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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-MATC-2019-03-25 MOBILITY, ACCESSIBILITY AND TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION MINUTES PRESENT: Chair Lerner Commissioners (6) Barden, Parkes, Roberts, Chang, Powers, Brouwer OTHERS PRESENT: Common Council Liaisons – McGonigal and Nguyen Information Management Specialist - Myers TCAT Asst. General Manager - Matt Yarrow EXCUSED: Commissioners Lyczko, Brylinsky Approval of the February 25, 2019 Mobility, Accessibility, and Transportation Commission Meeting Minutes- Resolution By Commissioner Parkes: Seconded by Commissioner Powers RESOLVED, That the minutes of the February 25, 2019 Mobility, Accessibility, and Transportation Commission meeting be approved as published. Carried Unanimously Statements From the Public: Deirdre Kurzweil, owner of Sunny Days store on the Commons, addressed the commission related to ADA requirements for business owners and where that information is located. Sheryl Swank, City of Ithaca, addressed the commission to share concerns related to e- bikes and e-scooters and voiced concerns regarding the safety of e-scooters. She also expressed support for the City taking on the responsibility of clearing sidewalks of snow and ice. Fay Gougakis, City of Ithaca, addressed the commission to express her strong opposition to the introduction of e-scooters to the City of Ithaca related to potential injuries from their use. Commissioner’s Response: Commissioner Roberts stated that he wanted to make it very clear that his comments on Facebook are not as a member or representative of Matcom. He responded to comments about accessibility to Sunny Days. CC Liaison McGonigal responded to comments about accessibility to Sunny Days, and indicated that he would speak to staff of the Building Department regarding businesses on the Commons and accessibility. Commissioner Chang responded to comments about too many e -scooters being introduced to the City of Ithaca. The recommendation does include a limitation on the Date: March 25, 2019 Time: 6:00 PM Location: Common Council Chambers, 3rd Floor, City Hall Mobility, Accessibility and Transportation Commission March 25, 2019 2 number of e-scooters based on rides per day so as to prevent a burdensome increase in the number of e-scooters. Presentation by TCAT: Matt Yarrow, Asst. General Manager for TCAT provided information on the creation of TCAT, its current services, goals, revenue resources, and plans for the future. TCAT’s strategic plan is available on their website for review anytime. He noted that Gadabout is their partner to assist them in meeting accessibility needs of the community. TCAT’s fleet of buses will need to be increased by 20% over the next few years in order to fully serve all the new development. They will be able to purchase up to 6 electronic buses because of a grant they recently received. Unfortunately, TCAT facilities are at peak and in order to accommodate the additional buses they will need to enlarge their facilities. He explained that with all the development occurring around the City that TCAT has been requested to provide additional routes and buses. This becomes difficult when they are brought into the conversation after development is underway. TCAT would like to work with the City and developers to find a way to be included in discussions from the very beginning to better meet transportation demands. CC Liaison Report: CC Liaison McGonigal reported that City Transportation Engineer Eric Hathaway is in the process of exploring a “vision zero” initiative. The purpose of this initiative is to reduce the speed limit throughout the City of Ithaca to 25 mph. This change will require New York State approval. The City is currently exploring the possibility of joining with other upstate cities to push for this initiative because there is significant evidence that this one change will reduce the number of accidents and injuries. Chair’s Report: Commissioner Chang volunteered to be Vice-Chair for the April Matcom meeting. Future Topics: April - discussion related to creation of an ADA Coordinator position for the City of Ithaca; continuation of the e-scooter discussion. May - Pedestrian Sidewalk Snow Removal June – Parking – Commissioner Parkes indicated that he wasn’t sure what new information might be available by June and suggested that there be a second topic for discussion at the meeting. ADA Issues: Commissioner Roberts reported that he attended a meeting to review and discuss the idea of creating within the City of Ithaca an ADA Coordinator position. Today’s public input is a great reason to pursue this idea. He and Commissioner Brylinsky will meet to work on details of what this position might look like and put together a Commission Project Form (CPF) to get permission from a Common Council committee to pursue this as a project for Matcom. Mobility, Accessibility and Transportation Commission March 25, 2019 3 Chair Lerner explained that when the four new commissions were created this commission, by its designation of Mobility, Accessibility and Transportation, included a specific member that would be the point person for accessibility related issues. Each of the other three commissions has one member designated as the point person for accessibility related issues. The other three point persons will also participate in the meetings related to the creation of an ADA Coordinator position. Pedestrian Snow Removal Public Input: Commissioner Brouwer reported that he and Commissioner Chang are making slow but steady progress on this topic. They met with City Clerk Holcomb and Public Information Specialist Faraday last week and are very encouraged about how much help they can provide with the online public survey. They both are very willing to help and the tools they have are easy to use. He and Commissioner Chang just need to provide them with a list of questions which they are just finishing up and fine turning. They will share the questions with Matcom members (a first