PLANNING COMMITTEE MEETING
Meeting Minutes
Brad Birge, City of
Judy Breselor, City of
Peter Comenzo, Town of
Steve Feeney,
Rocky Ferraro, Capital District Regional Planning Commission
Michael Franchini,
Steve Iachetta,
Barbara McHugh, Town of
Marybeth Pettit, City of
Dave Rettig, NYSDOT Region 1
Joe Rich,
Dede Rudolph, City of
Denise Sheehan, Town of
Bernard Sisson, City of
Michael Valentine.
Steve Watts, Town of
Kristina Younger, Capital
District Transportation Authority
STAFF AND OTHERS
Frank Bonafide, NYSDOT Region
1
Sandra Misiewicz, Capital
District Transportation Committee
Jim Rivers, City of
John Stangle, Town of
Steve Szanto, Creighton
Manning
INTRODUCTION AND VISITORS
ISSUES
Chairman Franchini opened the meeting with introductions
at
Action Items
ADMINISTRATION
Approval
of the
The minutes of the
2008 – 2009 LINKAGE PROGRAM
Members were asked to review and consider approving the
solicitation material for the Linkage Program included in the meeting mail out. The material is basically the same as last
year’s solicitation package except that the term access management was added to
the strategy regarding improving street connectivity and reducing driveway
conflicts to make it clear that access management plans are an eligible
activity under the program.
The City of
As the next Unified Work Program
(UPWP), covering 2008 – 2010, is being developed the issue of appropriate
Linkage study scale and other issues will be revisited at least for the second
year (2009 – 2010). Also to be considered at that time is the apparent intent
by NYSDOT to engage in land use and transportation planning studies as there
may be an opportunity to combine funding and coordination efforts with the
possibility of being able to undertake a broader range and scale of studies.
The Linkage Program package, as
contained in the meeting mail out, including the proposed schedule, with the
addition of $25,000 added back in from the City of
2007-2012 TRANSPORTATION
IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM
A. Changes to the
Draft TIP Listings
Updates to two projects included
in the draft 2007 – 12 TIP were distributed in the meeting mail out and relate
to projects A432 (HBRR) and SA229. Action
was not required.
B. Evaluation of Proposed NYSDOT Projects
1. Rt. 2:
2. Rt. 5:
The purpose of the evaluations was to provide some
context against other projects evaluated during past TIP updates.
Discussion began regarding the evaluation of the
proposed Rt. 5 project in the Town and
Dave reported that the meeting produced a good exchange
of information and that the group agreed to:
examine the area from curb to curb within the proposed project limits
and determine what elements in addition to pavement rehabilitation could be
incorporated into the project consistent with both Town and Village plans. Denise Sheehan reminded the Planning
Committee of the documented pedestrian safety problem, and expressed hope that
it could be addressed within the scope of the proposed project. Elements might include items such as
pedestrian countdown timers at signalized intersections and other features to
improve the pedestrian environment, and potentially re-striping lanes to
improve the bicycling travel environment.
It was pointed out that as redevelopment proposals come
before the Town and Village there may be opportunities for driveway
consolidations if there were an access management plan; there is a potential to
incorporate such consolidations into the proposed project.
There was concern expressed over the 10 to 12 year life
of a rehabilitation project and that once the pavement was rehabilitated NYSDOT
would not be coming back again to the corridor in this section. NYSDOT agreed that they would design the
project in such a way as to not preclude or foreclose on the ability to
construct the queue jumpers or to further modify the roadway consistent with the
Route 5 Corridor Study and subsequent local plans; NYSDOT agreed to work with
CDTA to advance the queue jumper projects.
It was pointed out that the City of Albany’s Central
Avenue project is primarily a rehabilitation project and it’s design was
required to incorporate BRT, pedestrian and bicycle accommodation
features.
The option of phasing this project was introduced
whereby the pavement project would be considered a first phase with a second
phase competing for TIP funds at a future update. This second phase would be intended to
accomplish other needed roadway changes that would require going outside the
curb to curb area such as driveway consolidation, shared access, etc. which
would be of a more significant cost than the current proposed project budget. Should the project compete in a future TIP
update, the costs and benefits related to the first phase would be used in the
merit evaluation.
After
further discussion by members it was decided that all NYSDOT proposed projects would
be addressed as a package. Regarding the
Rt. 2 project in
A motion was
presented as follows:
1) The two NHS (R254, S177) and three HBRR (A 431,
A467, SA220) projects are recommended to remain in the first three years of the
2007-12 TIP as previously recommended by the
2) The two SDF-to-STP ( Rt. 2:
Brunswick Town Line to Grafton State Park and Rt. 5: Central Avenue, from Rt. 155 to C.R. 156,
Fuller Rd. in the Town and Village of Colonie)(and one SDF-to-HBRR)
projects proposed by NYSDOT Region 1 for use of advance construction funds are
recommended for addition to the draft 2007-12 TIP as requested by NYSDOT. It is the intent of CDTC that this be the
final occurrence of federal funding being made available solely for the
projects of one sponsor. (The first time
this was done was for the NY 7 Reconstruction/Resurfacing project in
Schenectady (S172) in June 2004.)
3) It is recommended that CDTC submit its strong concerns
on the conflict between CDTC’s principles and
Additionally, the
1) A design steering committee
will be appointed that will have input into the project design.
2) NYSDOT will try to accommodate
some New Visions/ NY5 Land Use and Transportation Plan / BRT / Village
streetscape design features between curbs. The project will not be
re-scoped, but thoughtful consideration will be given to these features.
3) A second phase of this
project can be introduced as a project candidate (without prejudicial status)
at the next project solicitation. The second phase could be for New
Visions design features not incorporated into the project approved at the
2007-12 TIP Update (phase one), and would be evaluated along with phase one as
one project. The costs and benefits would be combined into one project
for the purpose of evaluation and consideration against other candidates.
4) A ($230,000) Corridor
Management Initiative project (RG 31) will be initiated to identify an access
management plan for the NY 5 corridor.
Regarding
Rt. 2, incorporate bicycle access to
Proposed Conversion of CMAQ to STP
for the
A brief
summary was provided detailing FHWA’s communication with NYSDOT that based on
new guidance CMAQ money cannot be spent on the TMC operations after three years
of funding the same project. NYSDOT has
proposed converting CMAQ funding to STP funds to support the TMC. Members discussed that SAFETEA-LU allows such
fund source conversions and that since the project is already on the TIP and works
to maintain air quality and manage congestion in the region there is not an
issue with a conversion. However, Joe
Rich offered that FHWA would likely be able to approve the continued use of
CMAQ funds for the TMC due to the Capital District’s good history of making
progress on managing congestion through the TMC and the fact that DEC is
pursuing changing the designation of the region to that of an air quality
maintenance area. Because CMAQ funds would support maintaining what the region
is already doing, the discussion concluded that there would be no need to
convert CMAQ to STP at this time. No
action was required.
Other/Upcoming Meetings
There being
no other business, the meeting was adjourned at
Respectfully
submitted,