Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutOUTBoard minutes 121207Approved 2-20-2008 1 MINUTES ORANGE UNIFIED TRANSPORTATION BOARD MEETING DECEMBER 12, 2007 MEMBERS PRESENT: Nancy Cole Baker, Pedestrian Advocate; Alice Gordon, Board of County Commissioners; Jan Grossman, Bicycle Advocate; Paul Guthrie, Transit Advocate; Sam Lasris, Cedar Grove Township; Julian (Randy) Marshall, Bingham Township; Sandra Quinn Johnson, Planning Board Representative; Bryn Smith, Chapel Hill Township, CFE Representative, Al Terry, Transportation Services Board Representative MEMBERS ABSENT: Dawn Brezina, Eno Township; Eric Tillman, EDC Representative; Karen Barrows, Little River Township; Pascale Mittendorf, Hillsborough Township; STAFF PRESENT: Karen Lincoln, Transportation Planner; Pat Strong, TJ COG; Donna Davenport, Administrative Assistant, II, I. Call to order and roll call II. Consideration of additions to the agenda III. Board Comments Sam Lasris: The Planning Board will have a meeting with this board on March 5, 2008 at 7:30 p.m. at the Food Lab to discuss the text to the Comprehensive Plan. There is a special meeting on Monday, January 28, 2008 for anyone who has been left out of the process that is open to the public. Nancy Baker: Will there be minutes? Sam Lasris: Yes. I would like to thank everyone on this board. This board has and will have a lot of impact. There is a tremendous amount of interest in what we are doing. IV. Approval of Minutes of October 17, 2007, and November 14, 2007 meetings. Sam Lasris: Any corrections to the October 17th minutes? Karen Lincoln: I haven’t had a chance to review the minutes. I would like to have a chance to go over the minutes and we have not received part 2 of the November 14th minutes. Sam Lasris: So we need to table the minutes. Do we have a motion? MOTION to table the minutes made by Bryn Smith. Seconded by Jan Grossman. VOTE: Unanimous V. Safe Routes to School Sam Lasris: Move on to Safe Routes to Schools. A lot has happened in the last couple of days. Nancy and Karen can bring you up to date. Nancy Baker: The Safe Routes to School Program is a DOT funded program to address kids walking and bicycling to school. We want to get more kids on their feet, on their bikes going to school. There are a series of grants coming up. The first one is not for infrastructure, but will be for a DOT paid consultant to assist a team to develop a plan. Approved 2-20-2008 2 Having that plan will give you a leg up when you do ask for the infrastructure money. Earlier this year, Walkable Hillsborough applied for a plan. That process helped us put a team in place. Alice Gordon: I got the message over the weekend and the agenda had already gone out. The chair wanted to add Grady Brown because of the pedestrian bridge project. Nancy Baker: We had to specify the schools we wanted to plan for. If you specify two schools they would pay for a consultant for up to $15,000 and if you specify more up to $30,000. The biggest challenge we have now is Stanford. You can’t recommend high schools. Our recommendation was Stanford and Cameron Park. Barry Jacobs recommended Grady Brown. Karen Lincoln: (Pointing to map indicating schools) Nancy Baker: This is a different scale map. Karen Lincoln: Stanford Middle School is in the ETJ. Nancy Baker: The problem is that the kids have to cross US 70 to walk to the school. Stanford is adjacent to Orange High so anything that is helping Stanford will help Orange High. Cameron Park has no sidewalks. Grady Brown is here. (Pointing to map) Sam Lasris: The Board of County Commissioners approved a resolution to enter into an agreement with NCDOT to develop a Service Plan. Karen Lincoln: I’ve handed out a copy of the resolution in your packs that is required as part of the application. Sam Lasris: Do we need a working group to work on the application? Karen Lincoln: Yes. That would be helpful. Nancy Baker: Will you be the point person? Karen Lincoln: It will either be me or Karen Markovics. We need to get a letter of support from Hillsborough and any other groups. We need a resolution from the Metropolitan Planning Organization. Nancy Baker: Plus the application itself. Al Terry: Do you know if the new development on 70 across from Glenn Road will have a sidewalk? Karen Lincoln: I think they will. Hillsborough’s subdivision regulations require sidewalks for new development. Al Terry: That will get you to Abundant Life and I think it goes to Miller Road. Nancy Baker: Walkable Hillsborough, as a group, decided to help with this. I think I can volunteer myself and Pascale to be the point people. Sam Lasris: Will that be a sufficient amount of volunteers? Karen Lincoln: Yes, I think so to get the application together. Approved 2-20-2008 3 Jan Grossman: Should we try to identify the next three schools so that when funds come available we would be ready? Nancy Baker: The next grant for which NCDOT will issues a call for applications