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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - BPC - 09-17-2007Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan Qtizens' Advisory Committee Quarterly Meeting Minutes September 17 , 2007 The Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan Citizen 's Advisory Committee Quarterly Meeting commenced Monday, September 17 , 2007 , at 7:00 p.m. Meeting Leader/City Staff: Abbie Jones, PE , City Engineer Dan Drake, Public Works Committee Members Present: Brian Maloney , Travis Allen Committee Members Not Present: Bill Schellhorn, Mike Moss , Suzanne Cassada, David Chatham, Heidi Sowder and Craig Warner. Meeting commenced with Agenda being distributed to Committee Members. Agenda Items 1. Approval of Meeting Minutes 2 . Appointments needed? 3. Staff update on plan details: a . Work Order b. GT Report 4. Staff update on grants 5. Press Updates 6. Volunteer Fundraising Updates-Brian 7. Bike Parking Ideas 8. Benchmarking Idea 9. Sidewalk Fund 10 . Safe Routes to School 11. Adjournment MEETING CALLED TO ORDER Chair Brian Maloney called the meeting to order at 7 :00 PM. DISCUSSION FROM AGENDA ITEMS: Chair Brian Maloney Called for a motion to approve the minutes. Committee Member Travis Allen Need to add amendment to minutes . City Staff at a City Council meeting to amend the nominations: Mayor Lockwood 's appointee became Bill Schellhorn and Julie Zahner Baile y's appointee became David Deutsch. Julie Zahner Bailey needs to reappoint someone . I of8 Bicycle and Pede strian Plan Gitizens' Advisory Committee Quarterly Meeting Minutes September 17 , 2007 Chair Brian Maloney Need to email Jeanette Marchiafava, the City Clerk, to contact Julie Zahner Bailey about her new appointee . Had low attendance last few meetings. Send out email to determine if not interested in attending or cannot participate to let committee know. Minutes were approved with this amendment. Staff Dan Drake Spoke regarding Agenda Item 3 a. Still working on which side of road Milton Trail will be on. Look at it road by road and will come back to committee with recommendation. Staff Abbie Jones It would be more by destination and major topography. Staff Dan Drake spoke about Agenda Item 3 b., Georgia Tech report. Have requested an editable version of the report . Work in progress as of this time. Di scussion about Agenda Item 4 , Grant Update. Abbie Jones stated they applied for the Pedestrian Safety Grant ($281 ,000). Have not heard back yet regarding application. Questions were posed via email to DNR and GDOT about specific grant questions and regarding matching money . November deadline for recreational trails. Stand a pretty good chance for this grant -does require some matching money . Dan Drake talked about Agenda Item 5, Press Updates. Referenced articles provided to committee members in their packets. Article by the Mayor on Milton Trail. North Fulton Neighbor -Mountain Biking Festiv al. John 's Creek Greenway article . Had sit down interview last Friday with Doug Nurse of the AJC regarding the Milton Trail. Chair Brian Maloney Spoke with Doug Nurse of AJC. Quality of life in this area and importance of kids being able to walk to school or ride their bikes to school. Brings old neighborhood back. Certain sections of trail linking surrounding bike trails together. Doug Nurse asked what biggest hurdle was -funding. Need word out there for fundraisers and/or donations. 2 of8 Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan CJtizens' Advisory Committee Quarterly Meeting Minutes September 17 , 2007 Chair Brian Maloney Spoke about Agenda Item 6, Volunteers. If someone donated to trail project, could name section of trail after them. Staff Abbie Jones Perhaps using different horse names . Section by section . 1,000,000.00 would give you a named section. 10,000,000.00 would perhaps give you a leg. 60 ,000 ,000.00 to build the whole network. 80%/20% -there are caps per year. Should we be talking to people in the horse group in this area? Chair Brian Maloney Can revisit this matter if first segment not funded by the end of next year. Talking to people who can be sponsors . Developers , large corporations. If give a large sum of money need to offer something in return. Wealthy businessmen and developers. Foundations. After find volunteers , can set up a subcommittee so staff is not involved in this. Will contact foundation and see what can be done. Chair Brian Maloney Moved on to next Agenda Item 7 , Bike Parking Ideas . Staff Dan Drake Referenced materials in committee 's packet. Land Regional Commission has dissolved their Regional Bike-Pedestrian Plan. Bicycle parking at developments or shower facilities . How to incorporate into either our overlay districts or zoning codes . Looking at minimum amount of bike parking for certain types of developments. Specific locations. Need committee input. Abbie Jones has put some ideas together. Perhaps bicycle parking at bus stops. Staff Abbie Jones Covered bike parking versus uncovered bike parking? MARTA facilities . Covered bus stops versus uncovered bus stops . 3 of8 Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan Cjtizens ' Advisory Committee Quarterly Meeting Minutes September 17 , 2007 Staff Dan Drake Getting recommendation from other cities for some ideas . Will bring forth to the committee. Perhaps indoor bike parking as part of the facility . Minimum bike parking . Depending on amount of bike users versus non-bike users. For new developments as built, how much bike parking per unit per square foot ? Chair Brian Maloney Crabapple Corners. Crabapple Overlay. Commercial Nodes. Bicycle racks? Staff Abbie Jones Meeting the needs of a particular area. Tailored for State Route 9 Overlay District, Crabapple District and Birmingham District. Need input from committee on how to tailor it. Need for shower facility or not. When appropriate? FURTHER GROUP DISCUSSION ABOUT BICYCLE PARKING Dan Drake Moving on to Agenda Item 8, Benchmarking Idea. Asked Abbie Jones to discuss. Abbie Jones National program that is gather data on bike and pedestrian users and uses. Would citizens on committee be interested in participating in a data-gathering exercise to be included in a national data-gathering exercise ? Citizen time and staff time involved . Have time to look into this. Volunteer efforts . Staff Abbie Jones Moving on to next Agenda Items , Sidewalk Fund. Staff Dan Drake Have about $20 ,000 in this fund. Brought up at last Thursday 's work session. Councilmembers were talking about uses. Milton Trail. Fees for some of the grants. 