Municipal Infrastructure Commission

11/14/2019 - Minutes I. Call to Order Members Present: Laura Dlugolecki, Chris Page, Cory Mack, Jason Williams City Staff Present: Jon Rauscher Guests Present: None Call to Order by: Laura Dlugolecki Minutes Recorded by: Chris Page II. Public Comment No Public Comment, no members of public present. III. Approve Previous Meeting Minutes Decision: Aye Motion by: Jason Second: Cory Mack Minutes passed without objection. IV. Municipal Infrastructure Commission Work Planning City Updates from Jon: Main Street Project l Looking for community feedback on material types for design process. They will present some alternative material types to choose from. Hopefully we get some materials in advance of the meeting to get a sense of it. l Meeting ideally in first week of December; We could either meet one week earlier to Thursday the 5th… Works for all present. l Jon will discuss this date with the designers and pass along any approval. Lot 9 perhaps transferred to City in exchange for Lot 8 in order to develop a hotel. l Council has selected Nedde Realty, etc. approval to start negotiations for Lot 7B (hotel, parking garage, commercial space) l Green space (Lot 9), if transferred to city, would be retained as a green space and become part of parks master plan. o Tough site to develop: viewshed issues, lack of parking… l Disrupts connectivity to river from circle; logistically difficult. l Downtown Organization (businesses on circle) have a strong say; CCV, Redstone, Keene’s Crossing would require input. Land swap also probably different. Pool is still looking good for Spring opening next yr. Hickock Street l paving not done, but snow. Hopefully able to pave the trench next wk (11/18). Full pavement work/new street/new curbing/etc. l Any improvements to allow for more street trees? Full replacement or just spot repairs? Jon: Full replacement, squeeze in additional room for street trees and stormwater improvements. Plans in progress, latest schematic set not available yet but MIC will review. l Cory: Easiest things to do: bulge-outs at high points. Good opportunity to consider street trees; always something folks want to see. l Jon: Ponding, bad drainage visible, additional catch basins, settled sidewalks, ADA compliance is important. More to come regarding street-scaping details and work. Adding sufficiently wide strips for street trees and bumpouts not a major budget item. Headworks projects wrapping up: under budget and on-schedule.  l paving not done, but snow. Hopefully able to pave the trench next wk (11/18). Full pavement work/new street/new curbing/etc. l Any improvements to allow for more street trees? Full replacement or just spot repairs? Jon: Full replacement, squeeze in additional room for street trees and stormwater improvements. Plans in progress, latest schematic set not available yet but MIC will review. l Cory: Easiest things to do: bulge-outs at high points. Good opportunity to consider street trees; always something folks want to see. l Jon: Ponding, bad drainage visible, additional catch basins, settled sidewalks, ADA compliance is important. More to come regarding street-scaping details and work. Adding sufficiently wide strips for street trees and bumpouts not a major budget item. Headworks projects wrapping up: under budget and on-schedule. l Laura: Snow Storm Preparedness? Jon says overall good preparedness. Work Plan Planning l Laura: Looked at Planning Commisison work plan, and based on previous meeting’s conversation determined goals and what (broadly) needs to be addressed. Prioritizing, deliverables, timeline, etc. did not get dived into. Numbering system is not necessarily a prioritization order. Could be re-ordered to enumerate priority. Some items are as-needed, ongoing (i.e. ongoing projects). l Peter: Uncertainty around Item #2 Transportation Impact Fee l Solidify language to be more direct/declarative rather than passive. Revisions made to work plan based on this comment. l Jon: Draft report from RSG on framework of fee, modeling, etc., Jon provided comments w/ CCRPC; report is being finalized now. Draft report is in MIC dropbox folder. Current plan is to wrap up that report in the next couple of weeks… draft Ordinance and Table of Fees to accompany, which outlines Impact Fee structure (so developers can get a sense of costs). This would all be completed in first 2 wks of December; we would review in January mtg. l Laura: Should we request someone give us a presentation? CCPRC? RSG? Community Involvement? What does City Council need from us? l Jon: Probably informal; Mike would relay basic comments to Council, and RSG will give similar presentation to Council. Draft will be available for review on Dropbox… potentially CCRPC could also give a presentation to MIC, depending on RSG availability. Also, council is in budget season for next couple of months, so the City Council presentation will likely may not occur (for Council, anyway) until Feb; we will likely get this presentation in January. Sidewalk Upgrades l Any movement/deadlines/etc. coming up? l Jon: grabbing most recent GIS data from CCRPC. Inventory done in 2015 with condition ratings, good starting point. Good floating priority. l Laura: Maybe Feb/March for us to be able to review existing condition indices, start discussions about prioritization process. l Jason: There is no sidewalk-specific budget, curiously. l Jon: Internally, work minimal; spot improvements; sidewalk-specific items have existed in the past. Sidewalk considerations: ADA compliance… in New York City, new color requirements for ‘detectable warning surfaces’, i.e. the iron bits before crosswalks, etc. l Laura: who would walk us through existing sidewalk condition ratings? Jon will, working with interns on the GIS data. Chris: Regularity of condition assessment? l Jon: interns, typically 40-year lifespan so frequency of assessments may not need to be frequent. Cory: How often are complaints filed re: sidewalks? l Jon: yes, we do receive complaints. Roughly, FPF mentioned issues. Existing inventory of resident complaints to address. Timeline for Sidewalk work established… Tree City USA l Laura: Deadline for small grant application due in January. Applicants must be municipalities or non-profits. List of eligible activities, including street trees, tree maintenance, funding for tree inventory, funding for emerald ash prep. Plan, public engagement/activities. Laura has experience in writing these grants for Winooski; some funds used for tree inventory, some for planting… funds have supported trees for Arbor Day celebration. l Jon: 3 or 4 maple trees that need planting on Maple St, and 1 replant on Orchard Terrace. So, opportunities abound for grant money. Do need to bespecific in application re: locations, etc. Could also be helpful for Hickock street trees. Laura happy to help. l Jon: Tree City USA application… what are deadlines? Close? Winooski has everything needed for application/eligbility, just need incurred costs ($2 per capita must be proven to be spent, or ~$14K…). Reapply every year and prove continued capital costs… tree budget has come up considerably ($2K to $10K) due to planting with new ordinance; in-kind service also helps (tree trimming, grants?). More to be done in street tree realm: inspiration? Ideas? l Considerations include: 1. VT Community Forest website… native tree species, salt tolerance, car/air pollution tolerance… good resource to assist with tree selection. 