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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes - 10/23/06 Work Session M I N U T E S Eugene City Council Work Session McNutt Room—Eugene City Hall October 23, 2006 5:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Jennifer Solomon, Andrea Ortiz, David Kelly, Betty Taylor, Gary Papé, Bonny Bettman, George Poling, Chris Pryor. Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the meeting of the Eugene City Council to order. A. COMMITTEE REPORTS AND ITEMS OF INTEREST FROM MAYOR, CITY COUNCIL AND CITY MANAGER th Mayor Piercy reported that the Holt International Children's Services 50 anniversary conference was attended by representatives from 33 countries. She noted the Bioneers Conference at Lane Community College and commended the Human Rights Commission and other community partners for the conference on mental health. She said the Southwestern Oregon Chapter of the American Institute of Architects presented the City of Eugene with a certificate of appreciation for leadership in sustainability for adoption of LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for City buildings. She shared an expression of appreciation and admiration for the performance of Eugene police officers during the recent incident at North Eugene High School. Ms. Ortiz stated she recently attended a leadership conference at Kah-Nee-Ta and would submit a written report. She felt the conference was very worthwhile and encouraged others to attend if they had the opportunity. She participated in an event at Golden Gardens Park over the weekend and was pleased to see a lot of people there, including many from outside of the neighborhood. She commended the efforts of Parks and Open Space Director Johnny Medlin. She also visited a local business involved with theater arts, Upstart Crow. Mr. Poling reminded everyone that November 7 was Election Day and ballots needed to be dropped off by 8 p.m. He was discouraged by an interview with someone who said he was not going to vote because he was not informed about issues. He noted that the deadline for Budget Committee applications was October 31. Mr. Kelly commended the Human Rights Commission for the recent Mental Health and Human Rights Conference at the University of Oregon. He said the event capacity of 300 attendees was filled by advance registrations. He said there was a rich discussion with local and nationally recognized speakers and consumer advocates and a report on next steps would be presented to the commission and the council. He said the Metropolitan Policy Committee (MPC) held a joint meeting with the Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) to review the draft Public Participation Plan and address the CAC’s concern with lack of clarity on its role and the MPC’s expectations. MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 23, 2006 Page 1 Work Session Ms. Bettman commended the Eugene Police Department for its prompt and effective action in response to an incident at North Eugene High School. She announced that Intergovernmental Relations Manager Jason Heuser was leaving City employment for a position with Eugene Water & Electric Board as its legislative liaison. She thanked Mr. Heuser for his effective and knowledgeable service. Mr. Pryor reported that the Human Services Commission met on October 16 and continued its discussion of restructuring the commission to achieve efficiency and provide better service. He said a consultant would assist in streamlining a very complicated system and the commission agreed that changes would be brought back to their respective elected bodies. He noted that Eugene staff was given national recognition at a recent parks conference in Seattle and many employees were teaching classes based on some of the City’s unique programs. Mr. Papé urged citizens to vote for the parks and open space ballot measure. He reminded the public that he and Mayor Piercy would be at the Market of Choice at Delta Oaks on the evening of October 24 for a conversation with citizens but would be unable to discuss issues related to hospital siting because of the land use application likely to come before the council fairly soon. He said he intended to ask for an update or work session on the River Road/Santa Clara area community park to discuss progress. City Manager Taylor reported that he spent the afternoon helping the City of Florence interview candidates for a new city manager. He was pleased with the quality of candidates. He related that he was recently certified as a credentialed city manager by the International City/County Manager Association and noted that Oregon had the most credentialed city managers per capita. B. WORK SESSION: Alternative Mobility Standards City Engineer Mark Schoening stated that the Oregon Highway Plan (OHP) included alternative mobility standards (AMS) to address congestion in areas that did not meet adopted mobility standards. He introduced Lane Council of Governments Transportation Planner Tom Schwetz to explain the process for developing and adopting AMS. Mr. Schwetz presented an overview of AMS with a PowerPoint presentation entitled “Balancing Regional Mobility with a Vibrant Local Economy. He said development of AMS required local commitment to specific actions and many of those were included in the Central Lane MPO Regional Transportation Plan (RTP). He said congestion related to an excess of vehicles on a portion of roadway that resulted in speeds that were slower than normal at certain times and could be characterized as both “good” and “bad” congestion. He reviewed the positive and negative effects of congestion and said that congestion was a consequence of growth in the economy and