Complete Streets Advisory Board

SARATOGA SPRINGS COMPLETE STREETS ADVISORY BOARD MEETING MINUTES NOVEMBER 2, 2017 5:00 P.M. COUNCIL CHAMBERS, CITY HALL ATTENDEES: STEVE GODLEWSKI, COLIN KLEPETAR, DOUGLAS HALLER, ROB WRIGHT, TED OROSZ. STAFF: TINA CARTON ABSENT: KEN GREY AND MAUREEN ROBERTS PUBLIC: NONE MEETING MINUTES ARE NOT A WORD-FOR-WORD TRANSCRIPT. CALL TO ORDER: Steve Godlewski called the meeting to order at 5:08 p.m. PUBLIC COMMENT-15 MINUTES None APPROVAL OF MINUTES-09/7/2017 No discussion, Ted Orosz moved and Colin Klepetar seconded to approve the minutes. Ayes - All UPDATE ON STATION LANE TRAFFIC STUDY Steve Godlewski and Tina Carton led the discussion on the current status of the Station Lane development projects. Prior to the meeting, Tina Carton had shared the Traffic Impact Study with the committee. Kate Maynard and the Planning Board were interested in comments from the committee on the study. Based on the number of units described in the study, the recreation fees for the proposed 517 units would be roughly $775,500. Tina Carton stated that the developers were exploring a possible park on site that would be built from these funds and that the DPS Commissioner was interested in utilizing some of the funds in a reserve for future park maintenance. The committee agreed that it would draft a new letter with achievable solutions including proposals for a new sidewalk and bike connections connecting it to the adjacent neighborhood and into downtown. 1 UPDATE ON THE CDTC BIKE AND PEDESTRIAN MEETING Tina Carton attended the October meeting of the Bike and Pedestrian meeting in Albany. The main highlight of the meeting was the Delaware Avenue study completed by Creighton Manning. The study was a linkage project between the Albany line and Kenwood Ave. A goal of the project was to evaluate a road diet. The consultant looked at potential safety benefits as well as traffic impacts. Public and business owner opinion has generally been positive for a road diet, although some people are afraid they will have to wait too long or that they will lose a lot of business. Tina Carton stated that the graphics were very engaging and explained concepts such as LOS to an audience not familiar with transportation terminology. She mentioned that the City may want to pursue an in-depth study along West Avenue in the future since the City may be facing similar issues that Delaware Ave. is facing. DISCUSSION ON TRANSPORTATION LINKAGE PLANNING PROGRAM Tina Carton provided information on CDTC’s Transportation Linkage Planning funding. UPDATE ON SGT DOWNTOWN CONNECTOR PROJECT Tina Carton updated the committee on the status of the consultant contract for the preliminary and final engineering. It is expected that the contract will be on the November 21st City Council meeting agenda for discussion and approval. The City of Saratoga Springs/DEC contract has been finalized in the grants gateway. UPDATE ON USE OF MAYOR’S COMPLETE STREETS FUNDING: DOWNTOWN EXTENDER Tina Carton has drafted the RFP for final engineering for the Downtown Extender (Lake Avenue to Congress Park and Congress Park to Railroad Run Complete Street improvements) with Ted Orosz’s assistance. As stated in the last meeting, she was concerned that the language does not describe the fact that the consultant/engineering firm will need to stay within existing conditions. Tina Carton sent the RFP for CDTC review and is currently working to incorporate their suggestions in to the final product. She expects that the RFP will be distributed before the end of November. OTHER BUSINESS New York’s Pedestrian Safety Action Plan includes $40 million in federal Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) funds to implement systemic pedestrian safety projects on local and county urban roads and streets. The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) will conduct a webinar on November 14, 2017 from 2:00-3:30 to discuss the application and eligibility requirements of this program. Tina Carton is planning on listening in on the webinar but does have a meeting conflict so she will not be able to attend the webinar in its entirety. The hope is that the City will be able to fund the DPS Pedestrian Safety improvements with this funding. Committee members also stated that the City should consider the Pitney Meadows SGT Route 50 crossing as well as the intersection where Railroad Run crosses over New Street as other intersections needing improvement. Price Chopper: Doug Haller updated the committee that he spoke to the store manager and then wrote a letter to the corporate offices regarding the lack of public access to the sidewalks adjacent to the Price Shopper store on Route 50. Code enforcement does not have jurisdiction since it is private property, but Doug is concerned that this is an ADA and fire code violation. 2 Steve Godlewski would like to step down as the chair of the committee on January 1st. He is looking for interested members to replace him. He is hopeful that the committee can vote on his replacement before the beginning of the year. ADJOURN The meeting was adjourned at 6:05 p.m. NEXT MEETING: SCHEDULED FOR DECEMBER 7TH AT 5 PM IN CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS. 3