Municipal Infrastructure Commission

9/30/2021 - Minutes I. Call to Order Members Present: Chris Page, Jason Williams, Bryn Oakleaf, Laura Dlugolecki, Peter Wernsdorfer, Corey Mack City Staff Present: Jon Rauscher T Guests Present: Bethany Kelly Call to Order by: Laura Dlugolecki F Meeting Start Time: 6:33 PM Minutes Recorded by: Chris Page A II. Public Comment None III. Approve Previous Meeting Minutes R Decision: Approved Motion by: Chris Page D Second: Corey IV. Street Scaping and Human Health Discussion (Bethany Kelly) Bethany Kelly is a guest, invited by Bryn. Bryn: Opportunities for funding projects related to infrastructure and public health. A lot of overlap, so wanted to make sure this committee heard Bethany’s perspective. Some topics worth us considering, might want to encourage city staff and city council to move forward on them. Bethany: Presentation was a final project for a summer course; efforts to combat a lot of lifestyle-related health problems; could engineer our landscapes more walker or bike friendly to reduce such lifestyle health problems. Vision for a more sustainable approach through the built environment. Project was hypothetical, based around the Main Street project; everything in Main Street proposal is really health-promoting, but funding didn’t explore public health narrative. Various funding sources for partnership. Great opportunity to do some sort of “safe roads to school” initiative; could get some more funding, slick marketing campaign. Curious to hear our thoughts. Laura: Interesting to think of the health lens as a whole other funding source, because the pro- health goals meet some of the same goals we have in infrastructure. Bethany: CIGNA grant; can’t work directly with municipalities, so need to find a nonprofit workaround, LocalMotion. They have a program manager for walk audits, etc.; could do a lot of the legwork. health goals meet some of the same goals we have in infrastructure. Bethany: CIGNA grant; can’t work directly with municipalities, so need to find a nonprofit workaround, LocalMotion. They have a program manager for walk audits, etc.; could do a lot of the legwork. Better Place Grant through Vermont Department of Health; doesn’t even begin to take applicants to the new year, but not tied to a non-profit (directly with City). State Routes to School initiative not specifically tied to a non-profit but might make sense to partner with LocalMotion on. Jason: Capability vs. capacity; tough to find grants for things that are in the works, etc.; from a sustainability perspective, who does this fall to in the City? Is there capacity for the City to take a firm on-board that could seek out these funding opportunities? T Bryn: Budget season is approaching, could be an opportunity/need to be opportunity to look for whether we could justify hiring a third party versus putting the work in Jon’s corner. People are working with full plates, so is there funding that we would see value in, and does it justify the work that we would need to put into it? Bethany spoke to how Main Street Revitalization F incorporates many of her project’s components already; maybe no need to create programs around a new grant opportunity. Jon: do you have staff capacity? Jon: Huge issue for us, too, we are all writing grants. Heather Harrington at City is incredibly successful at getting grants, but she cannot do that right now because too much operational A work going on right now. Laura: If a non-profit takes the lead to do the work, partnering with City, a way to kind of funnel funds to entities that don’t have that capacity. Could be a good middle step to address that capacity. R Bethany: I have already pitched the idea within organization, would be able to facilitate/explore. CHNA (community health needs assessment), Winooski is most diverse city in VT, opportunity to create some positive health outcomes, probably someone on staff at CHNA that could be a liaison. Contact is in PowerPoint presentation. D Corey: With a lot of grants comes a lot of grant requirements, could become administrative hassle to some degree. Funding structure for Main Street project is surely complicated. Not sure what we’re looking for. Don’t know what the needs are. Jon: Grant funding; any new grant funding we get from other sources, USDA reduces grant. Water/Sewer funding. We’re looking for more on the General Fund side of the project. It does get a little complicated with grants, keeping track of what dollar goes where. Corey: Maybe we could use them on other projects and other needs around the city, for a project that doesn’t already have major grant money? Malletts Bay Avenue crosswalk, for example. Sidewalk gaps on Spring Street. Make a bigger project even more complex might make it harder. Bryn: Whether pursued for Main Street, likely could be pursued for other projects. Bonding is at a set flat interest rate for a set amount of time, so there is less impact from the project to Winooski residents if we can get more grant funding. A lot of what was already scoped are things that would be supported, just funding that hasn’t been considered yet. What are the odds of getting awarded the funding, what are the demands on staff time for completing the proposal, if it’s through a non-profit do, they do most of the administrative work, is funding high enough to offset labor cost? We don’t know some of those things. More insights from Bethany? Bethany: Cigna grant is $50K to $100K. Cigna does sponsorships, but a lot of other insurance carriers can do sponsorships (gifts, not grants). Treescapes, benches, things that are seen as “cosmetic” are really functional things, and of ten the first to get cut when budget gets tight. Corey: Site furnishings (amenities) are not often covered by VTRANS grants. Could we identify  Bethany: Cigna grant is $50K to $100K. Cigna does sponsorships, but a lot of other insurance carriers can do sponsorships (gifts, not grants). Treescapes, benches, things that are seen as “cosmetic” are really functional things, and of ten the first to get cut when budget gets tight. Corey: Site furnishings (amenities) are not often covered by VTRANS grants. Could we identify $100K in items