Loading...
MPO TPC/TAC Board Minutes - 10/20/2004s TRANSPORTATION POLICY COMMITTEE (TPC) MEETING WICHITA FALLS METROPOLITAN PLANNING ORGANIZATION October 20, 2004 Present: Mayor Bill Altman, Chairperson ♦ Members Charles Elmore, City Council Representative Dennis Wilde, NORTEX Regional Planning Commission Don Sheppard, Lakeside City Larry Tegtmeyer, TxDOT, District Engineer Scott Taylor, Director of Public Works Jeff Watts, City of Pleasant Valley Woodrow (Woody) Gossom, County Judge, Vice - Chairperson Danny Brown, TxDOT, Director of Trans. Planning and Development ♦ Staff Donnie Arbeau, Transportation Planner I Lin Barnett, Transportation Planner III Tim Juarez, TxDOT, TPP (S) Division, Austin ♦ Ex- officio None ♦ HNC Keith Hall, Project Leader, Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam, Inc. ♦ Guests Tim Kroeker, Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam, Inc. David Pearson, Texas Transportation Institute Charlie Hall, TxDOT, Travel Survey Program Manager Jon Moller, Citizen Stakeholder Linda Ammons, City Council Representative ♦ Absent I. Welcome & Introduction. Mayor Altman began the meeting at 8:31 a.m. II. Approval of July 21St meeting minutes Judge Gossom motioned to approve the minutes as presented. Mr. Sheppard seconded RECEIVEQPM motion, which pass unanimously. Judge Gossom commented that the proposed CITY CLEYMPR@Eb rid g e fee in rease from ten to twenty dollars was not authorized by the � 01Ml1i 0 G OCTOBER 20, 2004 PAGE 1 General Council. However, he felt if the RMA course of action were pursued then authorization by the legislature could take place as early as September 2005. Judge Gossom then inquired if the RMA/Pass- Through Financing presentation had been made to City Council. He recommended a joint City Council, County Commissioner's Court meeting be scheduled. Mr. Tegtmeyer stated his staff had recently received draft guidelines from Austin for assembling a petition and that his office would begin developing the presentation based on the guidelines. III. Review and Comment Regarding the TAC's October 6th Meeting Minutes — No Action Required No comments were received. IV. TxDOT Travel Survey Presentation by Mr. Charlie Hall TxDOT, Austin At this point, Mayor Altman called upon Mr. Keith Hall and Mr. Kroeker to give a brief progress report on the Metropolitan Transportation Plan. Mr. Hall discussed the public meeting from the night before and the one scheduled for later that night. Mr. Kroeker gave an overview of progress on all the different chapters within the MTP and how close they were to completion. He discussed special matters such as Title VI and Environmental Justice and completion of the bicycle plan. Mr. Hall described the process of submission of documents for review and the path they follow i.e. to MPO staff and the MTP Steering Committee, then to TAC, then to TPC and then out for public review and comment via the City's web page and in the Transportation Planning Division office and finally back through TAC and TPC for approval. A large number of the documents should start arriving in the Transportation Planning Division office by Friday, October 22nd A discussion, led by Mr. Moller, then arose regarding when and where the sections of the new MTP document could be examined by the public. Mayor Altman stated works in progress would not be made public until TAC and TPC had made comments and revisions to them. Once that process was complete, they would become available for public examination and comment. Thereafter, MPO staff, in conjunction with the LAN consultants, would begin incorporation of the public comments into the proper sections of the draft document. Mr. Taylor pointed out the fact that several public meetings on the MTP had been held with miniscule attendance. The meeting then shifted back to the presentation of the upcoming TxDOT Travel Survey presented by Mr. Pearson and Mr. Charlie Hall. Mr. Pearson distributed examples from the Midland- Odessa area of the type of technical summary Wichita Falls could expect to receive. Mr. Hall gave the actual presentation. He stated the last time a survey of this nature was prepared was in the mid 1960's. Mr. Watts inquired about the length of time the actual survey procedure with consume. Mr. Hall stated survey guidelines dictate vehicles must be reduced in the queue once they reach a preset limit. This rule will help reduce motorist impatience. The survey will WICHITA FALLS MPO TPC MEETING OCTOBER 20, 2004 PAGE 2 be conducted in daylight hours only, for three to four weeks, with each survey taking approximately four minutes to complete. Each survey site will be for one