Board of Trustees

Enosburg Falls Streetscape Scoping Alternatives Review Meeting Minutes 4.28.2021 6:30-7:30pm Recorded on Zoom Vital Village Project Background (JE) - Vital Village Plan completed summer of 2019 - Conclusion of plan determined to move towards scoping study to examine these elements in greater detail. - Scoping Study began in summer of 2020 - Public Meeting #1 was December of 2020 - Tonight is Public Meeting #2 - Goal is to understand public preference and gather constructive criticism. Alternatives Presentation (PDF) Public Comment - David Tryhorne: Option to slow traffic down is the most important thing in the proposed alternatives. Slower than I used to be, I like the shorter crosswalk lengths. (Access Alternative Preference) - Sandra Ferland: Slowing traffic down is wonderful. Keep as much parking as possible. Access piece is my preference - Jim Cameron: How far east does the depot street alternative go? Access alternative has my strongest support. Integrate the other thoughts as much as possible. It went from really good, to not so sure. - Suzanne Martin: Access is my preferred. We need more parking on main street. I like making the crosswalks shorter. The other two are nice, but no. Thanks to all who got the grant for this effort. - Rep. Felicia Leffler: Were there costs attached to these at all? - JU: The cost between all three is broadly similar, so was not used to compare. We currently have per foot estimates on streetscapes. Our final recommendation will have a detailed cost estimate. Is currently in $1M main street, $1M for full depot street. These numbers will change based on final alternative. - Rep.Felicia Leffler: Concerned that we don’t have all the stakeholders participation, including businesses that have had changes proposed in these alternatives. - JU: Flyers went door to door originally. (here is a link with records of the Village’s initial business engagement efforts for local concerns, where we did not receive much input). We heard from Flying Disc and others about parking. Will be future opportunities for engagement.  - Rep. Felicia Leffler: Can these plans be put out publicly? A better forum? It took me a long time to find this link. I’m not an opposition voice - but there is such a small number in here tonight, these are $2M changes here. - This is coming on the tails of the Vital Village MP. - Rep. FL: Before this moves forward, can we post this publicly and accessible? Where can we have accessible posting? - JE: If Board of Trustees is supportive, and if there is general support, the engineering study would get hard numbers and determining what parts of the scoping study stay in the project. That phase would get next step, and have more opportunity for public input. Can’t be built as is. - Rep. FL: I am concerned about participation levels. I want better public engagement to be better in our scoping study. We had boards up when we did improvements to the rec fields. I’d like to do that. (talks for a long time) - Suzanne Hull Casavant: I’m frustrated with where we are - Master planning effort was $60k and over a year on public input, in the park, meeting at the school, meeting at the library, and this was supposed to where we moved forward towards “shovel ready”. We want to see movement. I think we should meet in person, seeing as we can do weddings. Would like to see images before the meeting in the future, so we can chew on it. Question - were the curb extensions taking non-parking spaces? (yes). - Ben Maddox: - Where did you count parking from? How many spots were counted? 4.5 spots per 1000 sf of retail space are “currently being imposed” Are we meeting that ratio? - 44 Spots. We did not calculate the SF of retail. - I see myself and the liquor store owner here. Are the others even residents? We can say no to the whole project if we want. It’s not inevitable that it moves forward. As a community, what can we do to stop this? Who knows where the cancel button is? - Why do you want it to be cancelled? - Because now we’re in a good state, and don’t need the change. I don’t see a problem, currently. Staying the same is good, changing things puts things at risk. The greenspace is proposed in loading / unloading zones. Delivery on main street is a traffic stopping shitshow. Steering committee is gutted at this time. People who it lists as representing the highschool aren’t there, no property owners on the steering committee, that’s all I have to say. People are looking to stop the implementation train. - - Greta Brunswick (RPC):  - I am not the manager of the project. I was project manager for the master plan level effort previously. That effort resulted in a storyboard website. This scoping study is intended to forward one element of that master plan. - Shayna Sherwood - It has been difficult to get proper information to understand what state this is in. This feels nebulous. The communication is confusing. Who do we speak to? How do we provide public feedback? St. Albans has done great, but lack of parking is an issue - where do we go with this, how do we have a voice? How do we do this all together - this has been very very confusing. - I did see a flyer, but it was confusing. Where are we in the process? Who is the leader of this project? - Lyle Willey - Enosburg Initative is great. Thank you. I have not received any information about this project, outside of this project 2 years ago. The number 1 obstacle in this town is working through parking. It is the 500 pound gorilla in Enosburg. Parking is very contentious. We’ve had projects in question based on parking. Big history about parking. - Who plows these streets? Snow removal is another thing. These would be hand cleaned? Enosburg’s narrow streets may be a barrier to snowplow issues. - Gary Denton - We’d need another piece of equipment to plow these designs. - Heather Moore - Good conversation. - Ashley Johnston - Samuel Valliancourt - Narrow streets and parking is our number one concern. As a trustee, my effort is to gather public input. We need public input, we need more opportunity. - Shawna - No major comment at this time. I echo Sam. The more public input the better, in a constructive way. There are enhancements that would beautify our village. Hopefully through constructive participation we can make something happen. - Ashley Johnston - Feel same as Ben - we need more parking on main street, can’t afford to get rid of any of it. We’re always fighting with other businesses on main street to have enough parking. - Greg - Clarification about net gain of 2 parking spaces in access: - Not net gain overall, less four on Depot. - I don’t think this accomplishes the traffic calming goals. I don’t think the lateral shift will do - Suzanne Hull-Casavant - There is a net loss of 2, sure, but main street gains 2, and loss on Depot street will not be an issue. There is always parking available on Depot Street. I’m in support. Lets have a non-zoom meeting! - Great Brunswick (RPC) - I’m happy to work with the village on clarifying the website and having a more clear idea about the process and public input opportunities. - I’m wondering if D&K has information on how other communities have managed plowing and loading / unloading access. Does the scoping study address how to work through these issues? On street and off street parking need to work in conjunction. Some parking will require people walking. - - Additional parking study is recommended for the village. To help determine the needs based on data. - Study was completed in 2006. Economic activity at this time was low due to a building fire. - Felicia Leffler - Please put signs up (suggests specific design). Put them in lincoln park. Pop them onto the Depot Street Missiquoi rail trail. Put it in a parking space for a week. I think that would be a great visible, low cost way of grabbing the villages attention. We aren’t ready for a streetscape tomorrow. - Lets send out a surveymonkey or similar to retailers to pick future times. - I’m looking forward to keeping up with this project as it evolves. - Ben Maddox - Original Vital Village Facade improvements - what happened to that? - This study is only carrying the streetscape improvements, not other elements such as facade improvements. - Thank you for doing this tonight, and going so late. - There were tools recommended to improve facade improvements. (Greta)