resulting increases in dwelling units and employment and growth in urban levels of development and surrounding areas. Mr. Schwetz identified a number of variables that contributed to daily congestion such as special events, poor signal timing, bad weather, work zones and traffic incidents. He used a series of maps to illustrate geographic, population, employment, dwelling unit density and vehicle trip growth in the Eugene-Springfield metropolitan area. He also illustrated the mobility dependence of area roadways, both state and local, and the locations of congestion currently and in 20 years. He said the next phase would be to discuss ways in which congestion could be addressed. MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 23, 2006 Page 2 Work Session Mr. Schwetz presented a comparison of mobility among Portland, Salem, and the Eugene-Springfield area. He said that the Eugene-Springfield area had half the congestion of most cities of comparable size, and Portland, which was seven times larger, had 33 times the congestion of the Eugene-Springfield area. He identified congestion implications as set forth in the Statewide Congestion Overview for Oregon. He said that next steps included: ? Compile results from assessment of alternative solutions ? Develop proposal for possible changes to State’s mobility standards ? Identify possible local commitments to include in proposal In response to a question from Mr. Pryor, Mr. Schwetz said that projections would be revised within the next two months to reflect elimination of the West Eugene Parkway. In response to a question from Mr. Papé, Mr. Schwetz said the rating system meant from a volume over capacity ratio standpoint that standards were established at a point where traffic could still move and the State’s standards assumed that 80 percent or less was meeting standards on a facility like Beltline. He said the State used a different measurement system than the local regional transportation plan, which used an A through F rating system. th Mr. Papé remarked how the council’s identification of the West 11 Avenue corridor as a priority related to other mobility needs that might be higher. Mr. Schoening said there were two approaches: capital th infrastructure such as improvements to Beltline and the corridor study of West 11 Avenue to consider alternative transportation modes such as EmX. He said options included adding more capacity to the system for all modes of travel and a different focus on the existing transportation system to achieve more capacity such as access management. He felt there was the right mix of strategies. Mr. Papé asked what the consequences would be if the City’s priorities were inconsistent with the OHP. Mr. Schwetz said that the region was working with the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) to ensure the consistency of any proposal presented to the Oregon Transportation Commission (OTC), although if the OTC determined a proposal was not consistent, it could decline to approve and require certain mitigation for those facilities out of compliance with mobility standards. Mr. Papé asked how managing land use to limit vehicular demand on State highways could be accomplished since the passage of Ballot Measure 37. Mr. Schwetz said that balancing the interests of the State and property owners would require negotiation among all of the interested parties. City Manager Taylor said Ballot Measure 37 would have an impact, which was why local solutions were being considered from a land use and transportation perspective and the legislature had commissioned the “big look” at the issue. Ms. Bettman commented that when congestion reached the point that it negatively affected the economic viability of property people would be willing to negotiate in order to decrease congestion. She was pleased that the AMS proposal would come to the council for approval before it went to the MPC. She said Eugene’s lower congestion compared to similarly sized jurisdiction was also good news. She asked how “peak” hour was defined with respect to congestion. Mr. Schwetz replied that the morning peak hour was 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. and the evening peak hour was 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Ms. Bettman noted that much investment and infrastructure was predicated on peak hour congestion and asked if all jurisdictions used the same standard. Mr. Schwetz replied that the peak hour definition was a MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 23, 2006 Page 3 Work Session standard measure of congestion although jurisdictions varied in their responses. He said in some cases, such as Portland, used a two-hour peak period on some key facilities. Ms. Bettman asked whether expanded, free bus services could be factored into the mobility standards model to determine its impact on congestion. Mr. Schwetz said that a methodology requirement was to consider a wide range of options and some analysis had been completed of the impact of expanding transit far beyond the current system. Staff would be returning with a summary of those results. Ms. Bettman asked if it was possible to specifically analyze the impact of free expanded transit. Mr. Schwetz stated that staff could perform that analysis. LOCG staff Susan Payne indicated that the challenge of analyzing the impact of free transit was lack of baseline data and a reference point to help predict people’s reaction. Mr. Schwetz added there were likely caveats staff would place around such an analysis. Ms. Bettman said she would be eager to see that analysis. Mr. Kelly said the key to developing AMS was following State statutes and administrative rules. He underscored Ms. Bettman’s point