PLANNING
COMMITTEE MEETING
Meeting Minutes
February 4, 2009
Bradley Birge, City of Saratoga Springs
Wayne Bonesteel, representing Fred Howard, Rensselaer County
Peter Comenzo, Town of Rotterdam
Frank Commisso, Albany Port Commission
Rocco Ferraro, Capital District Regional Planning Commission
Stephen Feeney, Schenectady County
Michael Franchini, Albany County (Chairman)
Robert Hansen, NYS Department of Transportation Region 1
Melissa Ashline-Heil, City of Cohoes
Barbara McHugh, Town of Clifton Park
Mike Morelli, Town of Bethlehem
Rosemary Nichols, City of Watervliet
Bill Roehr, City of Troy
Dede Rudolph, City of Albany
Phil Serafino, representing
Bill Rinaldi, NYS Thruway Authority
Bernie Sisson, City of Schenectady
Mike Valentine, Saratoga County
Steve Watts, Town of Halfmoon
Kristina Younger, Capital District Transportation Authority (Vice-Chair)
STAFF AND OTHERS
Yan Babichenko, NYS Department of Transportation
Cory Barringer, NYS Department of Transportation
Anne Benware, Capital District Transportation Committee
Frank Bonafide, NYS Department of Transportation Region 1
Rob Cherry, NYS Department of Transportation Region 1
Mayor Jim Gaughan, Village
of Altamont
Jonathan Golon, NYS Department of Transportation
Shelly Johnston, Creighton Manning Engineering
David Jukins, Capital District Transportation Committee
Doug Melnick, City of Albany
Sandra Misiewicz, Capital District Transportation Committee
Mary Ann Mariotti, NYS Department of Transportation Region 1
Sree Nampoothiri, Capital District Transportation Committee
Chris O’Neill, Capital District Transportation Committee
Jeffrey Oswald, NYS Department of Transportation
Glenn Posca, Capital District Transportation Committee
Jason Purvis, Capital District Transportation Committee
Paul Reuss, Village
of Menands
Deborah Stacey, Capital
District Transportation Committee
Amy Varia, NYS Department of Transportation
Michael Wieszchowski, Laberge
Group
Karen Williams, NYS Department of Transportation Region 1
VISITORS ISSUES
Chairman Franchini opened the meeting at approximately 9:35 am. There were no
visitor’s issues.
Action Items
ADMINISTRATION
Approval
of the January 21,
2008 Meeting Minutes
The meeting notes from the January 21st meeting were approved. Mike Valentine mentioned after the meeting that his name was left off
the attendance list in the meeting notes.
This will be corrected.
Election
of Officers
Members nominated Mike Franchini
for the chairperson position and Kristina Younger as vice-chair.
Nominees accepted and were unanimously approved by members.
2008-10 ADDENDUM TO THE UNIFIED
PLANNING WORK PROGRAM
Dave Jukins reviewed the policies that govern the UPWP development
and adoption. The UPWP is revised and
adopted every two years, and amendments to the two year UPWP are typically
presented to the committee in February of the “off” year. Several transportation planning and
programming activities are proposed for addition to the 2008-10 UPWP, these are
described in member’s packages. In
addition, the Mitigation Cost Shared Cost Initiative has been deleted from the
NYSMPO program (and CDTC’s UPWP) due to current statewide budget constraints. Members approved the addendum to the 2008-10
UPWP.
2007-12 TRANSPORTATION
IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM AMENDMENTS
A440--Delaware
Avenue Reconstruction
Due to budget constraints, the limits of this project
were previously shortened (ending at Morton Ave rather than Madison Ave). The city would
like to extend the project limits to their original limits, in hopes that the
Federal Stimulus Package will fund the $2.99M incremental cost to do so. This project is currently out for Bid. NYSDOT Region 1 fully supports this project
(at it’s original limits) because it is a major bus route that serves the
corridor and the extension of the project limits is through the most depressed
section of the corridor, which addresses Environmental Justice concerns. Members approved the amendment with the
understanding that the extension would only be funded with stimulus funds, not
STP-Flex if stimulus funding is not available.
