HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/20/2017 Work Session City of Springfield
Work Session Meeting
MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF
THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD
MONDAY,NOVEMBER 20, 2017
The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Jesse Maine Meeting Room, 225 Fifth
Street, Springfield,Oregon,on Monday, November 20,2017 at 6:00 p m., with Mayor Lundberg
presiding
ATTENDANCE
Present were Mayor Lundberg and Councilors VanGordon, Wylie.Moore, Stoehr, Woodrow and
Pishionen Also present were City Manager Gino Grimaldi, Assistant City Attorney Kristina Kraaz,
City Recorder Amy Sowa and members of the staff
1. Main Street Safety Project Update.
Senior Planner Molly Markarian presented the staff report on this item. She introduced Bill Johnston,
Oregon Department of Transportation(ODOT) Project Manager and Kelly Hale,Lane Transit District
(LTD)Project Lead.
Ms. Markarian presented a power point and reviewed the process to date. In 2011, staff received
Council direction to improve safety on Main Street. ODOT and the City worked over the next year to
conduct a Main Street Safety Study for pedestrian safety From that came recommendations for
crossing improvements which have been installed through the city and collaboration with ODO f over
the last six years. In 2016,ODOT through its All Roads Transportation Safety(ARTS)program
awarded the City $3 9M to construct a raised center safety median on Main Street At that same time,
ODOT pledged to support the planning process leading up to that project Since then. staff and ODOT
have been working on project coordination and scope development with our partners
Ms. Markarian said the City and ODO r are sharing the cost of the planning phase, with ODOT
covering the consultant cost and a share of the project. Staffing on the project includes a combination
of a large consultant team(City and ODO f) and project management team including Ms Markarian,
Mr.Johnston from ODOT, and the consultant. Supporting the City is a team of engineers,planners
and coordinators. There are 8 consulting firms tackling different components of this project They
will also have a technical advisory committee with additional staff from the City, LTD, ODOT,
Springfield Utility Board(SUB). Springfield School District and Department of Land Consen anon
and Development(DLCD).
Ms. Markarian referred to the timeline and discussed each task for the project. She noted that the Main
McVay Transit Study has done a lot of work that will be used for tasks 4, 5 and 6.as well as tasks 7
and 8. They will he working with the project teams and committees to des elop goals and objectives.
Key Principles and Methodology come from SB408 legislation and will be addressed frequenth
through this project. The last few tasks will need Council input.
One of the early steps is to develop the citizen engagement plan, which will be approved by the
Planning Commission in their capacity as the Citizen Involvement Committee They anticipate there
will be advisory bodies, Planning Commission, City Council,corridor stakeholder's advisory
committee,and governance team That plan will outline actio[ties to facilitate public participation of
stakeholders on the corridor and the general public. They tried to keep this process as short as
possible,hut it is a three-year process.
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Council Work Session Minutes
November 20,2017
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Ms. Markarian said the next steps vv ould include finalizing the scope of work with ODOT and the
consultant,finalizing the Intergovernmental agreement(IGA) w ith ODOT,ODOT finalizing its
procurement process with the consultant team, and launching the project in 2018
Councilor Woodrow said since 2011 she has worked with staff and ODOT on getting the crosswalks
in on Main Street. Now they are looking at a three-year study w ith nothing being done It will have
been more than 10)ears, with only 3 or 4 years of actually doing something practical for safety She
needs to know what to tell constituents who want something done now There are a lot of people on
Main Street and businesses are concerned about the median She is not comfortable w ith the long
timeline.
Mr. Boyatt said staff shares her frustrations. There is a lot at stake for the property and business
owners who will want to be Involved in a process that will work. There are also a lot of safety
concerns. It's about a four mile corridor and a eery complex planning project,trying to balance
everyone's interests, especially business and safety. The team has worked hard to keep the planning
process from expanding even more. ODOT and city staff have learned over time that sometimes what
looks like slow going on the front end, could actual!) work better in the long tenn. It's important to be
out in the corridor respecting everyone's interest.
