Everett Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC)

TAC MINUTES April 19, 2018 In attendance: Members Staff Guests Renee Quistorf Tim Miller, Public Works Bob Creamer William Weber Ken Dorn, Police Victor Harris Sabina Popa, Transit Christina Curtis Brett Yeadon, Police Tyler Rourke Kelsey Svaren, Public Works Richard Smith Scott Bader, City Council David Stalheim, Planning Meeting called to order at 8:03 a.m. Chaired by Tyler Rourke  M/S/P for March 2018 Minutes. Announcements & Requests to Add Agenda Items  Victor attended the Planning Commission meeting Tuesday night. They made comments in reference to updating the comprehensive plan to suit their needs. He asked if there are any updates for Transportation or if any hard deadlines have been set for the comprehensive plan. Tim noted that there are not at this time.  Tyler noted that he has seen a few streets with brand new pavement overlay that will eventually include a bike lane. He suggested that the city cross-reference their schedule with the Bike Master Plan to work together and complete both projects at once when possible.  A short discussion took place regarding ways in which bike safety can be incorporated into the current streetscape of the city.  Councilman Bader suggested that the committee make a point to come back to this topic at a later date and take a closer look at the details the project would entail. Citizen’s Comments  Bob Creamer informed the committee that the League of Women Voters of Snohomish County, WA® hosted a Transportation Forum in Lynnwood on April 18, 2018. There was approximately 65 attendees, plus 8 notable speakers who answered several prepared questions, in addition to audience questions. Bob said that they saw eight prominent people with different interests who listened and communicated affectively during the forum. They expressed that they want to work together more on issues moving forward. The panelists included: o Josh Brown, Executive Director of Puget Sound Regional Council o David Hablewitz, Stop405Tolls.org o Emmett Heath, CEO of Community Transit o Senator Steve Hobbs, WA State Senate Transportation Committee o Steve Marshall, Transportation Technology Partnership Manager, City of Bellevue o Senator John McCoy, WA State Senate Transportation Committee o Roger Millar, WA State Secretary of Transportation  o Peter Rogoff, CEO of Sound Transit Engineering Report  Tim announced that he would be giving the engineering report, due to Ryan’s absence. Ryan is in Vancouver, WA attending the American Public Works Association Spring Conference for Washington State. The City’s Broadway Bridge Project received the prestigious Project of the Year Award under $25 M, which was extremely competitive. Ryan is there to accept the award from APWA.  Tim informed the committee that the City opened bids for the Hoyt Ave Streetscape Phase II last week. There was only one bid submitted, which was double the cost of the Engineer’s estimate. The City will probably not move forward with the project at this time. There was interest shown by several companies before the bid and Tim noted that follow up discussion with those organizations to see why they chose not to bid on the project will be conducted. Renee asked about what will happen to the project if the City chooses not to move forward with the submitted bid. Tim explained if that decision was made it would likely be shelved for now and re-evaluated at a later date to see when it will be best to put out another open bid in the future. Tyler referred to a grant that was awarded for the project and wondered if funding will be affected by this change in schedule. Tim acknowledged Tyler’s concern, and noted that the project cannot be put on hold indefinitely without risk of loss of funding. The City will keep the granting body apprised of the situation in order to preserve the funding.  Christina asked whether open bids are taken on a set schedule or if the dates are determined by the City. Tim stated that the City sets its own bidding schedule but needs to take grant funding requirements into account.  Sabina noted that ET has experienced similar issues with Transit project bids in the past and that it is probably just due to the current state of the market.  Richard asked if the City is reaching out to other local municipalities to see if they are running into the same issue of scarce bidders. Tim said that he was not sure who they check with, but it is a logical assumption that the City would check with others regarding similar projects.  Tyler asked if there are any plans to work on the section of Hoyt from Pacific to Wall that currently has a rough patch job. It would have been paved for the Streetscape project. Tim said that they have not had an opportunity to discuss that yet, but the City is capable of putting in a better patch if needed while they wait to finish the Hoyt Streetscape project. Police Report  No Report  Renee asked whether the Everett PD has seen a reduction in drug trafficking. Sergeant Yeadon noted that the Police Department conducts monthly meetings regarding major crime trends in the City. The issue of drug trafficking is primarily handled by the drug task force, but many crimes discussed in these meetings are fueled by drugs and drug trafficking.  