that are not covered by other grants? Bethany: I can check with my organization about what’s available and what can be considered and get back with more information. Bryn: Any summary information you can provide, or another role for the committee to play, please share. Targeted timelines? DOH, their funding opportunity doesn’t open till early next T year. Grant deadlines are important to know. Whether or not for Main Street, there are plenty of opportunities (traffic calming, ADA improvements, crosswalks) to look at through this lens and reduce the bond dependency and interest rate. Thanks to Bethany. Bethany: Will be in touch, glad for opportunity to connect. F Laura: Really interesting conversation, thanks to Bryn for inviting. Bryn: Her work is very interesting, and it’s very good for her to hear what questions the committee has, etc. A Corey: VHB may already know where the biggest funding gap is. Jon: We definitely have all that. We’ve been chasing the grants, working with bond bank, USDA on interest rates; clear picture in financing, but it would be really nice to knock down the general R fund bond a bit, currently $8M. 3% tax rate increase in FY2020 and 50% of expired TIF$ flowing back into city’s general fund to fund the debt payment. USDA interest rates are great right now, and we locked in at 2.8%; get to use the lower interest rate if it goes down when we close on the loan. D V. Department and City Updates Bryn: On Monday, city council met to vote on whether to extend conditional offer to city manager candidate; it was decided at that meeting NOT to extend that offer, so we’ll be going back out to seek additional candidates. Further information in the next couple weeks. Once the announcement is out, please encourage anyone with the qualifications to apply within your networks. Jon: Hickock Street wrapped up a couple weeks ago; overall, project went smooth despite hiccup from COVID, came in way under budget ($1M below). Talking with the mayor; may have a joint meeting with the finance commission in November, and Mayor would like to discuss ARPA funding, ranking allocations. Might be a fun discussion. Finally, we are starting on the traffic calming manual work that has been on the work plan; Stantec is on board to help us with that, selected by RPC. Probably a six-month process; currently trying to figure out where the Commission’s input will be and such. We just had a kickoff meeting a couple weeks ago to discuss schedule. Bryn: A lot of folks are still working from home, and folks are seeing and experiencing more traffic than they had been with school back in session. Have received a lot of inquiries re: traffic calming study. Study will look at streets beyond the main arteries, includes some “side streets” that see plenty of traffic. Jon: Winooski is small enough; we know what streets we need to look at anyway. We can take the onus on identifying issue streets rather than relying on homeowners/neighborhoods to reach out. Laura: Parking study for City of Winooski; have had three meetings with the City of Winooski  Jon: Winooski is small enough; we know what streets we need to look at anyway. We can take the onus on identifying issue streets rather than relying on homeowners/neighborhoods to reach out. Laura: Parking study for City of Winooski; have had three meetings with the City of Winooski and RSG ((consultant). Results are starting to come in. RSG has built a model for parking for now and for projected (5 years), looked at different land uses, model will give City access so they can continuously update model over time if data seems to change. In this time frame, (5 years), 300 new housing units and 15,000 sq ft of non-residential space. In this projection, they say we will lose about 12-16 parking spots total but will gain several hundred spaces from residential parking. 70% of parking spaces are open, but certain areas have a lot of pressure. Highest pressure along arteries immediately off main street, this is projected to continue. RSG T is creating a plan that identifies some policies to improve the long-term parking management… low-cost ideas (striping parking areas, better defined spaces), or zoning options (shared uses of parking areas, parking permits, metered parking); or bigger structural things (increasing multimodal opportunities, make community less reliant on cars and parking). They’re going to share the plan and data, working on having a final report soon, then do a road show (take it to F folks, get feedback); might be good for them to come and speak to us, and they’ll surely give a presentation to council. There could be some great zoning-based or permit-based solutions that could work to help neighborhoods near large new developments. Bryn: ADA components and perspectives in parking study; interesting to consider. Accessibility A has definitely come up Laura: I’ll send you all whatever I get from RSG when I get it. Corey: Many issues around parking. Street parking isn’t reserved for the people who live right in R front of that parking area. It is a municipal asset, not an asset of the homeowner. Laura: It is public space, it’s city space, you’re not owed city space for your private use, so it is complex. D Bryn: Since we’ve last met, I’ve received a complaint from a resident in one of the multi-family buildings on Winooski Falls; those buildings went through DRB review and gone through assessments and even an off-site space for overflow parking, but we still see complaints over the time metering starts in the morning and when it stops at night. There are some hefty expectations around the availability and accessibility of free parking. To some extent, there is managing expectations. Laura: As an example, folks who live in a large city don’t expect to park in front of their house, but behavior change is tough. VI. Comments or Feedback on MIC Workplan Laura: The plan was, after we talked last time, give it a read and pass along any comments or suggestions (or if you’re happy with it). Timur wrote and said he is happy with it. Jason: I don’t have any comments on what is now on the work plan. But I still have on my mind: the confluence of our work and code enforcement