SPECIAL TRAFFIC AND PARKING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES

SPECIAL TRAFFIC AND PARKING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES DECEMBER 8, 2008 www.cityofnorthlasvegas.com TRAFFIC AND PARKING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING CALL TO ORDER 6:00 p.m., Council Chambers, 2200 Civic Center Drive, North Las Vegas, NV 89030 ROLL CALL COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT Nicole Steffee Karen Dyer Isaac Barron Randall DeVaul, Deputy Director of Engineering/Public Works Janice Carr, Fire Protection Specialist/Fire Department Lt. Jerry Hamilton, Police Department COMMITTEE MEMBERS ABSENT Steven Lauber Joanna Wesley Toni Ellis, Planner/Planning & Zoning Department STAFF/PUBLIC PRESENT Rebecca Miller, Executive Secretary/Public Works Department Ismael Garza, City Traffic Engineer/Public Works Department Bethany Sanchez, Deputy City Attorney VERIFICATION Verification of compliance with NRS 241, Open Meeting Law APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF THE NOVEMBER 10, 2008 MEETING Motion to Approve Meeting Minutes of November 10, 2008 Page 1

Motion: Second: Ayes: Nays: Abstain: Motion: Nicole Steffee Karen Dyer All Present None None Passed OLD BUSINESS 1. DISCUSSION OF DEVELOPMENTS AND RESEARCH RESULTS WITH REGARD TO TRAFFIC CONCERNS BROUGHT TO THE TRAFFIC AND PARKING ADVISORY COMMITTEE AT PRIOR MEETINGS: UPDATE TO BE PROVIDED ON EVERGREEN TREE BLOCKING SIGHT VISIBILITY ON CENTENNIAL & BRUCE. ALSO PROVIDE UPDATE ON BIG BOX AT THE SOUTHWEST CORNER OF CENTENNIAL & BRUCE THAT IS CAUSING SOME SIGHT VISIBILITY ISSUES: Randy said staff has been to this location on more than one occasion observing traffic. Toni, Planning & Zoning, was concerned with removing the tree but Randy is looking at the situation of a risk versus reward type basis. Staff does not feel that the tree is blocking traffic very much. There is a big transmission pole that staff feel is creating the problem. At some point this intersection will be warranted for a traffic signal. Randy has received a request for a warrant analysis by one of the staff from Traffic Operations but Randy is suggesting the warrant analysis be held off until construction is done. Nicole asked when construction would be completed and Randy said the official end date is June 2009. Karen said drivers are being more cautious but drivers still have to extend the front end of their car out a little bit further in order to see to the left. Randy advised the power pole is in the sidewalk which presents another problem. The pole is approximately 3 feet or more in diameter. Nicole asked if Nevada Power is planning on moving the power pole and Randy advised no. Randy reported it s a transmission line and it cannot be moved. Karen stated some drivers are still seeing the evergreen tree as the problem. Karen said there was concern about removing the tree at the last meeting. Karen feels there would not be a problem if the tree were removed as there are other trees in this area. Randy will ask Ish to take another look at this situation and make a comment at the next meeting with his professional observation. UPDATE TO BE PROVIDED ON THE RELOCATION OF AN OVERHEAD MAST ARM CLOSER TO THE OWENS/MCDANIEL INTERSECTION WITH A CHANGEABLE MESSAGE SIGN BY THE CITY OF LAS VEGAS: Randy said he has not had any input from the City of Las Vegas since the update provided at the last meeting. He is looking at the possibly of putting in, with the City of Las Vegas, a pedestrian activated crosswalk sign with a flashing LED Page 2