will be for infrastructure. Jan Grossman: Our goal should be that we always have a list so when funds become available, we will have priorities. Karen Lincoln: That would be a good idea. Pat Strong: When you turn the application in for these sites, you can start thinking of priorities. Karen Lincoln: The action plan requires you to prioritize the implementation of its recommended items. Paul Guthrie: Does the Board only focus on the Orange County system? Karen Lincoln: No, but Chapel Hill and Carrboro are working with the Chapel Hill/Carrboro Board of Education in already applying for SRTS projects. Paul Guthrie: We don’t weigh in even if they affect areas outside corporate lines? Karen Lincoln: We can, but this board is mostly interested in the Orange County part of the program. Paul Guthrie: There are areas now and in the future in the Chapel Hill Township that might very well benefit. Is it appropriate if they don’t do something, to bring it here? Sam Lasris: You could attend the open meetings they have. But I think as a board we primarily focus on Orange County. Paul Guthrie: It seems to be disenfranchised in Orange County. There are different responsibilities from the Planning Board and there are issues that I can see coming up. Alice Gordon: I think it is up to this Board. There are a lot of projects in cooperation with Hillsborough. We have not excluded Hillsborough. There are definitely areas outside Chapel Hill and Carrboro, but we don’t want to duplicate efforts. Randy Marshall: Are Stanford, Cameron Park and Grady Brown inside the Hillsborough City Limits? Karen Lincoln: Just Cameron Park. Stanford and Grady Brown are in the Hillsborough ETJ. Randy Marshall: So we are talking about addressing county needs. Alice Gordon: This is a new board. For example, the Orange County Planning Board reviews development outside the municipalities’ planning jurisdictions. We should try to match the jurisdictions interests. I think you have to weigh each case. Paul Guthrie: I am thinking about the rest of the property east of 15-501 starts developing. There could be some school transit issues. Randy Marshall: A good portion of this would be devoted to sidewalk. What about Cameron Park would Hillsborough be responsible for those sidewalks? Approved 2-20-2008 4 Alice Gordon: We don’t build sidewalks. Nancy Baker: DOT is aware of the problem with the County with changes in the laws. Randy Marshall: They also set precedents. If you start building in one place people would want to know why in one place and not the other. Alice Gordon: At the TAC meeting, I flagged projects. I flagged the pedestrian bridge project as number one on Hillsborough’s list. There was one other one. Alice Gordon: The materials will not be ready until the next meeting. The reason I mentioned this is because it is a TIP project and you have to have a coordinated plan. I don’t know if you want to take that in account to determine how this will fit into your priorities. Karen Lincoln: I think it would have to be a high priority and it will have to be integrated. There may be other things. The schools have to agree to help educate children on bike safety and walking safely. It has other components, enforcement, encouragement programs and evaluation. Sam Lasris: The Action Plan once the application is submitted, do you have a timeline. If it was not approved, what would happen? Karen Lincoln: A board will review it in February or March and recommendations to the BOCC. The recipients should know in April. You have six months after you receive the grant to actually execute the contract agreement with NCDOT. NCDOT will assign a qualified consultant under contract with NCDOT to work with recipients of the Action Plan Awards according to an agreed upon scope of work. Sam Lasris: Is there a consultant that would help us with this? Karen Lincoln: There is a list of qualified consultants that DOT uses for those programs. Sam Lasris: Is it at their discretion? If they say they only want three schools but we say we want to concentrate on two schools, is that a deal breaker? Karen Lincoln: No, there are two that you can apply for funding levels. One is for a single school or two schools in close proximity. The other way is three-five schools. When I delivered the applications, Leza Mundt, SRTS Coordinator for NCDOT, told me the response had been much greater than anticipated. This will be a very competitive process, so NCDOT is thinking about having another call for Action Plan Award applications (no date). There will be a call for infrastructure reimbursement grants in mid-year. Sam Lasris: Any more comments or questions? Who will work on the application? Karen Lincoln: Nancy, Pascale and myself. VI. Transportation Enhancement Grant Program Sam Lasris: I don’t know if everyone has had a chance to check the website for the enhancement projects on what we can get as far as this community is concerned as far as