intrigues me. Walkability, parking, traffic. Decisions I make about where I’ll walk and when, based on parts of city that are challenging to walk through. Dangerous blind spots, glass on Main Street. How people live on their properties influences our ability to enjoy municipal assets, and I don’t always understand where code enforcement comes into play, and the effects that people’s choices on their property have on our ability to enjoy the public space. Jon: Code enforcement gets pretty wild on the street, it’s really an issue. We won’t trim back a crazy wild hedge because we don’t want an old lady to come at us with a bat, for example. Bryn: Code enforcement is a matter of prioritization. Prevalence of rental units, ability of property have on our ability to enjoy the public space. Jon: Code enforcement gets pretty wild on the street, it’s really an issue. We won’t trim back a crazy wild hedge because we don’t want an old lady to come at us with a bat, for example. Bryn: Code enforcement is a matter of prioritization. Prevalence of rental units, ability of enforcement to get in and do those inspections. Not sure if there’s any recurring review of streetscaping and streetscaping enforcement/things external to residential units but still impact city spaces. I don’t really hear about that much. Jon: There are safety concerns. Walking down the sidewalk with my kids and it becomes almost one lane, and you must pop into the street (to avoid an overhang or something). T Bryn: Is code enforcement housed within fire department? Jon: They’re really dealing with housing/life safety issues more than property maintenance issues. We don’t have a property ordinance maintenance; in communities with such an ordinance, it is a challenge, need to staff up and chase people. Very challenging. F Bryn: Work Plan: any more thoughts/suggestions? Corey: I have often requested opportunities to review capital projects; I find it helpful to have the A commission look at the plan to see how it fits in with what we’ve been saying all these times. Street trees, for example, we’ve been working on tree ordinances for a while. Not sure if there’s an opportunity for MIC to review the capital projects that public works is undertaking so that we can ensure general conformance with what we’ve been talking about the last couple years; perhaps some things slip through the cracks. R Jon: Not many opportunities coming up soon for capital projects, we’re at our debt limit. But generally, agree that MIC should have the chance to review. Bryn: As a portion of project development, it should have a matrix of sorts; how does it work with priorities in master plan, etc. Maybe we have time to develop since there’s nothing coming D up soon. Is there some sort of checklist or matrix that MIC could fill out and pass back to an engineering firm? Corey: We could probably make something like that. VTRANS has complete street checklists. Jon: We will continue planning design/development on streetscapes, so we are looking at a scoping study for Malletts Bay Ave. Scoping study work within next year; LaFountain may also be coming up for a scoping study. Intent there is if there’s infrastructure money coming down the pike, we can say we’ve done the public outreach and we have a plan and estimate. Laura: Is this something you’d like to see added to the work plan? I imagine any major streetscaping plan would come our way. Maybe it needs a paragraph or something that it not be “limited to just x and y”. Bryn: Any sense of suggested language to add? Laura: Sure, can send along. Any sense of where ARPA funding will be directed? Jon: Has to be used for public health/COVID/economic development; for infrastructure, limited to water and sewer (and stormwater). We have a good handle on that from master plans we’ve already done. 1) Replace water main on LaFountain Street, 100 years old. Can use the ARPA funds on the water/sewer, but can’t pay for streetscaping; so, let’s get a scoping study ready in case there’s more infrastructure money coming. Jon: We’d wanted to do a Complete Streets project down on Hickock (with bumpouts), rushed a project through to get funding for replacing the water main; didn’t have time to do outreach to find out about parking, curbs left where they were; if more time, could have had the opportunity  funds on the water/sewer, but can’t pay for streetscaping; so, let’s get a scoping study ready in case there’s more infrastructure money coming. Jon: We’d wanted to do a Complete Streets project down on Hickock (with bumpouts), rushed a project through to get funding for replacing the water main; didn’t have time to do outreach to find out about parking, curbs left where they were; if more time, could have had the opportunity to check on parking reduction. Water main replacement was too high of a priority, with frequent breaking. Laura: Energy policy is a whole workplan item. Jon: Bryn asked last meeting for me to put together a city energy use summary in a spreadsheet; I owe you all that. T Bryn: you may be able to request the distribution utilities to do that for you? Laura: I’ll take that couple sentence item we’d discussed adding to the work plan and send that around; will send that around and then we can accept the work plan. F Laura: Energy includes use of fossil fuels, electrical use Bryn: Could be narrow or broader. I’ll send a link to a resource that captures all the energy A committees in the state, and many have their own websites where they post their charter, their energy policies, etc. Could provide some frame of reference or scope. (https://www.vecan.net/energycommittees) Laura: Jon, with respect to the work plan, any sense of what would be coming up first? R Jon: I had the energy goals as the leading thing, as other items are still in the works. Bryn: Stormwater component, are we having a consultant? Jon: We’ve typically done a lot of that, we need to make sure we’re happy and then send it on to D you all. Bryn: Could we get a schedule (broadly) to help Laura with agenda-setting and scheduling and such? Jon: Yes, I can do that. VII. Identify Energy Goals VIII. Adjourn Motion by: Peter W. Second: Corey M Meeting End Time: 7:58 PM