Mr Grimaldi said if issues are identified by staff that can he resolved Immediately,the City can look
into addressing those.
Councilor Pishioneri said tasks 5 and 6 identify land use He asked if that meant land use for today or
in the future
Ms. Markarian said land use is subject to change, but it is the land use and environmental constraints
that will help determine constraints for the environmental process.
Councilor Pishioneri referred to task 6 regarding the"Future Baseline Travel Forecasts&Conditions
Analysis' He asked how future uses would he identified by the team if land use is subject to change.
Mr. Boyatt said the no-build future is the background population and employment projection with no
project That growth allocates by zoning and plan designation what is in place today There could be
plan amendments and zone changes, so they w ill flag that for the consultants.
Councilor Pishioneri said they hay en't seen much growth along Main Street,but he wants a
mechanism in place to allow a big change if something comes along
Mr. Boyatt said they would have to adapt. Most of the data would be gathered, models built,and
traffic analysis done. It would be crucial to he able to adapt to development of that scale. The best
guarantee for this to happen is that the Council directs the work of the City.
Councilor Pishioneri said his concern is that ODOT would also be Involved and the City has no
authority over ODOT on the roadway.
Mr. Bo)att said they could include language in the IGA with ODOT to address that h pe of situation
Councilor Stoehr asked if there had been any stud) on the impact of lowering the speed limit.
Traffic Engineer Brian Barnett said the reduced speed limit has reduced actual travel speeds about 2 or
3 miles per hour. There is no data available about accidents and the relationship between when the
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Council Work Session Minutes
November 20,2017
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reduced speed limit was implemented. More time would need to pass to gather meaningful
information. He explained further.
Councilor Stoehr asked if there had been any study done on the high risk intersections on Main Street
that could help control costs and minimize impacts of this project on businesses
Ms. Markarian said that is included in the anal>sis piece
Councilor Stoehr asked if the medians correspond with high risk areas
Mr. Barnett said that would be part of the planning and analysis as the project rolls out
Councilor Stoehr said he would like to leave the road as is in lower risk locations.
Mr. Barnett said there is no one place along the corridor that is lower risk. ODOT has determined the
whole corridor is high risk.
Councilor Stoehr asked if they had studied the impact of limiting through-trucks or tractor trailers.
Mr. Barnett said Main Street is designated as a truck route.
Mr.Johnston said there are mechanisms to change truck routes, but it is not simple. National routes are
complicated and require congressional legislation.
Councilor VanGordon said he would like to have crash data from ODOT as soon as possible while it is
still somewhat new
Mr.Johnston said there is a process they must go through. They collect data which is then processed
and analyzed.
Councilor VanGordon said it is always helpful to get the information sooner rather than later. Ile has
the same concerns about the timeline. He would like to look for opportunities to shorten the timeline,
but also wants to make sure they balance the needs of the property owners and businesses. He doesn't
want to install something that does not work.As they get into the project,they may find some things
go faster than expected. It is good to have the room to hay e conversations with property owners At
the end of this,they'have the opportunity to do great things and make a noticeable difference.
Councilor Moore asked about LTD and how public transportation fit into this project
Ms. Markarian said staff has been working with LTD to identify the best ways to coordinate and align
the LTD and ODOT projects. Through the facility planning process,they are able to include LTD on
the Technical Advisory Committee. By the end of the facility planning process,the transit project and
safety project w ill be aligned and ready to delve into detail design.
Councilor Moore asked about the stakeholder involvement. It is very important to get input from the
public to get buy-in, and they haven't heard much about it in a while She asked if a mailer was going
to go out to stakeholders on a regular basis It is important for them to be heard through this process.
Ms. Markarian said task 2 includes the approach to involve the public. It is one of the largest tasks,
and will include people on the corridor and the general public who use the corridor. Staff will be
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November 20,2017
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coming back to the Planning Commission and City Council once the public involvement plan is
developed to get their feedback.
