PLANNING COMMITTEE MEETING

 

Meeting Minutes

February 6, 2008

 

 

MEMBERS ATTENDING

 

Melissa Ashline-Heil, City of Cohoes

Brandley Birge, City of Saratoga Springs

Frank Commisso, Albany Port Authority

Todd Fabozzi representing Rocky Ferraro, Capital District
  Regional Planning Commission

Steve Feeney, Schenectady County

Michael Franchini, Albany County (Chairman)

Fred Howard, Rensselaer County

George Laveille, Town of Bethlehem

Barbara McHugh, Town of Clifton Park

John Poorman, Capital District Transportation Committee (Secretary)

Dave Rettig, NYS Department of Transportation Region 1

Bill Roehr, City of Troy

Dede Rudolph, City of Albany

Mike Valentine, Saratoga County

Steve Watts, Town of Halfmoon

Kristina Younger, Capital District Transportation Authority (Vice-Chair)

 

STAFF AND OTHERS

 

Anne Benware, Capital District Transportation Committee

Frank Bonafide, NYSDOT Region 1

Rob Cherry, NYSDOT Region 1

Dave Jukins, Capital District Transportation Committee

Henry LaBarba, Town of East Greenbush

Teresa LaSalle, Capital District Transportation Committee

Doug Melnick, City of Albany

Sandy Misiewicz, Capital District Transportation Committee

Sree Nampoothiri, Capital District Transportation Committee

Fred Nero, Town of East Greenbush

Chris O’Neill, Capital District Transportation Committee

Glenn Posca, Capital District Transportation Committee

Jason Purvis, Capital District Transportation Committee

Deborah Stacey, Capital District Transportation Committee

Michael Wieszchowski, Laberge Group/Village of Colonie

 

 

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 9, 2008 Meeting Minutes

 

The meeting notes from the January 9thth meeting were approved with one minor correction.  Under Status of Planning Activities, CDTA asked that “in the vicinity of Exit 12” be changed to “Saratoga County”.

 

 

2008-10 UNIFIED PLANNING WORK PROGRAM

 

Approval of the Draft 2008-10 UPWP

 

The draft UPWP was distributed at the January Planning Committee meeting.  A revised draft was distributed to members prior to this meeting.  For public participation/input purposes, postcards were mailed to CDTC’s extensive mailing lists and the draft document was posted on the web.  Dave Rettig stated that Brian Rowback will likely make comments during the comment period; a meeting with Brian is scheduled for next week.  If substantive comments are received on the draft from NYSDOT or others, the document will be revised and will be reviewed again by this committee.  Otherwise, the draft document will be presented to the Policy Board for their approval at the March 6th meeting.  Members approved the 2008-10 UPWP with one abstention from NYSDOT. 

 

 

TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM

 

Project A473 Albany Waterfront/Corning Preserve Improvements

 

The City of Albany prepared a proposed amendment to the 2007-12 TIP which would add $4.8M to project A473 as demo funds.  The city apologized for the fact that this proposed amendment was not distributed with the mailout materials.  Project A473 originally received $6.8M from a federal earmark in 2005 but there was some confusion regarding the intended location of the project—Corning Preserve, Albany vs. Corning NY.  The project location for $2M of this earmark is still unresolved, but the $4.8M earmarked for the city of Albany was never added to the TIP.  Members approved the amendment.  The TIP will read $6.0M in demo funds and $0.250 in enhancement funds for the construction phase in 2008-9.

 

2007-12 TIP Set-Aside Solicitation Materials

 

At the January Planning Committee meeting, CDTC staff was directed to put together draft solicitation materials for four TIP set-asides — 1. Bicycle/Pedestrian projects  2. Intersections/Round-abouts/Queue Jumpers  3. ITS for Local Signals and  4. Safety for Non-State Roads.  The draft Project Justification Package (PJP) including specific evaluation criteria for each set-aside was developed and distributed to members.  Before discussion on the draft material occurred, information about the unexpected announcement of the Transportation Enhancement Program was distributed.  The deadline for the Enhancement Program is June 27, 2008.  This program announcement and deadline could impact the timeline of the Bicycle/Pedestrian set-aside, since there is overlap between the two programs.  After some discussion, members decided that the timeline for the bicycle/pedestrian set-aside should not be changed.  Discussion on the Intersections/Round- abouts/Queue Jumper Set-Aside followed.  Members agreed that all types of intersection improvements would be eligible, subject to CDTC’s New Visions roundabout principle.  New Visions clearly echoes NYSDOT’s policy that roundabouts will be considered first for all major intersection reconstruction projects, and be selected as the preferred alternative if the analysis shows it to be feasible.  Members approved the solicitations for all four set-asides, with the above corrections noted, the evaluation criteria and the schedule.

 

Options for Competitive Safety Set-Asides

 

Discussions turned to the safety set-aside and the two options that were considered at the January meeting. The two options were: 1) program/solicit for the CDTC Planning area only or 2) program/solicit for the Region 1 (eight counties) area.  CDTC and NYSDOT Region 1 staff met with AGFTC and representatives from Essex and Greene counties to iron out details of an 8-county solicitation.  CDTC staff also developed a CDTC only solicitation as instructed by the Planning Committee.  A comparison chart was also drafted highlighting the differences between the two approaches.  In general, the 8 county approach partly incorporates CDTC’s principles, but is less technically sophisticated.  Option 1 provides more room for judgment at this table.  After some discussion, Option 1 was approved by members with one abstention by NYSDOT.

 

The discussions moved to the solicitation itself.  Questions regarding eligible capital vs. operating costs, project minimum/maximums and linear vs. location specific projects were discussed at length.  It was suggested that projects be capped at $500,000 (federal) with overmatch allowed, that operating costs be disallowed and that projects must be location specific based on crash history.  The draft set-aside solicitation was approved with these three changes noted.

 

 

Discussion Items

 

NYSDOT PUBLIC HEARINGS

 

John Poorman distributed an invitation to members to attend NYSDOT’s Transportation Roundtable in Albany on February 15th. Nine roundtable sessions will be held across the state.  The theme of the February 15th roundtable is Energy and the Environment.  CDTC staff will present a local perspective on the theme.  Public comment will be limited to three minutes per speaker, but written comments will also be accepted.  Members are encouraged to attend.

 

 

STATUS OF PLANNING ACTIVITIES

 

The status was skipped in interest of ending this meeting by noon.

 

 

OTHER

 

CDTC’s four year certification is scheduled for mid-April.  A first CDTC Newsletter will be developed by April 1st.  Reviewers during the last certification requested that CDTC develop a newsletter.  The newsletter will be available in both hard copy and electronic format.

 

There being no other business, the meeting was adjourned at 12:10 p.m.  There is a Policy Board meeting scheduled for March 6th.  The April Planning Committee meeting will be held on April 2nd.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

 

 

 

John P. Poorman

Secretary