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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05/16/2016 Work Session a City of Springfield Work Session Meeting MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD MONDAY MAY 16, 2016 The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Library Meeting Room, 225 Fifth Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Monday May 16, 2016 at 6:00 p.m.,with Mayor Lundberg presiding. ATTENDANCE Present were Mayor Lundberg and Councilors Wylie,Moore, Ralston, and Woodrow. Also present were City Manager Gino Grimaldi, Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery, City Attorney Mary Bridget Smith, City Recorder Amy Sowa and members of the staff. Councilors VanGordon and Pishioneri were absent(excused) 1. Sanipac Rate Increase Request. Anette Spickard, Development and Public Works Director, presented the staff report on this item. Sanipac, the City's franchise hauler for solid waste, has requested an increase of 1.79 percent for residential and commercial hauling rates. This request is due to an increase approved by Lane County for the charges imposed for disposal of solid waste at the Short Mountain Landfill(tipping fee). In March 2016 the Board of County Commissioners determined that the rate imposed on solid waste haulers for disposal of waste at the Short Mountain landfill should be increased by $1.22 per ton to a new total of$76.77 per ton, effective July 1, 2016. The County's new fee structure also includes an automatic CPI increase to the tipping fee each year hereafter. Under section 16.4.b of the City's franchise agreement with Sanipac, Sanipac is allowed to pass through the cost of county tipping fee increases to Springfield customers. The proposed increase represents an increase of$0.05 per month on the 21 and 35 gallon cart, $0.10 per month for a 65 gallon cart, $0.15 per month for a 95 gallon cart, and $0.40 per month for a 1-Yard container. Sanipac last increased its rates in November 2014 and is permitted to request increases annually but is not asking for an increase this year beyond the cost of the new county tipping fee. Sanipac has requested that the increase be effective July 1, 2016 to coincide with the effective date of the county's fee. Council is scheduled to hold a public hearing and vote on the increase at tonight's regular meeting. Ms. Spickard described the increases for the different size carts. Councilor Moore said she appreciated that they asked for only a small increase. She asked when they would be discussing the move and closure of the transfer station. Ms. Spickard said Lane County is going through a 20-year Master Plan which includes an evaluation of moving the transfer station. The consultant's report was recently completed for the initial (NC) City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes May 16, 2016 Page 2 evaluation. That report will go to the Lane County Board of Commissioners in June or July. The discussion with the Commissioners will give staff direction on which parts of the consultant's recommendation they would like to move forward. City staff has been attending stakeholder meetings and receiving information, and saw the initial recommendation last month. Once staff has more specific details, she will provide the information in a Communication Packet for the Council. This will not affect the proposed rates. 2. Main Street/McVay Highway Transit Study Phase 2 Update. Tom Boyatt, Community Development Manager, and Emma Newman, Transportation Planner, presented the staff report on this item. Phase 2 of the Main—McVay Transit Study seeks to identify a Locally Preferred Solution to implement EmX bus rapid transit on Main Street and South 'A' St between the Lane Transit District Springfield Station and the Thurston Station at Bob Straub Parkway; and Enhanced Bus treatments on McVay Highway south through Glenwood to Lane Community College. The Project is a joint effort between the City of Springfield and LTD to evaluate and select the most promising transit and associated roadway improvements to address growing concerns about roadway safety, congestion, and quality of life in the corridor. In March staff provided Council with information about intensive efforts to reach out to Main Street business and property owners to share the narrowed range of solutions proposed by the Governance Team(GT). Since that time, staff has worked hard to associate every address along the Main Street/S. A Street corridor with a business name and phone number. In April staff began contacting all the businesses by phone to explain the project and offer to visit with each business and/or property owner. As of early May, staff had identified 325 businesses along Main Street and S.A Street. Over 450 phone calls have been made, and contact was established with 253 businesses leading to over 35 sit down meetings with owners or managers so far in the process. In several cases,multiple discussions have occurred with the same business owner as they have had a chance to absorb and think about the information and bring more detailed questions to the discussion. Staff is continuing to identify correct business names and phone numbers for businesses not yet reached. The week of May 2nd the Project partners began mailing letters to each identified business and property owner on Main Street east of 21' St, and next week similar mail will go out to the Main Street/South A Street business and property owners between 21st and Stn Streets. Each outreach letter contains an invitation to meet with project staff, a summary of the study, a description of the narrowed options being considered, cross section diagrams, and an aerial image of the address range of the recipient that shows the approximate location of widening as proposed. The letter for the two-way segment of Main Street also includes sketches of the concepts for that area. The Council Briefing Memo included in the agenda packet provides information about project design concepts forwarded by the Governance Team (GT) for public consideration and an initial summary of input and feedback received to date. Staff expects to continue to schedule one-on-one meetings with businesses and property owners once they receive the outreach letter inviting them to meet. These meetings will continue throughout spring and will start focusing on more design solutions oriented discussions throughout summer. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes May 16,2016 Page 3 Mr. Boyatt said this project is part of a larger ongoing effort in the metro area to determine which corridor to implement EmX. LTD is studying Main/McVay and several corridors in Eugene. The transit study for Main/McVay is grounded in the City's ongoing efforts to address citizen requests to make Main Street safer, and to address our growing population, congestion and community changes. The outreach has helped establish contacts with 100s of businesses and over 50 face-to-face meetings have occurred to date. There are many other meetings being scheduled. Mr. Boyatt said the City provided the consultant team with the City's standards for arterial roadways with a minimum 7-foot sidewalk, 5-foot landscape strip and 12 foot travel lanes. In an effort to address roadway safety and reduce speeds,they also provided standards for separated bike facility of 9 feet, a center raised median at 8 feet in a roundabout corridor, or 12 feet in a signalized corridor. Ms.Newman distributed a document showing safety figures for those concepts. Mr. Boyatt said currently the two-way corridor of Main Street is generally 80 feet,wider in some locations. Within that 80 feet are two sidewalks (between 5-7 feet), five foot bike lanes, four eleven- foot travel lanes, and one 12-foot center turn lane. The design concepts include segments between intersections that ranged from 92 feet to 126 feet wide. The concepts that will move forward by the Governance Team (GT)for public input include two options that are 96 feet wide for EmX mixed in with regular traffic and roundabouts at intersections, and 116 feet wide with EmX dedicated center lanes and roundabouts at intersections. The Main Street/South A Street concepts included route alignment and widening to 67 feet from 60 feet. The concept for the segment at 14th would include widening Main Street as much as 17 feet. McVay Highway would have minimal widening for enhancements. Mayor Lundberg asked what the process would be if they wanted to change the concepts that were approved by the Governance Team. Mr. Boyatt said the Council would communicate their desire to the Springfield Governance Team (GT)representatives (Mayor Lundberg and Councilor Woodrow), to bring it back to the GT for review. The GT would then hear their input and review the concepts. Councilor Wylie said there might be a benefit of continuity of design throughout the City to help people become more familiar with the treatments. Mr. Boyatt said that has been discussed. Each context is a little different and presents its own challenges. The transit district has worked hard to address challenges as they go instead of having one size fits all. Bus Rapid Transit in general has had as many iterations as it has projects. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)has broadened how they think of bus rapid transit. Councilor Wylie said she would like them to look at having continuity in our community. Councilor Moore asked where the current bus stops were located in relation to the proposed stops. Mr. Boyatt said he could get that information from LTD. Mr. Boyatt said staff is about halfway through the outreach. Most people they have met with have been located in the two-way portion of Main Street. Everyone appreciated the outreach, and people have been respectful.A lot of people have expressed interest in safety improvements, but not a lot of City of Springfield • Council Work Session Minutes May 16,2016 Page 4 interest in transit improvements. Overall,the majority feel that changes to the roadway will have a negative impact on business or lower the value of their business. Many businesses in the corridor are located on substandard lots that aren't deep enough for much on-site circulation. Staff believes this is the result in part of development that was done prior to zoning, community growth and the widening of Main Street in the early 1960's. Where the businesses are constrained, any change could have a substantial impact on parking and the circulation of customers and services. He relayed some of the stories about how they get trucks and customers into their businesses. Many of these businesses back up to residential, so have no room to expand. As part of the planned next steps,there is a series of design solutions meetings where project and city engineers can look at ideas to reduce impacts on a site by site basis. At this point, there is very little, if any, support for raised medians, although left turn pockets are acceptable at intersections with U-turn capability. Business owners feel that if customers have to pass their destination to go back, it would deter customers. A median with freight traffic poses issues, as well as site access. Mr. Boyatt continued noting that most people feel the flashing beacons are working better as people getting used to them.Feedback was received that accidents are due to people making bad decisions, and safety improvements need to be weighed against economic interests. Most people do believe safety is a concern. Reaction to roundabouts has been mixed. There has been a strong message about avoiding impacts to the business corridors if roundabouts are designed. There is a lot of concern about business viability during construction. People aren't choosing destinations that are impacted by construction. Mr. Boyatt said staff met twice with representatives from Springfield Utility Board (SUB)and have heard concerns from them as well regarding undergrounding power distribution and the costs associated. They are aware how street trees need to work in proximity with power lines. The water main line is about 60 years old, and has met its useful life. It could have another 10-20 years left. SUB knows they will have to replace that at some point and the cost will be high. Construction would accelerate SUB's timeline to replace the water main. If raised medians are constructed,fire hydrants would need to be on both sides of streets. They are currently only on one side of the street so that would double their hydrants and laterals. Once a preliminary design is approved, staff from the City and SUB will look at the impacts and how to work together. Mr. Boyatt said staff will continue meeting with business and property owners and documented their feedback, and will a broader community outreach. The GT meets on May 26. The current schedule, which may change, includes going through the iterative design solutions process, running it by the businesses to try to come up with something that would work for most everybody, review it with the GT, and then come back to the Council. Mayor Lundberg said she talked with Councilors Pishioneri and VanGordon this afternoon to get their thoughts. Councilor VanGordon's was concerned with the routes on the list. He didn't want anything between 96 and 106 feet. She attended a meeting this afternoon with Main Street businesses, and she is thinking 82 or less would be the goal,to make the impact as minimal as possible. They can look at landscape strips or other treatments to make the road narrower. The businesses don't have room behind for parking. Both Councilor VanGordon and Pishioneri talked about the importance of business success. Mayor Lundberg said she wants safety for everyone, including bicyclists and pedestrians. She would like to remove any hazards and get a speed reduction from ODOT. She heard that communication is lacking so that has to get better. She knows staff is trying to reach everyone. They need to ensure in City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes May 16,2016 Page 5 those communications that the City is not making any decisions until they are ready, and it is not based on current timelines. She also asked that staff let the businesses know when LTD and the City Council meet. Mr. Boyatt said they were asking everyone to sign up for the email distribution list so they can be notified. Mayor Lundberg said she would like them to ask on the form the 'best way to contact you' because not everyone has time to read their email every day. She would like to reconsider the enhanced transit option. She noted that the signalized options were removed because they took 100 feet or more. The GT was trying to keep it as narrow as possible. Roundabouts are very unpopular and affect ingress and egress of businesses. She asked Council to let her know if they supported looking at signalized options, and narrower options than the current proposals. Councilor Ralston said he feels this is a waste of time. He had heard nothing but problems from everything discussed tonight. He is opposed to raised medians in the middle. They are expensive to build and maintain so he would not endorse those. He likes the no build and feels that 80 feet is perfectly functional. Over the years, development happened as it happened. There is no way he will support anything that takes additional land from anybody. He noted the issue with medians and additional fire hydrants. People are supportive of safety improvements, but not transit improvements. The majority of people use a car to get to work and other trips. He does not support anything that slows down traffic. If they could add some more transit stops within the current width,he could support that,but not anything else. Councilor Woodrow said she is not supportive of raised medians because they create more problems than it solves. She wouldn't mind having a couple of feet on either side to accommodate bicycles,but no wider. Safety is her number one concern. She thinks there are ways to enhance safety for non vehicle users that doesn't cause access problems for the businesses. They have been able to get to 'yes' with business owners on the crosswalk, so she feels they can do the same with this process. Councilor Moore said she grew up in Portland and saw major growth. She appreciates that those with businesses are concerned about the impacts. There are ways to solve the problems if we listen and work together. She would love to see Main Street as a welcoming corridor as people come into our