PLANNING COMMITTEE MEETING

Meeting Minutes

July 7, 2010

 

MEMBERS ATTENDING

 

Melissa Ashline-Heil, City of Cohoes

Susan Barden, City of Saratoga Springs

Wayne Bonesteel, Rensselaer County

Peter Comenzo, Town of Rotterdam

Kevin Corcoran, Town of Glenville

Steve Feeney, Schenectady County

Rocky Ferraro, Capital District Regional Planning Commission

Michael Franchini, Albany County (Chairman)

Robert Hansen, NYS Department of Transportation Region 1

Steve Iachetta, Albany County Airport Authority

Andrew Kreshik, City of Troy

Rosemary Nichols, City of Watervliet

Marybeth Pettit, City of Rensselaer

John Poorman, Capital District Transportation Committee (Secretary)

Paul Reuss, Village of Menands

Deidre Rudolph, City of Albany

Phil Serafino, representing Bill Rinaldi, NYS Thruway Authority

Michael Valentine, Saratoga County

Steve Watts, Town of Halfmoon

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

 

STAFF AND OTHERS

 

Eric Alexopoulos, Erdman Anthony

Frank Bonafide, NYS Department of Transportation Region 1

Jennifer Ceponis, Capital District Transportation Committee

Rob Cherry, NYSDOT Region 1

Joe Cimino, Clough Harbour and Associoates

Devin DalPos, Southwest Neighborhood Association Saratoga Springs

Shelley Johnston, Creighton Manning

David Jukins, Capital District Transportation Committee

Tammy Kirkwood, GMB Engineers & Planners

Mary Anne Mariotti, NYS Department of Transportation

Fred Mastroianni, Greenman-Pederson, Inc

Sandra Misiewicz, Capital District Transportation Committee

Larry Mulvaney, NYSDOT Region 1

Sree Nampoothiri, Capital District Transportation Committee

Jason Penge, NYS Office of parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation

Omar Peters, Capital District Transportation Committee

Glenn Posca, Capital District Transportation Committee

Jason Purvis, Capital District Transportation Committee

Heidi Romines, NYSDOT Region 1

Deb Stacey, Capital District Transportation Committee

Karen Williams, NYS Department of Transportation Region 1

Gary Zeh, Town of Rensselaerville

 

VISITORS ISSUES

 

Chairman Franchini opened the meeting at approximately 9:35 am.  Devin DalPos from the Southwest Neighborhood Association in Saratoga Springs addressed the Committee.  Mr. DalPos advocated for members to approve TIP candidate SA55.  The Geyser Road Trail connects Milton with the Saratoga State park, the Zim Smith Trail, the Geyser Road Elementary School, the YMCA and the Saratoga Springs High School.

 

Mr. Penge from the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historical Preservation also advocated for the Geyser Road Trail project.  Mr. Penge is involved in the Route 50 Southern Corridor Study and stated that the Geyser Road Trail project is a recommendation of this study.

 

Gary Zeh from the town of Rensselaerville requested funding consideration of the Route 85 project in the hamlet of Rensselaerville.

 

 

ACTION ITEMS

 

ADMINISTRATION

 

Approval of the May 5, 2010 Meeting Minutes

 

Wayne Bonesteel noted that the comment on page 4 of the May 5th meeting notes was erroneously attributed to him (Wayne was not present at the May meeting). The minutes from the May 5, 2010 will be amended to reflect this error.  Members approved the May 5th meeting notes with the understanding that this discrepancy will be fixed.

 

 

UNIFIED PLANNING WORK PROGRAM`

 

NYSMPO Staff Support for Shared Cost Initiative (SCI)

 

The proposed amendment to the 2010-2011 UPWP would add $2,475 in FTA Section 5303 funds to the NYS MPOs Shared Cost Initiative to support NYSMPO staff costs.  This amount is the difference from what was shown in CDTC’s 2010/2011 UPWP and the actual FTA allocation.  Members approved this amendment.

 

Addition of Town of Wilton to the 2010-11 Linkage Program

 

At the February 10, 2010 meeting, members reserved a portion of the 2010-11 Linkage Program funds for the town of Wilton project, but asked staff to follow-up with the town to determine their commitment to the study.  The Town signed a resolution stating that they want to pursue the study, and acknowledged that this commitment will continue even after Kate Maynard, their Town Planner, leaves the town to pursue other career paths.  Project oversight will be CDTC staff responsibility.  Members approved this study as an addition to the 2010-11 Linkage Program.

 

Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant Application

 

HUD released the funding opportunity for Sustainable Communities.  CDRPC and CDTC staffs are working on the application.  The grant would augment CDTC’s New Visions work to include housing, social equity and economic development.  The minimum grant allocation is $500,000 and the maximum is $5,000,000.  The Capital Region will be competing with large urban areas, such as Chicago, since the Capital Region falls into the >500,000 population category.  Grant applications are due August 23rd.  A resolution of support will be required as part of the application; the resolution will be drafted by the August 4th Planning Committee meeting.

 

TIGER II Grant Application

 

CDTA resubmitted BRT Route 5 infrastructure components for the infrastructure piece of this grant opportunity.  There is also a planning component of which municipalities will be made aware.  Round three of the High Speed Rail Funding is due at the end of August; CDTA will apply for monies to rehabilitate the Schenectady Train Station.

