Traffic and Transportation Committee

COMMITTEE ON TRAFFIC AND TRANSPORTATION February 28, 2017 A meeting of the Committee on Traffic and Transportation was held this date beginning at 3:35 p.m., at City Hall, First Floor Conference Room, 80 Broad Street. Notice of this meeting was sent to all local news media. PRESENT Councilmember Seekings, Chair; Councilmembers Moody, Wagner, and Wilson, and Mayor Tecklenburg Staff: Robert Somerville, Interim Director of Traffic and Transportation, Janie Borden, Assistant Corporation Counsel, Jacob Lindsey, Director of Planning, Preservation & Sustainability, Rick Jerue, Senior Advisor to the Mayor, Robert Ballard, and Bethany Whitaker, Council Secretary The meeting was opened with a moment of silence provided by Chairman Seekings. APPROVAL OF MINUTES The minutes of the September 27, 2016 Committee on Traffic and Transportation meeting were deferred on the agenda. On the motion of Councilmember Moody, seconded by Councilmember Wilson, the Committee voted unanimously to approve the minutes of the February 14, 2017 meeting. APPROVAL OF TRAFFIC CALMING SPEED HUMPS (RACE STREET-BETWEEN RUTLEDGE AVENUE AND KING STREET-WESTSIDE NEIGHBORHOOD) Chairman Seekings stated they were in February of 2017 and asked Robert Somerville where this put the yearly budget for speed humps. Mr. Somerville stated that this was the first street they had requested in 2017 so far. They had more to come before the Committee, most likely, at the next meeting. They would keep rolling. He was working on the maintenance schedule. They had been doing maintenance on existing speed humps since 1999. Councilmember Moody asked how much money they had in the budget and Mr. Somerville said he thought it was $60,000. Chairman Seekings said that was upped a little bit. Chairman Seekings asked if the County did any maintenance when they did the paving or if that was left up to the City post-paving. Mr. Somerville said they were supposed to meld down to the speed hump and leave the crown of the speed hump in place. Chairman Seekings stated that eventually, enough paves will happen to where the speed hump is very small. Mr. Somerville stated that then; it would be a part of the maintenance. Chairman Seekings said that in Byrnes Downs, there were crazy humps and asked if they could do something about those. Mr. Somerville said that they could shave them down. Councilmember Moody asked if there was a standard in inches. Mr. Somerville stated that there was a standard. Councilmember Moody asked if there was more than one standard. Mr. Somerville stated that those humps came first. Chadwick Drive between Byrnes Downs and Windermere had the first speed humps put in in 1999. The standard is 3 inches in the center, but after some time they would settle. The contractor was playing with it and going up to 4 inches and compacting it down to 3 and half inches. Councilmember Wagner stated they did work. Mayor Tecklenburg asked how many speed humps there would be on this street. Mr. Somerville stated that it could be two. After approval, he would submit a request for an encroachment permit to the DOT. Chief Brack had asked them to look at only installing one due to their emergency response, but she understood that two was probably going to be the number. Mayor Tecklenburg said that in relation to Race Street, there was a bill presented to the State Legislature to rename Race Street. He found out that it was not so much a renaming, but a designation of a portion of the street to be in honor of the former pastor of the Greek Orthodox Church. There was a bill that had a bunch of sponsors in the House of Representatives. Councilmember Moody stated that the City had designated the M.L.K District and the A.M.E. Way without changing the name of the street. Mayor Tecklenburg stated that was probably what they had in mind, but he wanted to verify that. Chairman Seekings asked who the sponsor of the bill was and Mayor Tecklenburg said that there were about 50 sponsors. On the motion of Councilmember Moody, seconded by Councilmember Wagner, the Committee voted unanimously to approve the addition of Traffic Calming Speed Humps on Race Street. BICYCLE AND PEDESTRIAN ADVISORY COMMITTEE/ORDINANCE DISCUSSION Chairman Seekings stated that since Mayor Tecklenburg had been elected, he had undertaken repopulating all of the Committees in the City of Charleston. The Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee was one of these which fell under the Traffic and Transportation Committee. He had been talking with Jacob Lindsey and they wanted to make sure that when they were repopulating the Committees, they were repopulating committees that had something to do and pertained to the Ordinance that established them. They had taken a look at the Bike/Ped Ordinance and it could use some tweaking. Mr. Lindsey was there to give his overview of what was going on in the bike and pedestrian world to see if there was something they could do to tweak the existing Ordinance, so that when they did repopulate the Committee, they had given them a mission and something to do, as well as inform them as to what the Bike/Ped Committee was authorized to do. One of which, was to apply for grants. That had never happened. Mr. Lindsey stated that they were in the process of repopulating the Boards and Commissions. Among them was this Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee that was created in 2005. It had fallen dormant and had not met on a regular basis. They had a number of great bicycle and pedestrian orientated projects that they had been doing, but also some things that hadn’t moved forward. They did a study of how bicycles move downtown that hasn’t been able to move forward. It was import to re- assemble the Committee with the right folks who could help with the discussion of bicycle and pedestrian advocacy. One thing that the Committee could do was assist in identifying alternative funding sources for projects. This was a challenge for them. Another was to facilitate cooperation between the City and the local and regional advocacy groups. They