sidewalks and bikeways. Karen Lincoln: You can apply for bicycle lanes on or off road and you can apply for sidewalks. But what most people apply for is greenways. Approved 2-20-2008 5 Sam Lasris: Construction of trails, or new sidewalks. Karen Lincoln: It can be new sidewalks. Sam Lasris: Adding or modifying bike lanes, adding shoulders, bike facilities. You are saying nothing may happen until 2009. Karen Lincoln: DOT may have a call later in 2008. But it may be 2009. Sam Lasris: We need to make a list of our priorities of what we want. Karen Lincoln: We will have time to work on this. At the same time, anticipating we are going to have projects for which we would want to apply for these funds, we would have to approach the Board of County Commissioners to approve money in the budget to construct the projects. Enhancement Project is a reimbursement program. Bryn Smith: Is one of those 80% deals? Karen Lincoln: They have been in the past 100% for counties. Sam Lasris: You have to pay the monies first and get 100% reimbursed. Some enhancement projects require a local match. Karen Lincoln: Some are based on population too. Sam Lasris: You can get up to $250,000, right? Karen Lincoln: That’s a general ballpark figure. Nancy Baker: How would you like to proceed with ideas for projects? Karen Lincoln: The ERCD will come in March to discuss Park Development so there may be opportunities at that meeting to discuss these issues. Sam Lasris: We could get some synergy to get combined funds for trails like the Mountains to Seas funding and other projects. Pat Strong: Does Hillsborough have a rail freight depot? Al Terry: Efland does but Hillsborough does not. Sam Lasris: There is a slot open for the Historic Preservation Board and they are always looking for paths to their sites. So there is an opportunity to work together on a trail or bicycle path. Bryn Smith: I keep seeing news and articles that rails are coming back. I know there is no train stop in the County. Even if we just begin to think about trains. Karen Lincoln: North Carolina Railroad is doing a study about commuter rail. They are looking at three areas Burlington to Greensboro and back, Burlington to RTP and back; and Goldsboro to Durham. They are also looking at connector stations in a fourth corridor. There is one that goes from University Station (in Orange County) to Chapel Hill North and Carrboro. Approved 2-20-2008 6 Alice Gordon: Do they have any indication that corridor is available? Karen Lincoln: They own the whole corridor they are working in. They are looking at what would be necessary and reviewing all types of improvements that would be needed to add commuter rail service. Hillsborough is the one of the places they indicated they would like a stop but that doesn’t mean that would be done. Nancy Baker: This is not Amtrak? Karen Lincoln: No. This is North Carolina Railroad, which is a privately owned organization that is a subsidiary of the state of North Carolina. They contract with one rail service for passengers and one for freight. There is a high percentage of economic development that depends on the rail freight hauling. I think what they said instead of Amtrak, TTA regional railroad authorities would provide the commuter service. Paul Guthrie: What you are describing is very important. What it sounds like is that they are taking the first step of finding out what it will take to make the right of way available. Karen Lincoln: They have the right of way. Paul Guthrie: But they will need other items like signal systems. Karen Lincoln: They are also looking at the grade crossings. Nancy Baker: Will you keep us updated? Karen Lincoln: Yes. Bryn Smith: The crossing I think about is in Chapel Hill, at High School Road and middle school crossing. We need to keep it in the back of our minds. Sam Lasris: If you will look at page 23, there are the 12 qualifying activities for this group. Randy Marshall: Are there any recently designated scenic routes? Karen Lincoln: Old NC 86 and Arthur Minis, from I-40 to Arthur Minnis to Orange Grove Road, to Dairyland Road to Rocky Ridge Road back to Arthur Minnis and Old NC 86. Randy Marshall: The scenic routes should be high priority. Sam Lasris: Karen has been working on St. Mary’s Road for quite some time. Karen Lincoln: We have an enhancement grant for a scenic easement. This is now on the state study list for corridors. You have to designate where you want the easement. Choose several possibilities and work out an agreement with ERCD on one of these properties. Nancy Baker: What is the difference between a scenic byway, a scenic corridor and these easements? Karen Lincoln: The America Scenic Byways Program includes the North Carolina Program. It doesn’t protect the corridor for anything except that billboards are not allowed. But you do get the scenic byway signs. People will follow those signs because that road will show them something unique to the area. The local