Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission Meeting

1 Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission (BPAC) Approved December 18, 2021 2 Meeting Minutes via Zoom 3 Date: Tuesday, November 16, 2021 4 Time: 7:00 p.m. 5 Place: City Council Chambers, 400 South Vine Street, Urbana, IL 61801 6 Members Present: Bill Brown (Chair), Annie Adams, Shannon Beranek, Kara Dudek, Cynthia 7 Hoyle, Audrey Ishii, Susan Jones, Jeff Marino, Sarthak Prasad, Nancy Westcott 8 9 Late Arrival: None 10 11 Staff Present: Bridget Broihahn, Katherine ‘Kat’ Trotter, John Zeman 12 13 Others Present: David Huber, Rev. Dr. Evelyn Underwood, Thomas Valencia 14 15 Members Absent: None 16 17 1. CALL TO ORDER, ROLL CALL, AND DECLARATION OF QUORUM 18 Bill Brown called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Roll call was taken. A quorum was present. 19 20 2. ADDITIONS TO AGENDA 21 There was one addition to the agenda: Description of the Unpaid Intern Position to Review and Assess 22 the 2016 Urbana Bicycle Master Plan. Cynthia wanted to discuss it before sending it over to the Department 23 of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Illinois. Susan Jones moved to approve the agenda as 24 amended. Annie Adams seconded the motion. 25 26 Brown -- Aye; Adams -- Aye; Beranek -- Aye; Dudek – Aye; Hoyle -- Aye; Ishii – Aye; Jones – Aye; Marino – 27 Aye; Prasad -- Aye; Westcott -- Aye. 28 29 The motion was approved. 30 31 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM PREVIOUS MEETING (OCTOBER) 32 Cynthia Hoyle recommended a change to page 2, line 23 from “Regional Planning Commission” to “University 33 of Illinois Regional and Urban Planning Program” to reflect the program for recruiting an intern to review and 34 assess the 2016 Urbana Bicycle Master Plan. Susan Jones moved to approve the October meeting minutes as 35 amended. Annie Adams seconded the motion. A roll call vote was taken. 36 37 Brown -- Aye; Adams -- Aye; Beranek -- Aye; Dudek – Aye; Hoyle -- Aye; Ishii – Aye; Jones – Aye; Marino – 38 Aye; Prasad -- Aye; Westcott -- Aye. 39 40 The motion carried. 41 42 4. PUBLIC INPUT 43 Rev. Dr. Underwood said that she was interested in the Equity and Quality of Life program and what the 44 process would be for deciding which projects would be chosen. 45 David Huber expressed concern about traffic on Washington Street between Vine Street and Philo Road, but in 46 particular, about the striping of bicycle lanes and the lack of north/south accessible ramps on the south side of 47 Washington Street between Vine Street and Philo Road. Bill Brown said that it would be placed on a future 48 agenda: Traffic Calming on Washington Street between Vine Street and Philo Road. Page 1  1 Thomas Valencia wanted to commend the City of Urbana on its bicycle infrastructure. He mentioned several 2 locations where he felt improvements could be made. 3 4 5 5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 6 a. Equity and Quality of Life Project – Bridget Broihahn 7 Bridget Broihahn, Communications Specialist for the City of Urbana, discussed the communications plan for 8 promoting the Equity and Quality of Life Project (EQL) by funding projects that improve the health and safety 9 in underserved neighborhoods with small infrastructure projects. She provided BPAC with examples of projects 10 that could be presented for consideration under the project. She indicated that there would be $2 million set 11 aside for the entire project with a maximum allotment of $250,000 for each proposal. 12 Bill Brown explained that the City Administrator had tasked BPAC with prioritizing applications submitted for 13 this program. 14 15 6. REPORTS OF CITY OFFICIALS AND STAFF AND REPORTS OF COMMITTEES 16 Sarthak Prasad said that bicycle registration information was available at bike.illinois.edu. He said that 17 registration was open to anyone from Champaign and Urbana who paid a $10 fee, but he said that the cities of 18 Urbana and Champaign did not contribute toward the program. 19 Cynthia Hoyle said that it should be put on the agenda for next month. 20 Bill Brown stated that he had sent e-mails to City staff asking questions about bicycle registration and abandoned 21 bicycles with no response provided from staff. 22 23 7. NEW BUSINESS 24 a. Description of the Unpaid Intern Position to Review and Assess the 2016 Urbana Bicycle 25 Master Plan – Cynthia Hoyle 26 Cynthia Hoyle suggested that an unpaid intern be selected to review the 2016 Urbana Bicycle Master Plan to 27 determine what progress had been made and where there were still areas for improvement. She said that she 28 would supervise the person reviewing the City’s plan and staff would assist the intern when needed. 29 30 b. Installation of Bike Racks – Annie Adams 31 Annie Adams said that she had heard that there were 25 bike racks that the City had in storage that were unused. 32 Jeff Marino asked if there were zoning requirements to install bicycle racks. 33 Kat Trotter said there were requirements and discussed the instances where bike racks were required. 34 Kara Dudek said that the City (Shannon Beranek) reached out to the Park District to ask if they would like the 35 bike racks and the Park District said they had already purchased some. 36 Shannon Beranek said the Urbana School District was interested in all but five of the bicycle racks. 37 Cynthia Hoyle mentioned that the installation of bicycle racks might be part of the EQL program. 38 Bill Brown suggested waiting until the EQL program was in effect to determine where the racks could be 39 installed. 40 Cynthia Hoyle recommended the abandoned bicycle rules on the website be updated. 41 Bill Brown asked that the update be included in the website updates. 42 43 c. 2021 Annual Report – Bill Brown 44 Bill Brown reported that he wanted to include all BPAC 2021 recommendations in the annual report. He 45 presented those recommendations that had already been approved, as well as those that had been discussed 46 but with no action taken. He proposed that if BPAC wanted to include them in the annual report they could 47 vote on them next month. He asked BPAC commissioners to send ideas about additional recommendations Page 2  1 and justifications. The annual report would contain additional information as usual, be approved by BPAC, 2 and be presented to the City Council in early 2022. 3 Jeff Marino thought that bike plan mentioned bike parking. He asked if zoning requirements could provide 4 stronger language to encourage better bike parking and include redevelopments. 5 Kara Dudek suggested prioritizing recommendations since those recommendations listed first would likely be 6 considered before those listed last. 7 Bill Brown said that the report should be voted on at December meeting. He asked for Commissioners to 8 provide feedback by December 1, 2021. 9 10 8. ANNOUNCEMENTS 11 a. November 21—World Remembrance Day 12 b. November 25—Turkey Trot, Urbana Park District 13 c. November 28—Post Turkey Roll 14 d. Monthly Bicycle Ride—Arboretum to Caffé Paradiso (posted on Facebook) 15 e. Walkability Audit Data Collection—under way 16 f. Woonerf—upcoming street treatment 17 18 9. FUTURE TOPICS 19 a. Traffic Calming on Washington Street between Vine Street and Philo Road 20 b. Bike Registration 21 c. Abandoned Bicycle Policy 22 d. Walkability Audit 23 24 10. ADJOURNMENT 25 The meeting adjourned at 9:05 p.m. 26 *** 27 28 Respectfully submitted, 29 Barbara Stiehl, Recording Secretary Page 3