that rush hour congestion was frustrating but should be put in perspective with traffic flow during the remainder of a 24-hour period. He was nervous about using terms such as “failure” at a specific level of service as it generally meant that traffic was still proceeding but drivers might wait through a second cycle of lights at an intersection. He said that failure could connote something more devastating to the public. Ms. Bettman asked why residential was not included as a component under congestion tolerant land use th facility in the comparison of congestion table. She also asked if the State had opted out of West 11 Avenue th east of Beltline since the agenda material only referred to West 11 Avenue west of Beltline. Mr. Schwetz said the facility east of Beltline was the City’s and the State would be willing to discuss the entire corridor but the State’s section where the standards would apply was west of Beltline. He said omission of residential uses in the table was an oversight as congestion-tolerant actually referred to a mixed-use area that would include different types of residential. Mr. Schwetz said that engineers analyzing congestion data had observed that at the point of levels of service E and F the system became unstable and the models were not useful in predicting what might happen. Mr. Papé asked if there were safety indices on the various levels of service. Mr. Schwetz said there was no standard related to safety but generally speaking the more congestion the greater the opportunity for accidents. Mayor Piercy noted that the community would gain some experience with free transit when EmX service began. C. WORK SESSION: Programming of Surface Transportation Program-Urban (STP-U) Funds City Manager Taylor said that Mr. Schoening would discuss resources available to address the backlog of preservation projects. Mr. Schoening stated that consistent with the council’s previous direction, pavement preservation projects were before it for review and approval before applications were submitted to the MPC. He said Attachment B to the agenda item summary was an outline of the STP-U funds programming process and timeline. He reviewed the list of pavement preservation projects set forth in Attachment A and explained how projects MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 23, 2006 Page 4 Work Session were selected. He said the list totaled approximately $20 million worth of work and the council was provided with the entire list instead of selected projects so that when the STP-U criteria was established by the MPC staff would have the flexibility to pick those projects that best matched those criteria. In response to a question from Ms. Bettman, Mr. Schoening said that staff would select projects that best met identified criteria in order to maximize the success of project funding applications. Ms. Bettman indicated she would be happy to approve the list. Mr. Kelly commended Eugene’s staff for being steadfast in supporting the council’s adopted priorities during TPC discussions. He said that the criteria recommended by the TPC would come before the MPC for adoption and he and Mayor Piercy would continue to support council priorities. He noted that the metropolitan area received between $1 and $2 million in STP-U funds annually. Mr. Pryor, referring to the $20 million in projects on the list, asked approximately how much in STP-U funds would be available to the City in any year. Mr. Schoening said that Eugene might receive between 40 and 60 percent of total funds available. Mr. Pryor reinforced the point that the funds would make little progress in reducing the backlog of projects, which was growing faster than the STP-U funds available each year, and other options for addressing the backlog were required. Mr. Papé asked if Eugene typically received 50 percent of the available funds. Mr. Schoening said that when the funds were allocated by population Eugene received 42 percent. Mr. Papé asked if the council had a role in defining priorities by appointing people to the TPC or approving priorities annually or bi-annually. Mr. Schoening said the process was very complex and involved not only the TPC but required project coordination with EWEB and other entities as well as internally with a wide range of Public Works projects. He said that one of the factors in determining project priority was the practice of distributing both the inconvenience of construction and the benefits across the community. Ms. Taylor said she was pleased with the progress to obtain funding and agreed with the practice of distributing projects geographically. Ms. Bettman pointed out that while the STP-U funds were limited there was also the gas tax and dedicated transportation system development charges and SDC reimbursement component fee and every bit helped. She said in the past the policy was to prioritize maintenance and preservation but the practice was not consistent with that. Mr. Kelly agreed that the council should not be involved in prioritization as the City’s engineering and financial model did an excellent job of monitoring projects and identifying the most urgent needs. Ms. Solomon, seconded by Ms. Ortiz, moved to approve the attached list of pave- ment preservation projects as the basis for applications for federal Surface Trans- portation Program-Urban funds for FY07-FY09 to be programmed by the Metro- politan Policy Committee. The motion passed unanimously, 8:0. The meeting adjourned at 6:50 p.m. MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 23, 2006 Page 5 Work Session Respectfully submitted, Dennis M. Taylor City Manager (Recorded by Lynn Taylor) MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 23, 2006 Page 6 Work Session