May or Lundberg said this is a lot of extra work She likes ODOT at the local level She wants to make
sure citizens don't think we started all over again and have three more years before we even do
anything else. She wants to make sure the public knows we are going through a full process before
putting in medians. Each location will be carefully considered to accomplish safety and business
access. It's critical that those who were on the committee and attended open houses know that this
project is moving forward The projects should look seamless to the public as we coordinate. If
possible, she would like to shorten the timeline and use the public outreach that was already done
through this process which should match this process as well. She wants to see how it is being
tightened up and shortened each time it comes to Council. Many businesses aren't sure when things
are going to happen so v.c need to give them a sense of when things will happen
Mr. Boy att said they would message that to the public. In the first look at the corridor,a pizza
franchise came in and made adjustments to their site to accommodate the new plan. People have a
right to develop and staff will manage those on a case-by-case basis and stat as coordinated as
possible
Mayor Lundberg said she is fine with some changes as long as the outcome is addressing safety and
hay ing the most efficient corridor for business and residential access. She asked who the consulting
company was for this project.
Mr. Bovatt said Jean Lawson is the sub-consultant to DKS for public involvement and is committed to
doing face to face facilitation.
Mayor Lundberg said she would like Ms. Lawson to be involved because the public involvement will
be very sensitive She appreciated that SB408 forces us to be responsive to businesses along the
corridor
2. Travel Lane County(TLC) Annual Report.
City Manager Gino Grimaldi introduced Karr Westlund, Executive Director of Tray el Lane County.
Ms Westlund thanked the Council for the opportunity to present this report to the Council She
introduced Andy Vobora, Vice President of Stakeholder Relations She referred to the comprehensiy e
report in the Council packet. There are two takeaways from the annual report. First,this is a county-
wide report so includes all communities in Lane County. Visitors bring$672M dollars into the county
economy Those who live here also spent almost a quarter of a billion dollars, bringing the total to
nearly$1 B The second thing is the work being done around targeted industry sectors. rLC has been
meeting with economic development agencies in the county to focus on high tech,advanced wood
products. food and beverage, and medical She explained some of the work done in that area For the
last three y ears, TLC has worked at the community level to bring to life community identities,and
tying trip motivators to locales. She explained how they tied in activities to local communities. That
campaign has been very effective,but they wanted to serve Springfield. Eugene and Junction City
specifically. They have created print ads.digital ads and a video. Also in the rest areas.they have
hackl its, some of which feature Springfield. The two videos include the Go campaign video and also a
ideo to encourage conferences to come to Springfield. Links to both videos will be sent to the
Council.
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Council Work Session Minutes
November 20.2017
Page 5
Mr Vobora referred to the Springfield page from the website Total page views over the last twelve
months have been just under 20,000 views and people are spending a little over 2 minutes on the page.
There is an Events page and an About Springfield page. They refresh the content all the time to keep
it updated, and want to hear feedback on the city's page so they can continue to add more information
if needed.
Ms Westlund said last)year hospitality revenue vastly exceeded the growth indicators for the state and
nationally Last year was record v ear due to two main factors: Eugene hosted an Olympic Trials; and
in December, the ice storms drove a lot of local people to hotels. She wouldn't expect to exceed that
amount this year so the percentages are much smaller. When new product opens, the market follows
new product. Eugene has significant meeting space as well as several new hotels The
accommodations revenue has quite a bell curve based on seasons. Willamalane does a great job to
feed sports related business into Springfield hotels which can help in the winter She is happy to meet
with anyone one-on-one or in a future meeting.
Councilor Stoehr said it must he difficult promoting conventions with no conference center in
Springfield
Ms. Westlund said they would love to see a conference center in Springfield.
Councilor Moore said has heard a lot about the 2021 event. She asked if TLC could come up with an
informational sheet for the Councilors about that event.
Ms. Westlund said she would get a one page document to the Council.
Mayor Lundberg said TLC's reports are great and easy to read. It is helpful to track our transient
room lax(TRT)because it is a revenue source
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 7:00 p.m.
Minutes Recorder—Amy Sowa
4•141 .4"
- -hr.istine-L-Lundberg- Sean VanGordon
--Me 4c.- Council President
Attest.
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