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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-08-16 PTS MinutesBozeman (Area) Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee 1 Minutes of the June 8, 2016 Meeting 2 Upstairs Conference Room Alfred Stiff Office Building 3 4 Attendance: 5 6 Voting Committee Members: 7 Ralph Zimmer (Gallatin County), Chair 8 Danielle Scharf (City of Bozeman), Vice Chair 9 Marilee Brown (At-large Member), Secretary 10 Tony Gaddo (At-large Member) 11 Vance Ruff (Bozeman School District) 12 Absent: Bud Jarvis (Bozeman School District) 13 Mandee Arnold (City of Bozeman) 14 Tom Foster (Gallatin County) 15 16 17 Official Non-Voting Committee Members: 18 John Van Delinder (City of Bozeman Streets Department) 19 Absent: Bill Brownell, Road & Bridge Supervisor (County), Todd Swinehart (School District) 20 21 City Commissioners, County Commissioners, and School Board Members 22 Present: I-Ho Pomeroy (City Commissioner) 23 Absent: (County Commissioner), (School District Trustees) 24 25 Law Enforcement Liaison Officers 26 Absent: (Bozeman Police Department), (Sheriff Department) 27 28 Regular Attendees and Guests (City, County, Bozeman School District, and Montana Department 29 of Transportation Staff): None present. 30 31 Citizens and Other Guests: 32 Jeff Hough (Gallatin Valley Land Trust) 33 Carolyn Poissant (City of Bozeman Trails, Open Space and Parks Program Manager) 34 Sam Miller (Bozeman Health Trauma Coordinator) 35 36 Quorum: Present. 37 38 1. Call to Order, Introductions and New Business. Ralph Zimmer, PTS Committee Chair, 39 called the meeting to order at 12:06 PM and introductions of attendees were made. 40 41 2. Agenda. Item 12 will be moved up between item 9 and 10. 42 43 3. Public Comment. Sam Miller, the Bozeman Health Trauma Coordinator, is going to be on 44 the radio talking about distracted driving. He is also going to encourage the police to use their 45 unmarked cars to pull over people using their cell phones. 46 47 4. Minutes. The minutes of March 9, April 13, and May 11 were approved. 48 49 5. Report on Results of Previous Actions & Consideration of Follow-Up Action. 50 51 Previous Actions will all be on the agenda later. 52 53 Danielle reported that the Application for a Walk-able Community Designation would not be 54 submitted this next week due to the detailed information that is required for submission. So 55 we will wait for the next window. Taylor Lonsdale is going to gather information and is 56 looking for others to help. The purpose of the designation is to show a commitment of a City 57 to being walkable to use as a selling point for tourism etc. It would be a good thing to have in 58 the transportation master plan (TMP). John volunteered to help gather data from the City. 59 Anyone wanting to help should contact Danielle. 60 61 Ralph reported that a year and a half ago, PTS voted to support of a municipal gas tax with the 62 State Legislature. Our three officers will be meeting with the City Manager tomorrow 63 afternoon to discuss all gas tax possibilities and how we might be of assistance. 64 65 6. County Commission, City Commission, and School Board Reports. 66 I-ho reported that the City would be approving next years budget on June 20. Ralph 67 mentioned that the Bozeman Community Transportation Safety Plan needs money to be put in 68 the budget. Danielle needs to send a letter to the commission to have it added to the budget in 69 the form of a motion. Danielle has talked to Rick Hixson and there is no money being 70 requested. 71 72 Danielle will ask Rick to ask the City Manager to add money to the budget. John will also 73 send an email out to them to add something to the budget. The MDT is not helping out. 74 75 Danielle said that the group had hoped that they could identify an agency to take the program 76 over. That would likely be the police department since a lot of the recommendations are for 77 them and they have a lot of the funding for those programs already. Education is the focus. 78 79 John suggested that there should be someone in the City that would oversee this. He will see 80 what he can do to find someone. Ralph said that perhaps he would bring it up with the City 81 Manager in tomorrow’s meeting on gas tax. 82 83 7. Liaison Officer Reports. 84 No one was present to give a report. 85 86 8. Reports from Non-Voting Official Committee Members. 87 John reported that a lot of construction projects are going on. The pedestrian ramps at the 88 Medical Art’s building were put in. Rouse will go out to bid next month. Trees and houses 89 are being removed. Next summer the improvements will be made including widening and a 90 signal at Peach. 91 92 9. Reports from Related Groups. 93 Jeff Hough reported GVLT had an event with the City for National Trails Day at Bozeman 94 Ponds. They had 200 people help to put in a ½ mile trail. They are constructing a 10-foot 95 wide multi-use path that parallel’s Fowler and will eventually connect to the County Regional 96 Park and all the way north on Davis. Today they will be kicking off a meeting for the Front 97 Street pathway where the east Oak street path dead-ends at Rouse. This will now cross over 98 to Birch and allow users to wrap around over the creek. 99 100 Previously a rapid flashing beacon (RFB) had been identified to be used on Church with the 101 crossing of the Galligator Trail. He met with John and they found that one is not needed there 102 and they will be using the RFB at another location, yet to be identified, such as Highland and 103 Ellis. Sam suggested that Collin’s Coalition might donate funds as well for that area. 104 105 Ralph mentioned that in the March PTS meeting it was discussed that GVLT and Andy Kerr 106 were going to meet to discuss the issues on Church and Ice Pond Road. Jeff said that Andy 107 still was looking into pushing something through Martel’s property and utilizing the South 108 Church right-of-way. They have also have been contacted by several property owners 109 wanting to help and are continuing to work with the City to make trail connections in that 110 area. He believes the right-of-way on east Lincoln is a more sure thing because the City owns 111 it. It will be a better long-term solution than the Martel property. Jeff will come back to PTS 112 in the future for help if needed. 