Traffic and Transportation Committee

TRAFFIC AND TRANSPORTATION May 28, 2019 A meeting of the Committee on Traffic and Transportation was held this date beginning at 1:35 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 Wagner, Councilmember Moody, Councilwoman Jackson, and Mayor Tecklenburg Also Present: Keith Benjamin, Robbie Somerville, Janie Borden, and Bethany Whitaker, Council Secretary The meeting was opened with an invocation provided by Councilwoman Jackson. APPROVAL OF MINUTES On the motion of Councilmember Moody, seconded by Councilwoman Jackson, the Committee voted unanimously to approve the minutes of the May 14, 2019 meeting. An ordinance to amend the Code of the City of Charleston, South Carolina, Chapter 19, Sections 247 and 248 to enact rules of conduct for publicly owned parking garages. Ms. Borden stated that the parking garages had had a set of general rules to govern how vehicles were parked and the behaviors one should or shouldn’t take, but those rules were never codified, so it made it difficult for the Police Department or Code Enforcement to enforce the rules. They were more of a civil infraction that would need to be enforced by a garage operator. This would codify those rules and allow the City to write a citation should someone violate a rule. Councilmember Moody asked if there was anything added that hadn’t been there before and where the rules were at before. Ms. Borden said they were just kind of a hodge-podge of things that had come up over time as they had dealt with various situations in the parking garages. They were not written down anywhere that she was aware of. Chairman Seekings said that in some of the garages, they had templates that stated some of the rules. Chairman Seekings said there was a section that referenced ‘the following underlined phrases’ and he didn’t think there were any underlined phrases. Councilwoman Jackson said there was a typo in Number 7 and it was supposed to be ‘an’ not ‘and’. Mayor Tecklenburg referred to Number 6 and said when they had parking for the hurricane, a number of people with golf carts wanted to park in the garages. He was wondering if they needed to think a little more about small electric vehicles and golf carts, particularly during emergencies. Councilmember Moody asked if the Mayor could make a proclamation that when there was an emergency they would be open for trailers and golf carts as an exception. Mayor Tecklenburg said they could do that. Chairman Seekings said that if people started putting golf carts in garages regularly, there would be an issue. Mayor Tecklenburg said he didn’t say he was advocating for it. It had just come up during the last hurricane season and he wanted to think about it. Chairman Seekings said the Mayor would have that authority. Once they opened the parking garages for emergencies, they were kind of ‘off-book’. Chairman Seekings asked if there was any particular instance that caused them to look at this or if had been on their plate for a while. 1 Ms. Borden said it had been something that had been on her plate for a while and she thought it coincided with some of the items that the Police Department had been working on. Councilmember Wagner said they brought up the hurricane time and asked how full the garages were. Chairman Seekings said it depended on the garage. Councilmember Wagner said if everyone was trying to get their cars in the garages and they filled it up with golf carts, they might be doing a disservice. Chairman Seekings said he went around and looked a lot the last time they had the garages opened, and there was plenty of activity, but they weren’t overflowing. Councilmember Wagner said he always looked to the past to see what the future might look like. Councilwoman Jackson said they could always look at it if it got worse. Chairman Seekings said that he noticed that the numbering was off as well, that they would need to fix. On the motion of Councilwoman Jackson, seconded by Councilmember Moody, the Committee voted unanimously to approve the above item. Director’s Update Mr. Benjamin stated that he had a few things and then could also answer questions and concerns. In the next week they would be having their pre-construction kick-off meeting for the Fairchild/Island Park Drive intersection. That was an intersection they were able to get some dollars to improve and have fully signalized. They would be out there with the neighborhood association to make sure everything was fitting to where it needed to be. The previous week they had some national partners in town who dealt with multi- modal access and they were helping the Gotcha Group with internalizing the Just Ride program. The Just Ride Program was their equity program with the bike share to make sure that people in a certain income level would still have accessibility. The grant they got had actually ended about a month and a half previous, however, Gotcha had decided to internalize that program at their organization and keep it going. So, they were walking through what that could look like and what an expansion of the program could be. They were glad that program was continuing to move forward. Later on that week, they were doing a showcase of the traffic management center for City staff. That was so that people who were in Public Safety, Emergency Services, Planning, etc., would know what was in that room and how it could be of use to them and how it could be something that they could maximize in the future. They had about 14-15 staff members who would be there from various departments to engage. That week there was a number of County and SCDOT coordinating meetings. He could get into more detail if needed. One was with Harborview and Folly and that intersection improvement. Another was with the Maybank Corridor and that safety review and how they would move forward on the 29th. He was meeting with all of the neighborhood associations that were close to Brigade and Meeting Street. Brigade Street was up for resurfacing at the beginning of 2020, so they were coordinating how they could improve that entire corridor. There were some approvals done with CARTA regarding the fares. The senior fares were all expanded for all operating hours. Transfer fees were eliminated, and now there was a weekly unlimited pass. There was a request in the bids at Ways and Means for a contract for bringing on a consultant to help them complete the Build grant. Councilwoman Jackson asked when that grant was due. Mr. Benjamin said it was July 15th and they would find out in the fall. Chairman Seekings referred to the money they would allocate for the hiring of the consultant and asked where he was based. Mr. Benjamin said he was in Jacksonville and he would come up to Charleston periodically. He had already been in Charleston and met City staff and find out what was going on. 2 Having no further business, the Committee adjourned at 1:47 p.m. 3