PLANNING
COMMITTEE MEETING
Meeting Minutes
June 15, 2007
Brad Birge, City of Saratoga Springs
Judy Breselor, City of Troy
Joel Cochran, Saratoga County
Peter Comenzo, Town of Rotterdam
Steve Feeney, Schenectady County
Rocky Ferraro, Capital District Regional Planning
Commission
Michael Franchini, Albany County (Chairman)
Barbara McHugh, Town of Clifton Park
Marybeth Pettit, City of Rensselaer
John Poorman, Capital District Transportation Committee (Secretary)
Dave Rettig, NYSDOT Region 1
Joe Rich, FHWA
Dede Rudolph, City of Albany
Denise Sheehan, Town of Colonie
Bernie Sisson, City of Schenectady
Erin Thomas, City of Cohoes
Steve Watts, Town of Halfmoon
Kristina Younger, Capital District Transportation Authority
STAFF AND OTHERS
Frank Bonafide, NYSDOT Region 1
Glenn Posca, Capital District Transportation Committee
Jim Rivers, City of Troy
Tom Speziale, Saratoga County DPW
Deb Stacey, Capital District Transportation Committee
Steve Szanto, Creighton Manning
VISITORS ISSUES
Chairman Franchini opened the meeting at approximately 9:40 am. There were no
visitor’s issues.
Action Items
ADMINISTRATION
Approval
of the June 5, 2007 Meeting
Minutes
The minutes of the June 5, 2007 meeting were an abridged version due to the short
turn-around time between meetings. The
table included as part of the minutes is a result of the best attempt by staff
to summarize the TIP information that was discussed at the meeting two weeks
ago. Bernie Sisson indicated that the status of the Erie Blvd project should read “keep” rather than “move to” under
the column heading CDTC Planning Committee Action on June 5, 2007. The minutes of
the June 5th meeting were approved with this change noted.
2007-12 TRANSPORTATION
IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM
TIP Issues
to be Resolved
John Poorman prefaced the discussion by reporting on the outcome of
the TIP discussions at the June 7th Policy Board meeting. At the Policy Board meeting, NYSDOT put two
options on the table.
Option 1 would approve the draft TIP, without deferring the five
projects (these are the five projects discussed at length at the June 5th
Planning Committee Meeting A431--Gifford Hollow Road Bridge over the Switzkill;
A467--Grant Hill Road over the Normanskill; SA220--C.R. 7 Stewart Dam Bridge over
Sacandaga Reservoir; R254--Broadway: US 20 to Broadway Viaduct Bridge
Reconstruction and S177--Erie Boulevard, from State Street (NY 5)to I-890 Reconstruction) and would add the three SDF projects (NY 5 from
New Karner Road to Fuller Road, NY 2 from Route 278 to Grafton State Park and
Route 9J from the Columbia County line to the Village of Castleton)to the TIP as STP-Flex Projects.
Option 2 would defer the five projects (outside the first three
years of the TIP) and the SDF projects would not be adopted.
The Policy Board voted to defer action to provide
sufficient time for the Planning Committee to further discuss and resolve the
issues.
John Poorman distributed a list of options that could potentially
resolve the issues at stake. John stated
that there are two objectives to achieve—honor the project selection principles
and to deliver the best package available.
Members looked at the list and questioned NYSDOT R-1 why
the two separate issues were bundled together as a package. NYSDOT responded that the package deal shows
cooperation and is a win-win for everyone involved.
Members discussed the threshold for soliciting new
projects. It was determined that the
~$13M in SDF projects that NYSDOT would like to swap to STP would not trigger a
solicitation for new projects.
Dede Rudolph voiced concern over the principle of putting projects
on the TIP that were not evaluated and ranked with other TIP projects. Specifically, had the department’s Route 5
project been evaluated during the last TIP update, it would not necessarily
have ranked as a stronger project than another project on Route 5 in the City
of Albany. Kristina Younger voiced concern about the department’s Route 5 project
because it is in the middle of the BRT
route between Schenectady and Albany and must be designed with BRT in
mind. NYSDOT responded that the project
is a resurfacing project, not a reconstruction project. However, if the project goes forward, NYSDOT
committed to developing a scope with CDTA’s input.
After lengthy discussion and questions and answers about
funding streams, legalities of switching fund sources, etc., Steve Watts put forth a motion to evaluate the three STP projects
to confirm or reject their basic merit.
Members approved the motion.
OTHER
An additional Planning Committee will be held on
Wednesday June 27th at 9:30 am at CDTC’s
offices. The merit evaluations of the
three SDF projects will be reviewed at this meeting. It is expected that members will come to a
decision regarding the five project deferrals and the SDF/STP switch of
funds. CDTC staff will need adequate
turn-around time to perform the evaluations.
Members requested that the material be forwarded ahead of the next
meeting date, and indicated that an email format would be acceptable. If an agreement is reached on June 27th,
a Policy Board meeting will be scheduled for Thursday July 12th.
There being no other business, the meeting was adjourned
at 11:45 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
John P. Poorman
Secretary