beacon. Randy shared a photograph of the sign which was just recently installed, as part of a grant through the UNLV Transportation Research Center, at McDaniels and Civic Center. It s been well used at this location and Mayor Pro Tempore Robinson has asked Public Works to consider using it in front of City Hall as well. There is another one of these signs but he is not sure if it s been installed by the Transportation Research Center at Lake Mead and Bassler. Randy said if for some reason the changeable message sign is stalled, he would like to pursue, with the City of Las Vegas, the possibly of installing this pedestrian activated sign. There would be two signs, one on each side. Randy said the cost of the sign at Civic Center was approximately $27,000.00 but it included a median and an advance warning. He feels the cost can be cut down by half and if it s shared with the City of Las Vegas it would be reasonable to do. Randy advised this would be our fall-back plan if for some reason the City of Las Vegas is unable to install the changeable message board. This would be subject to funding but feels this direction is workable and probably within the Traffic Operations budget as long as we work with the City of Las Vegas to pay half the costs. UPDATE ON OBSERVATION OF TRAFFIC WHEN SCHOOL ENDS ON LAWRENCE NEAR AZURE AND SPEED TRAILERS TO MEASURE THE SPEED OF TRAFFIC: Randy said staff were sent to observe this area. Staff counted 23 students who actually cross in this area. Once the students were across Centennial they basically stayed on the sidewalk and staff did not observe any problems at this point. Randy is recommending to the committee that unless additional problems come up to leave the situation alone. The committee members did agree with Randy s suggestion. UPDATE ON MEETING WITH THE PRINCIPAL OF COZINE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AND THE ISSUE OF CLOSING THE PARKING LOTS AT THE END OF THE SCHOOL DAY: Randy said he has not met yet with the Principal of Cozine Elementary School. Randy advised he and Lt. Hamilton did discuss this situation. Nicole said she sees the Principal everyday and asked if Randy would like her to set-up a meeting. Randy did agree to Nicole setting up the meeting. Lt. Hamilton said he had the Police Department s School Crossing Coordinator contact the Principal. The Coordinator was advised the parking lot was closed because of a near pedestrian being run over in the parking lot. Apparently, the Principal did not want the responsibility of having someone run over on school property because congestion was so bad. Lt. Hamilton said the approach was revamped with the crossing guard for getting students across the street. Police Officers were sent out to the area for about a week and a half and some citations were written. The biggest problem they observed is motorists parking where they should not be. It was also observed that the problem at this school is no worse than any other school that is in City of North Las Vegas jurisdiction; right now there are 28-29 elementary schools. Nicole stated the Principal is not being consistent; some days the parking lot is closed and some days it s open. Parents are confused and don t know what to do. Nicole said Page 3

there is no consistency of when the parking lot is open and closed. There needs to be consistency, whether the parking lot is permanently open or closed. The public also needs to be advised whether the parking lot is open or closed. Randy asked if any notices were sent with the children advising parents not to pull into the parking lot. Nicole asked the Principal if she would send notices and she told Nicole no as paper costs money. Randy said Public Works is hard pressed as the principals of schools are pretty much autonomous and she has good reason. Nicole offered to buy 5,000 sheets of paper and the Principal still said no. Nicole said she will get several dates/times when the Principal could meet and will then contact Randy and Lt. Hamilton to finalize. Nicole said she would be happy with either outcome as long as the Principal sticks with either opening or closing the parking lot and remains consistent. UPDATE ON SPEEDING ISSUE ON PONTIAC AVENUE: Ish said the speed study did show that the 85 th percentile speeds were above the speed limit. The speed limit is 25 MPH and the 85 th percentile was 34 MPH westbound and 35 MPH eastbound. Radar trailers are being scheduled for this location. Ish said police enforcement has not been recommended at this point. Lt. Hamilton did send officers to this location for a week and one citation was written for this time period. He said there is not a lot of traffic on this street but there are some high speeds. The traffic study showed some speeds up in the 50s and one 66 MPH and he found this hard to believe unless it was an emergency vehicles passing through. Lt. Hamilton said the overall count of traffic was such that one citation in a week s time, morning and afternoon, does not warrant a lot of attention from the Police Department. Lt. Hamilton said it s a short street. Randy said since the 85 th percentile is above the speed limit and radar trailers are being scheduled for this location. UPDATE ON SOUTHBOUND DECATUR AT TROPICAL PARKWAY TO IMPROVE THE FLOW OF TRAFFIC: Ish said the intersection is confusing and could use some improving but it s due to a private development construction on the northwest quadrant that is taking up half of Tropical & Decatur, southbound side, and this is within the City of Las Vegas jurisdiction. There is an approved traffic control plan. Nicole asked if the problem is just due to the construction and Ish said yes, it s entirely a construction related issue. Nicole asked if in Ish s opinion any action can be taken and Ish believes there is nothing the City of North Las Vegas can do right now although he will contact the City of Las Vegas staff but believes there hands will be tied as well. Randy said complaints have been responded to at this location before. There is a school crossing guard at this location and there was a complaint that it s so confusing the guard was taking his life in his hands to stop traffic. Staff was sent out and met with the developer and the inspector from the City of Las Vegas and some improvements were made. Lt. Hamilton said the area was observed again around the latter part of October and Mike Edwards extend the flasher times for the school zone. The area is still being observed on a regular basis with selective enforcement. The problem is the volume of traffic thrust into this chaotic area; nothing will correct it until the Page 4

