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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-BPW-2007-03-07BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS PROCEEDINGS CITY OF ITHACA, NEW YORK Committee of the Whole Meeting 4:45 p.m. March 7, 2007 PRESENT: Mayor Peterson Commissioners (5) - Jenkins, Dotson, Chapman, Tripp, Wykstra OTHERS PRESENT: City Attorney - Hoffman Superintendent of Public Works - Gray Assistant Superintendent of Streets and Facilities - Ferrel Assistant Superintendent of Water and Sewer – Whitney Common Council Liaison – Coles DAC Liaison – Roberts Executive Assistant – Grunder Asst. Civil Engineer – Yost Representatives of TCAT- Nancy Oltz, Rick Manning, Joe Turcot EXCUSED: Commissioner Schlather Elmira Road Sidewalk Program – Public Hearing: Supt. Gray explained that letters were sent on February 22, 2007, to owners of the remaining 38 property parcels on Elmira Road concerning the BPW’s intention to undertake a Uniform Sidewalk Improvement project in order to complete the sidewalks on Elmira Road. The City has heard from one owner by e-mail requesting an extension of the May 14, 2007, date for owner-installed sidewalks. A second owner (Widewaters) phoned indicating that they expect a front parcel to be under construction and will seek an extension of the deadline to install their sidewalk. Mayor Peterson stated that she would “officially” open the public hearing, if there were no objections because it is not a voting meeting per se; no Board member objected. Supt. Gray explained that the City has been trying to get the sidewalks completed in this area for over fifteen years. He stated that the City would like to finish the work now and have sent out, at the Board’s direction, letters to individual property owners to indicate that that work needs to be done. The City provided a deadline which is the middle of May, a very compact period of time. It was picked for two reasons because the City needs to get the work done, and the feeling was that since it’s been talked about for an extended period of time now is the time to complete it. He further explained that the rules under which the City is doing this work are part of the City Charter, which lays out the Board’s responsibility for roads and sidewalks. It also states that the Board has the authority to direct that work be undertaken. It also lays out a couple of ways in which to do it. The City is required to provide at least five days notice to the property owners and is required to hold a public hearing. There are a couple of ways that the City could do it, the way that it’s been done so far is to issue an order to the property owners directing them to undertake the work. If that work is not undertaken, then the City has the right to come in and do it. The City’s experience over the years is that some property owners want to do the work themselves, and a number of them are happy to let it be done under a more general contract with the City. This year the City is putting a sidewalk crew together, this would be one of our first major tasks to do with an in-house crew. The City code states the obligations that come with a sidewalk for ice removal and keeping it clear. It also lays out the methods by which the City would collect any expenses if the work were not completed. Mayor Peterson stated that there are two people signed up to speak during the public hearing. She further stated that she also has an e-mail that came into Asst. Civil Engineer Yost this morning that was distributed to the Board as well. 2 March 7, 2007 The following people addressed the Board regarding the proposed sidewalk work on Elmira Road. Mike Whitaker, Tallmadge Tire, 358 Elmira Road, addressed the Board in support of the proposed sidewalk project on Elmira Road. Bill Manos, Manos Diner, 359 Elmira Road, addressed the Board in support of the proposed sidewalk project. He also requested that the Board consider extending the deadline for completion of the work from May to September 2007. Discussion followed on the floor regarding extending the deadline for completion. Further discussion followed on the issues of property lines, right-of-ways, and easements that will take time to complete. Water Supply – Lead Agency Supt. Gray explained that a letter dated February 1, 2007, was mailed to a list of ten (10) involved agencies stating the Board’s intention to act as lead agent for the environmental actions required to upgrade or replace the City’s current water supply. Thirty (30) days have passed, and the City received four (4) responses with no objections. He further explained that Common Council has passed a resolution supporting the Board’s action. The Board’s next two steps will be to pass a resolution taking lead agency status, followed by a resolution with a positive declaration indicating that one or more actions required to upgrade or replace the City’s water supply are anticipated to involve significant environmental impacts and that an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) will be undertaken. These resolutions will be prepared and presented for the March 14, 2007 meeting. He stated that the City did receive a letter from Bolton Point that was distributed to Board members. The letter stated that if Bolton Point is the selected option they are responsible for the EIS but they understand the City’s need to keep going. The letter stated that they had intended to do this, if the City had chosen them as its first choice. Since the City hasn’t made that decision, they are going to let the City proceed and incur the costs. They will reimburse the City for what they deem to be a reasonable cost, presumably negotiating with the City if out of that process the City chooses them as the supplier for the City’s water. TCAT Bus Stop Requests Mayor Peterson invited representatives from TCAT: Nancy Oltz, Manager of Operations and Maintenance of TCAT, Rick Manning, landscape architect, and Joe Turcotte, General Manager of TCAT, to join the Board for the discussion of this request. Supt. Gray