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HomeMy WebLinkAbout012809 Transportation Coordinating Committee MinutesMINUTES BOZEMAN AREA TRANSPORTATION COORDINATING COMMITTEE WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2009 ITEM 1. CALL TO ORDER AND ATTENDANCE Chairperson Andy Epple called the meeting to order at 10:05 a.m. on Wednesday, January 28, 2009 in the City Commission Room, City Hall, 121 North Rouse Avenue, Bozeman, MT and directed the TCC members to introduce themselves. Members present: Christopher Scott, Planning Department, Gallatin County Jeff Ebert, MDT, Butte District Ray Stocks, MDT, Maintenance Chief, MDT (Non-voting member) Joe Olsen, Engineering Services Superintendent, Butte District MDT Andy Epple, Planning Director, City of Bozeman, Chair Kerry White, Gallatin County Planning Board President Walter Banziger, Proxy for Bob Lashaway, Montana State University Ralph Zimmer, Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee Carol Strizich, Statewide and Urban Planning, MDT – proxy for Dick Turner Jeff Patten, Federal Highway Administration (Non-voting member) Al Vander Wey, Urban Planning, MDT Lee Provance, Gallatin County Road & Bridge Department Debbie Arkell, Director of Public Service, City of Bozeman Others present: George Durkin, County Engineer Adam Craft, Southern Regional Transit Planner from MDT John Van Delinder, City of Bozeman Street Superintendent Rob Bukvich, Engineer, Bozeman Division MDT Bob Murray, Project Engineer, City of Bozeman ITEM 2. PUBLIC COMMENT {Limited to any public matter within the jurisdiction of the Bozeman Area Transportation Coordinating Committee not on this agenda. Three-minute time limit per speaker.} Chairperson Epple opened public comment. No person commented. Chairperson Epple closed public comment. ITEM 3. MINUTES Chairperson Epple asked TCC members if anyone had any changes to the minutes of October 29, 2008. Kerry White Mr. White stated that he did have some changes. Page 4, 6 paragraphs down says Al Lay of Huffine lane should be Al Lien. Top of page 5 should say Gallatin County Interconnect Plan (GCI) to provide ways to interconnect equestrian areas in the valley. Hearing no further corrections, Chairperson Epple stated the October 29, 2008 minutes will stand approved as corrected. Chairperson Epple asked TCC members if anyone had any changes to the minutes of December 17, 2008. Rob Bukvich Mr. Bukvich stated that on page 2, Section A starts out with Joe Olsen should be Joe Gilpen not Olsen. Hearing no further corrections or additions the minutes of December 17, 2008 will stand approved as corrected. ITEM 4. TCC MEMBER REPORTS Transit Committee Report Adam Craft, Southern Regional Transit Planner and bus procurement from MDT Mr. Craft has been working with Lee Hazelbaker and David Kack as far as getting in quarterly reports, grant applications and capital. The ridership down here has been wonderful; the local match has been great and is pretty self sustaining. He has quite a bit of capital requests for the new year and would like to see things run pretty smoothly. 1-90/East Belgrade Interchange Report Jeff Ebert, Butte District Administrator for MDT Mr. Ebert said that the draft environmental assessment for the public has been completed. A public hearing will take place on February 24, 2009 in one of the Belgrade schools. TSM’s Report Bike Advisory Board Pedestrian/Traffic Safety Committee Ralph Zimmer Mr. Zimmer, chair of the Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee relayed that the Bicycle Advisory Board has a new set of officers. Jon Henderson is no longer chair. The Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee also had elections with Mr. Zimmer continuing as chair and Gary Vodehnal continuing as vice-chair. Mr. Zimmer and Mr. Vodehnal gave a presentation at a recent City Commission meeting regarding a comprehensive sidewalk program. Mr. Zimmer thanked the TCC for the letter of support that was taken to that meeting. Other TCC Member Reports Carol Strizich Ms. Strizich said that the TCC can begin looking at an urban priority list. There is $3.3 million available to prioritize and allocate for Bozeman. Christopher Scott Mr. Scott explained where the County is on the adoption process for the Transportation Draft Plan. They’ve gone before the City of Belgrade Planning board and the County Planning board. The Belgrade Planning Board recommended unanimously that the County Commission adopt the plan and found it to be consistent with their Belgrade policies. The Gallatin County Planning Board also recommended approval to the County Commission. The County Commission will consider a resolution of intent to adopt on February 10 there will be a public hearing. Consultant Jeff Key will present to the commission. Then it will take 30 days to formally adopt. We’re following procedures to make the Transportation Plan a revision to the growth policy. Chairperson Epple Mr. Epple said that he was pleased to see that there has been unanimity in adopting the plan and feels that reflects on the great job the TCC members and consultants have done on the Transportation Plan. Kerry White Mr. White stated that the Gallatin County Planning Board has forwarded some amendments to the Transportation plan for recommendation to the County Commission. Some of those amendments are from the equestrians, some from the City and some were from TCC. Most are minor changes. One was not to have the map on future right of ways, 9.1 within the plan to encourage the use of eminent domain to acquire right of way for extension of roads. Our growth policy does include ‘protect the right to farm and ranch’ and we did not want that to be taken as encouraging the use of eminent domain to condemn property that was actively being ranched. All those amendments will be available in a few days. ITEM 5. OLD BUSINESS Chairperson Epple Mr. Epple stated that Jeff Key presented the Transportation Plan to the City Commission last Monday night. They also heard a presentation from Mariann Amsden on behalf of the equestrian users. The City Commission did endorse the plan as recommended by TCC with some additions including some of the recommendations from the Gallatin County Planning Dept. regarding equestrian use. They did not adopt the draft equestrian map. Rob Bukvich Mr. Bukvich began a discussion about what the next step will be considering that the City Commission has made amendments and the County Commission likely will too. Will those changes then come back to the TCC? Will there be three separate documents or one final? TCC members discussed the next step. One suggestion was that all of the amendments would be placed at the end of the document listed in an addendum. Another suggestion was to highlight the changes within the document and state where the particular change came from. The final verdict was to make one final draft with all amendments straight into the body of the document. Then the final draft would go before the City Commission one more time to have them adopt the final draft with all of the changes. Since the County Commission will have the City’s changes before they look over the Plan, the County will not need to review it again. Rob Bukvich Mr. Bukvich said that the changes the City Commission made are not deal breakers for the Montana Dept. of Transportation. Adoption from MDT can be handled at the administrative level. Bob Murray Mr. Murray suggested that the TCC might want to have one more special meeting to look over the document one more time with all of the amendments included. Since the County will be looking it over on February 10th a special meeting could take place towards the end of February. TCC members decided that February 25, 2009 at 10 a.m. would be a good date to have a final special meeting regarding the Transportation Plan. ITEM 6. NEW BUSINESS Rob Bukvich Mr. Bukvich would like to revisit membership. He proposed that the spot for a member from Belgrade should be removed since that position has not been active on the board and they have their own planning body now. He would like to replace that position with a member to speak for transit. Chairperson Epple Mr. Epple would agree with Mr. Bukvich’s recommendation. He also said that the Safe Trails Coalition member was added solely for the Transportation Plan Update and should be removed since the update is finished. He also suggested that updating the TCC by-laws could also be discussed at the next regular meeting. A discussion among members ensued regarding membership on TCC. It was decided that membership would be re-vamped during the next regularly scheduled quarterly meeting. Debbie Arkell Ms. Arkell relayed that there has been some discussion on a city level about the possibility of forming a metropolitan planning board commission. She doesn’t think we are eligible yet because there is a requirement that you must have a population of 50,000, which we are not. She has been directed by the City Manager to look into that. It would not likely go forward at least until the next round of census information is available. Kerry White Mr. White brought up that a reduction in members would result in a reduction in the number of members