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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-MATC-2020-01-27 MOBILITY, ACCESSIBILITY AND TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION MINUTES PRESENT: Acting Chair Roberts Commissioners (7) Chang, Brouwer, Barden, Parkes, Powers, Lyczko, Srivatsa OTHERS PRESENT: Common Council Liaisons – McGonigal and Nguyen Information Management Specialist – Myers EXCUSED: Chair Lerner Approval of the December 16, 2019 Mobility, Accessibility, and Transportation Commission Meeting Minutes- Resolution By Commissioner Lyczko: Seconded by Commissioner Powers RESOLVED, That the minutes of the December 16, 2019 Mobility, Accessibility, and Transportation Commission meeting be approved as published. Carried Unanimously Statements From the Public: No one from the public appeared to address the Commission. Commissioner’s Comments: None CC Liaison Report: CC Liaison Nguyen reported that the new inter-city bus stop by Starbucks on East Seneca Street seems to be operating smoothly and efficiently. The work to move the fire hydrant has been completed. He further reported that Bridgette Grady is the new Chair of the TCAT Board for 2020. CC Liaison McGonigal reported that a storm sewer on Elm Street collapsed recently due to its age; crews found that it is a huge stone laid tunnel with no pipes, and is going to take a long time to repair. That means that the lower portion of Elm Street will be out of commission for at least the next couple of months. The Department of Public Works is in the process of building a bridge over the mammoth hole so pedestrians can travel down Elm Street safely. He further reported that two years ago Common Council voted to fund an additional crew for both the water and sewer and streets and facilities divisions. It’s taken over a year to get those extra crews active and to hire the right people. As a result the City was able to purchase a small plow that will be used for earlier and more efficient snow removal at corners and curb cuts. Chair’s Report: Appointment of Advisor to the ADA Sub-Committee of Matcom – Resolution By Commissioner Srivatsa: Seconded by Commissioner Lyczko RESOLVED, That Valerie Horn be appointed as an advisor to the ADA Sub-Committee of the Mobility, Accessibility, and Transportation Commission. Carried Unanimously Date: January 27, 2020 Time: 6:00 PM Location: Common Council Chambers, 3rd Floor, City Hall Mobility, Accessibility and Transportation Commission Meeting Minutes January 27, 2020 2 Acting Chair Roberts stated that he would be happy to Chair the February meeting; however, he is unable to attend the coordination meetings with Eric Hathaway nor the Commission Chair meetings. Commissioner Lyczko volunteered to attend the Commission Chair meeting in January and the coordination meeting with Eric Hathaway for February. Commissioner Barden volunteered to attend the Commission Chair meetings for the months of February and March. ADA Issues - ADA Coordinator Commissioner Srivatsa reported that the sub-committee met on January 9th. A lot of what was discussed related to redefining the scope of work for the position. There was also some momentum in doing something county wide and with the town as opposed to just the City. By June, the group would like a draft job description, the scope of work for the position, and jurisdictional support completed. The person currently fulfilling the role for the City reports that there aren’t enough complaints made that would provide enough data on certain issues. Understanding key issues would require outreach; currently the focus is on sidewalks and keeping them accessible for everyone. He further reported that people from the city, county, and Finger Lakes Independence Center were identified as stakeholders so people volunteered to talk with them and report back at the next meeting. His task was to reach out to other cities that have ADA coordinators to see what they do. They should have a better sense about the scope of work at the next meeting as information is shared from other municipalities. Acting Chair Roberts noted that it will be important to also speak with the Downtown Ithaca Alliance and Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce in terms of what they know and getting support for this idea. They could help build links for the position with private businesses and municipalities. He further noted that they have discussed with Chief of Staff, Dan Cogan, the ADA Coordinator position and would propose following the same process by which the Sustainability Coordinator position was created. CC Liaison McGonigal stated that when this position is discussed with staff, it becomes bigger and more complex related to benefits and who pays for what. It will be important to talk with the Human Resources Department when it’s time to create the job description and benefits to explore what the position will cost. City Transportation Plan Coordination Stantec Scope of Work Report: Mobility, Accessibility and Transportation Commission Meeting Minutes January 27, 2020 3 Commissioner Lyczko reported that the scope of work was shared with the committee last week. However, it is still vague in her view and sounds a lot like what was talked about before. Matcom wants to focus on outreach to various stakeholders; however, there is no budget for that in the report. This is of concern to her and nothing in the report discusses parking. The City is concerned about the Seneca Street parking garage and the $13 million it will cost to rebuild it; so possible alternatives to that are being considered. Commissioner Parkes agreed with Commissioner Lyczko’s report. He talked with Eric Hathaway who shared the same feeling of the report being