TRANSPORTATION BENEFIT DISTRICT NO. 1 MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 28, 2011, 1:00 PM CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS 210 LOTTIE STREET BELLINGHAM TRANSPORTATION BENEFIT DISTRICT No. 1 BOARD MEMBERS: Chair: Stan Snapp Jack Weiss Barry Buchanan Gene Knutson Terry Bornemann Michael Lilliquist Seth Fleetwood Also Present: Joan Hoisington, TBD Legal Advisor Ted Carlson, Public Works Director CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by TBD Chair Stan Snapp. PUBLIC COMMENT Del Livermore spoke about the need to license bicycles as was done in the 1930's. He requested that the city require bicycles to have brighter lights. Charles Law thanked the TBD for considering an improved pedestrian crossing for the Roosevelt neighborhood. It is good to see people and traffic given equal priority. Right now the north and south are disconnected. The improved crossing will attract businesses and create affordable housing options. Crosswalks tell the neighbors that the City cares. He also pointed out that Barkley will have a large movie theatre opening which will increase traffic. He ~uggested there be a new traffic light at St. Paul and Alabama. He suggested more green trees to soak up stormwater. There is a raingarden
on Alabama that is not attractive. He also requested more lighting on Texas street to create a sense of safety. Susan Hass spoke of supporting people who walk and bike because they are going slower and pay more attention. They get firsthand knowledge of the community. Traffic calming and blinking lights wake people up who are driving unconsciously. Antoinette Cooper asked the TBD to not take away the street parking on one side of Northwest Avenue. She asked that bike traffic be redirected to Maplewood instead. In her condo complex on Northwest most of the condos are owner occupied with only 15% of them rentals to ensure the presence and accountability of ownership. Most times parking there is adequate but there are times when there are events or other activities going on where street parking is needed. She added that two businesses on Northwest would be negatively impacted by the removal of street parking, one of them is De Wildes. Clayton Petree encouraged the TBD to take another look at the Electric/Birch/Portal intersection. The costs are enormous. He suggested trying stop signs first. He noted it was a dangerous intersection because it is difficult to see around the corners. He encouraged the use of sharrows instead of bike lanes as they can increase safety without loss of parking spaces. He asked that Public Works look at the way bulb-outs are made because they stick out too far. Bikes have to swerve into traffic when they come up on them. Bulb-outs are good for pedestrians but new practices used elsewhere are to make them smaller. The most important thing to reduce accidents is to make people aware they have to share the road. Separate bike lanes adds to the feeling of owning the road. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Minutes for the March 14, 2011 TBD Board meeting were submitted for approval. GK/TB moved approval. The motion carried 7-0. DISCUSSION 1. Discussion of Transportation Commission Recommendations regarding TBD No. 1 funding of n on-motorized transportation projects Recommended Action: Direction to Public Works Ted Carlson introduced the continuation of the discussion regarding non-motorized projects from the March 14th meeting. He requested approval of a project list so they can move forward with design and get some projects out to bid to begin work this year. Minutes of the March 28, 2011 TBD # 1 Meeting Page2
He reviewed the TBD and Transportation Commission [TC] process to this point. The recommendation is for the TBD to adopt the TC' s prioritized projects list and for the projects to be built to City standards. Mr. Carlson addressed a question from the previous meeting asking if extruded curbing could be used instead of building pedestrian crossings to the full city standard on Electric between Birch and Portal in order to save money. It is an option and there are parts of town where there is extruded curbing on a paved shoulder. There are good reasons to build to the standard - they are the reasons there is an adopted standard. Using a curb and gutter, and realigning the radius of the turns pushes everything closer to Electric, closer to the travelled lanes, which will improve the sight lines. This improvement serves the pedestrians and vehicles and separates the modes of travel to make it the safest for all users. Additionally, there are life cycle cost issues for extruded curbing. It gets hit by vehicles and gets broken and requires maintenance much more that curb, gutters and sidewalks do. They just do not hold up due to the turning radius for cars and busses. It will need to be continually repaired. There are drainage issues and street sweepers cannot get in there. The comprehensive plan goals are to build to urban standard facilities whieh are curb, gutter and sidewalks. Staff recommends building to city standards. Ms. Hoisington explained there are liability issues which can arise when facilities are not build to adopted standards. It is an issue that plaintiff's attorneys will raise. Why isn't the city building to its own standards? If there is a pedestrian accident, a plaintiff's attorney will raise street design, road design, failure to follow not only the City's standards but also the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. The City must also follow the WSDOT specifications. If