Sergeant Dorn explained that the Police Department is 911 driven. Officers usually have another job such as traffic or parking enforcement when not responding to emergencies, so it can be difficult to cover everything when there is a high volume of 911 calls.  Sergeant Yeadon also mentioned that the Police are more likely to know about issues in any given area of the City when they receive calls from citizens. Concerning speeding issues, the  police use strategies, such as utilizing citizen volunteers to gather data. They then work with Traffic Engineering to find solutions.  Christina mentioned that speeding in North Everett is an issue. She has seen two car accidents in front of house in last year. A short discussion took place regarding speeding issues in North Everett. Several committee members offered suggestions to curb frequent speeding in the area. Tim suggested that it would be beneficial to look at traffic and speeding issues within the city as a whole rather than focusing on North Everett, and also noted that it is not always practical to implement speed bumps and diverters because they can greatly affect emergency response vehicles and bus routes. Tim suggested that the committee proceed with this discussion by looking at data from traffic engineering. Tyler suggested that this discussion be added as an agenda item for a future TAC meeting. Transit Report  Sabina highlighted the traffic issues within the whole City of Everett by informing the committee about an accident at the intersection of Madison and Beverly where an electrical panel was damaged. Sergeant Dorn noted that state law requires drivers to stop at an intersection whether or not there is clear signage.  Sabina met with WSDOT, who is measuring short and long-term solutions to manage congestion on Interstate 5. Managing access to and from Interstate 5 is one of their main measures, which may include adding more metered on-ramps or changing the way that they currently work in the City.  Transit’s Long Range Plan finished its phase 3 outreach with 110 surveys returned. The majority of respondents are in support of the plan as a whole. Transit is moving forward to finalize the plan and will keep the Committee informed regarding updates, including when it will go to City Council for approval.  Transit is also going through staff restructuring due to several members of the team retiring. Sabina will keep the committee informed of staffing changes as they occur. Agenda Items: Item 1: Metro Area Plan Briefing/Discussion; David Stalheim, Planning  One focus of the Metro Area Plan concerns off street parking standards. Metro Everett includes approximately one square mile of land, located mostly in downtown Everett. One main purpose of this plan is to address growth of the City. People have expressed interest in seeing growth concentrated within the urban center of Everett. The Planning Department has been working on this plan for two years, and has gone through a few iterations. There will be an open house on April 25, 2018 at 6pm in the Weyerhaeuser Room at Everett Station. This open house will provide an overview of the draft Metro Everett Plan and development regulations. Public hearings before the city's Planning Commission are tentatively scheduled to begin in June.  The Metro Area Plan will follow off street parking principles, including market driven and flexible regulations, creating inviting places, integrating with public parking management, and preparing for transportation changes such as Light rail and autonomous vehicles.  Inventory from 2015 shows that there were 1,842 on-street parking stalls and 6,378 off-street parking stalls in Downtown Everett.  Forecasts nationwide through 2030 show that people will favor alternative options to personal vehicles, such as public transportation and private ride-share companies. Although this trend may not be completely reflective of Everett, it shows that land within the City may be freed from parking personal vehicles in the Metro Area. The city has reviewed several reports to inform the Metro Area Plan.  In 2013, the Puget Sound Regional Council released ‘The Growing Transit Communities Strategy’, which includes recommended actions the City would like to incorporate. These include shared parking, flexible or market driven parking regulations, reduced or no parking for special populations, limits on maximum amount of parking, and transportation demand management.  The ‘Right Size Parking Study’ from 2015 also includes independent variables for parking utilization, including transit frequency, percent of affordable housing units, occupied bedroom count and intensity, size of residential space, rent, and parking price relative to rent.  The City of Redmond was included in the ‘Transit Mixed Use Study’ from 2016. It analyzed that people in Redmond made 1.7 times more trips by walking and 3 times more trips by transit. They also made 37.4% of the trips the ITE manual estimated and residential parking was only 65% of ITE’s peak.  Based on the 2015-2016 Downtown Parking Studies update, the City needs to update parking utilization levels, evaluate effectiveness of current time limits, and update downtown parking strategies.  Some solutions for employees in the Metro area who park on-street include stricter parking enforcement, alternative travel methods, affordable off-street parking, and paid street parking.  