jurisdictions would have to take measures to protect the local areas. Approved 2-20-2008 7 Sam Lasris: That is the only practical application the signs and the little booklets. Karen Lincoln: St. Mary’s Road is a Historic corridor. The scenic easements would protect smaller “viewshed” areas from other uses. Randy Marshall: Some of the scenic routes are heavily used by bicycles and we need to get the city to designate bike lanes. Karen Lincoln: The scenic byways also have historic areas. Some bicycle projects or road improvements for better safety are top priorities. We might want to study those areas a little bit more. Nancy Baker: Could you bring in a map of the scenic byways? Karen Lincoln: Yes. (Pointing to map) You can see how it connects to Durham. This newest scenic corridor starts at I-40 and it comes down to Arthur Minis and it forms a loop to Orange Grove Road and then Dairyland. The original application was for a much larger area. Alice Gordon: What was it called? Karen Lincoln: The Scots Welsh Heritage corridor. Paul Guthrie: In order to be in the enhancement program, will it need to be part of a road structure? Karen Lincoln: No, it can be part of a greenway. Paul Guthrie: Who manages or maintains ones that are not on roads? Karen Lincoln: The municipality that is providing the facility. Paul Guthrie: I was curious about off road trails for bike transit. There are people that support this. At one time the Land and Water conservation fund was active in bike transit and hiking/biking. The concept of a bike trail that has a destination can be leisure or practical. There might be other sources of money that could be combined for projects. Karen Lincoln: We need to look at that. Sam Lasris: Any more input? I think we would like to wait for a presentation from ERCD. Karen Lincoln: The next item feeds into this as well. Alice Gordon: What is the action from this item? We said at the beginning of the session that these are projects for the Transportation Enhancement Plan and we talked about general information. Karen Lincoln: Because there’s not a call for projects yet we have time to study the issues. A lot of our discussion was about how to proceed doing this. Alice Gordon: How are you going to come up with the actual projects? Karen Lincoln: 1. We’ll see what comes out of the discussion of the next item and 2. we’re going to coordinate with HPC and ERCD to see what possibilities there are to see how projects might be connected. Sam Lasris: We’ll take a pragmatic approach. Approved 2-20-2008 8 Karen Lincoln: We will have a presentation from ERCD. Sam Lasris: On to the next item, page 25. Karen Lincoln: The handouts are information about where there are safety problems. Sam Lasris: We can be proactive on this. We don’t have to wait. Would this cover shoulders, pot holes, trees hanging over the road, etc.? Karen Lincoln: That can be part of it. Part of it too is the desire to make roads safe for bicyclist. We can’t get this huge project to add bicycle lanes but there are specific places that this funding (spot safety) would be sufficient. Sam Lasris: What difference can we make? How would we be instrumental as opposed to just contacting DOT? Karen Lincoln: We have a bike plan and we can make specific requests in the TIP. We need data on needed improvements. Jan Grossman: One of the most hazardous things is gravel roads that have no shoulder and when you are riding you have to come over into a busy road. We could mandate that when you have roads like that DOT must pave it at least 2-3’ off the road. Whenever gravel comes into the road it is very hazardous including driveways. Sam Lasris: Do we have more clout than an individual to ask for things like that? Karen Lincoln: I think we are trying to do a broad list of needs that we may be able to find a solution for. When the division has money and they ask for input. They were not able to put in 4’ paved shoulders for bicycle lanes but they did put in a lot of 2’ paved shoulders and intersection improvements. Alice Gordon: I was looking thru attachments 5, 6 and 7. Could you explain the chart? Randy Marshall: The chart gives state route numbers and the map gives names. So if you don’t know what the names are it can be confusing. Karen Lincoln: I had written those in on the map and when it was copied from the file it did not have my notes on it. Paul Guthrie: My main comment was that the higher categories with multiple crashes are no really big surprise. Alice Gordon: I don’t see the legend. What’s the difference between I-5 and I-1? Nancy Cole Baker: What is mp? Karen Lincoln: Mile post. That’s how DOT tracks the locations. Alice Gordon: The section location warrant – what does this mean? Does that mean all crashes? Karen Lincoln: I have previously given those out. I just didn’t recopy them. On page 5 it states it has safety warranty and intersection warrants. Paul Guthrie: take the 1st category – rear end collisions