Complete Streets Advisory Board

City of Saratoga Springs JACLYN HAKES, CHAIR LOU SCHNEIDER, VICE CHAIR SHARED ACCESS ADVISORY BOARD MARK BENAQUISTA 474 Broadway THERESA CAPOZZOLA Saratoga Springs, New York 12866 KEN GREY _____________________ STEPHAN GODLEWSKI Telephone 518-587-3550 Fax 518-587-1688 CHARLIE SAMUELS Shared Access Advisory Board (SAAB) Meeting August 23, 2012 City Council Room 5:00 pm Attendees: Board Members: Jackie Hakes, Steve Godlewski, Mark Benaquista, Lou Schneider, Charlie Samuels, Ken Grey, Theresa Capozzola Staff and others: Kate Maynard, Stephanie Seidmon Public Comment: none 1. Board Chair and Vice-Chair Discussion and Potential Vote: • Kate Maynard asks whether the group wants to let the Mayor appoint a Chair or Vice Chair or if the group wants to self-appoint the positions. Consensus to self-appoint. o Discussion about whether the group wants 2 co-Chairs or a Chair and a Vice Chair. Consensus on a Chair and a Vice Chair o Ken Grey proposes a vote and the group decides: Jackie Hakes is the Chair and Lou Schneider is the Vice-Chair. • What is the role of the chair or vice-chair? o Keeping everybody focused, working with the staff, providing direction to the committee, making the best use of the committee’s time o Liason between city council or planning board 2. Complete Streets Checklist • Charlie Samuels proposes that we should have a visual depiction of different examples of complete streets on the city website or another venue accessible to the public. Most people agree on the idea, but not yet sure what types of images we’d want. Kate Maynard suggests we can have photos of different treatments to roads that wouldn’t be specific to Saratoga • Kate Maynard suggests that we should create a standard detail for a bike rack; people seem to like the loop one. • Everyone seems to like NJDOT’s formatting—provides the nuts and bolts in an easy-to-read format with simple checklists. Lou Schneider proposes we go with the NJDOT format, combining elements of its content with that of other examples; everyone agrees.  o Theresa Capozzola likes pg. 7 of the MORPC, a basic checklist of what items will be incorporated into any project—could be attached as an addendum. o Jackie Hakes likes how Seattle includes greenhouse gas emissions and stormwater infrastructure in potential projects. We need to look at the sustainability approach and incorporate it into our checklist, just maybe not in the way Seattle did it. o Kate Maynard likes the sections that differentiate types of streets; Seattle’s Priority Elements Matrix is a good example. Pg. 22 of MORPC incorporates some standard details that we might want to consider. o Jackie Hakes likes the intros in each of the documents—Stephanie Seidmon will write one up for our draft proposal. o Jackie Hakes likes pg. 14 of MORPC and suggests we should consider having an “Other Resources” section in our checklist. o In Existing Bicycle and Pedestrian Operations item, consensus to:  Delete box 1  Change “study area” to “site” and delete the word “volumes” in box 2  Delete last 2 boxes o Consensus to change the language—“project” or “project area” instead of “transportation facility o In Existing Truck/Freight Operations, consensus to add sentences “Are there existing truck/freight considerations?” “Are there safety concerns?” o Consensus to delete “Land Usage” item. o Consensus to add a sentence about possible connection opportunities to Major Sites item. o Consensus to delete Project Manager Sign-off o Discussion about whether or not, in the Existing Plans item, we only want to include adopted plans. Did not reach consensus 3. Complete Streets Workshop: • Adirondack Rural Health Network is giving us a workshop! It will consist of a guest lecturer, Mark Fenton, who will be able to teach us and the city about whatever aspects of Complete Streets we want to become experts in. It will also include a complete streets audit—walking around the city and assessing different locations. • Some thoughts as to what we might want to learn about: o How do we incorporate Complete Streets into our comprehensive plan? o Standard details? o Other ideas? Send them to Kate! • Early November looks like it works best for everyone 4. Geyser Road Safe Routes to School Application: • The school board and the city are jointly applying for Safe Routes to School funding—due next Friday—to ameliorate transportation and accessibility 2  around the Geyser elementary school. Project will amend what is now a very disconnected area, connecting existing sidewalks near Tiffany Place to Beaver Pond to Casino Drive on the east. Consensus that the board will write an active letter of support for this project. 5. Housekeeping: • Cap meeting times at 6:30 • Next meeting will be on Thursday, September 6th at 5pm. Public Comment: • Amy Durland commented as an audience member asking if we can make it easier to hear—use microphones, speak up, and possibly use an overhead to show the documents we’re reviewing. 3