A437—Hudson Mohawk Bike Trail Bridge
The City of Cohoes requested an increase of $66,000 in funding for TIP
project A437 to cover inspection and design costs of the Black Bridge which provides a bike/ped connection between Cohoes and Green Island. This project,
when programmed on the 2007-12 TIP was capped at $530,000. Members discussed the implications of
removing the cap on this project and were not comfortable with the precedents
it might set. Consequently, members
recommended that the city shift $66,000 from the construction phase to the
engineering phase of the project to determine the actual
construction cost of the project. Members indicated that this issue could be
revisited if the remaining construction funds are not adequate to complete the
project.
Economic
Stimulus Package
Mayor Gaughan from Altamont attended this Planning Committee meeting in response to the draft list of stimulus
candidates that was released for public review subsequent to the January 21st Planning
Committee meeting. The Mayor acknowledged the difficulty that
the Committee has had in responding to the immediate call for projects under
the Stimulus Program in an environment where rules and funding amounts are in a
state of constant flux. That being said,
the Mayor questioned how a small entity, like the Village
of Altamont, would be able to get a project on the final stimulus
list. The Mayor indicated that the village had several candidates, one which
was a recommendation of a recent Linkage Study.
Dave Jukins responded that the Mayor should submit a letter in
response to the public review notice that was placed on CDTC’s website. Several members reminded the Mayor that
projects must be shovel ready and must follow strict federal guidelines in
terms of environmental and ROW review. The mayor responded that he thought his project
would meet federal criteria. The Mayor
will submit a formal letter which will be reviewed by Committee members at the February
18th Planning Committee meeting.
David Jukins distributed a list of seven “Economic Stimulus program
Unresolved Issues” to be discussed.
1.
Public Outreach: as
promised, CDTC placed the draft list of stimulus candidates on their website
for public review on January 22nd.
2.
Re-programming STP-Enhancement Projects: At the last
meeting, a question was raised regarding the feasibility/desirability of funding
STP-Enhancement projects with stimulus funds.
Dave reported that if an enhancement project is funded with
stimulus funds, the Enhancement Funds that are “left on the table” will not
necessarily be re-programmed for projects located in the Capital District. The
only benefit would be to localities, since they would save the 20% match. But giving back enhancement dollars could
affect future enhancement funding for the region. Projects costing a lot more than what was
programmed in the enhancement program could, however, be good candidates for
stimulus funds.
3.
Batchellerville Bridge Funding Deficit: The options for this project will be discussed at the
next Planning Committee meeting. It is
hoped that more information from the FHWA regarding mixing core and stimulus
funds; there is also a possibility that there will be a separate pot of money
for large statewide projects, such as the Batchellerville Bridge.
4.
What Happens To “Regular” Federal Funds Replaced By
Stimulus Money?: Preliminary Stimulus
information suggests that the region needs to spend this year’s committed
federal program in addition to any Stimulus monies that we receive. This means
that projects programmed in the TIP’s second and third year will likely be
accelerated, assuming that many of the first year projects will remain on the
Stimulus list. The house bill requires
states to spend at least 50% of their stimulus dollars by August 14th. If some states do not reach this threshold,
then their remaining stimulus dollars will be re-distributed to states that do
meet the threshold.
5.
TIP Programming-Project Prioritization: Members discussed how the stimulus projects could be
shown in the TIP. One option would be to
prioritize the list and include a combination of projects that would not exceed
available stimulus funds. A second
option would establish a stimulus set-aside from which projects that are ready
to go are funded. Drawing down on the
set-aside would require Planning Committee action, but not Policy Board
action. The options will be discussed
further at the February 18th Planning Committee meeting.
6.