The general strategy of the Metro Area Plan is derived from a 2013 study, which includes ways to implement growing transit communities. This may include shared parking, flexible or market driven regulations, reduced parking for special populations, and transportation demand management. This does not include limits on maximum parking.  The Planning Department is hoping to streamline codes for the Metro Area Plan. Parking/access standards will be in one chapter of the Metro Area Plan, and design standards will be moved to the Public Works Design and Construction Standards.  Bicycle Parking will be required, which is new to the City of Everett. In non-residential developments, there will need to be one bicycle stall for every 12-car stalls, which are required even where off-street car parking is not. In addition, there will be one bicycle stall required for every two units in residential developments. For senior developments, the requirement is lowered to one bicycle stall for every four car stalls.  There are several flexible proposals within this plan, including multifamily reductions, new Metro Everett parking zones, exemption for buildings on the historic building register, exemption for buildings built prior to 1957, and shared parking between organizations.  Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Plans will be required for new and renovated buildings over 50,000 square feet, with some exceptions. TDM strategies will be employed to reduce single-occupancy vehicle trips, reduce vehicle miles travelled by site users, and promote transportation alternatives such as walking, cycling, ridesharing, and transit. They must be approved by the City Engineer and must include ways to ensure ongoing compliance and enforcement of approved TDM strategies.  A future issue for the Metro Area Plan includes placement of the Light rail station, which will not start planning until 2020.   They are also looking at some interim improvements for pedestrians between the Everett Transit Station and Angel of the Winds Arena, which may include a new pedestrian and bicycle route near the Lowe’s property.  For more detailed information about off street parking and the Metro Area Plan as a whole, visit Everettwa.gov/metro Item 2: Six Year Transportation Improvement Plan Briefing/Discussion, Richard Tarry  Richard Tarry provided the committee with a list of projects that the city has considered in the past and may pursue in the future. City Council authorizes staff to seek funding from various federal programs to help pay for projects. Criteria for these programs changes every year, so the City cross-references those criteria with priority projects to see which sources they can apply for funding.  TAC is part of the review process for the Transportation projects included on the list. The City also works closely with the Port of Everett. Sometimes the Port receives federal funds and city assists them with projects. The City attempts to be all-inclusive with the Transportation Improvement Program, including projects that they city may not work on themselves, but that have a positive impact on the city. They often will assist with these projects, even if they are not the main party involved.  Many of the projects start as a generalized idea, such as the bridge program, and evolve into more detailed and specialized projects as funding is granted. This is done to make sure that the City does not disqualify projects from funding by having details sorted out in advance that do not line up with funding criteria.  The City works closely with traffic engineering to be ADA compliant, but they can restricted by funding. To combat this issue, many updates are done in conjunction with a project that is already being worked on so that the city can meet new ADA compliance requirements as they go.  Currently, Richard T. is not aware of any new projects to be added to the list for next year, but acknowledges that that may change with the new administration. Tyler asked about who determines which projects are added to the list, and Richard T. informed the committee that the list includes anything that staff or Administration want to include as a prospective project. Richard pointed out that new project suggestions for the year are bolded on the document.  Tyler asked if he is able to make a suggestion for a future project to have sidewalks incorporated in areas that do not already have them, especially in South Everett. Richard T. stated that developments or owners who want to improve their property are responsible for adding new sidewalks. The city does have a sidewalk repair and replacement project that is listed on the document and the Streets Department completes repairs and improvements throughout the year.  Richard T. also emphasized that every phase of the projects goes back before City Council for approval.  Richard S. asked whether the projects on the document are listed in order of priority or if there is a strategy to extract projects from the list.  Richard T. stated that the projects on the list are not in any specific order, but that funding opportunities do often dictate priority. He noted again that this might change under the new  Administration, but that specifying details for a project too early could inhibit the city’s ability to apply for grants and other funding. Richard T. mentioned that some projects are data driven as well.  Adjourned at 9:57 am Next Scheduled Meeting: May 17, 2018