Complete Streets Advisory Board

SARATOGA SPRINGS COMPLETE STREETS ADVISORY BOARD MEETING MINUTES MARCH 10, 2022 5:00 P.M. ZOOM - https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83327583317 ATTENDEES: JEN NATYZAK, KEN GREY, SUZANNE JAGODA, TED OROSZ, ERIN MACIEL STAFF: DEPUTY COMMISSIONER HEATHER CROCKER AND TINA CARTON ABSENT: MICHELE RODDY, PUBLIC: Olivia O’Malley & Mary Hallquist MEETING MINUTES ARE NOT A WORD-FOR-WORD TRANSCRIPT. CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order at 5:02 p.m. PUBLIC COMMENT-15 MINUTES Mary Hallquist: Parents are concerned about the safety of walking students from school. She stated that the most recent decision from the City Council is insufficient to keep families and children safe. Students and their families are now allowed to leave early to avoid the unsafe and concerning vehicle traffic. Parents have asked to have it prohibited to not allow people to turn onto Schuyler, and it is currently a mandatory one-way. The principal has not been able to get in touch with Public Safety. Reducing the speed limit would help, but the offer is only to get the speed limit lowered only to Benton. There were no parking signs installed which were helpful but not sufficient. For the foreseeable future the parents asked to have traffic allowed only one way on Schuyler. A crossing guard position has been posted online. Ken Grey responded that this issue should be brought to the safety committee and must be brought up to Commissioner Montenegro. Olivia O’Malley: Numerous emails have been sent to city council and it was clearly noted that parents are disappointed they could not provide feedback to what they saw to be an insufficient solution. Commissioner Montenegro visited the school in person. Olivia and parents will attend a public hearing next Tuesday on this issue. “Perfect world” would include a sidewalk and a crossing guard to help children cross the street and increased striping for the crosswalks. For the interim- she recommends doing what Lake Ave has done, which is to wheel out a Slow Traffic sign on wheels and restricting traffic to go one-way. 1 Erin Maciel suggests angled striping on the road for walkers for a quick, low-cost solution since there is no on-street parking. It was noted that a new house on 5th has no sidewalks. She expresses concerns that a sidewalk may not be required there. APPROVAL OF MINUTES- MINUTES WERE APPROVED. DISCUSSION REGARDING 269 BROADWAY The committee was provided an update on 269 Broadway. There is 18ft of public space on south side of the building, so it may not be likely to get a full 12ft path, but the committee is hopeful that the Planning Board recommend a 10ft path. The committee recommends that the City study on how to best get from Congress Park to Hamilton. The original Downtown Extender engineering study evaluated Congress to South Franklin. This section was evaluated with on street bike lanes and sharrows. This lead to loss of on street parking. Congress in front of the Embassy Suites and CVS is also extremely busy with vehicular traffic. City staff suggested looking at Hamilton to West Circular as an alternative to get to Railroad Run. It connects to low income housing, a church, school, and the Saratoga Community Health Center. Erin suggests incorporating the Visitors Center to get to Hamilton Street. DISCUSSION ON SARATOGA SPRINGS BIKE PARK CSAB approved with motion from Suzanne to endorse a new bike park in the City of Saratoga Springs. UPDATE ON THE DOWNTOWN CONNECTOR TRAIL AND WILTON/SARATOGA COUNTY/CITY CDTC PROJECT The City is currently planning for construction to start this summer for Downtown Connector. A construction contract is on the March 15th City Council agenda for approval. If the contract is approved, the trail will be constructed starting in May of this year and is expected to be completed before the winter. Preliminary study with the town of Wilton, CDTC, and Capital District Regional Planning is nearing completion. The study is looking at pedestrian and bicycle connections from Exit 15 slip ramp and Louden Road through the Wilton Mall area, over to Wilton YMCA, down Weibel Avenue and making connections to Bog Meadow. It is exploring routing over to Wilton YMCA, over Lowes Drive, down Louden Rd and considering connections to Bog Meadow Trail. Skidmore’s license agreement for use of the Weibel Avenue Skating Rink includes the payment for a installation of a future traffic light in front of the Weibel Ave ice rink. This will help facilitate pedestrians and bicycles to cross the road. UPDATE ON UNION RFP NYSDOT is planning to add bike lanes on Union Avenue from East Ave to Henning, with sidewalk on north side from East to the last track entrance. The project will include granite curbing to sides and median. The NYSDOT would like to shift the landscaping/mowing responsibilities in this area since they 2 follow the regular mowing schedule and get complaints that it is not mowed frequently enough. The Mayor is arranging meeting with NYRA and Carrie Woerner to see if NYRA can take over the responsibility of managing the space. This would really dress up the boulevard. The Mayor’s office will be sending out an RFP later in March for the bike/pedestrian accommodations from East Avenue to Mary Lou Whitney Park- connecting East to Congress Park. This study would also look at pedestrian areas and crosswalks. OTHER BUSINESS Saratoga County is working to create a new section of the Zim Smith Trail to connect the end of the trail in Ballston Spa to the Saratoga Spa State Park. This could be the missing link to get into downtown Saratoga Springs by bike. The City worked with the County to explore the potential for a RAISE grant to complete this. Unfortunately the grant’s technical requirements are extensive and require outside technical experts to be contracted. This would be a county-led project, approaching $9M, not including a connection to Ballston Spa and to the Saratoga State Park. Suzanne notes that to make a strong grant application we must include how low income communities are affected/connected by the projects. Infrastructure Committee Update: The majority of the federal grants will be funneling through existing NYS DOT programs. The infrastructure committee sent emails to stakeholders asking for the top 3 projects. The infrastructure plan has specific grants for pilots, traffic studies. Complete Streets members are submitting their top priorities to Erin Maciel who will compile for the Infrastructure Committee which she is a part of. ADJORN The meeting was officially adjourned at 6:35pm. 3