Traffic and Transportation Committee

TRAFFIC AND TRANSPORTATION June 19, 2018 A meeting of the Committee on Traffic and Transportation was held this date beginning at 2:01 p.m., at City Hall, 80 Broad Street, First Floor Conference Room. Notice of this meeting was sent to all local news media. PRESENT Councilmember Seekings, Chair; Councilmember Moody, Councilmember Wagner, and Councilwoman Jackson Staff: Keith Benjamin, Robert Somerville, and Sandra Jamison, Council Secretary Other: Mason Lee, Intern The meeting was opened with a moment of silence provided by Chairman Seekings. APPROVAL OF MINUTES On the motion of Councilmember Moody, seconded by Councilwoman Jackson, the Committee voted unanimously to approve the minutes of the May 8, 2018 meeting. Application for Original Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity:  Uncle Marty Transportation (UMT) LLC (Limo) On the motion of Councilmember Moody, seconded by Councilwoman Jackson, the Committee voted unanimously to approve the above item. Extend the boundaries of the Cannonborough/Elliotborough Residential Parking District [Ordinance] Mr. Somerville stated that he received the request to extend the boundaries one block west, to incorporate a section of Courtenay Drive. With the drainage project that took place on Spring Street, there used to be parking on Spring Street, but with the changes, the residents on Spring Street lost on-street parking that was unrestricted. They reached out to him and said they needed help. He reached out to the Association and they agreed that they wanted to help by extending the boundaries. It would incorporate the four addresses on Spring Street and allow them to park. Councilmember Moody asked where they would park and Mr. Somerville said that Wescott Ct. was residential so there was a time that they couldn’t park there. By extending the boundary, they would be entitled to decals and they could park. On the motion of Councilmember Moody, seconded by Councilmember Wagner, the Committee voted unanimously to approve the above item. Director’s Update Mr. Benjamin stated that they had sent out the survey to the public. As of the day before, they had received 3,054 responses to that survey, which made it scientific. The breakdown of those who had responded hadn’t been all hospitality, or all students. It had been pretty evenly split between students, residents, tourists, workers, and otherwise. The next step was to have some specific Stakeholder interviews with some select churches, neighborhood councils. About 14 neighborhood councils had reached out. They were first-touch points, but not the only touch points for that conversation. They had shied away from large public engagement sessions so far, because during the summer people were away. They wanted to wait until the end of the summer/fall to have a large public session. The one public event that was happening was a panel discussion on July 18th to talk about parking in general. He had put a request into the Mayor and Clerk of Council’s office to have a short workshop with Council. He knew that the comprehensive work was focused on the Peninsula, but there was segment of the study to look at the future parking, which meant looking at what parking would look like off the Peninsula, especially in areas that were similar to areas like Avondale. When they did the tour with consultants and City staff, they went to some of those places off the Peninsula. The first one that they would be looking at was the Avondale area. Councilmember Moody asked them to help him understand what it was looking at such as on-street parking, rates, or use. They increased the time that people had to pay to and asked if they were looking at that. He knew that one of the comments that he had gotten back was from some of the people that volunteered at the Gaillard. They had to be there at 6 and they could only put two hours on the meter but would be there for longer. Mr. Benjamin stated that the goal was to be as comprehensive as possible. So, when they wrote up the scope, it was looking at the management and revenues. They looked at usage and how much surface parking they had that was being underutilized. As they made changes, it needed to be done collectively. The big thing he had heard was if there could be changes to the one hour meters. Councilmember Moody asked, when they had the $5 special event parking, he asked what that was. He had gone to Felix, and they had a special event parking in the garage. Mr. Benjamin stated that the garages and the contracts was in Real Estate. Parking was in multiple areas in the City. Chairman Seekings said that one of the things he was interested in was matching how many on-street parking spaces were in the parking zones as opposed to how many decals they gave out. For people volunteering or working part time at places like the Gaillard, there was a $5 flat-rate all day. Councilmember Moody said that what he was hearing was that before they didn’t have to pay anything. Chairman Seekings said that the businesses loved it and people could find parking on a Saturday night on King Street now. Mr. Jerue said that he thought the Gaillard gave their ushers a voucher. Mr. Benjamin said that the changes were delicate and they had to figure out how it all fit together. Councilmember Moody asked what happened with the meters that were having problems with credit cards and if it was worked out. Mr. Somerville said that some people were using credit cards, and weren’t able to get a refund or were being charged twice. Councilmember Moody said that he had talked to Mr. Somerville and he had said there had been some complaints about people having a similar problem. Mr. Somerville said he thought there was an issue that took place that there was a download that was done through the Cloud and there were some connection issues which caused some problems with some of the meters. By getting the last four numbers on a credit card, he could look at the history of transactions made. Mr. Somerville said that he thought there was an issue on about 11 of the meters, but they wanted to make sure it didn’t become more of an issue. Between 67-73% of the payments towards meters were credit/debit cards. They wanted to make sure it was as efficient as possible. Chairman Seekings said that he had correspondence from Councilmember Griffin and he had some questions about traffic calming and asked if they could get with him about the Traffic Calming Policy and issues in his district. Mr. Benjamin said they had talked and he found the old pamphlet with all the options they used to have, which was no longer the case. They had a good conversation. Mr. Benjamin stated that there was a lot of effort that went into the Wando Bridge. There was a lot of collaboration. He was concerned with the Traffic Management System. It had been used as a hub, and they had to bring in people to be on-call. That room became very helpful for the region and they needed to be prepared in the future. The expectation was to bring the Transportation Plan for that meeting and the reason it wasn’t was because they had to give enough public notice. It would be presented at the July meeting. The Tiger Bill Grant would be coming forth and they found out from USDOT that they had received the highest recommendation they could get for an application. They were encouraged to re- apply and make sure they brought more to the table. Councilmember Moody asked how much the grant would fund. Mr. Benjamin said they had a 33% match in the last application. The $3 million that the County had committed the previous year still stood for this year, so they didn’t have to go back to them for that. They had conversations with the Charleston Parks Conservancy about them possibly bringing funds to the table. There would be $3 million from the County, $1.5 million from the City, and $1.5 million from private dollars. Councilmember Moody asked about the timing and where the City’s $1.5 million was coming from. Mr. Benjamin stated that his understanding was that it was coming from Fiscal Year 2019. When they apply for a grant, they had to make it clear what they were asking for and if/when they win, that was when they had to show the documentation. He didn’t think it was coming from the TIF. Chairman Seekings said it would be allocated from General Funds for 2019. Mr. Benjamin said that when the Federal Government gave out funds, their allocation was technically September of 2020, but they wanted projects to be ready to accept in June of2020. That was why concept designs would be important. Chairman Seekings stated that the past week marked the one year anniversary of Bike Share in Charleston. They had burnt 4.5 million calories, had 13,000 members, over 50,000 miles, and $62,000 saved for those who chose to use it. They wanted to do a test program in West Ashley. Having no further business, the Committee adjourned at 2:31 p.m. Bethany Whitaker Council Secretary