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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05-15-19 PTS MinutesBozeman (Area) Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee 1 Minutes of the May 15, 2019 Meeting 2 Upstairs Conference Room Alfred Stiff Office Building 3 4 Attendance: 5 6 Voting Committee Members: 7 Tony Gaddo (At-Large Member), Vice Chair 8 Marilee Brown (At-large-Member), Secretary 9 Danielle Scharf (City of Bozeman) 10 Sherry Heis (City of Bozeman) 11 Doug Kellie (Bozeman School District) 12 Douglas Fischer (Bozeman School District and Board of Trustees) 13 14 Absent: 15 Ralph Zimmer (Gallatin County), Chair 16 Tom Foster (Gallatin County) 17 18 19 Official Non-Voting Committee Members: 20 John Van Delinder (City of Bozeman Streets Department) 21 Todd Swinehart (School District) 22 Absent: Bill Brownell, Road & Bridge Supervisor (County) 23 24 City Commissioners, County Commissioners, and School Board Trustees 25 Terry Cunningham (City Commissioner) 26 Douglas Fischer (School District Trustee but also Voting Member of the Committee) 27 Absent: Scott MacFarlane (County Commissioner) 28 29 Law Enforcement Liaison Officers 30 Travis Munter (Bozeman Police Department) 31 Absent: (Sheriff’s Department) 32 33 Frequent Attendees and Guests (City, County, Bozeman School District, and Montana 34 Department of Transportation Staff): 35 Duane Liebel (MDT Butte District Preconstruction Engineer) 36 37 Citizens and Other Guests: 38 Andrew M. Williamson 39 40 Quorum: Present. 41 42 1. Call to Order and Introductions. 43 Tony Gaddo, PTS Committee Vice Chair, called the meeting to order at 12:00 PM and 44 introductions of attendees were made. 45 46 2. Agenda. 47 Tony offered the opportunity to provide comments on the agenda. None were made. 48 49 3. Public Comment. 50 None. 51 52 4. Minutes. 53 Minutes of the April 10, 2019 meeting had been distributed electronically prior to the meeting 54 and hard copies were distributed at the meeting. The minutes were approved unanimously 55 with the following changes. 56 Line 121 Graf was misspelled 57 Line 68 Janice Whetstone said they meet once a week – on Tuesday at noon 58 59 5. Report on Results of Previous Actions & Consideration of Follow-Up Action. 60 Ralph submitted comments on behalf of PTS for the Bike Statewide Plan, and provided 61 additional comments on the Gallatin County Transportation and Design Standards. Tony read 62 the comments out to the group. 63 64 6. County Commission, City Commission, and School Board Member Reports. 65 Terry Cunningham (City Commissioner). The Safety Center is on track and the lawsuit is 66 settled. The City Manager presented her budget – there are a lot of capital street projects 67 coming for the next fiscal year. Safety officers will include one additional officer and three 68 additional fire fighters. The budget will not be finalized until last week of June. 69 70 Douglas Fischer (School Board Trustee and PTS voting member) 71 The high school is 50 percent complete and the mascot will be a raptor (the terrible 72 claw) and colors blue and black. Rob Watson is leaving as superintendent. 73 74 7. Reports from Law Enforcement Liaison Members. 75 Travis Munter – extra officers are downtown monitoring things but traffic is thick and it is 76 difficult to pull people over for offences. We are in a middle of a shift change so officers are 77 new in different beats. Every two months they change. Two new officers will be coming on 78 board. There are no bicycle patrols as yet. 79 80 There are more pedestrian violations than vehicles running red lights downtown. When the 8 81 second count down with a flashing red hand is on the sign, pedestrians may not step off curb. 82 The intersections that he monitored was at Willson, Tracy, and Black. Pedestrians are mostly 83 crossing north to south and mostly on north side. The city is looking at using scramble lights 84 so that all traffic stops and pedestrians may cross any direction including diagonally. 85 John commented that people must know that all four directions go all red for 4 seconds so that 86 there is extra time to clear the intersection and can enter at the last second without a chance of 87 being hit. 88 89 Douglas F. asked about cell phones and driving trends? The police can’t stop during middle 90 of day in city center. They can educate with handouts when pulling over people. Some 91 officers give warnings and others immediately take them to court. 92 93 94 8. Reports from Non-Voting Official Committee Members. 95 96 John Van Delinder (City of Bozeman Streets Department) said construction is everywhere. 97 Check the City website for more information. The Highland trail will get surface maintenance 98 Commented [MB1]: Commented [TG2]: The downtown improvement plan discussed the concept, but I don’t think there has been any other discussions or actions. Commented [TG3]: issue citations? from MTD’s Transportation Alternative program funding this month. Drivers are getting 99 frustrated with the long detour on Haggerty Lane from the Heebs intersection. Flaggers were 100 suggested. 101 102 Todd asked about South 3rd and Graf. It will be a roundabout and may go out for bidding 103 soon. There is a possibility that it may be delayed until next year. Danielle said that they are 104 waiting on the MDT to have a construction agreement made before bidding can take place. 