Stimulus Project Selection Documentation: Glenn Posca distributed documentation of how the Committee has gone
about project selection for projects funded with economic stimulus
funding. Committee members perused the
document and suggested that Item 7 be re-worded, since many projects on the
list were on the TIP and had “merit” as such.
7.
Amendment to add AMTRAK Double-tracking Project: CDTC’s policy is to provide information about TIP
amendments prior to the date that the Committee meets, so this amendment will
be voted on at the next Planning Committee meeting. However, as background, this project was on
CDTC’s TIP and was removed because of the lack of funding. The Federal Rail Road Administration will
also be distributing stimulus funds for RR projects, so this is a good
candidate to put back on the TIP. The
double tracking between Albany and Schenectady would alleviate the majority of delays that AMTRAK
faces in this stretch of their Empire Corridor.
David Jukins distributed a summary of the rules of the Stimulus
program regarding economically distressed area.
CDRPC and CDTC staff prepared maps displaying economically distressed
census tracts within the region and overlaid the candidate Stimulus projects
located within these areas. The results
of this exercise and implications will be discussed at the February 18th
Committee meeting.
TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT
PROGRAM UPDATE
Two new handouts were distributed to members to aid in
the discussion of the TIP update. These
handouts are in addition to the tables that have been distributed during the
last few Planning Committee meetings.
Table 4, distributed for the January 7th Planning
Committee meeting was discussed. Table 4
was approved with no corrections.
The handout summarizing Regional Projects was prepared
to make Table 5 easier to
assimilate. It was recommended that RG23, RG27, RG29, RG31, and RG40 should be
fully replenished. RG102 is correct as
it appears in the TIP. It was recommended to treat RG96 in the TIP listing
similar to the Section 5310 program. Discussions on RG37, RG37A and RG101 will
be deferred until February 18th.
Table 5 was approved with the changes noted above.
Discussions moved to Table 6, Interstate Maintenance (IM) projects, in the previously
distributed material. Project A370 has been completed and should be removed
from the TIP. All projects listed in
Table 6, except project A370 were approved for inclusion in the TIP.
Table 7 lists the region’s HBRR projects. Several changes were noted: Project 2 (SA104)
is based on old data and should be removed from the table. This project will be discussed at the
mid-February meeting. Project #47 (A476)
will be funded with DEMO funds, so this project should be removed from Table
7. Projects #48 and #52 are both rolling
off the TIP and should be removed as they are complete. Project #51 should be placed back on the TIP at its
original cost. Members approved Table 7
with these changes noted.
CDTA distributed a handout identifying proposed changes
to programming of transit projects. This
handout, and the previously distributed Table
15, provides a snapshot of CDTA’s projects.
Table 15 was approved, with the noted changes in the transit projects (T
prefix) in the handout.
Table 8 was reviewed.
Since the changes to the Transit (T) projects were taken care of using
Table 15 and the handout from CDTA, these projects were ignored in Table 8.
Discussion regarding use of CMAQ funds for project #8, SA133—replacement buses
for CDTA’s NX service centered on the appropriateness of programming CMAQ funds
for the portion of the project that was initially programmed in the post TIP. CDTA made the case the NX service on the
Northway fulfills many transportation objectives, and that the buses to be
replaced are at the end of their useful life (12 years). Replacement of the buses is essential to
continue the service. Members approved
projects, #1, 5, 8, 12 and 16. Project #15
rolls off the TIP, and action on Project #11 (SA 133—South Broadway/Ballston Avenue) was deferred, pending additional information.
Time ran out to discuss the remaining tables (Tables
9-14). These will be discussed at the
next Planning Committee meeting. Options
for funding the Batchellerville Bridge will also be discussed, as will any comments received
on the candidate list of stimulus projects.
The mid-month February Planning Committee meeting is
scheduled for Wednesday February 18th at 9:30am.
There being no other business, the meeting was adjourned
at 12:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
John P. Poorman
Secretary