PLANNING
COMMITTEE MEETING
Meeting Minutes
April 4, 2007
Geoff Bornemann, City of Saratoga Springs (Vice-Chairman)
Peter Comenzo, Town of Rotterdam
Frank Commisso, Albany Port Commission
Todd Fabozzi, representing Rocky Ferraro, Capital
District
Regional Planning Commission
Steve Feeney, Schenectady County
Michael Franchini, Albany County (Chairman)
Bruce Hidley, City of Watervliet
Fred Howard, Rensselaer County
Steve Iachetta, Albany County Airport Authority
Barb McHugh, Town of Clifton Park
Marybeth Pettit, City of Rensselaer
John
Poorman, Capital District
Transportation Committee (Secretary)
Dave Rettig, NYSDOT Region 1
Jim Rivers, representing Judy
Breselor, City of Troy
Phil Serafino, New York State Thruway Authority
Denise Sheehan, Town of Colonie
Bernard Sisson, City of Schenectady
Erin Thomas, City of Cohoes
Mike Valentine, Saratoga County
Steve Watts, Town of Halfmoon
Kristina Younger, Capital
District Transportation Authority
STAFF AND OTHERS
Michael Alba, Capital
District Transportation Committee
Anne
Benware, Capital District
Transportation Committee
Frank Bonefide, NYSDOT Region
1
Ron Hayes, NYSDOT
Sandra Misiewicz, Capital
District Transportation Committee
Michael Morris, Capital
District Transportation Committee (
Christine Neumann, Capital
District Transportation Committee
Michael Novakowski, NYSDOT
Chris O’Neill, Capital
District Transportation Committee
Philip Parella, Jr., Capital
District Transportation Authority
Glenn
Posca, Capital District
Transportation Committee
Jason
Purvis, Capital District
Transportation Committee
Paul Reuss, Village
of Menands
Don Rhodes, Village
of Menands
John Stangle, Town of Colonie
Steve Szanto, Creighton
Manning
Cliff Thomas, NYSDOT
INTRODUCTION AND VISITORS
ISSUES
Chairman Franchini opened the meeting at approximately 9:35 am. He welcomed
members and guests who introduced themselves.
There were no requests from visitors to speak to the Committee.
Action Items
ADMINISTRATION
Approval
of the February
21, 2007 Meeting Minutes
The minutes of the February 21, 2007 meeting were approved as written.
2005-2010 TRANSPORTATION
IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM REVISIONS
It was noted that changes made to
the current TIP apply to the draft TIP as well.
SA213: South
Street Sidewalk Replacement & Handrail Repair
The City of Mechanicville requested that this Spot
Improvement Project be dropped from the TIP as the bids for the project came
out higher than expected. This change
was approved.
PIN 1051.67 South Mall Access Ramp
to/from I-787 Bearings Replace Part 2; PIN 1806.49 Dunn Memorial Bridge
Overhead Signs; S126 (PIN 1096.21) Route 50/Indiankill, Glenville
These
three requested TIP changes from NYSDOT are related to the state moving
projects from State Dedicated Funds (SDF) to federal fund sources. Dave Rettig introduced Mike Novakowski from
the NYSDOT Main office to explain why these changes are being requested. Mr. Novakowski explained that as SAFETEA-LU
was being prepared, New York State made a conservative estimate of
their obligating authority for the state’s transportation financial plan. When the law was passed, the state took a
second look at their obligating authority and discovered that they had more
obligating authority available than originally thought. New York State then opted to increase its use of
advanced construction as a way to further stretch their obligating
authority. The net effect of this choice
is that New York has more federal dollars available to it over the life of
the state’s financial plan. This does
not change the federal apportionments which are still more than the obligating
authority of the state.
As a
result of the discovery of these additional federal resources and the fact that
there is a significant gap in SDF resources to complete the existing program of
projects, NYSDOT is requesting that some SDF projects be moved to federal fund
sources. This does not impact the
overall program in that the amendments being requested are not really adding
new projects but instead represent changes in fund sources. These changes will allow NYSDOT’s program to
keep moving forward while at the same time keep the CDTC TIP whole. Even with these changes, and possibly more to
come, there is still a significant funding shortfall in the current NYSDOT
program. Approving these changes will
put the program in a better position in the future.
Mr.
Poorman noted that the issue regarding the requested TIP action is whether CDTC
focuses on the larger program (state and federal) which is kept whole through
the shift or the TIP (federal) which is impacted by the shift.
Although
there is a schedule impact to the shift from SDF to federal funds, the
alternative is not doing these projects at all.
The motion was approved.
