Complete Streets Advisory Board

SARATOGA SPRINGS COMPLETE STREETS ADVISORY BOARD MEETING MINUTES SEPTEMBER 9, 2021 5:00 P.M. MUSIC HALL, 3 RD FLOOR CITY HALL AND ZOOM ATTENDEES: KEN GREY, TED OROSZ , JAMES KELLEY, JEN NATYZAK , MICHELLE RODDY , AND ERIN MACIEL STAFF: TINA CARTON ABSENT: COLIN KLEPETAR PUBLIC: ED LINDNER AND SUZANNE JAGODA MEETING MINUTES ARE NOT A WORD-FOR-WORD TRANSCRIPT. CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order at 5:03 p.m. PUBLIC COMMENT-15 MINUTES No Public Comment APPROVAL OF MINUTES No meeting minutes were presented for approval. PRESENTATION: SARATOGA SAFE CYCLING COALITION - BIKE LANE INITIATIVE FOR SAFE CYCLING Ed Lindner, the advocacy chair of Bikeatoga, presented on behalf of the Saratoga Safe Cycling Coalition a petition for the Complete Streets Advisory Board to sign on to the Safe Cycling Saratoga draft Resolution. The resolution calls for the City to implement the propose bike lanes included within the City’s 2016 Complete Streets Plan. Mr. Lindner shared that People for Bikes, a national organization, reported that Saratoga Springs was only in the lower 19% percentile out of 351 small cities in the US for safe cycling infrastructure. Mr. Lindner has met with all city council members, but for Commissioner Skip Scirocco. The meeting with Commissioner Scirroco was currently being scheduled for September 17th. The resolution repeats language from the Complete Streets Plan for the city to collaborate with Complete Streets Advisory Board, YMCA, Sustainable Saratoga, Saratoga PLAN, Trek, Impressions, Dark Horse, Palette, Catholic Charities, Backstretch Employee Service Team, Saratoga Shredders, and more. A couple large community partners are awaiting. Michele Madigan had expressed her support and interest in outlining 1 infrastructure in the upcoming budget, and she has supported the Saratoga Safe Cycling Coalition with Ed Lindner speaking on behalf of Bikeatoga at the September 21 City Council meeting. Ted Orosz made a motion to endorse the language of the Resolution. Motion passed by 7 in attendance. PRESENTATION FOR CITY COUNCIL ON CAPITAL DISTRICT PROGRESS ON COMPLETE STREETS Tina Carton proposed a presentation to City Council potentially in October to highlight Complete Streets achievements within the capital district. For example, Glens Falls has crosswalks with signage about looking out for pedestrians. Lake George/Queensbury has significantly been adding to their trails. There are videos from Albany city planner showing their bike infrastructure. One potential project to highlight is the need to increase safety for pedestrians and bicycles over the Church Street Bridge. There is a new proposed development of 220 new units of affordable housing. Ken Grey notes that city of Albany put together a proposal of equity priority roads for Albany. The Town of Bethlehem spent $4 M on Complete Street type upgrades through grants. Erin Marcel suggested that the committee take local pictures of people crossing without crosswalks, biking on sidewalks, and creating safety issues in Saratoga Springs. Then show images depicting how Complete Streets could be implemented in the city. Tina Carton shared traffic data which demonstrated more traffic on Church Street versus Broadway. Erin Marcel would be interested in seeing this data for Van Dam. Ken Grey notes that most roads in Saratoga were designed a century ago. The committee then discussed not presenting in October before the election and transition. The committee did agree that more educational presentations to the City and the public about Complete Streets were needed. The committee agreed to create two presentation with (1) on anecdotes of capital region communities and a second (2) on dangerous conditions and areas within the city. The presentation should include state accident data to support the recommendations. Another idea was to work with Saratoga County to build a map of trails to distribute. The Warren County Chamber has developed a multi-use trail map. Fulton County through tourism dollars gave $75,000 for snow mobile association to complete a trail section in order to increase snow mobile tourism. Ken notes on Lake Ave there’s no sidewalk in front of East Side Rec and residents park their cars on the grass. In the winter folks have to go out into the street to pass the cars. The Great Outdoors project did not include any improvements in the Right-of-Way. Ken was interested in bringing this site to John Franck, Accounts Commissioner, as a “first notice” of liability purposes. Jen suggested also including past incidents from the backstretch area of bike/traffic accidents. OTHER BUSINESS Missing Sidewalk Links consultant is working on historic preservation data requested from SHPO. The preliminary design is almost done, bidding this winter, and build this spring. Vanderbilt sidewalk is being built. To save large trees, the sidewalk will be to the curb. 2 The Downtown Connector Trail ROW is complete. . National Grid moved poles form north side to south side of Excelsior to build the trail. By November the contract will go to city council for review. The Geyser Road Trail is complete as detailed in the engineering documents. Tina Carton requested an additional guard rail between Geyser Road and the trail adjacent to the pond. There currently is a guard rail against the pond, but it should be between the trail and roadway. Ted Orosz agreed. The sidewalk surface over bridge is pitted and needed to be fixed. This was outside of the DOT project, and needs to be addressed as a separate project. There was an internal meeting on micro-mobility, which are currently allowed via state law. Electric scooters are supposed to be only the road not on sidewalks. Cities can further regulate them. Tina notes seeing more individuals on electric scooters and it would prudent for the city to determine how and if they want any regulations on these devices. Ken mentions People for Bikes advocacy around Bicycle Commuter Tax Benefit to local bike commuters- send support to congress. The City, Saratoga County, and the Town of Wilton received funding for a study of the Wiebel Ave, Louden Rd and the mall for better pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure. The technical assistance is a preliminary step before completing a feasibility study. The kickoff is later in September. ADJOURN The meeting was officially adjourned at 6:25 p.m. NEXT MEETING: THE DECEMBER MEETING IS CANCELED AND THE NEXT MEETING WILL TAKE PLACE OCTOBER 7 AT 5 PM IN MUSIC HALL, CITY HALL OR THROUGH ZOOM . 3