required for a quorum which would be positive since it is sometimes difficult to have a quorum. ITEM 7. PROJECT UPDATES MSU Projects Update Walter Banziger Mr. Banziger, proxy for Bob Lashaway gave the MSU projects update. They are currently exploring spring and summer projects that include updating cross-walks, streets and parking lots on campus. Belgrade Projects Update This update will be taken off the agenda in the future. CTEP Projects The Recreation and Parks Dept. has received / solicited engineering services for College Ave joint use trail on Main and 11th. According to Bob Murray this project has been under contract for awhile and the design has been started. South 19th Avenue – Main Street to Kagy Boulevard Rob Bukvich Mr. Bukvich reported that Knife River has worked intermittently on this project throughout the winter to get the irrigation, culvert work done. They have the large culvert, Farmer’s canal complete up to College Street. On College Street they have the smaller canal south of College complete. The project is proceeding with minimal disruption. Bozeman Intermodal Facility Update This facility has some structural issues to be worked through, but it might be open in April. Signal Projects Debbie Arkell Ms. Arkell suggested that in the future, this agenda item be titled, “Intersection Improvements”. They are currently working on the design for the roundabout at 11th and College to figure out the exact amount of right away needed to then go back to the City Commission for approval to continue the design. North Rouse Avenue Jeff Ebert, MDT Mr. Ebert does need to make a presentation to the Bozeman City Commission to discuss the project, city staff recommendations and public comments. MDT is looking for the city to eventually pass a resolution in support of the project. Debbie Arkell was to follow up on that. The environmental assessment is out and has been commented on. Final decision document should be out shortly after the matrix is released by the consultant with responses to public comment. A short discussion ensued regarding whether or not a formal presentation should occur as to what the recommendations and decisions are in regards to this project. The possibility of a short over-view during the next regular meeting was discussed. I-90 Improvements Jeff Ebert Mr. Ebert explained that MDT has a project to replace the steel structure at Rouse Ave. over-pass on interstate 90. They’ve patched it twice. That project is scheduled for 2010. It would affect the structure to the east, the Montana Rail Link. They also have the North 7th inter-change. The design is proceeding on that. It is further out and funding is not secured for that. Funding re-authorization should occur before October. Other Rob Bukvich Mr. Bukvich suggested that we might want to drop the project updates off the agenda and have project reports happen during the member reports since the projects change. One suggestion was for members to put out a list of their current projects to TCC members and then they could be discussed during the meeting as desired. A discussion ensued regarding changes to the agenda. It was decided that this could be discussed further during the next regular quarterly meeting when membership and by-laws are discussed. ITEM 8. ELECTION OF OFFICERS Due to lack of a quorum of voting TCC members, election of officers was moved to February 25, 2009. Rob Bukvich Mr. Bukvich said that he would like to see a County representative as chair. A discussion ensued regarding candidates with either Kerry White or Chris Scott as good County candidates. Lee Provance stated he is not interested in the position. Jeff Ebert stated that he feels the position should go to someone local and not a MDT member. A list of current members will be updated in advance of the February meeting. Ralph Zimmer Mr. Zimmer stated that he will be nominating Bob Lashaway as the vice-chair. ITEM 9. 2009 MEETING DATES AND ADJOURNMENT The last special meeting for final discussion of the Transportation Plan Update will occur on Wednesday, February 25, 2009 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the city commission room. The next regularly scheduled quarterly meeting will occur on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the city commission room. NOTE: THESE MINUTES ARE NOT WORD FOR WORD AND NOT EVERY COMMENT WAS INCLUDED. ______________________________________________ Andrew C. Epple, Chairperson Bozeman Area Transportation Coordinating Committee Prepared by: ______________________________ Aimee Kissel, Deputy City Clerk Approved on: February 25, 2009.