SA231:
Physically-Challenged Fishing Access
The Town
of Halfmoon attempted to make an argument
that this project, a Spot Improvement Program project, would positively impact
air quality in the region. That argument
failed which makes the project ineligible for the use of CMAQ funds which is
the fund source the Spot Improvement Program uses. The Town is asking that a new fund source be
applied to the project. Although CDTC
has been cautious in the past on fund source changes on projects that were
awarded competitively, a motion was made to approve the use of STP funds for
this small scale project. The motion was
approved.
SAFETEA-LU COMPLIANCE/NEW
VISIONS 2030
The New Visions 2030 update has
been going on for several years and the basic policy thrust of the plan remains
unchanged. Much of the new material being
developed in the New Visions 2030 effort is being put forth as things CDTC will
continue investigating, not new policy.
SAFETEA-LU requires that our long range plan be compliant by July 1, 2007. FHWA wants to
acknowledge good faith efforts in meeting this requirement but there could be a
high risk that if CDTC’s plan is not compliant with SAFETEA-LU then things will
be shut down. Therefore, CDTC is rushing
to minimize this risk by doing a complete update of New Visions to create New
Visions 2030. The practical deadline for
meeting the SAFETEA-LU requirement is October 1st when the new
TIP/STIP is in place. So, staff looked
at what pieces need to be incorporated into the plan in order to make it
SAFETEA-LU compliant. A spreadsheet
containing the various pieces that will be folded in the plan was
reviewed.
In order
to digest all the information, the Planning Committee requests that summaries be sent
to the members via email as the technical reports become available for
review. The technical reports will be
posted on the CDTC website for those interested in reviewing the complete text
of the document. In addition, the
individual working group reports (working groups A through E) will be edited to
resolved CDTC’s policy stance on their recommendations so that they will have
official status in the plan. These need
to be refined because the recommendations will become part of our plan when it
is approved. The key piece to be updated
is the plan’s budget. The Planning Committee approved the proposed timeframe
and process for the New Visions update as outlined in the mailout material.
Draft
Public Participation Plan
One of
the SAFETEA-LU requirements is the update to CDTC’s public participation
plan. The draft plan was included in the
mailout material and CDTC’s Policy Board authorized CDTC’s Planning Committee to put an approved version of the
plan out for public review (a 45 day review requirement). The Planning Committee made this approval. Comments on the plan should be received by
CDTC no later than Friday May 25th.
Draft Updated Bicycle and
Pedestrian Game Plan and Toolbox and Draft Goods Movement Technical Document
The
Committee began to review these reports and several questions were raised,
specifically regarding the internal consistency of the reports. The Committee deferred action on these
reports until May.
2007-12 TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM
Corrections
to Project Listings
Corrections
to the project listings were presented by Glenn Posca.
A243: Slingerlands Bypass Phase 3 was discussed regarding the project
description and whether or not it should be clarified to specifically note the
inclusion of a bike path. This item was deferred
by the committee for now but the overarching issue on scope expectations will
need to be revisited. SA104: Batchellerville Bridge was inadvertently omitted from
the Planning
Committee’s TIP discussions. A handout
was provided to the committee on the status of this project. NYSDOT worked out an agreement with Saratoga County which states that the bridge
replacement will be funded through HBRR funds, including a Sweeney earmark and
a variety of state fund sources to provide matching funds for this $35 million
dollar project. The project is not eligible
for SDF funds. Once the project is complete,
the owner of the bridge will be Saratoga County.
Region 1’s allocation of HBRR funds is being increased to fund this
project but this will not impact the rest of the Regions’ HBRR program. NYSDOT and CDTC will confirm the fund sources
to be used in the TIP listing. The
bundle of Luther Forest projects was also discussed,
particularly the Cold Spring Road project. It was noted by NYSDOT that federal funds are
not going to be used on Cold Spring Road and that the listing should be
removed.
A motion was
made to approve all corrections to the TIP except A243: Slingerlands Bypass
Phase 3. This was approved.
A second
handout was provided to the committee regarding additional TIP
corrections. This included a final note regarding
projects that will be rolling off the TIP.
Change orders and incidentals can be captured in other discussions and
they do not need to be shown in the TIP.
Publication of obligations must show these, however. The schedule for S157: Maple Avenue re-alignment was proposed to be
moved to design in 2007-08 with all other phases in 2008-09. The committee decided to leave the project in
the 2nd and 3rd years of the program for now but the
whole program will need to be re-evaluated as there are concerns that the
program is undeliverable in the first two years due to heavy over programming
on the off-state system. Finally, the
section in the TIP on civil rights and environmental justice was updated. These corrections were also approved.
Status of
Planning Activities
This discussion item was skipped in the interest of
time.
Other/Upcoming
Meetings
As there were no other discussion items on the agenda,
Chairman Franchini reviewed the list of upcoming meetings and noted the April
17th Linkage Planning Forum meeting.
There being no other business, the meeting was adjourned
at 12:20 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
John P. Poorman
Secretary