4 of8 Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan Cj tizen s' Advisory Committee Quarterly Meeting Minutes Se ptember 17, 2007 Maintenance of existing sidewalks that need repair. Adding new sidewalks to fill in gaps. Public Works Department looking for committee's input for good use for this fund. Chair Brian Maloney Need to address safety issues for liability reasons. Gaps near schools should be addressed ne xt. Committee Member Travis Allen Kings Ridge and what they did. Handicap areas with ramps. Staff Dan Drake Deve lop a draft policy statement to send out to committee at least a week beforehand to discu ss. Go to City Council to repair the sidewalks and fill gap areas . Have a first tier for repairs and then gaps. Chair Brian Maloney Would the guy with the greenhouses on Freemanville Road fall into category of sidewalk fund ? Staff Abbie Jones That is unique situation that is in a litigation area. Probably relates to the Safe Routes to School as we ll. One area that sidewalk money could be focused -Safe Routes to School. Showed committee letter -4th paragraph regarding clearinghouse. Helping with planning and developing all these things. GDOT is volunteering to help do some things that would help staff. We have signs that have been posted . Beacons that have been repaired in school zones in general. Basic field service maintenance. Two committee reports regarding traffic conditions past out. Will follow up with Mike Moss. Progress and hurdles regarding Crabapple Campus. Recei ving work requests regarding this area. Must have principal onboard for Safe Route to Schools. Referenced from handout material the Safe Route to School Program. Which campus to focus on first. What people to focus on for a committee to lead that group. 5 of8 Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan Cjtizens' Advisory Committee Quarterly Meeting Minutes September 17, 2007 Staff Dan Drake Mike Moss seemed very interested in this area. Going to talk to the middle school principal in Crabapple. Importance of showing up for meetings. Good to get Mike and principal together for working on step one. Staff will follow up with Mike on this. Committee Member Travis Allen Two locations where multiple campus neighboring each other. Focus on two school s on Cogburn. Then schools on Birmingham. Chair Brian Maloney If we get one school nailed down. Set up meetings with all of them after that. Staff Dan Drake Discussion about clearinghouse and what the y can and will do. Clearinghouse may help sending letters to schools within our jurisdiction advising them about this matter and encouraging them to join up. Try using the first school as the "guinea pig" or pilot for this project. Need to make sure that the Milton schools know about this. In spring of 2008 , these services will be available. Chair Brian Maloney Another good reason is these services may not be available after that. Need to take advantage of this. Staff Abbie Jones Clearinghouse great tool for principals , engineers and law enforcement as well as anyone else invol ved with it. Chair Brian Maloney Asked Staff to inv estigate the creation of a parks and recreation authority . Ultimate hoping of getting bond money for our matching money for the Milton Trail. Perhaps another way of funding long-term bond. Staff Dan Drake We will investigate that. 6 of8 Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan Citizens' Advisory Committee Quarterly Meeting Minutes September 17 , 2007 Staff Abbie Jones Read email that was update from State Bike-Ped Coordinator. State Route 140 is on a state route for on-road bike lanes. Right now our plan says si de paths. Need to get the committee amend and vote on thi s. Chair Brian Maloney Plans to widen Hwy. 140 ? Staff Dan Drake Yes, there are plans to widen Hwy. 140. Chair Brian Maloney Asked Travis Allen if okay with him. Chair Brian Maloney He and Travis agreed to amend the plan to state for on-road bike lanes instead of side paths. It was unanimous and motion passed. Staff Dan Drake Asked when to have ne xt meeting. Couple of months? Chair Brian Maloney Holiday season is bad . First part of year. Communicate via email. Perhaps first week in January of 2008. Staff Abbie Jones Technically have met twice this year. Can have additional communications by email. Can have some consensus voting by email as well. Chair Brian Maloney Since we have limited committee attendance right now, we will send the State Route 140 voting to other committee members to vote electronically. Staff Dan Drake Monday, January 21, 2008 set for next Bike-Ped meeting. 7 of8 Bicycle•and Pedestrian Plan Cjt izens ' Advisory Co mmittee Quarterly Meeting Minutes September 17 , 2007 Staff Abbie Jones Any goals you believe this group has the leader of the committee Help Staff to prepare for before the January meeting. Chair Brian Maloney Spoke with Jan Jones. Pushing the park and recreation authority and trails. From legislative standpoint, when they reconfigured some of the Charter of the city, she incorporated the trail system . Chair Brian Maloney adjourned meeting at 8:00 PM. Date Approved: n M oney , Chairman Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee 8 of8