day only. The goal being to track a license plate as it travels through an area. The license plate video tapes will be destroyed once the survey is complete. V. Review, Discussion and Approval of Revisions to the MPO's Public Involvement Policy — Annual Review (Required 45 -Day Public Comment Period Expired 09/05/04) Mr. Barnett discussed the revisions made to the document, the availability of the document on the MPO/Transportation web page and in the Transportation Planning Division office, and the number of comments received from the public on revisions to the document. Mayor Altman commented the changes appeared to be minor name changes with additional content to help clarify environmental justice principles. Mr. Taylor inquired where the clarification information originated. Mr. Barnett stated the information came from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). Mr. Moller asked if the PIP was the official policy of the MPO or the official policy of the City of Wichita Falls to be implemented throughout all City departments in its concept. Mayor Altman stated, to the best of his knowledge, the City Council had never adopted the MPO's PIP. Councilor Elmore stated the adoption of the PIP would be for the MPO and not for the City of Wichita Falls. Mayor Altman stated the City Council adopts policies that are left to the interpretation of staff to be carried out. Mr. Juarez commented that at the state level for federal regulations and state rules, the TPC is recognized as the MPO on behalf of the planning process. Mr. Juarez stated once the PIP is adopted by TPC then it is applicable only to MPO transportation planning activities. Mayor Altman stated because he did not understand the question Mr. Moller was posing, he would respond to Mr. Moller's concerns and questions if he would put them in writing. Mr. Moller stated the PIP would be carried forward to City Council. The board members stated that it has never been presented to City Council and never would be, nor would it be presented to the County of Wichita Falls. Mr. Moller stated the current PIP was adopted in the 2000 — 2025 MTP update, which in turn was adopted by the Policy Advisory Committee (PAC) of 2000 and the City of Wichita Falls'. Mayor Altman reiterated that administration of any policy relies on the interpretation and implementation by staff of that policy. Mayor Altman stated he could not give Mr. Moller a global answer to the question of how policy is administered throughout the City of Wichita Falls. Mr. Moller inquired if the PIP would be implemented only at the transportation level or at all levels of city government. Judge Gossom stated the MPO's PIP should be viewed as limited in scope, to the body of the MPO, and that it should not embed the inner working principles, i.e. environmental justice, of the MPO into other governmental entities. Mr. Taylor suggested to Mr. Moller that he bring this before the City Council. Mr. Juarez stated, for clarification, that even though TPC may approve the ' The 2000 — 2025 MTP update does not contain the text of the current PIP. The only mention of the words "Public Involvement Policy" is on page 82 of Appendix C — Public Comments and MPO Staff Responses, where it is mentioned four separate times in a letter from Mr. Moller to the MPO Director, of that time, Mr. Steve Seese. WICHITA FALLS MPO TPC MEETING OCTOBER 20, 2004 PAGE 3 FM PIP, it must still be approved by FHWA and TxDOT. Judge Gossom motioned to adopt the PIP as presented with revisions. Mr. Watts seconded the motion, which carried unanimously. The TPC approved PIP was forwarded to TxDOT and FHWA for final review and approval. VI. Review, Discussion and Approval of the 2004 Wilbur Smith Associates Update to the Socioeconomic Data Collection and Forecast Study of FY 2000 — Revised Version for Use in FY 2005 UPWP Subtasks 3.5 and 4.1 (Updates to Binders Mailed in Advance of Meeting) Mr. Barnett stated, after much review, by MPO staff and its re- submittal to TAC for their review, and the subsequent early mail -out of the update to TPC for the board's review, TAC was now recommending the update be approved by TPC and forwarded to Lockwood, Andrews and Newnam, Inc. for use in preparing the MTP 2005 — 2030 update. Mayor Altman commented the document had been examined and corrected numerous times since the first draft presentation of it was made earlier in the year by Wilbur Smith Associates. Mr. Tegtmeyer questioned why during the TAC meeting the document was referred to as being in an "acceptable" state. Mr. Barnett stated he and his staff had researched the document for errors and inconsistencies, returning