could be a go-between. They were also empowered to promote safety programs. That was something they felt was sorely lacking and wanted to move forward on. There were really good things in the Ordinance and there were some things that they didn’t need to do like assist staff with inventory of existing bicyclists and pedestrians. That was something they had done. They already had the rules to enable this Committee. As part of Mayor Tecklenburg’s effort to repopulate all of the Boards and Commissions, they wanted to report that they would be moving forward with this. Councilmember Moody asked what the first purpose was and Mr. Lindsey stated it was to assist in identifying alternative funding sources for projects. Councilmember Moody said that his problem with a bunch of the Committee’s was that it was great in theory to put all this out there, but the issue was whether they would do it or not. It seemed to him that if they knew about funding, they would put a staff person on it and try to get it. He was wondering what someone on the Committee would be doing to help that, that they were not already doing. Councilmember Moody asked what the second item was the Mr. Lindsey said it was facilitate cooperation between the City and local/regional advocacy groups. Councilmember Moody said that his point there was that as an advocate for bicycles, Ms. Zimmerman had never been shy about coming to Council with a concern. He was wondering if they wouldn’t do that anyway. It was putting a barrier around them in Council because they could tell people to take it to the Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee. He was wondering if they still had a real purpose or reason for the Committee and that there may be a reason why some of these Committees had gone by the wayside. They could repopulate it and then it could go away again. That was his concern. Councilmember Wilson stated that she had a different take on the alternative funding. It was not just applicable to this, but part of the Ordinance for her Committee on Women. She saw a group that was very vested in one subject, regardless of that subject, who may have the ability to dig around for places that weren’t as readily apparent. They would find out about a corporation that allocated funds and could bring it to the City’s attention, where otherwise, they may not be looking. They could gather necessary data to support a grant application. She didn’t see it as a bad thing, but she also didn’t think it was a mandatory use. She saw some good that could come of that for not only Bike/Ped, but many different Committees. Councilmember Moody asked if they would need to expand the mission to get the engagement. Councilmember Wilson said it wasn’t a bad thing to have in a Charter, and didn’t see any downside to having that language. Chairman Seekings said that he agreed with Councilmember Moody, in that, Commissions were only as good as two things, and number one was who populated them. They had been talking with Mr. Lindsey about populating the Committee with people who were thinking about a lot of things, and not just bike/ped, but how that fits into planning and running the City. The thought was to populate it with people who were involved with the development, planning, and business of the City. The purpose to bring this to them today was to get them to think about the very thing that Councilmember Moody had, and to get suggestions for the Ordinance. They needed to make some tweaks to it so that the repopulation was advantageous to the Councilmembers in their districts and the Council as a whole as they planned the future of the City. Councilmember Moody asked if there was another organization or something going on in the community that would be better vehicle for this. For the Commission on Women, maybe the Women’s Center. If someone was really good, they may not come onto this Board because they would want to be on another. It may be the same with Charleston Moves, because they were more of a regional advocate for bicyclists. Someone like that, who had a more regional and focused view would be better at doing this for them. If someone was serving on the City’s Bike/Ped, they were probably on Charleston Moves anyway. Chairman Seekings said not so much because as they thought about this Committee and regional planning, they had talked about populating this Committee with people you wouldn’t think would be bike/ped advocates, but more of development and planning advocates. Councilmember Moody asked if those people would be better on the Charleston Moves. Chairman Seekings said they would see. Mr. Lindsey stated that his sense of it was that he didn’t think they needed more opinions when it came to the world of bicycling or pedestrian advocacy. He would hope that this group would be one that could help enable the City’s goals that they had already agreed upon such as the West Ashley Bikeway needing improvement. This group could be one to help them figure out what needed to be done and how they could get funding for that. He hoped that this group could help them facilitate things like that. Councilmember Moody asked if it said that in the charter and Mr. Lindsey said it didn’t say that specifically. Councilmember Moody said to put that in there. He liked that. To improve the Greenway, they might be able to help go to the merchants and raise money for the gardens and parks. If that was what they would be used for, they should put that in the Charter. They needed to give them something to do that was beneficial to the City. Chairman Seekings said absolutely and that they wanted people to come onto the Committee ready to go. Councilmember Wilson said that it was good to have a broader discussion, because so many of these could be applied to many Commissions. We would run into all of this with other Commissions. It may be a good thing to have standardized language. Councilmember Moody said there was a reason that a lot of the Commissions were active and inactive. DISCUSSION There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 3:56 p.m. Bethany Whitaker Council Secretary