component of the Task Force's mission. Law enforcement representation will allow the Task Force to better know what the rules of the roads are; and disseminate this information out across the motoring /bicycling population. Educational information developed by the Task Force will also be available for use by Orange County law enforcement in its interactions with the public, so their input is important for this reason also. MOTION made by Jeff Charles to: • Recommend the 14 applications that were received; • Designated Heidi Perry and Jeff Charles as OUTBoard liaisons to the Task Force; and • Request that the BOCC request Charles Blackwood to select someone from the Sheriffs Office to serve on the Task Force. The motion was seconded by Erle Smith VOTE: Unanimous AGENDA ITEM 5: Staff Updates (Abigaile Pittman) Abigaile Pittman instructed the Board to review the DCHC update included in the packet at their leisure. AGENDA ITEM 6: Board Comments AGENDA ITEM 7: Adjournment MOTION made by Gary Saunders to adjourn the meeting seconded by Alex Castro VOTE: Unanimous Heidi Perry, Chair :l