the City is not going to follow its own standards then they should not have been adopted. It is an argument that has been used against the City in prior litigation. Mr. Carlson addressed questions regarding bulb-outs and stated that portions of them are required by ADA standards. The yellow truncated domes are required. They can be installed without the landing area that Public Works builds with sidewalks and curb ramps. He noted that on Birch Street there is a bulb-out with no sidewalk on one side. There is an advantage to building the bulb-outs. Drivers associate bulb-outs with pedestrians. It serves as a visual clue that the driver needs to pay attention. It is consistency that helps to educate drivers to be aware when it counts most. There is some flexibility with ADA standards. The City's standards exceed the ADA standards. Minutes of the March 28, 201 1 TB D # I Meeting Page 3
Mr. Weiss expressed frustration with projects being over designed and too expensive. He noted the Kansas Street - Meador project went from being a $40K project to a $1.2M project. There is too little traffic there to support that spending. He stated he wants to use these local taxpayer funds more efficiently. There needs to be a different approach. Mayor Pike pointed out that when a project is build there needs to be consideration of life-cycle costs anc;l liability cost which are not obvious on the surface of a project but which are prudent to minimize as much as possible. He stated his support for the Public Works and Transportation Commission recommendations on that project. Mayor Pike expressed his preference that the TBD prioritize spending and hold on the Alabama Street enhanced crossing project to see if there are funds available after the other projects are addressed. This would honor the process the other projects were put through and not take funding away from the other projects higher on the list. Ted Carlson addressed a question regarding the bike lanes on Northwest-Elm-Dupont Street and the possibility of that work be completed sooner than 2012. He pointed out that the Council had not yet given direction to move forward with that project. Council had directed staff to get more public input. They have held a public meeting and staff is compiling that information into a staff report to bring back to Council. It is on the TBD project list as a recommendation from the TC for design. It was done that way to allow for a more holistic look at the corridor to see if that and other needed projects could be done together. Mr. Carlson reiterated the Council and PW still needs to have the discussion of the bike lanes following the public meeting. Mr. Bornemann stated that he was not in support of adding the Alabama crossing project at this time out of respect for the TC process. He stated his support for adding it as a priority project for 2012. Mr. Carlson responded to the question of the staff's position on the Alabama Street project by acknowledging it is a project that needs to be looked at. The TC recommended that staff look at it in great detail this year and PW is planning to do that. They will look at the corridor and look at the crash data in much more detail and determine the optimal location for it. Additionally, the TC is working on a pedestrian master plan. They will be looking at pedestrian projects as the PW updates the Transportation element of the Comprehensive plan. Staff agrees with the TC which created a good process and the project list they came up with is a good one. Projects like Alabama and many others will go through the ranking process next year. While it is great to have a dedicated funding source, it is not possible to do every project this first year. Minutes of the March 28, 2011 TBD # I Meeting Page 4
Mr. Buchanan summarized that the estimated costs for the 11 projects is approximately $470K for 2011 and the cost of the Alabama project was conservatively estimated to be about $100K. If all the cost estimates are conservative, there may be $100K still in the budget at the end of the year. He expressed his support of adding the project at the end of the prioritized list to receive funds in 2011 if they were available. JW /ML MOVED TO ADOPT THE 11 PROJECTS RECOMMENDED BY THE TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION AND TO ADD PROJECT 12 TO DESIGN AND/OR BUILD AN ENHANCED CROSSWALK ON ALABAMA STREET BETWEEN PACIFIC STREET AND WOBURN SUBJECT TO THE AVAILABLE FUNDING. The motion carried 7-0. There was discussion for clarification related to the Meridian Birchwood sidewalk repairs and the overlay project and how costs between PW and TBD would be allocated. Ravyn Whitewolf explained that it will depend on the bid results to see if they come in lower than expected leaving funds to extend the overlay further. OLD/NEW BUSINESS Stan Snapp announced that there had been a meeting which included Ted Carlson, Joan Hoisington, J. Lynne Walker and himself. They discussed a schedule for quarterly meetings of the TBD. The following schedule was distributed to the Board Members: Quarterly Meetings 1st Quarter - March WT A end of year report TBD Annual Report 1. Status of project costs 2. Expenditures 3. Construction Schedule 2nd Quarter - April Project updates A ward projects Workplan review Minutes of the March 28, 201 1 TBD # l Meeting Page 5
3rd Quarter - September Project updates Financial report Begin work on next year's Workplan 4th Quarter - December Adopt Workplan ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 1:58 PM ATTEST: Minutes of the March 28, 2011 TBD #1 Meeting Page 6