explained that TCAT is moving forward with work they reported to the Board a year or so ago of redoing a number of their major bus stops. The major ones are downtown around The Commons. They have obtained a lot of design work and are in the process of beginning the work. He stated that he wanted the Board to be updated on this project since the work will begin soon. He also explained that while the Green Street bus stop needed to be coordinated with the Cayuga Green development, and the Cayuga Street bus stop was free standing and fairly straight forward, their proposals for the Seneca Street bus stop involved several hundred feet of curb line and building modifications. The modifications are going to impact the handicapped parking layout, landscaping, and the building façade along Seneca Street. He further reported that TCAT has a contractor for this project and are ready to begin work. Mr. Manning explained that they had hoped to do both the Seneca Street and Cayuga Street bus stops initially, but when the bids came in they only had enough funding to do the Seneca Street bus stop. There is a lot of site work needed for the Seneca Street bus stop, which increased the cost of the project. He presented to the Board drawings of the new bus stop and explained in detail what the project will involve. The overall scope of the project, including new curbs and ramps on either end of the garage, new granite on the face of the curb, and a stamped brick pattern that coordinates with the Hilton Garden hotel’s exterior. Shelters will include benches for seating, leaning rails to support riders as they stand, and planters for Boston ivy as part of their green screen 3 March 7, 2007 project. There will also be three illuminated bus stop signs. Currently, because of the change in the design of the shelter which comes back twice as deep as the one there, one handicap accessible parking spot in the Seneca Street garage was lost. There will be a total of nine handicapped parking spaces when the project is completed. Traffic Engineer Logue reviewed the code which requires nine handicap accessible spots, the City had wanted 10, but there isn’t a way to accommodate that additional space in the project. He further stated that the Building Department required a couple of modifications from the drawings to provide for eight-foot wide parking spaces. DAC Liaison Roberts asked if there was enough room in the proposed new shelter to make people comfortable if they are in a wheelchair? He also asked what accommodations had been made for the visually impaired. Mr. Manning responded that there is approximately six feet from the bench in the shelter to the entrance/exit. He explained that he is the landscape architect and that he would check with the designer of the shelter to confirm measurements for accessibility. DAC Liaison Roberts stated that he wants there to be enough room in the new shelter for people in wheelchairs and for people who are standing or sitting to feel comfortable. Mr. Manning responded that he would have the design architect contact DAC Liaison Roberts to address his accessibility questions. Commissioner Jenkins asked how many people the new bus shelter would accommodate? Supt. Gray explained that the bench inside is two sections that are almost twenty-five feet long, and would then accommodate ten to twelve people inside. The outside bench is two sections that are about eighteen feet long and would accommodate nine people. There is also about six feet between the bench and the glass partition, which would accommodate a number of wheelchairs comfortably and coincide with any group of people in the shelter. Asst. Supt. Ferrel stated that the width of the sidewalk especially with the bench in front of the tree planter is a concern and questioned how much free space would there be between the tree, planter, and the bench? Mr. Manning responded that the clear space would be about five feet wide. Asst. Supt. Ferrel asked where the staging area would be during the construction of the new shelter? Mr. Manning responded that item had not been resolved. This is a discussion that needs to happen between the City, contractor, and TCAT. He stated that there is a period during the demolition that affects the handicap parking as well. He further stated that much of the construction will happen off site and be delivered for installation so he doesn’t believe there will be a need for a large staging area, but that will be something that he needs to check on and report back to the Board. The area where the buses currently park will be unavailable except for the entrance in the middle to the garage. The construction is scheduled to start on March 12. Mayor Peterson stated that the traffic on Seneca Street is pretty heavy right now because of the detour in place because of the work on the South Aurora Street bridge and the 100 block of North Aurora Street. The construction of the shelters will certainly impact traffic congestion in that area even more. DAC Liaison asked Asst. Supt. Ferrel whether the City knew the people who use the handicap parking in the garage on a regular basis could be notified that those handicap spaces will be gone during this work or where those spots would be relocated? Asst. Supt. Ferrel stated that the handicap spots have been re-located in the garage to the north wall, just past the entrance where there is currently parking for hotel patrons. 