113 114 10. Consider Recommendations for Kagy 19th to Wilson Reconstruction Project 115 Ralph did not send a letter with our four recommendations from last months PTS meeting on 116 the project design to the City because he heard that some of us were having second thoughts 117 about some of our earlier decisions. It was confirmed that we want to review the number of 118 lanes and now consider more than one moving lane in each direction with turn lanes. Danielle 119 reported that the concern from the stakeholder representatives is that we are spending this 120 much money (at least 10 million dollars) for such a small incremental increase in capacity and 121 ongoing cueing issues. 122 123 Discussion included looking into the future and staging things for the ability to add multi-124 lanes as needed. The designers are looking at multiuse paths, lowering speeds, landscaping, 125 and roundabouts. Transportation demand management will help, but we still have to plan for 126 growth. There will be more bang for our buck with more lanes. The project would then cost 127 about 12 to 15 million dollars. We also need to consider that Kagy will most likely connect to 128 Cottonwood in the future. 129 130 A motion was made by Tony to make additional travel lanes. Second by Vance. It passed 131 unanimously. Ralph will write a letter. 132 133 11. Consider Next Steps in Promoting Frontage Road Path 134 Ralph explained that the meeting that was to be held on May 25th to start discussion on design 135 with advocacy groups and staff of Belgrade, Bozeman, the County, and MDT was not held as 136 planned. The MDT Corridor Study has now been started on the same section of road and 137 Ralph is on the advisory committee. A petition was submitted by Safer Bozeman to the three 138 local communities and the MDT and the local TMP. 139 140 12. Consider Recommendations for East Koch Sidewalks & Pedestrian Bridge Entrance to 141 Bogert Park 142 Carolyn Poissant, Bozeman City Trails, Open Space and Parks Program Manager, reported 143 that the plans were finished on the Bozeman Creek at Bogart Park Enhancements which is a 144 City project. The existing bridge will be replaced with a pedestrian bridge 8 feet wide with 145 viewing platforms. Going to the west there will be a sidewalk extending around on the south 146 side of Koch Street. That is being paid for by the project. The owner on the south side has 147 requested that a no outlet sign be posted to prevent all the cars that come down and then have 148 to turn around at the dead end or parking there. 149 150 On the north side a stub will be constructed from the bridge. But there are problems in 151 continuing westward from that stub because of three properties with issues including a garage 152 that is encroaching onto the City right of way and shrubs on the other properties. She wants to 153 negotiate with the owners to install a sidewalk. It would also be helpful to have a sidewalk to 154 Lindley Place. The landowner has significant landscaping right up to the edge of pavement. 155 156 Ralph asked about public hearings on the project that Chris Saunders had mentioned. Carolyn 157 said that they had sent out hundreds of notices about the project to neighbors but did not hear 158 back from anyone. 159 160 The committee focused on the missing sidewalks on the north side of Koch on both sides of 161 Lindley Place. It involves 3 properties. Ralph had asked Chris Saunders why the City did not 162 require installation of those sidewalks during reconstruction of two of the corner lot properties 163 on Lindley Place. Chris stated the City policy has now changed and this kind of situation 164 should not occur again. The bottom line is the City lost the opportunity to require those 165 sidewalks to be installed at the property owners’ expense when it failed to exercise its rights. 166 At this point the only option is to have the City Commission order-in the sidewalks at the 167 property owners expense. 168 169 Discussion took place about temporary solutions to cut back the corner clearance of 170 vegetation and possibly bushes hanging over the street at those three properties. John said 171 that it could be problematic. Carolyn said that she was having a phone call with the property 172 owner Mr. Nelson (closest to the bridge) the following day and would be talking to him about 173 putting a sidewalk through. She asked John if the sidewalk could move out into the street and 174 was told that because of snow plowing, that would not be possible. It was suggested that the 175 property owners might be open to abandoning the property to the City if the City would pay 176 for a trail. But that would be a problem for fire fighting at the last house so this is not an 177 option. 178 179 Carolyn will email John with a request for a no outlet sign. John suggested that the City could 180 provide the pavement contractor and the homeowner could save some money. Carolyn will 181 also report to Code Compliance and have the bushes cut back by the Parks Dept. She will 182 then report back to us. We will keep this on the agenda in August in case we need to ask the 183 City to order the sidewalks in. 184 185 13. Implementation of Bozeman Community Transportation Safety Plan 186 Please see agenda item 6. 187 188 14. Additional Business (Time Permitting) 189 A meeting will be held in Helena next week on the State TMP. PTS has been invited. 190 191 The next meeting will be held on August 10, 2016. 192 193 15. Adjournment. 194 The meeting was adjourned at 2:48 PM. 195 196 197 Minutes by Marilee Brown 198 Edits by Ralph Zimmer. 199