2. Laura can share further resources. 3. We have not done much “new tree plantings”… multiple tree plantings… PC will have a lot of input… lot of existing guidance on standard details for plantings, etc. 4. Technical requirements: do we want to make consideration/budget for street trees to be an automatic consideration for streetscaping… This could live in tree ordinance. 5. Currently, there is nothing in tree ordinance that indicates, “when redoing curb work” or “when redoing street”, include tree plantings in design checklists/considerations. Could be codified via tree ordinance. 6. Curb/Sidewalk plan for Hickock being conducted by Aldrich & Elliott… PER just came in, but no plans yet. 7. Could grant money be used for the tree plantings on Hickock? Most Canopy Grants are $5K. 8. Street trees can be expensive, depending on species. 9. Getting 4 or 5 good-size trees, however, can be really significant for transforming a streetscape. Public Works can handle installation. 10.Question of whether to codify tree requirements: where does that live? Should it live in the tree ordinance or streets ordinance, or could be in public works standards (more as guideline, less codified than ordinance). 11.Generally, water main replacement drives major street rebuilds. 12.What might trigger tree requirement?? 13.Curbing Project, Sidewalk project… any time curbing is coming up, a discussion of street trees should come up? 14.Formal review process that includes discussion of trees, tree planning with MIC. MIC could assess appropriateness… 15.Could be put in as a section of Public Works standards… “any projects that meet X standards must be reviewed by MIC using a checklist… etc.”; then doesn’t need to go thru Council, etc. 16.Sidewalks projects and harmonization with tree goals.  10.Question of whether to codify tree requirements: where does that live? Should it live in the tree ordinance or streets ordinance, or could be in public works standards (more as guideline, less codified than ordinance). 11.Generally, water main replacement drives major street rebuilds. 12.What might trigger tree requirement?? 13.Curbing Project, Sidewalk project… any time curbing is coming up, a discussion of street trees should come up? 14.Formal review process that includes discussion of trees, tree planning with MIC. MIC could assess appropriateness… 15.Could be put in as a section of Public Works standards… “any projects that meet X standards must be reviewed by MIC using a checklist… etc.”; then doesn’t need to go thru Council, etc. 16.Sidewalks projects and harmonization with tree goals. How can we make Tree Plan more of a community project? l Rather than a task for Public Works, increased community outreach to get greater involvement. l Adopt-a-Tree program? Community buy-in? l Could we use grant to purchase trees, then reach out to public… WE HAVE TREES, do you want it in your neighborhood?? l How to grow program for long-term community stakeholding. l Long-term goal… short-term, focus on using Canopy Grant money for Hickock plantings. l Plan for early winter to weave this conversation (sidewalks, public works standards, community involvement) l Maybe next step: let’s do research on community involvement, all Google and come with some ideas in early winter? l Ash Borer Response Plan: Probably could review some other municipal responses and avoid the need to reinvent the wheel on this issue. Inventory is likely going to be done along the trails in Winooski; there are not many ash trees in parks, etc. l Recently observed in Grand Isle… usually there for 2 years before detected. l Canned language could be successful. Small size, relatively small number of public street ash trees o What about resident-owned ash trees? Does city have a role in this? Providing resources? State forestry resources available? Possible service-learning project? Industrial WW Permitting l Ordinance Review (ongoing, as-needed).In motion now, in Dropbox now. l FourQuarters looking to move into bank, triggered looking at the Industrial WW permitting and ordinances. l By end of December, draft rate structure, ordinance, and permit ready for review. l Four Quarters is aware that it’s coming… they have seen draft. l Will they just leave and go to another community? Burlington also has rate structure in place. l Rate structure that Jon had used for a HP Hood milk plant… considers our annual operation costs… BOD, TSS, Flow ratio indicating “this is what you’re taking up” of plant, this is what these charges should be. l Weston & Sampson is conducting pre-review of rate structure. They are reviewing ordinance also, to include Industrial WW piece. l Coming our way in short order as well. Not a lot of feedback from MIC, more political than anything. l Pre-treatment is an option to reduce considerable cost increases. l Equalization/reduction to reduce slug-loading (say, silo). l Billing is real-time; monthly BOD sampling, results used to assess rates. More info on timeline/language, could put in order of timeline. Will try to connect with Mike, who will take our work plan to Council to formally submit?Is there a formal deadline for work plans? No. There isn’t. But we will finalize ASAP. Agenda items laid out very well for next several months. FY2021 Budget: Jon’s understanding is that commissions should be pulled away from budgets, more focus on Council. Overall, budget is typical… some equip’t replacement in capital plan, but mostly loaded with Main Street and pool so no upcoming capital projects. V. Adjourn Motion by: Jason Second: Cory Time 20:02