4 March 7, 2007 Ms. Oltz explained that during the construction period, the buses would not be using that stop because the barrels being used to enclose the demolition/construction area will take up the whole block. They have relocated the bus stops to three areas, the Route 10 will be moved to the intersection of Aurora and Buffalo Street to an existing stop, a number of Routes go north that will need to turn right and those stops will be located at Seneca Street where it meets Aurora Street, next to Collegetown Bagels. A new bus stop is being created there for those buses and it will just be one bus at a time stopping there. It will be located back from Aurora Street a little which will allow cars to see the bus and then be able to make the right hand turn in front of the bus safely. The other routes will be relocated to Cayuga Street, the block between State and Seneca Street. They will use the same approach as when Seneca Place was being built, which worked well. There is one spot that has been used as the taxi waiting area that is behind where the buses stop on Cayuga Street and that one is going to be moved back so that it is closer to the Clinton House. One experience they had there was that buses were blocking the taxis, so this new arrangement should avoid that problem. Mr. Turcotte explained that there will be monitors installed in the shelters at some point in the future that riders will be able to access to get real time schedule information as to what routes will arrive when and where. Mr. Manning explained that the Seneca Street bus shelter would be an interior shelter so it will have heat and lighting and all the amenities that one would expect in a shelter. Mayor Peterson explained that if the Board has any questions about the Waterfront Trail, that Mr. Manning had agreed to be available to answer them and to also provide an update on the status of the trail. Mayor Peterson left the meeting. Commissioner Tripp suggested that the Board recognize Nancy Oltz for her years of service to the City of Ithaca with a round of applause. Waterfront Trail and Golf Course Update: Mr. Manning reported that Phase III Feasibility study is being done. Regarding the golf course, he has hired a golf course architect who worked with the golfers and looked at the course carefully for new design. The primary purpose of that was to see how the trail interacted with the golf course. He also looked at some re-design of the course to address some of the golfer’s concerns. That report was just e-mailed to Supt. Gray and Asst. Supt. Ferrel. He is working on submitting a grant application to the Park Foundation for the preparation of a master plan. He asked the Mayor for a letter of recommendation and she referred him to the Board of Public Works so that they would be aware of the application. He stated that the grant is not to do any work, it’s just simply to find out what’s involved in all of the ideas that have been discussed around improving public access, improving drainage, doing the effluent irrigation and doing a driving range which has been discussed as a very important idea for economics of the course. There would be a public process that involves the Board, the public, and the Planning Board where the details of the golf course would be discussed with a lot of technical back up. The application is currently sitting at the Park Foundation. He stated that he asked for a letter of recommendation from the Mayor which he thinks would be important for the success of the grant. The application will be considered in April at the Park Foundation board meeting. He requested that the Board of Public Works sign a letter of support, if they approve, which would help the grant application a lot. 2007 License Fees Supt. Gray stated that the license fees are assembled and bills have been sent out based on occupancy of City lands. He further stated that there are discussions going on about license fees and that this program will probably change. The new numbers are significantly greater than the old numbers and he would just as soon have that money in hand while the City discusses how this program might be restructured. 5 March 7, 2007 Commissioner Chapman stated that one concern was that all of this work fell on an intern working for the City who came up with these figures. City Chamberlain Parsons stated that she would have someone in her office go over the figures and just verify that they are reproducible by her office. City Attorney Hoffman stated that the committee looked at a model license agreement. He has not had a chance to examine the actual license agreements. Most of them are twenty years old or so. The model did not include any provision for appeal and it seemed to him that it might be a good relations gesture for the Board to establish that there is an appeal process available. The committee was imagining that there would be some kind of Board action next week, but that is optional. They were trying to figure out why the fees had gone up so much this year and couldn’t quite figure that out. It is a significant increase and some of the fees have tripled over last year. It seemed like it might be an occasion for the Board to be a little more directly involved before the bills go out, but that is certainly up to the Board. Commissioner Chapman stated that one of the questions that came up at the meeting was there is only one private property here; all the rest are residential properties. It was assumed that there are other properties in the City where the homeowner is basically using City property and it hasn’t been recorded as a license, for example 425 North Tioga Street. City Attorney Hoffman explained that land is adjacent to the Cascadilla creek wall, which the City happens to own, and at some point the private property owner wanted to put in a driveway that would encroach onto the City land and someone decided to do it in the form of a license. What he has noticed since he has been here, is that the City gives encroachments at no cost to most residential owner occupied places. This may be a little larger, but it seemed a little odd that this one was being charged a license rate whereas a number of others are getting an encroachment agreement at no cost. Commissioner Chapman stated that Commissioner Schlather explained to him that he was not going to be at this meeting or the next. He felt that these were proper and that there may be some discrepancies but it is a work in progress. His feeling was to go along with the proposed license fees. ADJOURNMENT On a motion the meeting adjourned. Sarah L. Myers Carolyn K. Peterson Information Management Specialist Mayor