construction is done. Nicole asked when construction might be completed and Randy said January is what he remembers but they are way behind schedule. NEW BUSINESS 1. SET NEXT MEETING OF THE TRAFFIC AND PARKING ADVISORY COMMITTEE: The next meeting was scheduled for February 9, 2009. PUBLIC FORUM Randy brought up the Traffic Calming Policy. There are two items that are being looked at. One item is to look at additional funding options on how to fund the Traffic Calming Policy before the end of the year. Several options are being looked at including the City paying a partial amount and the requestors, or the street that is benefiting from it, agreeing to pay a partial amount; looking at certain areas of town that might be eligible for Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding; and the potential of putting into the CIP (Capital Improvement Plan) on an annual basis or a combination of any other type of funding. The second part is to try to schedule a work session with Council in January to discuss the final approval of the funding. Also, Council had requested that an appeals process be placed in the plan and we will need their final approval on the appeals process. Lt. Hamilton advised that several associations have been contacting one of the supervisors in the Police Department about getting the policy going. Lt. Hamilton asked if an association could apply now pending funding and Randy said yes. He said right now he has about 3 requests on file and it s important to figure out the best way to implement the policy. Randy advised they should apply through the Traffic Engineer. Lt. Hamilton asked if there is an application to fill out or if they should send an e-mail. Ish stated Council has adopted a policy and it does spell-out the guidelines for the process but essentially he will send out a form letter advising on the process. The first step in this process is to gather signatures from the affected area so that there is a consensus that traffic calming is what they want to do. This would start the process. Fifty percent of the residents within the affected area must agree to traffic calming. Public Works would then move to the next step which would be speed studies and go from there to develop a plan. Lt. Hamilton asked where he should direct citizens to get the information on how to apply. Ish said he would be the contact and can be reached by telephone or e-mail. Randy said e-mail would be best because it s a good record but either way would work. Nicole said she was planning on approaching City Council to change the Municipal Code to have monthly meetings instead of 4 times a year. Janice asked if there would be enough business to warrant a meeting every month. Nicole said this year the committee met almost every month. With the policy being adopted, Nicole feels the committee needs to be more available to the public. Isaac said for a while the committee only met once every 3-4 months and items piled up. Randy feels TPAC s main mission is to look at larger traffic concerns and the Traffic Calming Policy is a good example of that. If someone has a traffic concern, all they have to do is call CityTrack and it will be logged. CityTrack is going through a major renovation with IT. When these type of calls come in they are automatically directed to the right party, like a 311 system. Staff are held Page 5

directly accountable to address the residents concern whether it is traffic, beautification or roadway related. Training on the updates to CityTrack is scheduled for next week. Randy is questioning the need to meet more than once every quarter. Janice said she agreed. Karen said after listening to Randy, perhaps once a month would be a little much; Karen was thinking every other month. Nicole suggested putting this discussion on hold and see how the new system works. Randy said if committee members hear of traffic concerns from citizens, they should be refer the citizen to contact City Hall through the CityTrack program and they should receive an answer back very quickly. Randy stated that out of 10 pages of CityTrack updates that are given to staff weekly from the City Manager s Office, there are 4 traffic related issues on the current list and 3 out of the 4 are dealing with the Traffic Calming Policy. Lt. Hamilton agrees with Randy that some issues, such as the Pontiac and Centennial near Commerce, are best handled through CityTrack as citizens will get immediate results rather than waiting for the next TPAC meeting. Janice asked if funding would be put on the back burn for the Traffic Calming Policy with all departments being asked to cut back in their budget or will it still be a priority. Randy said he has been told by no one not to fund this project; in fact, he has been told to find ways to fund the project. Janice stated in other words Randy would have to cut back on something else to fund this. Randy said yes and he is looking at nongeneral fund type revenues. These are some of the issues that still need to be resolved. Hopefully, these issues will be resolved with the City Manager s Office in December and will be presented to City Council sometime in January; in time for the February TPAC meeting. ADJOURNMENT Nicole adjourned the meeting at approximately 6:40p.m. ATTEST: Recording Secretary APPROVED: Page 6