very generic and disappointing. The report mentions the parking plan but there is no indication of what that plan is, how it will be executed or how it fits in. The bullet points in the report relate to transportation and how one gets around the city. He thinks that Stantec is relying on information already generated by the city and doesn’t want to take the time to create new data; this is of concern to him. Wayfinding was mentioned but nothing related to it in any of the tasks listed. Commissioner Barden encouraged Commissioners Lyczko and Parkes to share this information with Stantec because it is good input. It would be useful to hear what they say in response to it. Commissioner Parkes noted that he has written comments to Eric Hathaway but the more people that generate similar comments the better as the final scope of work is created to provide some direction. He encouraged other commission members to forward their comments to Eric Hathaway at their earliest convenience. He is curious whether comments such as these are making their way to Council members and if there has been any discussion about them. CC Liaison McGonigal responded that Council knows that information will be coming but they haven’t gotten anything yet. As Council liaison to the Board of Public Works, he noted that Superintendent Thorne reports out at the meeting, and the most he has heard is that the consultant was chosen and they have begun work. Discussion followed on the floor regarding the vagueness of the transportation plan report and whether or not it includes both parking and transportation. The report states that the transportation plan will be integrated with parking plan; it is unclear what parking plan they refer to. A concern was raised regarding the deliverables to the city. They are all abbreviated and at a cost of $250,000 there should be something other than a Power Point presentation. Part of what Matcom’s role is to reflect what the community understands and has questions on; if we don’t have confidence in what is being done by the consultant it will be hard to reflect what is being done back to people in the community. Matcom’s needs to make sure all these questions and concerns are shared with Eric Hathaway. Commissioners will all e-mail him directly to make sure he has them by the end of the day tomorrow, which was his deadline. Commissioner Powers noted that part of the concern raised initially is how much Stantec is relying on studies already done, in particular bicycle plan from 1996 since nothing really came out of that plan. Mobility, Accessibility and Transportation Commission Meeting Minutes January 27, 2020 4 Bicycle Incident Data: Commissioner Powers reported that there is no new information about e-scooters as the Governor recently vetoed the bill. However; the proposal may be amended related to helmet use and may be included as part of the next budget process. She and Commissioner Barden met to try to determine how the city would collect data related to near incidents. They have selected 44 cities similar to Ithaca and are trying to reach out to them about their vision zero programs and their experiences. CC Liaison Nguyen shared that he was recently involved in a near miss, which actually turned out to be a hit. However, he did not report it and then realized there would be no record of it. That could be useful information for data collection purposes. He said that he and probably a lot of other bicyclists may not report such incidents because they don’t feel it is worth calling and involving the police. Pedestrian Snow Removal Public Input: Commissioners Chang and Brouwer prepared a Power Point presentation to go over the results of the survey to review their key preliminary findings. They feel the presentation will help to set the direction of work to be done in response to what people feel should be changed related to the work outlined in the Commission Project Form. At the last meeting all 23 questions were gone through so what they tried to do was to narrow down to five key findings that will make the most impact. Please see attached Power Point presentation for details. Lengthy discussion followed on the floor regarding the results which provide a sense of how the community feels the City is taking care of the vulnerable population. The majority of people feel the current system is not working and 70% would like to study the possibility of the city taking over the responsibility. There was generally ambivalence about enforcement but fine amounts were fine. Commissioner Brouwer stated that the work to review all the comments is a work in progress. There are hundreds of them and they have started to try to categorize them. They would love to have volunteers to help sort through and categorize them. Commissioners Powers, Srivatsa, and CC Liaison Nguyen volunteered to assist in this work. Commissioner Barden recommended that the original charge for this topic be reviewed to see whether the wording of the law needs to be changed, and to make that reflective in the findings. Commissioner Chang stated that the proposed timeline for making a recommendation to Common Council is ambitious. There was a lot of support from the City to host a public meeting or open house; if it could be done at the same time as another community meeting or event that might increase attendance. Chair Lerner would like more time for the public to hear about survey, weigh in and also provide members of Council more time to hear about the results. He was concerned that a short presentation of the survey results in front of Common Council wouldn’t do it justice. Mobility, Accessibility and Transportation Commission Meeting Minutes January 27, 2020 5 Commissioner Roberts noted that