HomeMy WebLinkAbout7.17.23 OUTBoard Minutes DRAFT
1 MINUTES
2 ORANGE COUNTY OUTBOARD
3 MONDAY,JULY 17,2023
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Attendance
Member Position Present
1 Michael Hughes Alternate Yes
2 Amy Cole Alternate Yes
3 Randy Marshall Bingham Township Yes
4 Roy Schonberg Chapel Hill Township Yes
5 Jamie Crandell Eno Township Yes
6 Joshua Mayo Alternate Yes
7 Art Menius Little River Township Yes
8 Todd Jones Alternate No
9 Natalie Ziemba Cedar Grove Township Yes
10 Gregory Woloszczuk Chapel Hill Township Yes
11 Erik Legg Cheeks Township Yes
A Nishith Trivedi Transportation Director Yes
B Darlene Weaver Transportation Planning Manager Yes
C Emmalea Ange Office Assistant Yes
D Jamael Wiley Transit Planning Manager No
E Vacant Business Officer No
F Katrina Wall Transit Operations Supervisor No
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6 AGENDA ITEM 1: CALL TO ORDER
7 The meeting was called to order at 6:35pm
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9 AGENDA ITEM 2: CONSIDERATION OF ADDITIONS TO AGENDA
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11 AGENDA ITEM 3: PUBLIC COMMENTS
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13 AGENDA ITEM 4: APPROVAL OF JUNE MINUTES
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15 Minutes for April: Several members provided input on name updates, spellings within the documents
16 and date. Amy Cole would like a DOT representative to be present during the meeting added to the
17 minutes. Nish explained that he sent out invites to several representatives and they are not responding,
18 and Chuck Edwards was on vacation. Nish informed the group that he would reach out again and
19 provide update at the next meeting. Motioned: Michael approve April minutes with changes; Approved;
20 Army Seconded: Art, approved unanimously.
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22 Minutes for May: We added the 54 discussion and updated the dates for the May and April Meeting.
23 Motioned: Michael approve May minutes with changes; Approved; Army and Seconded: Art, approved
24 unanimously.
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26 Minutes for June: Updated the locations, names, and attendance. Group had a discussion on vacancies
27 and townships. It was suggested that we discussed later to determine if we need a motion of district
28 representation. It was referenced that the County Commissioner was not concerned. We are currently
29 using the facts of the members geographic representation. Earlier it was area of interest that
30 determined the application process for members. Micheal made the motion to move the geographic
31 discussion to a later date. Micheal made the motions to approve the minutes; Approved Art and
32 Seconded by Roy.
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34 AGENDA ITEM 5: REGULAR AGENDA
35 A. OUTBOARD POLICY AND PROCEDURES
36 Chair opened the floor for questions and discussions about the policy and procedures. The members
37 decided on 14 voting members, without alternates and each member shall represent demographic,
38 geographic, cultural, and professional characteristics, as follows: Seven (7) members, one from each
39 township: Seven (7) at-large members, with expertise or specific interests in as many of the following
40 areas as possible: Bicycle transportation, Pedestrian access, and safety, Public Transit, Environmental
41 issues, Economic Development, Planning and Public Health.
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43 We updated the Date, Time, and Location of Regular Meetings as follows: Meetings are held on the third
44 Wednesday of the month. The start time and location of the meeting shall be included on the agenda
45 and shall typically be 6:30 p.m. at the Orange County West Campus Office Building located at 131 West
46 Margaret Lane, Hillsborough, North Carolina.
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48 Made changes to Orientation as follows: Each member shall attend an orientation presented by the
49 Planning and Inspections department to familiarize the advisory board members with the operation of
50 County government, the Planning and Inspections department rules, and the operating procedures of the
51 advisory board. Each voting member will be encouraged to complete the orientation within six weeks of
52 his or her appointment.
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54 No decision was made about in person voting, it was suggested and encouraged for in person attendance.
55 After a long discussion about the outboard policies and procedures Michael made the motion of all in
56 favor, all approved unanimously.
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58 B. Non-STIP project Update
59 Chapel Hill received some spot safety funds for a cross walk at NC 86, MLK BLVD and Kritz Drive where
60 there have been multiple fatalities. It's a good demonstration of how spot safety can benefit. The
61 outboard has talked about safety and enhancing pedestrian experience. Additionally, the funds will
62 construct a concrete Median across walk, some of the flashing lights that are along; some sidewalk
63 construction for the other side of the street to fill in a little bit of the gap. The empty gas station is going
64 to redevelop and fill some of the gap and we believe the spot safety project will fill the rest of the gap at
65 least right by that intersection.
66 Stock program update on the Orange Grove Road from Patriots Point Drive to New Grady Brown school
67 road. Update is the school zone was added and speed reduced. Main priority for implementing Orange
68 County's new complete street and vision is zero policy. Help me understand what that is again? Update
69 the study went through a MSA. The study resulted in creating a school zone for the area and reducing
70 the speed in that area. The study also recommends more improvements to the road and access to the
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71 school, but the funding is outside of the DOT budget. We are submitting a 57 project for improving
72 Orange County Road and modernizing the road with bike pad accommodations and adding to highway
73 to the complete street. The state and county complete streets both apply and once we explore funding
74 should be available. Last month we had a NCDOT meeting about implementation of the practice and
75 Nish presented how the county is trying to get into the sidewalk/ bike pad business. Orange County
76 adopted a complete street and vision zero policy for the county in October 2022. The resolution given
77 earlier involved three different funding sources and how we can fund them. One the Transit grant, the
78 5307 grants require a bus stop at them all around the bus stop. It would be done in the sidewalk city
79 through a 7-capital project, it's a reinforcement project to the Orange County that would manage and
80 organize the project and didn't get reimburse for grant funding. The transit tax that requires us the
81 update on the transit plan with the transit accesses project. By updating the transit plan, the transit tax
82 can help fund projects like the sidewalk and bike pad projects for transit access. So, transit tax can help
83 funds projects like sport complex and Home Depot for the bus stops and improvements to make the
84 transit grants. The Transit Tax funds can help fund projects to provide the local match for spot and bike
85 pad projects submissions and service transition block for the SBD 88 projects at the NGO, etc.