105 Currently there is only a maintenance agreement in place. John stated that it is a dangerous 106 intersection with kids crossing and cars rolling through the stop sign. 107 108 Todd Swinehart (Bozeman School District) 109 School is out in a month. 110 Bus drivers have a hard job keeping track of kids from split families and do a remarkable job. 111 The new high school should make routes easier. There is less and less ridership every year. 112 More ridership is from in town than 3 miles out. They are exploring split times so that drivers 113 could be guaranteed more hours. The decision will be based on a cost savings to the district. 114 115 A discussion was held on why parents drive and how Arnold Street going through will help at 116 Morningstar which is the worst pickup school. There are a many reasons why parents don’t 117 have kids ride the bus including separation of older kids from younger kids, afterschool 118 activities or weather. A survey to parents might be a good idea. 119 120 9. Reports from Related Groups. 121 122 Bozeman Area Bicycle Advisory Board. They are still working on developing 123 recommendations for the city’s Capital Improvement Plan and gearing up for education and 124 talking at the drivers’ education classes. 125 126 Transportation Coordinating Committee (TCC) – Tony stated that the status of construction 127 projects was the only item discussed at the April quarterly meeting. 128 129 GVLT – not present 130 131 GAP – Galla10 Alliance for Pathways. Marilee reported they did well in the Give Big 132 fundraising. They are getting ready for Phase One of the pathway, as it is associated with City 133 property and how it will be funded. The Valley Center Spur signalization will hopefully be 134 done. 135 136 Duane stated that the job was let but the pedestrian signalization was not included. The rest of 137 it is with the Director and rumor has it that the Railroad is softening. There is a question on 138 how funding will take place on a sidewalk along the spur. The developers will probably have 139 to pony up through a systems impact. 140 141 MDT – Valley Spur has been let. Baxter and Love, Love and Huffine, and 19th and the 142 Interstate are all scheduled this summer. 143 144 10. Consider Accommodation of Non-Motorized Travel Along Huffine Lane (US 191). 145 Andrew Williamson who lives in Woodland Park near Ressler Motors spoke on the lack of 146 facilities for non-motorized travel along Huffine. He provided a map. He is a runner and has 147 been alarmed at the number of cars that pull onto the shoulder to buzz him and have a good 148 laugh. Woodland Park is completely landlocked and residents have to drive to access any safe 149 trail. The barn district will be a new development and is also isolated. 150 151 Between four corners and Davis, there is a five-mile stretch that has 2 miles with pedestrian 152 trail systems. There is a three-mile stretch in the middle that has nothing. The Prost Plan, the 153 2001 Trails Plan and the 2010 Trails Plan Draft all call for a shared use path. Some recent 154 development projects adjacent to Huffine have not included trail or path improvements per 155 City/County plans. From Bozeman to Cottonwood it is mostly complete. JC Billion is 156 currently putting in sewer but has no plans to extend a path. 157 158 Andrew started looking into some of the issues and talked to developers that are putting in a 159 residential development. The issue is that in the County residential density must reach certain 160 saturation in order to be required to put in a path. But no one wants to live on Huffine so most 161 of the properties are commercial and there is no requirement for businesses to install a path. 162 163 The MDT issue is that there is a general reluctance to put pedestrians that close to a highway 164 and there is a maintenance issue. If businesses are going in to this area there needs to be some 165 provisions requiring them to put in a shared use path. Norton Ranch Homes are going in and 166 should be approached to provide such amenities. As the City grows west, the major arterial 167 corridors need to have these provisions now so that as schools are built, the City doesn’t have 168 to tear out and redo the infrastructure. Don’t kick the can down the road. 169 170 Marilee mentioned that she and Ralph attended the round table for the County Road Standards 171 and had a lengthy discussion about this situation and how they can deal with things. The 172 County looks at the density of a residential unit being developed to require interior sidewalks 173 and also applies that to the arteries and collectors. There is no seperation for urban or rural 174 areas and the connectivity that needs to happen. Taylor Lonsdale suggested at the round table 175 that the County adopt standards similar to Boulder Colorado in planning for such with more 176 categories. We also need to be looking at better requirements within the expected MPO. 177 Levi has agreed to look into it and is looking for answers. 178 179 Marilee also stated that there is also an issue of acquiring the right-of-way along arteries. 180 Additionally, there has also been some disagreement where the County states that it is MDT’s 181 responsibility to acquire on MDT’s roads, but MDT disagrees. 