at Chapel Bypass and Mason Farm Road doesn’t surprise me and the severity is much less than the next category. It’s a good quick check of where there are issues. Sam Lasris: But these are on DOT’s radar. Approved 2-20-2008 9 Karen Lincoln: I was thinking that some of the adjacent stuff would be of interest and this was for information only. Sam Lasris: We are more concerned about what they don’t know about. Paul Guthrie: When is that triggered? Sam Lasris: I think that’s the whole point to be proactive instead of reactive and we as a committee we need to identify these areas and how do we get that information to DOT. My opinion is that we collect data from the public thru a website. Can we put a link on the website for the public to give us information on problem areas? Karen Lincoln: I think that’s a very good idea and we are always looking at ways to improve the website. MOTION made by Paul Guthrie to add a link to the website. Seconded by Nancy Cole-Baker. Sam Lasris: Maybe there are other ways to let people know about the project. We would need to send a press release out. Al Terry: I think with this we might have the numbers instead of just one person is saying there’s a hazardous intersection or area. This would give us ammunition to go forward and present this to the board as an issue. Sam Lasris: Would the commissioners support a link on the website? Alice Gordon: It depends on the cost. You would have to have a database. It’s certainly possible. Does the planning department have a website? Bryn Smith: Does somebody update it? Karen Lincoln: Yes. I’ll have to see what the people in planning can do. Alice Gordon: First find out what’s available. If you want the public to weight in you will need to find out do we have staff that can man it and update it? And it will need to ask the Commissioners for it to be put in the budget process. There’s a form that would need to be completed by your department. Al Terry: IT designated a web master for each major department for updating. You can reserve a URL thru the county website with whatever name you choose and it’s about $150 and it should not be expensive. Bryn Smith: That is expensive for a just a URL to get hosting. I build database and web forms and create projects within my department for internal reporting. You would have to have someone with database administrative knowledge and a way to build a form and security. I can help figure out what’s needed. Sam Lasris: We have a motion on the floor. Paul Guthrie: Would the board fill more comfortable if I add the word “investigate”. MOTION made by Paul Guthrie that we investigate the possibility of setting up a site on the web for gathering information for citizens on Highway Safety improvement issues. Seconded by Nancy Cole-Baker. Sam Lasris: Any further discussion? All in favor? VOTE: Unanimous Approved 2-20-2008 10 Pat Strong: I had a meeting yesterday with Steven Lowery and what Karen has done is extracted information from reports that came out in May or June this year. This is an ongoing thing and this information that is generated is examined very carefully. There’s also a group of regional traffic engineers and they have standards based on 2 regions. They receive recommendations from the division and regional traffic engineers. The PH numbers are potentially hazardous intersection and or highway safety and the low number would be looked at very carefully. The Spot Safety program and the WB programs are both of these funds are reviewed by the executive committee. Orange County intersections ranked 116 will probably be looked at by this committee. What you are looking at like shoulder improvements and turn lane additions, things that might not cost much. The Spot Safety program would fund those types of improvements. This goes on all the time. Steve had mentioned that in the list for 2007 there were a large number of intersections that were flagged. Jan Grossman: There’s nothing we can do because there’s already a process going on. Pat Strong: What you have been considering is that there are some of these that are flagged with high priority numbers and if you have strong feelings it wouldn’t hurt to make decisions on what areas you have concerns about. Alice Gordon: Which column do you look at? Pat Strong: The state ranked PH number. One intersection is ranked 116 in due course these will be looked at but there’s no guarantee that you will see any action. But the others priority levels are not high enough. Alice Gordon: Even 116 does not seem high enough. Pat Strong: That’s borderline. Alice Gordon: When you are talking about single digit – there’s nothing. Pat Strong: You don’t have any but when you have one ranked 116 out of 5400 that’s a concern for you. Paul Guthrie: I think this is a good thing to periodically look at and you have to be more analytical. The map is helpful also. I don’t see any reason why we can’t point these problems out. Pat Strong: Steven explained that there is a severity formula and they have prefixes of values that are applied to this. Alice Gordon: They said one is division 7 and one is division 9. Pat Strong: That is a descriptive label that DOT uses and division 9 is part of the high country area. That is significant to them and no one else. Alice Gordon: It is significant in that fact that money is parceled out by divisions or regions. Pat Strong: Another thing Steven mentioned yesterday was the $250 thousand dol lar cap for spot safety. If each project used about that amount of money then you are only looking at 25-30 projects total with thousands of locations. Alice Gordon: But somebody gets them. Pat Strong: Yes and your comment about all the rings on I-85/I-40 that’s probably because 65-75 thousands vehicles per day that travel that road where accidents occur. Sam Lasris: Turn to page 29 attachment A the calendar. Approved 2-20-2008 11 Karen Lincoln: I have confirmed dates for this room. Sam Lasris: Do we have a protocol if there were ice storms or snow that would cause the meeting to be cancelled? Karen Lincoln: We would let you know if it was cancelled. Alice Gordon: If Orange County offices shut down then that would be one way to know. Sam Lasris: I don’t have a number to call to say I’m coming or I’ll be late. With the planning board we have a number to call. I think we need to think about how this should be handled. Alice Gordon: There ought to be a plan in place. Paul Guthrie: You can do a couple of things, a mass email or call. Bryn Smith: If there’s no telephone service then we know there’s not going to be a meeting. Karen Lincoln: If a situation where we are anticipating that the weather is going to get so bad I think the chair should make that call. Alice Gordon: You should find out how the county does it and the situation where it is wide spread then you are told to listen to the radio station for closings. The bottom line is using your own judgment. Sam Lasris: We need a notification plan in place even it is not weather related like if there is no quorum. Randy Marshall: School systems have a phone-in system. Alice Gordon: The protocol for almost every board is the chair makes the decision. Karen could find out if there is a county number that could be used. Sam Lasris: Do we have a realistic date that we would be in the new facility? Alice Gordon: They say they are on time but there are delays due to the final designs. Sam Lasris: Will we meet in the new building? Nancy Cole Baker: No – we will still meet in the same rooms as now. I wanted to mention that my daughter is observing tonight for a civics class report. MOTION made by Randy Marshall to adopt calendar. Seconded by Bryn Smith. Sam Lasris: Is this board going to review objectives at our next meeting on Comp Plan? Karen Lincoln: Yes. There are handouts about Comp Plan meeting for January 28th. I was going to review the handout. Sam Lasris: Do I have a second on adoption of the calendar? Bryn Smith: I second the adoption of the calendar. VOTE: Unanimous. Approved 2-20-2008 12 Karen Lincoln: In January you will be reviewing draft objectives and on January 28th there will be a special public input meeting. I wanted to call your attention to the joint meeting will be on March 5th at 7:30 to 8:30. Sam Lasris: On January 17th the Planning Board will review these same objectives that we will see on January 16th. That meeting will be held at the planning conference room. You will have a chance for feedback. Karen Lincoln: We will get those but I’m waiting for Tom Altieri to meet with Clarion. I will get those out as soon as I can and they will also be in your packets for January. Sam Lasris: Are the objectives so specific that they don’t overlap? Karen Lincoln: I looked at the original draft and the transportation objectives but a lot of them looked like they came from other places and would be addressed in other elements as well. They will probably include the comments from the public meetings. Alice Gordon: Are you saying that January 9th and then January 16th the Planning Board would see them? Sam Lasris: What we planned is that if the Planning Board did not get through the review on the 9th then there would be a special meeting on the 17th. Alice Gordon: We have the update at the commissioners meeting and after they have the public meeting they will put that input in and maybe revise the objectives and then it will come back to the commissioners in March. Sam Lasris: Do we need to see some of the other objectives? Karen Lincoln: I think you should. Sam Lasris: We have a special meeting time to discuss the Comp Plan. Alice Gordon: Before we adjourn I have a couple of corrections on the member list. Barry Jacobs is not the liaison for this board and we are still looking to fill a few positions on the board. MOTION made by Randy Marshall to adjourn. Seconded by Jan Grossman. VII. Adjournment Tina L. Owen, Minutes Preparer