he would be interested in getting more input about downtown. He would suggest that the commission think about using an open house for the public to provide input. Discussion followed on the floor regarding the response demographics related to particular neighborhoods, and whether people taking the survey were answering about their whole experience or a specific location like Fall Creek. The survey did ask for participants to provide information about what part of the City they live in. It was noted that for businesses downtown and on the Commons sidewalk snow removal is provided by the City of Ithaca so that might skew some results. Commissioners expressed their concern about what the purpose of an open house would be. They feel the proposed timeline is fine, and they all feel that Commissioners Chang and Brouwer did a great job with the survey and reporting on the results. Acting Chair Roberts shared his opinion that Matcom should include in the final recommendation to the City Administration Committee ideas and suggestions about the next steps. The majority of respondents said they don’t like the current program and would be open to the city taking it over, so what should that next steps be? CC Liaison Nguyen agreed that the Commission should review the original Commission Project Form because it may not include policy recommendations. Commissioner Brouwer expressed his support for Acting Chair Roberts comments and feels that the recommendation should list some possible next steps for Common Council. CC Liaison McGonigal stated that when looking at any policy recommendations or the original charge that staff from the Department of Public Works should be included in discussions in order to get an idea of how much different options would cost. Ultimately, Common Council will need to decide on how to proceed and cost will be a significant factor in that decision. Commissioners seemed to feel that now isn’t necessarily the time to have information about costs. It’s hard to make any recommendations right now because there would not be enough data to back it up. Meeting Wrap Up: The next meeting is Monday, February 24, 2020 at 6:00 p.m. in Common Council Chambers Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 8:15 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Sarah L. Myers, Information Management Specialist Preliminary Key Findings Snow Removal from Pedestrian Walkways Survey City of Ithaca Mobility, Accessibility, and Transportation Commission January 27, 2020 Ithaca City Hall Council Chambers Demographics Survey Respondents Completed surveys: 814 Primarily homeowners (73%) Primarily white (80%) More female than male (61% vs. 35%) Skews older (82% are age 35+) More people with disabilities (14%) Representation from all neighborhoods, with a skew towards Fall Creek (28%); Downtown & Collegetown underrepresented City of Ithaca (ACS 2018) Population (estimated): 30,999 Primarily not homeowners (26.4%) More racially diverse (68.8%) Evenly split between sexes (50.0%) Skews college-aged (23% are age 35+) Fewer people with disabilities (5.9%) Fall Creek (Block Groups 2 & 3) is about 8.7% of Ithaca’s population; C’town and Downtown are most populous Key Finding #1 Defining the Problem A majority of people (60%) are dissatisfied with snow and ice removal from sidewalks, but respondents are particularly dissatisfied (75%) about the condition around curb cuts. Key Finding #2 Impact on People Majority of respondents (55%) find it difficult to navigate snowy or icy sidewalks but women (59%), people over 65 (63%), and people with disabilities (76%) find it especially challenging. Key Finding #3 Slips, Falls, Injuries A substantial number of respondents (37%) slip and fall at least once every year due to snow and ice on city walkways, and 18% have sustained an injury that required medical attention. Key Finding #4 Knowledge of Existing Laws 71% of respondents did not know or misunderstood at least one important aspect of the current law around snow and ice removal from walkways. Properties next to a street crossing need to clear the curb cut 31%14%55% Material that provides traction must be placed when ice is too hard to remove 35%5%60% The full paved width of the sidewalk must be cleared 20%8%72% Pedestrian walkways must be cleared of snow and ice 20%7%72% Walkways must be cleared within 24 hours after the start of a snowfall 11%5%85% Properties at street corners must clear sidewalks on all sides 13%1%86%Don’t KnowWrong AnswerRight Answer Key Finding #5 Interest in Change A majority of people (63%) disagree that the current system for snow removal is working and most (70%) support the City to evaluate taking over the responsibility. Comments Section Response coding about to begin... Included in Final Report (but not key findings) ●Perceptions from all respondents about difficulties faced by elderly, disabled, people with strollers, etc. ●Impact on shopping and social outings, lateness and absences at work or school ●Details of sidewalk clearing: responsibility, frequency, ease ●Whether people currently pay or would like to pay to clear sidewalks, and how much ●Whether non-residents, business owners, and property owners think differently ●Satisfaction with City responsiveness to complaints ●Satisfaction of City enforcement of sidewalk clearing and how punitive fines are Also, what if we had to narrow down the key findings to 3? (e.g. executive summary) Tentative (Ambitious) Timeline Timeframe Milestone Mid-February Comment Coding Complete Feb 24 MATCom Draft Report for Review Mid-March (?)Public Meeting or Open House Mar 23 MATCom Approve Final Report April City Admin or CC (?)Present to Committee/Council Any community events already happening around this timeframe?