86 During the discussion about Patriots point and another location down Orange County closer to 40
87 overpasses, at that location the bus stop is not accessible for anybody right now. Is there another
88 source that we can look at for funding for accessibly reasons? Go Triangle has reached to up funded bus
89 stop, we would have to work with DOT. Has this been discussed at the lunching with DOT? We need
90 additional funding, and one suggestion is putting one of those temporary stop lights on the Oakdale
91 sections, so that cars can only travel in one direction at a time over that overpass which gives the
92 pedestrian the students access to much more of a wide birth to cross over, it would be a limited amount
93 of time. But if it is timed correctly, it would allow just that one way of transportation to go across or
94 something similar during those hours. Student have been hit on that overpass and we don't want
95 another accident to happen, so we need to do whatever we can to increase the safety that is an interim
96 measure.
97 The new Transportation Authorization Bill was created about two years ago. The bill started with State
98 Practice School Plan for funding. Last year funding was received, so the outboard should consider
99 revisiting the State Practice School Plan.
100 Question: So, you saying there is funding sources available again? Now that part of the school area
101 before was outside of that space. Orange County Transportation would have to research the new
102 program. Now it is considered non infrastructure, you can't build things, but you can encourage kids to
103 walk and bike. Orange had school plan, and it has not been touched because there have been incidents
104 after incident, we need the school board here to talk and educate us. We could consider having sheriff
105 department to consider supporting during the hours. They have the sheriff departments support
106 schools; however, the problem is kids are walking half a mile along Orange Grove were there are no
107 side walks over the pass and no space for pedestrians.
108 We could create a safety action plan like Graham County. The focus is safety, they implemented the
109 plan by doing subcommittees and workshops. They cover the west side of Orange County to address all
110 safety, and this involves all kinds of stakeholders/groups and the school. DCAC has received funding for
111 their safety action planning process. They are in the process of doing a scoping of the plan, action, and
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112 implementation, because of the urban areas of Orange County and Durham. This is a long-term process
113 to help address the safety concerns.
114 DOT does not want to put a light at the intersection, I would still like to encourage them to do an
115 evaluation of the area and a feasibility study to determine the possible location of where the light
116 should be placed during certain hours, and they could track the account. Orange County will submit a
117 spot safety request for the intersection, rely on their data and contact the sheriff office for additionally
118 data.
119 On Franklin Street project, where they created the bike lanes, there was a fatality where a guy ran into
120 an open door. So as part of the street design they put in vertical elastic. Would like to ask Chuck Edwards
121 that question, why couldn't DOT do that on the white stripe on the bridge that denotes the travel light
122 because the other side of that looks like there's 3 feet. It's low cost and it would help give drivers and
123 pedestrians a visual they don't currently have. Was Orange County the Franklin Street project a
124 highway project, called the road diet? During the normal resurfacing, we worked with DOT for a new
125 pavement marking. We worked with DOT to do a traffic analysis to show that the paint would move
126 narrower and cut down a couple of lanes. I think the vertical delineators. The white posts were paid for
127 and maintained by Chapel Hill. When they get knocked down, we put them back up. We've got a stock of
128 them in our warehouse for the project. Franklin street was a resurfacing. Yes, however we have had a
129 little bit of success with getting DOT to allow us to put in some of those vertical delineators, but it does
130 cost the local government, it's something that's worth exploring. Its not the most expensive thing in the
131 world, but you do have to buy them, and you do have to have folks who can put them in the ground,
132 which I think is where the county kind has a little bit of a leg behind the towns. The town has Public
133 Works department that is used to maintain and pave our streets in Chapel Hill and the county doesn't
134 have the history of maintaining streets. So, that's a skill that would have to be added or added to
135 existing towns. Orange County does not have funding mechanism for transportation. Could Orange
136 County and Chapel Hill work together and Orange County do contract with Chapel Hill? Or Could the
137 School Board get involved? Chapel Hill could ask and see. Could you provide the cost of Chapel Hills cost
138 of the delineators? Chapel Hill would provide Orange County follow up email regarding the cost.
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140 The HMIP is a 4-year plan updated every year, it's the roads being resurfaced. DOT has maintenance
141 improvement list and anytime Orange Grove is on that list we will have contact DOT. Orange County will
142 work the resurfacing the bill and cost and see what other opportunities we can provide and work with
143 the team.
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145 Topics for new meeting: 1. Resident Nash Street wants to create an arboretum and they have drafted a
146 resolution. They would like to come to the August meeting and talk about the arboretum that connects
147 on the E trail and get local support improving the residential community. 2. Two studies, planning
148 projects the require online access that will run locally.
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150 Where is the highway 70 projects?The consult is working to do some alternative designs. Engineering is
151 developing recommendations to provide several alternatives. Second round to the public in the fall than
152 they will draft the plan, and the plan will be provided in the winter.
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153 AGENDA ITEM 6: STAFF REPORT/UPDATES
154 Nish provided the updates for NCDOT projects.
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156 AGENDA ITEM 7:ADJOURNMENT
157 OUTBoard meeting was adjourned
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