Transportation Committee
RECORD OF
MEETING
WORKING
GROUP C
DATE/TIME/PLACE:
ATTENDANCE: Ken MacIntosh
(Senator Clinton’s office); Frank Gilmore (SRG Architects); Dave Rettig (NYSDOT); Jack Reilly (CDTA); Ralph Pascale (City of Cohoes);
DISCUSSION SUMMARY:
· A status report was given on
the New Visions 2030 plan update, including the work of the Quality Region Task
Force.
· A brief review was given of
the role of the other four working groups established for the New Visions plan
update including a description of their mission statements.
· A review of the expanded
mission statement for Working Group C was given and everyone agreed that it
outlined an appropriate method to answering the costs and benefits of potential
major investments in the Capital Region.
· The floor was then opened up
for comments on the 11 candidate concepts summarized as potential major
investments for the Capital Region.
· There was agreement that the
research should try to understand the how and why behind the initiatives in the
case studies – politics, etc. This may
require discussions or interviews with players in the communities.
· Frank Gilmore stated that
these big initiatives do not appear to be likely candidates for the Capital
Region given the slow growth of this region.
· Dave Rettig
wanted to know who would be the audience for this work. He was concerned that someone one grab on to
one of the big ticket ideas and start discussing it as a true regional
initiative. John Poorman responded that
how the information is presented will be an important aspect of the work of
Group C so as to avoid confusion.
· Ralph Pascale
was concerned about how we would find out the real way these initiatives came
about or happened. The group felt that
this would be possible through a combination of the project’s literature and
discussions with local officials directly involved with these projects.
· Ken MacIntosh
stated that it is important when reviewing major initiatives to ask the
question, “What do we need?”
· Jack Reilly indicated that
it was key to find out what triggered these
initiatives.
· These initiatives also
triggered a discussion about whether or not they occurred as a result of a
crisis or if they occurred because they had a champion. The general consensus amongst the group was
that big things only happen with big champions.
This led to the question of who were the champions for these
initiatives. Is there a Capital Region
champion?
· There was discussion of the
audience for the work, both in terms of an audience that would question the
feasibility of entertaining major initiatives in the current fiscal climate and
in terms of a concern for an audience that would jump to conclusions that CDTC
is advocating these concepts. There was
agreement that how the material is presented is critical.
· There was discussion of the
interest of Congressional representatives for big ideas for which the Capital
District needs help.
· The final topic of
discussion was identifying other major initiatives that need to be researched
for the next meeting. These initiatives
included: people mover/AGT, major
riverfront reclamation, major freight initiative, major highway system
expansion, toll road construction, the NYC Air Train project, and truck lane
concept.
ACTION ITEMS:
· Sandy Misiewicz and Shelley
Lang will research and create one-page fact sheets for the following type of
major investment initiatives:
· People Mover/AGT
· Major Riverfront Reclamation
(Baltimore/Chattanooga?)
· Major Freight Initiative
· Major Highway System
Expansion (
· Toll Road Construction
(emphasizing private investment)
· NYC Air Train Project
· Investigate
NEXT MEETING: