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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/17/2006 Work Session . . . . '. City of Springfield Work Session Meeting MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD MONDAY, APRIL 17,2006 The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Jesse Maine Meeting Room, 225 Fifth Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Monday, April 17, 2006 at 6:02 p.m., with Mayor Leiken presiding. ATTENDANCE Present were Mayor Leiken and Councilors Fitch, Ballew, Lundberg, Ralston, Woodrow and Pishioneri. Also present were Interim City Manager Cynthia Pappas, City Attorney Joe Leahy, City Recorder Amy Sowa and members of the staff. 1. Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) Freight Mobility Update. Transportation Manager Nick Amis presented the staff report on this item. Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) Area 5 Manager Jane Lee and Public Information Office Joe Harwood requested a briefmg to the Council about bridge construction and freight mobility. State highway bridges are in poor condition and are unable to carry heavy truck loads. To correct these problems, approximately thirty bridges per year for the next three years will be repaired or replaced in Lane County. The bridge repair and replacement projects are funded through the Oregon Transportation Investment Act (OTIA). Traffic lanes will be restricted or detoured around the bridge work. This will cause significant impact to highway users. ODOT will seek assistance from the Lane Council of Governments (LCOG) to coordinate the construction schedule and some forms of the public information, which includes working with City of Springfield, Lane County and other cities in the area. Mr. Amis introduced Jane Lee, Area 5 Manager and Joe Harwood, both from ODOT. Ms. Lee said they would be presenting a slide presentation, but Council could interrupt for questions. Ms. Lee introduced Joe Harwood, the new public information officer at ODOT. Ms. Lee said there would be a significant amount of highway construction on 1-5 throughout Region II over the next two y~ars. She said they would be working hard to keep traffic moving through construction zones, although delays would be inevitable. Councilor Ballew asked which highway was Highway 20. Mr. Harwood said it was the highway from 1-5 to Corvallis and Newport. Ms. Lee noted that ofthe 60 bridges under construction in Region II, 43 of those were in Lane County. She said that did not include 6 other bridges that would be raised. They were being raised to allow manufactured homes to be transported along 1-5 without having to take alternate routes with high enough clearance. Ms. Lee discussed the State Freight Mobility Group that would work to help move traffic at a corridor level. She said she met with that group monthly. She said they would be working hard not to impact local jobs. She discussed local jobs, . including the McKenzie River bridges, which would begin in the next six weeks. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes April 17,2006 Page 2 . Ms. Lee said that later this month, the Beltline Bridge would be started. She said this project was designed with mobility in mind and no daytime closures were expected along Beltline. Work would be done at night and off-peak hours. Occasional lane closures would be allowed, but only if the mobility standards could be maintained. She discussed statewide mobility standards. She referred to the slide presentation which showed a map with the bridge projects listed. She discussed those bridges that were currently under construction. She discussed the projects slated for the Eugene/Springfield area and the timing of some of the projects. Councilor Ballew asked about the average life expectancy of the bridges. Ms. Lee said bridges were designed to last seventy-five or more years. She said when the OTIA ill started, many bridges were fifty to sixty years old, but were not designed for the volume and weight of traffic that currently traveled on our highways. Several narrow bridges on older highways also needed to be widened. Many bridges were built during the 1940's after World War II. Councilor Lundberg discussed the roundabout construction going in on Pioneer Parkway and that one option for people avoiding that area would be to travel on 1-5,1-105 and back through Beltline. She said she hoped the reconstruction of the bridges and the flyover project did not occur at the same time. . Ms. Lee said she would discuss this with the State Group, but she understood the two projects were being coordinated. She did note that most of the work would be done at night and would not be taking any lanes. She said when lanes were taken during the night work, it would be well advertised. People would be heavily impacted and ODOT was working hard to get the news out to the citizens. Mr. Amis discussed coordination of the 1-105 Proj ect and the MLK Parkway proj ect. He said Springfield staff just met with Lane County, Eugene and ODOT to discuss upcoming projects to lessen the impact. Councilor Lundberg said people needed to know the options for alternate routes. Councilor Fitch said she appreciated the work ODOT was doing. She said she traveled often on 1-5 and the construction schedule was working well. She agreed that communication was critical and she noted Community Relations Officer Niel Laudati's role in that aspect. Giving the public advance notice allowed them to plan ahead. Councilor Pishioneri commended ODOT on the communication piece on the 1-105 project. He said updates were given frequently and he hoped they would continue with that type of communication on these projects. ' Ms. Lee said LCOG was further improving their notification system. . Mayor Leiken asked if companies were relying more on rail for moving of freight rather than trucks due to the increase in fuel costs. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes April 17,2006 Page 3 . Ms. Lee said there was a rail division that was tracking that. She said one of the reasons for Connect Oregon was to develop other modes of transportation, including rails, to make it more user friendly and to get some of the trucks off the road. Mr. Harwood said since Southern Pacific merged with Union Pacific, it had been more difficult to move freight reliably. He discussed some of the delays and misrouted items using the rail system. Many businesses signed long term contracts with trucking companies when those issues . occurred and it would be difficult for the rail to pull them away. Mayor Leiken discussed the use of biofuel and the issue of it providing enough energy in the big trucks to maintain speed when going up hills. Biofuel worked best in an urban setting. Mayor Leiken thanked ODOT for the presentation. 2. Updates to the City of Springfield Engineering Design Standards and Procedures Manual. . City Engineer Ken V ogemiy presented the staff report on this item. City staff has used the EDSP Manual for over three years since its adoption in October 2002. Early stages of implementation involved a lot of work to train staff and private engineers as to the letter and intent of the manual, followed by a couple years of application of the manual. During this time, staff has received comments from engineers and surveyors suggesting improvements to the Manual. Many of the comments asked for greater clarification of certain standards. In this update, we have corrected minor errors and conducted other housekeeping tasks, added detail where it was' requested or where staff felt it was needed, and we have updated standards that needed improvement. The attached Council BriefIng Memo has more detail on what was changed. The proposed changes were mailed out and posted on the City's website to solicit comments from users of the manual. A portion ofthese revisions was mailed at the end of August, 2005, and the remainder in January, 2006. Comment periods for both portions were held open for at least 30 days. We received few comments on the proposed changes, none of which required further changes to the versions posted for comment. The changes are scheduled for adoption on tonight's Consent Calendar by the attached Resolution, unless otherwise directed by Council. Mr. Vogeney discussed a couple of the Chapters that had some substantial rewrites, including Chapter 8 and Chapter 10. He discussed the changes and how they helped to clarify the information for developers. He said there was some ongoing work being done on Chapter 12, which was not included in the Agenda Packet. He said he would bring that back to Council at a future Council meeting. Councilor Ballew commended staff on the work done on this manual. She asked if the manual had made staff s job easier. She also asked if they had a positive response from those using the manual. . Mr. V ogeney said it was much easier to work with the development community and other consultant engineers with this manual as a written standard. The developers and engineers knew what the City expected, making it easier and more consistent for City staff when reviewing City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes April 17, 2006 Page 4 . projects. He said it was a savings of time for the City and hoped it also saved time for the developers. Councilor Fitch said she appreciated the work staff did on this manual. She also appreciated that staff had put it out for comment on the website. She felt the fact that there was so little comment confirmed that the developers and consultants had embraced the manual. Updating it now was a great idea. Councilor Woodrow also commended staff. He referred to several pages in the manual which showed the update date of 2002 and asked if it should be changed to 2005. Mr. Vogeney said he would check with his staff. Assistant City Engineer Steve Rodolf said it was an error and would be corrected. Councilor Pishioneri discussed the street tree list and noted that it seemed expanded. Mr. V ogeney said that was correct. He explained. Councilor Pishioneri referred to pre-existing streets that had erosion due to rainfall and asked what standards were placed on streets such as that regarding gravel placement. . Mr. V ogeney said the examples Councilor Pishioneri referred to were not addressed in the Design Manual, but in the Development Code. He gave an example of improvement agreements that would be used in certain circumstances. He discussed the project on 54th Place and noted that staff was working with the property owners to form a Local Improvement District to have that street improved. He said that Mr. Rodolf was leading that effort for the City. Councilor Pishioneri asked if that was similar to the area near a manufactured home area off of 28th Street. Mr. V ogeney discussed the normal procedure regarding improvement of streets. Mayor Leiken commended staff on this work. He said over the past several years there had been issues from the development community, in part because this manual was not in place. He said the City was trying to do what was right, and this was a good document and made things very clear. He appreciated the work that went into this manual and he appreciated that staff was reviewing and revising it as needed. Mr. V ogeney said a resolution was in the Council packet for Council consideration during the regular meeting. He acknowledged staff that had worked on this document. Public Works Director Dan Brown said the other staff in the audience were present to hear any concerns or questions Council may have regarding the document. 3. Stormwater Facility Master Plan Summary and Update. . City Engineer Ken V ogeney presented the staff report on this item. The Stormwater Facility Master Plan (SWFMP) update will replace the City's existing facility plans that are inadequate and . . . . . . City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes April 17,2006 Page 5 outdated. The SWFMP will identify and quantify capacity issues in the City and support anticipated future projects. The information, data, and project priorities the new plan will contain are critical to guide development, enhance stormwater system capacity, and prioritize stormwater capital projects to avoid flooding. In 2003, Council approved development of an updated Facility Master Plan. This project is now at a pivotal point, where the City's information will be forwarded to our consultant for final plan development. The following information provides a summary of the project to-date, as well as a schedule for completion of the project. The Stormwater Facility Master Plan (SWFMP) update was initiated in late 2002, with an anticipated completion date of mid 2004. A consultant, URS Corp., was selected in 2003, and completed minimal work'on the project before they determined that the electronic stormwater infrastructure data that we had at that time was insufficient to complete the project. In 2004 staff engaged in an effort to survey the City's stormwater infrastructure, and compile an updated electronic database. Council allocated additional funding to address the costs encountered in the survey and data-collection process. The survey effort required two years of work by the combined efforts of Water Resources, Survey, Maintenance, Technical Services and Engineering staff, and the resulting data is a complete representation of the City's stormwater system. This data has been forwarded to URS, and work has been re-initiated to develop a computerized model of the storm water system that can be updated to retain future utility as the City grows. The new model will become the foundation for building the updated SWFMP. He said staff would be able to document the effects of storms on the system using this model and it would assist in determining what improvements needed to be made. The timeline for the present contract with URS has been extended administratively by the City Manager. Staff anticipates minor contract amendments to the URS contract, regarding the final scope of work to provide enhanced outreach to citizens and stakeholders prior to adoption of the final plan. However, this change of scope is not anticipated to require additional funding. Under the updated schedule for the project, a final Stormwater Facility Master Plan will be submitted to the Council for review and adoption in February 2007. Technical information regarding local hydrology and infrastructure will be developed and made available to developers, after staff review, this August, which will allow prospective developments to move forward with preliminary design studies, and will not adversely affect either the final SWFMP or proposed development projects. The contract with URS is fully funded through completion. However, staff anticipates that the adoption process for the SWFMP may result in additional costs. An additional $100,000 is included in the proposed Capital Budget to ensure that there is sufficient funding to complete this process. Public Works Director Dan Brown referred to the staff report which noted that although this would not be brought back to Council until February 2007, data should be available for consultants and staff to use sometime this summer. Councilor Ballew asked what the difference was between hydrologic and hydraulic. Mr. V ogeney said a hydrologic model dealt with the rainfall itself and the hydraulic portion was how the pipes, ditches and channels responded to the rainfall. He said hydrologic also dealt with groundwater affects. I ~ . ' . . . City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes April 17, 2006 Page 6 Councilor Ballew asked if the modeling used for sanitary sewer monitoring flows impacted by wet weather could be used for stormwater. Mr. V ogeney said the rainfall data would be incorporated into the stormwater plan. The actual monitoring of flows would need to be done separately. Mayor Leiken suggested staff keep up on the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the Clean Water Act. He asked if the court's decision would have an affect on what Springfield was doing. No. Councilor Ballew asked if staff had an estimate on the total cost of this study. Stormwater Facilities Planner George Walker responded to the question. He said the original contract with URS was for $272,000 and because of the delay in staff getting them an adequate data set, the fee schedule for wages and materials for that first contract went up about $30,000-$40,000, bringing the total to just over $300,000. He said there was money budgeted for that and some additional funds in next year's budget to cover any refinements. Councilor Ballew asked if this would impact engineering designs. Mr. V ogeney said master planning would point staff in the right direction for what to design and what size those facilities needed to be. The policy and procedure portion of the manual would also help staff to address stormwater quality issues and detention issues and address groundwater concerns. Mr. Brown added that the new stormwater facilities master plan would replace two plans that were very old. He said the west half of Springfield storm drain master plan was adopted in 1979 and the east half of the City's master plan was adopted in 1983. Both were very outdated. He noted the changes in regulations and the City's size. When staff updated the system development charges (SDC's) in 2000, the stormwater SDC was not updated because of the outdated plan. Staff would be identifying new needs and addressing those needs in the future. Councilor Fitch appreciated the work done and the information gathered and felt it would be very valid. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at approximately 6:44 pm. Minutes Recorder - Amy Sowa Attest: JOlAFJ.;-