182 183 The other issue is that the County states that they must follow an official trails plan and there 184 is no current detailed plan that has been approved. The County staff is hoping that the 185 (Triangle) Policy Coordination Committee (PCC) will have a plan and they are also realize 186 that they should be endorsing the current City of Bozeman Transportation Master Plan which 187 extends outside of City boundaries. We should be urging the County Commission to accept 188 these updated plans and drafts. 189 190 Tony stated that we have all these City Plans and studies that show that we need these trails 191 but the County doesn’t really have the control to have them implemented. Williamson stated 192 that the draft Gallatin County Transportation Design and Construction Standards has language 193 that states when there is an existing trail plan and network in place they will adopt those 194 requirements. The 2007 Transportation Master Plan was adopted and the 2007 Parks 195 Recreation and Open Space (PROST) plan was adopted, so we just need to start doing it. 196 197 Terry Cunningham said that this is in the PCC wheelhouse, which tackles this exact issue. 198 Williamson said that he is active in participating with the PCC but that we need to keep 199 helping to advocate. 200 201 Marilee stated that the County is hanging their hat on the PCC plan but that it does not extend 202 to the potential MPO boundaries. 203 204 Duane stated that the issues of MDT versus County are about funding since it costs about a 205 million dollars to put in a mile of path. And there is only a half-mile that can be funded in the 206 whole state of Montana. They are always looking for other funding sources. The MDT has a 207 policy that they will put it in their right-of-way if you can absolutely prove that it cannot go 208 anywhere else. And they also have a policy since the legislature will not give them any more 209 maintenance money that they cannot put anything on their right of way that will require 210 maintenance. So there needs to be a maintenance agreement by the City or some other 211 authority. 212 213 Tony asked who maintained what was already there? Danielle mentioned that the County was 214 looking at maintaining the one in four corners if they can figure out the funding. It seems a 215 step in the right direction. TA funding is not available. 216 217 Duane suggested that BABAB and PTS lobby our legislatures to get more TA money. He 218 also suggested that we form maintenance clubs like snowmobilers do. Danielle stated that the 219 MDT would not accept a maintenance agreement from anyone but the City. The City can ask 220 other entities to do it. John stated that often the volunteers then say that they can no longer 221 provide maintenance and then the City has to do it and it becomes a huge task. Duane 222 suggested doing it like the MDT litter control and adoption policy for plowing. 223 224 Danielle believes that this kind of volunteer maintenance just isn’t sustainable – it can be great 225 one year and then terrible the next. Marilee stated that there are examples of how volunteers 226 have tried to mesh with government with great intentions and then had to give up. 227 228 John believes that it is a good thing for the City to step up. They defer sign maintenance in 229 the winter to plow paths and have the equipment to do so. The MDT does not have the 230 equipment. 231 232 Danielle stated that the paths are part of a transportation system – not a recreational snow 233 mobile trail – it is part of our City, County and Statewide system and it should be maintained 234 to the same level. 235 236 Terry asked what action/recommendation we can make? Andrew stated that a letter of 237 support would be good. It should recommend that incorporating the 2017 Bozeman Area 238 Transportation Master Plan, and the 2007 PROST plan, for all commercial and residential 239 planning west of Bozeman. Site development plans need to be reviewed by the City, County 240 and the MDT. And we need to advocate that the three entities coordinate to make this happen 241 and then we can work on commitments from GVLT etc. This is especially important if 242 Elementary School 9 and other schools are to be built. 243 244 Todd stated that boundaries and safe routes would be considered in future school site planning 245 but a letter of support would be a good idea. 246 247 Marilee stated that there seems to be a disconnect between asking for lovely paths to be built 248 between parks and subdivisions and the need for active transportation on arteries. Education 249 to the community is the key and perhaps PTS should write a letter to the editor or get others to 250 do so – the goal being that we need to encourage such paths outside of the city boundaries and 251 getting the County Commissioners on board with the idea. Developers have already been 252 zoned in the area for low density and have already built. John said building paths should not 253 be based on the density and should instead be made a requirement that if the dirt is turned, a 254 path has to be built. And that it is part of the transportation system along an artery not a 255 recreational path. 256 257 Tony thinks that we should be writing a letter to the PCC also. We probably cannot force 258 policy change. But we can remind them that we would like to see them make this 259 requirement. 260 261 Duane stated that if we were friends with Steve Daines we should ask him to support the 262 highway bill in Sept. or Oct. and ask that shared use paths be included. 