City, and that people could feel they could pull off to visit the businesses. She feels lowering the speed limits would help. She likes roundabouts and noted how traffic moves through so much more easily. She realizes that is a difficult option due to the space involved. There are places roundabouts could be realized. This is the beginning step and the City is open to listening. She feels business owners want Main Street to be more inviting. She often has to turn around on Main Street to get to a business because she doesn't see it in time, and she believes customers learn to adjust and will find businesses even if they have to turn back. She would like this project to be a solution to the problems on Main Street and deal with safety and access. Councilor Wylie said Councilor Woodrow has been doing a lot of work to improve safety on Main Street. The three goals she sees for Main Street are: improving transit, improving safety; and making sure the businesses stay successful. She noted the project on 6th Street in Eugene and said she noticed that the businesses were open and accessible during construction due to appropriate signage, etc. There is now a beautiful street,bus route, and transition from what it was prior to the project. There will always be problems when making major changes, but she feels the lessons learned from 6th Street can be used here. Medians should not impede traffic or businesses. If they are for pedestrian safety or City of Springfield • Council Work Session Minutes May 16,2016 Page 6 upgrading community, it is different, but we must be respectful of the trucks and traffic and businesses.It is a major highway in our city and we can either leave it as a sprawling highway or continue to work to make it part of our community. Mayor Lundberg said tonight is a chance for the Council to offer what they could support and provide direction. Councilor Ralston said there is overall opposition to medians so they should remove those. Individual islands for pedestrians getting off the bus could be acceptable as long as they didn't run the length of the corridor. The way the businesses have been built,there is no room to take any property other than perhaps a couple of feet if it would make a difference. They need to focus on the reality of what they can support. Mayor Lundberg said she suggested asking the GT to look at an enhanced corridor. Originally she wanted to get the buses out of the right lane so they weren't impeding traffic. She wanted to move them off without moving them into businesses. Enhanced doesn't do that, but she feels there should be a hybrid where they could move the buses out of traffic in certain places. They all agree they want safety improvements on Main Street and would like to have the speed limit reduced. She wants it to be safe for pedestrians and bicyclists, and businesses have said the same. She would like to figure out a way to do that and stay within a certain footprint so it is not so impactful. She would like to include a signalized variation that isn't so wide. Another thing she would like to do is to figure out how to make businesses more noticeable with better signage, or help with business access. The things important to her are how to make it safe, efficient and business friendly, and within that have a bus system that works for those that depend on transit to get back and forth to work or school. Mr. Grimaldi reiterated what the Council would like the GT to consider moving forward: a variation of the enhanced corridor option to improve safety,transit operations and through traffic. Mr. Boyatt said no changes had been drawn into the enhanced option shown in Attachment 3 until they could figure out where to pull stations off to the side, which would add 12 feet at those locations. Mayor Lundberg said they have pull out stations in other areas of the City, and they help with the efficiency of the corridor and safety of riders. She would like a signalized version of the EmX that is less than 100 feet by looking at the sidewalk,planter strip, etc. to see what is necessary. We don't have to have a corridor that looks the same the entire length and can look different depending on what the businesses need. They want medians removed or look at other ways to use them. Discussion was held regarding the symbols on the charts in Attachment 3. They were based on a rating system using certain criteria. The two columns on the right indicated which options were recommended by staff for advancement and which options were advanced by the Governance Team. Councilor Wylie said there are areas with more space for bus pullouts and street enhancement. Councilor Ralston said the 5 foot planter beds were a waste of money and not needed. Mr. Grimaldi reiterated Council direction about their thoughts on medians, keeping a smaller footprint, having a corridor with some enhancements where there is room and impacts were small, and signalized options with a smaller footprint. Staff will work to put together something to meet the Council's objectives. City of Springfield •Council Work Session Minutes May 16,2016 Page 7 Council would like to get a schedule of the GT meetings. Mayor Lundberg said she would like staff to continue to work on communication and getting meeting notices out to people in the best way for each business(text, email,phone call, etc.) ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 7:01 p.m. Minutes Recorder—Amy Sowa Christine L. Lundberg 40 Mayor Attest: , �LiYjL!/ Amy Sow City Recorder