draft) to review mainly through e-mail and with city staff to get their input and buy in to the survey – they hope to have this completed by mid-April. That way they have time to put together the survey so it goes out before winter is out of people’s minds. They also discussed ways to do inclusive outreach and the need to provide paper copies of the survey in order to make it available for everyone. DPW Parking Analysis: Commissioner Parkes reported that the Request for Qualifications for a consultant to work on the analysis went out with responses due back April 12th. Commissioner Roberts reiterated the importance of reviewing the responses to look at the public input aspect - how do they get public input and engage interested stakeholders. He wants to make sure that TCAT and other transportation providers are involved and have opportunity to provide input. He encouraged Commissioner Parkes to review and pay particular attention to that area of expertise in the responses. E-Scooters: Discussion followed on the floor regarding how to proceed with reviewing the recommendation and whether or not it would be possible to vote on it this evening or wait until next month. Commissioner Barden explained that since the recommendation was posted online with the agenda that there had been a lot of input from public, some of which was addressed in the recommendations, and some not. Commissioner Powers suggested that since people have seen the research summary and the recommendation that she would propose voting on the recommendation in support of the pilot program. If other commission members are not in support of the pilot program, then time will not have to be spent reviewing the entire recommendation item by item. If commission members are in support then proceed with reviewing each item and making amendments as needed. Commissioner Barden agreed, that if there is no support for the pilot program then there is no need for further discussion and review. Mobility, Accessibility and Transportation Commission March 25, 2019 4 Chair Lerner stated that there may be a recommendation but it’s not ready yet. He wants to sort out what would be in a pilot program before voting on the recommendation. Commissioner Roberts expressed his support of a pilot program for e-scooters. He stated that e-scooters are coming and the City might as well have as much say into what it wants out of such a program as it can. He would be in favor of deciding tonight if there is support for the pilot program. Commissioner Parkes stated that he can’t support the recommendation of a pilot program without all the specifics spelled out. He prefers to vote on what he knows rather than back tracking or putting contingencies in. Commissioner Chang suggested that Matcom vote on the recommendation as is and pass along the public comments to the Planning and Economic Development Committee to sort out. CC Liaison Nguyen would support putting a motion on the floor and then allow motions to make amendments so that either way Matcom ends up with a project that represents the majority of its members. Chair Lerner supports that suggestion; however, he does not think that the discussion on the recommendation can be concluded in the twenty minutes remaining for the meeting. Alderperson Murtagh, chair of the Planning and Economic Development Committee has stated that if Matcom needs another month to review the recommendation it should take it. Lime bike will not be allowed to bring e -scooters to the City until a memorandum of understanding is in place with the City of Ithaca. Approval of Recommendation from Matcom for an E-Scooter Pilot Program in the City of Ithaca – Resolution By Commissioner Powers: Seconded by Commissioner Chang RESOLVED, That Matcom approve the recommendations, dated March 21, 2019, for an e-scooter pilot program in the City of Ithaca. Discussion followed on the floor with questions raised relating to “how many ped estrian areas” are in the City; what “acceptable parking is, specific language regarding storage of e-scooters, changing the time for the curfew of the e -scooters, and the inclusion of language referencing NYS V & T law as it relates to powered non-motor vehicles. Commissioner Parkes stated that NYS V & T Law states that e-scooters are not legal; why would we want to proceed with something that we know is prohibited by the law. Commissioner Chang shared that Governor Cuomo’s budget proposal for 2020 includes an amendment to make e-scooters legal. The Senate and Assembly took that out of the budget because they want to legislate it; it is foreseeable that e-scooters could become legal within the year. Mobility, Accessibility and Transportation Commission March 25, 2019 5 Resolution to Amend the Proposed Recommendations Related to the Curfew Time for E-Scooters By Commissioner Brouwer: Seconded by Commissioner Parkes RESOLVED, That the proposed recommendations for e-scooters be amended to change the curfew time from 10:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. A Vote on the Amending Resolution Resulted as Follows: Ayes (5) Chair, Barden, Powers, Parkes, Brouwer Nays (2) Roberts, Chang Abstentions (0) Carried Commissioner Barden stated that approving a recommendation for a pilot program, contingent upon NYS law changing, makes the timeline for this project uncertain. A suggestion was made to add language to the recommendation that Matcom approves the recommendation pending the City Attorney’s review of the memorandum of understanding. Motion to Postpone A Vote on the Recommendation for an E-Scooter Pilot Program in the City of Ithaca – Resolution By Commissioner Powers: Seconded by Commissioner Roberts RESOLVED, That the vote on the recommendation for an e-scooter pilot program in the City of Ithaca be postponed until the April 22, 2019 Matcom meeting. Carried Unanimously Meeting Wrap-Up: Next Meeting Date: Monday, April 22, 2019 Adjournment: On a motion the meeting adjourned at 8:18 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Sarah L. Myers, Information Management Specialist