263 264 Danielle stated that we should advocate to the County for an update to the County Trails plan 265 because there might be some movement on that that we can support and then policy upgrades 266 would allow them to change their zoning requirements to require paths. 267 268 Marilee asked if a letter of support to hand to business owners would help for Andy to take to 269 developers. 270 271 Terry stated that we should have a letter encouraging the County to update the Trails plan, and 272 also to the PCC. 273 274 Discussion was how to authorize Ralph to write letters and put them on the next agenda for 275 the County, PCC, and possibly the TCC. 276 277 We decided against a letter for private businesses since Andrew can just show other letters to 278 the businesses. Marilee suggested that Andy use the selling point to the businesses that 279 putting in a gravel path now is cheaper than waiting for the County to get involved later and 280 require ADA pavement etc. 281 282 Marilee suggested a letter to the County asking them to endorse the Bozeman TMP since it is 283 only a year and a half old. Consensus was yes it would not hurt to ask them to consider 284 adopting the 2011 draft or do a new one whichever process they preferred, agreeing encourage 285 them to make progress. 286 287 Doug asked why we couldn’t be encouraging paths that are far off the artery. Marilee replied 288 that the PCC would be looking at that but that it should never be considered and either/or. 289 Danielle stated that both are needed for recreation and transportation. The trail plan should 290 identify this. 291 292 Andrew mentioned that there are a lot of people from King Arthur Court that walk to work 293 because they do not have a car and need the shortest route to get there. 294 295 Final consensus was that since there is no deadline other than the county standards we could 296 bring this up to Ralph at the next meeting. 297 No motion was made. 298 299 11. Consider Providing Input into City of Bozeman’s Budgeting Process. 300 The police department would like to see the same amount as last year for the Safety Plan. 301 Terry says we need to show success for some parts and why we still need to tackle other parts. 302 We need to show a need for $8,000 or an extension of safety plan. 303 304 What about advocating for funds to increase employee pay. No – the union will take care of 305 this and the City recognizes that they are loosing people due to low pay. 306 307 Paths – can we ask for capital funds to be allocated for building and maintaining pathways? 308 Or matching funds (example phase one Frontage Path for Top funds) or other pedestrian 309 projects as needed such as RFB’s? John stated that RFB’s are already included. 310 311 Terry stated that the Capital Improvement Plan is made in fall for specific projects on a 5-year 312 plan. Any amount over 10,000 has to be in the Capital Improvement Plan. 313 314 Danielle asked how this budget related to the Capital Improvement Plan – independent or line 315 item? It is separate – plugged into the budget and will not be funded until approved in the 316 budget. But the Capital Improvement Plan decides how it is to be funded (impact fees, arterial 317 and collector fees, or street maintenance fees etc.) 318 319 Danielle – Shawn stated that we could request a trail project be added into the CIP but that it 320 never has been in the past unless it was part of a larger street project. 321 322 Marilee – in order to get the TOP funding we need match money now. John asked if any TOP 323 money was left? Terry stated that the general thought is that the small remainder will fund the 324 gaps in trails. Marilee – we have been told that there is 150,000 that might be available for 325 our project but want to see commitments from other sources and since this is going to be on 326 City property we are trying to figure out how it would work. 327 328 Terry stated that TOP’s would not consider a City match as being the right additive – they are 329 looking for outside sources. Danielle does not think it is realistic that Frontage path will be 330 funded through the CIP process – we would have to prove high priority. 331 332 Terry mentioned that on the path to the M the city added $400,000 on a $5 mil project and 333 Story Mill is $4 million from the City for an $11 million project because of the Trust for 334 Public Lands and donations etc. TOP’s funds require that you show that you can use their 335 funds to leverage outside money. GVLT would be a great partner for that. 336 337 John said that we should ask the CIP plan for anything that we might need. It is 5 years or 338 shorter and describe the need and cost benefit. 339 340 Duane – please send a letter to Congress to restart federal Transportation Alternatives (TA) 341 funds. 342 343 12. Discuss Re-Write of Committee’s Governance Document. 344 Not discussed. 345 346 13. Implementation of Bozeman Community Transportation Safety Plan. 347 None – Terry will find out when funding and success needs to be shown and to whom we 348 need to give it to like the manager and will check with Steve. 349 350 14. Additional Business. 351 No report. 352 353 15. Next Meeting. June 12, 2019 354 355 16. Meeting Adjournment. The meeting was adjourned at 1:50 PM. 356 357 Minutes by Marilee Brown 358 Edited by Tony Gaddo 359 Additional edits by Ralph Zimmer 360 361