 

 

2010-15 TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM UPDATE

 

Approval of Air Quality Conformity Analysis

 

Chris O’Neill completed the Air Quality Conformity Analysis for the 2010-15 TIP.  The Conformity Analysis was developed cooperatively with A/GFTC and NYSDOT.  The analysis indicates that the 2010-15 TIP and New Visions Plan will improve air quality in the Capital Region.  At the June 3rd meeting, the CDTC Policy Board delegated authority to the Planning committee to approve the conformity document.  Members approved the document.

 

Completion of Round 2 Programming for the 2010-15 TIP

 

Table 1 contained in members’ mailout material provides a concise summary of the projects that have been funded through Round 1 and the preliminary phase of Round 2 programming.  At the May Planning Committee meeting, members discussed programming targets for Round 2.  It was decided that a minimum of $20M of Round 2 funding would be programmed for Pavement and Bridges. 

 

John Poorman reminded the committee that a large programming budget was put on the table so that the region would be well poised if a funding windfall were to occur.  Mike Franchini and several other committee members voiced concern about programming additional projects for a 6 to 9 year time frame as the shelf life of the proposals, costs and evaluations is less than six to nine years.  After some discussion, members agreed to suspend Round 2 programming for a minimum of six months, to allow time for federal legislation and other issues to become better resolved.  CDTC staff was instructed to notify the project sponsors of this decision.

 

Secretary’s Note: the whole approach, magnitude, timing of the TIP solicitation and programming was authorized by the Policy Board.  Consequently, suspension requires Policy Board concurrence.

 

 

2010-15 TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM AMENDMENTS

 

Changes to the TIP Project Listings Not Requiring Planning Committee Approval

 

NYSDOT and CDTC staffs met to discuss project detail for TIP listings that is now required by FHWA for the STIP submission.  The first page of the handout (replacing the same titled page in the mailout) identifies text and other minor changes to the TIP listings that require no action by the Planning Committee. A question remains regarding the accuracy of the Erie Blvd project (S177), but does not require Planning Committee action.

 

Changes to the TIP Project Listings Requiring Planning Committee Approval

 

The second page of the handout (replacing the same titled page in the mailout) identifies changes to the TIP listings that require Planning Committee action. CDTA noted that TIP project T83 should be listed in the committed column of the 2010-15 TIP and should be removed from the rollover list. The dates “2012-13” identified for R279 in the section “Move to Committed Column” should be struck from that description.  Members approved the changes to the TIP Project Listings noted in the handout, with the changes to T83 and R279 noted.

 

Discussion of Other Issues Regarding Submission of TIP data for Inclusion in the STIP

 

The NYSDOT Main Office has developed a new mechanism for electronic submission of the TIP to the STIP.  The Program Support System (PSS) is an in-house NYSDOT database that captures all of CDTC’s TIP listings.  The PSS data and the 2010-2015 TIP will be compared manually; some differences will likely be noted.  Some action might be required by the Planning Committee to amend the TIP listings.  FHWA is also requiring a standardized TIP project description.  TIP Project descriptions have been modified (as discussed above); some additional tweaking might be necessary.

 

 

STATUS OF PLANNING ACTIVITIES

 

CDTC

 

CDTC has been honored as an award winner of the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) and Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) 2010 Transportation Planning Excellence Awards (TPEA) Program, which is co-sponsored by the American Planning Association. CDTC’s entry “Implementing the Regional Plan: The Community and Transportation Linkage Planning Program” was selected from among more than 90 nominations. CDTC will receive the award at the Transportation Research Board’s Joint Summer Meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Sunday, July 11, 2010. Jason Purvis will accept the award on behalf of CDTC.  The summer edition of CDTC’s newsletter, In Motion, was published and will be distributed shortly.  Jason Purvis noted that the standard meeting time for the Bicycle/Pedestrian Task Force meetings has been moved from 4:30 pm to 9:00 am.

 

CDRPC

 

CDRPC participated in the 2010 Census outreach efforts.  The response rate from two thirds of the Capital District Communities matched or exceeded the response rate achieved during the 2000 Census.  Fifty percent of the communities in the region had a response rate of 80% or greater.  The Town of Charlton had the highest response rate (89%).

 

CDTA

 

Kristina Younger reported that CDTA has been monitoring the response to and the effects of the major schedule changes that went into effect in Schenectady in May.  So far, the new route structure seems to be working well.  A public participation plan is being developed for implementation in the fall; this plan will gather input from Albany residents regarding a major, budget neutral route restructuring effort for the routes in the city and County.  CDTA has moved forward with the Regional Park and Ride Lot consultant study; BFJ has been awarded the $300,000 study.

 

NYSDOT

 

The NYS Early Retirement incentive is likely to have a huge impact on NYSDOT staffing.  Over 1100 employees have submitted paperwork for early retirement.  The NYS Legislature passed a one year budget for NYSDOT so that construction projects can continue. To deal with budget cutbacks, the department must adjust the 1R projects by August 24th.  NYSDOT distributed a list of recent state let projects; bids are coming in lower than TIP Cost Estimates for the majority of projects.

 

NYSTA

 

NYSTA will let two projects later this month—one for repaving and construction work on the Thruway between Coxsackie and Exit 23 and the second for the reconstruction of the Thruway between Exits 23 and 24.

 

 

 

 

Albany County Airport Authority

 

The Airport just received a bid on a runway paving job; the bid is higher than expected.  The Latham Water tank project is rolling forward; the tank will be removed in October.

 

 

OTHER

 

There being no other business, the meeting was adjourned at 11:50 a.m.  The next Planning Committee meeting is scheduled for August 4, 2010.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

 

 

John P. Poorman

Secretary