the document to WSA for them to correct. Mr. Tegtmeyer asked if TAC felt the document was an accurate document. Mr. Barnett stated TAC believed it to be reasonably accurate. Mr. Juarez voiced his concerns about the acceptable standards required by the consultant. Mr. Barnett stated that all comments received from TAC, TPC and the public had been forwarded to WSA for revision of the document. He stated the 3rd revision, which had been presented to TAC, was the one being presented to TPC for approval today. Mr. Brown commented that TAC was forced into a considerable amount of quality control on the document. Mr. Taylor inquired if TAC was comfortable with the information presented in the update, considering its impact on the MTP update. Mr. Barnett replied in the affirmative. Judge Gossom asked if information contained within the update had been compared with any of Dr. Murdock's (the state demographer) information. Mr. Barnett stated the demographer that MPO staff worked with was with Wilbur Smith Associates' subsidiary company, MKP Consulting. He described a conversation, months earlier, with Mr. Keith Hall of LAN, in which Mr. Hall commented that the WSA update was not critical to the MTP update because Wichita Falls is an air quality attainment area. Mr. Juarez stated he was concerned with the comfort level of staff and TPC on accepting the document in its current form, and the affect it would ultimately have on the MTP update. He suggested tabling the issue until TxDOT demographers and modelers could have a chance to examine the information contained within the document and compare it to controls held by the state demographer, Mr. Steve Murdock, at the Texas State Data Center. Mayor Altman agreed stating he would welcome TxDOT's examination of the data in the update. The board was in agreement that the comfort level should be raised. Recommendations were made to table the issue and to re- submit at a future meeting as an agenda item. All were in agreement to table the update WICHITA FALLS MPO TPC MEETING OCTOBER 20, 2004 PAGE 4 r• for a later meeting, and that no action should be taken at this time VII. Report on the FY 2005 Wichita Falls Transit Grant Application — For Informational Purposes Only Mayor Altman asked for comments on the application. There were none. Mr. Barnett stated the application had been forwarded to the Texas Review And Comments System (TRACS) for their review and approval at the November meeting. VIII. Discussion and Recommendation Concerning a Request For Proposal for a Traffic Signal Optimization Study on the Kemp Boulevard and Southwest Parkway Traffic Corridors — FY 2005 UPWP Subtask 5.1 Mr. Barnett briefly explained the reason for TAC's recommendation for TPC to authorize this type of study and the need for an RFP to find a firm with a qualified traffic engineer to complete it. He stated that Mr. Brown, Mr. Beauchamp and Mr. Leiker had volunteered at the October 6th TAC meeting to write the RFP. Mr. Beauchamp answered questions concerning the map and data presented. Mr. Taylor made a motion to instruct staff to begin preparing an RFP to accomplish the study as described in Subtask 5.1 of the FY 2005 UPWP. Mr. Watts seconded the motion, which passed unanimously. IX. Discussion and Recommendation to Add a Representative from SAFB to the TAC Committee Mr. Barnett discussed the recommendation by TAC to create a new position on the TAC board for a representative from Sheppard Air Force Base. Judge Gossom stated the MPO By -Laws would need to be examined to see if any changes to them would have to be made in order accommodate a new position on the TAC board. The board agreed with his statement and recommended putting it on the next agenda for discussion after examining the By -Laws. Mr. Taylor advocated contacting the base commander, first of all, to see if there would be any interest on his part in appointing one of his personnel to the board. Judge Gossom stated that an ex- officio position on the TAC board would most likely best serve the goal of TAC to provide representation for SAFB. Mr. Taylor stated he would contact the base civil engineer to see if there would be any interest on behalf of the base commander. Judge Gossom suggested offering a civilian and a military component for the command structure to consider, possibly two members instead of one. X. Update on Pass - Through Financing Initiative — Kell Interchange Project Mr. Barnett stated no new information had been developed, but that TxDOT had 2 MPO staff forwarded electronic copies of the update to Mr. Brown and Mr. Juarez that afternoon. Mr. Barnett delivered hard copies of the update