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