to Ms. Askins at the local TxDOT office on Friday, October 22, 2004. WICHITA FALLS MPO TPC MEETING OCTOBER 20, 2004 PAGE 5 received the draft guidelines outlining the procedures for developing a petition to be presented to the Texas Transportation Commission. He commented that TxDOT and MPO staff would soon begin work on the presentation to City Council and the County Commissioners Court. Mr. Brown agreed stating TxDOT would use the draft guidelines to begin developing the presentation. Mayor Altman expressed concern about the window of opportunity shortening due to the fact the guidelines had not been finalized as of yet. Mr. Tegtmeyer stated TxDOT would try to have all the information they could gather ready for presentation by late November or early December. Judge Gossom inquired as to whether the presentation should be generalized or more technically specific in regards to how the Kell Interchange would be funded. Mayor Altman suggested that a sample of how it could be funded should be presented and not relay any of the particulars. He commented that it is important to explain to the public how "Shadow Tolling" actually works. There was discussion about the types of bonding that could be used to complete the project and a revisit of who TPC appointed to the subcommittee responsible for developing the petition. XI. Discussion and Recommendation for a Special Called TPC Meeting to Review the 2005 - 2030 MTP Project List — Early December Proposed Mr. Barnett discussed the October 8th MTP Steering Committee meeting and that board's recommendation for TPC to schedule a special called meeting sometime in early December for the purpose of reviewing and revising the MTP project list. Depending on the date TPC schedules, TAC will meet two to three weeks beforehand to finalize the list for review and discussion by TPC. Mayor Altman instructed staff to poll the TPC members for their preference of dates from December 1St through December 3rd or possibly later if conflicts arose. XII. Other Business: a. Discussion & Overview of Progress on Local Transportation Projects — (Quarterly Review) City and TxDOT Staff City Report: Mr. Taylor stated the City was in the process of completing the CDBG street overlay. He stated work on Phase I of the Faith Village drainage project was complete and that Phase II and III are in progress. He estimated a 12 to 16 month construction time for Phase II and III. He stated that $1.6 million had been budgeted for street rehabilitation for this year. TxDOT Report: Mr. Brown stated most of the projects were nearing completion including the Kemp extension near the lake (FM 2380) and the Scott Street Bridge, which was in the cleanup stages. He stated the landscaping projects at Maurine Street and WICHITA FALLS MPO TPC MEETING OCTOBER 20, 2004 PAGE 6 4• Jacksboro Highway are in their initial stages. There was also an intersection realignment project beginning at Holiday and Jacksboro Highway. Mr. Brown commented that the meeting with Councilor James Esther discussing the Maurine Street landscape project was a success. He stated another new project just beginning was a heavy concrete overlay on Fisher Road. b. MPO Quarterly Financial Report (3 Id Quarter — Apr, May, Jun) Mr. Barnett discussed the MPO's expenditures for the third quarter commenting that expenses were tracking as expected and that there should not be any shortages or overages in any of the five tasks. Mr. Moller inquired if the charges listed included payments to Wilbur Smith Associates. Mr. Barnett stated that they did and they were listed under Other Professional in the expenditure report. c. Updated 2004/2005 TAC and TPC Rosters — Personnel Changes No comments were made. This item was for informational purposes only. d. Updated 2004/2005 TAC Meeting Schedule — Time Change Mr. Barnett informed the board that TAC would begin meeting at 10:00 a.m. on their regularly scheduled meeting days in order to avoid a conflict with the Plats Committee, of which, a number of the TAC members served on that committee also. Mayor Altman asked TPC if they were comfortable with the time at which their meetings began. All agreed that they were comfortable with the 8:30 a.m. time slot. e. Public Comment on Anything Not on the Agenda Mr. Tegtmeyer asked that the topic of a permanent MPO director be addressed at the next TPC meeting. There was discussion about the need for a full -time or part-time director, the extension of the current contract and progress on the new contract. XIII. Adjourn The meeting adjourned at 10:05 a.m. Mayor Bill Altman, TPC Chairperson WICHITA FALLS MPO TPC MEETING OCTOBER 20, 2004 PAGE 7