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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-04-16 MinutesCity Council Street Committee Minutes April 16, 2007 Page 1 of 10 Member Aldermen Mayor Dan Coody Ward 1 Position l — Brenda Thiel V10 Ward 2 Position 2 — Nancy Allen CityAttorney Kit Williams � 1 Ward 3 Position 2—Robert Ferrell Ward 4 Position 2 - Lioneld Jordan City Clerk Sondra Smith ARKANSAS City of Fayetteville Arkansas City Council Street Committee Meeting Minutes April 16, 2007 A meeting of the Fayetteville City Council Street Committee was held on April 16, 2007 at 4:30 p.m. in Room 326 of the City Administration Building located at 113 West Mountain Street, Fayetteville, Arkansas. MEMBERS PRESENT: Alderman Lioneld Jordan, Chair; Alderwoman Nancy Allen, Alderman Robert Ferrell Members Absent: Alderwoman Brenda Thiel Other Aldermen Present: Alderwoman Shirley Lucas; Alderman Kyle Cook Staff Present: Ron Petrie, Chris Brown, Tim Conklin, Gary Dumas, Terry Gulley 1. Call to order The meeting was called to order by Chairman Lioneld Jordan. 2. Approval of the minutes of the March 12, 2007 Street Committee meeting. Alderman Robert Ferrell moved that the minutes of the Street Committee meeting held on March 12, 2007 be approved as submitter. Alderman Nancy Allen seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. 3. Transportation Bond Program Update A. Presentation of the results of the April 11, 2007 bid opening for the Wilson Park/Washington-Willow Neighborhood traffic calming project. 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Street Committee Minutes April 16, 2007 Page 2 of 10 Chris Brown said we received three bids on this project. Tomlinson Asphalt Company had the low bid at $187,760.00, much lower than the City's estimate for this project Ron Petrie said this was the first street bond item that has gone out to bid and this is a good way to start the program. Chris Brown said if the Street Committee approves acceptance of the low bid, this item will be forwarded to the City Council for approval. Alderman Jordan opened the floor for public comment There being none, he brought the discussion back to the Committee. Alderman Ferrell moved that acceptance of the low bid be approved by the Committee and forwarded to the City Council. Alderwoman Allen seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. Alderman Cook asked if staff would still want to get together with the neighborhood or if Mr. Petrie was comfortable with the situation at this point. He said the idea had been discussed but nothing was formulated. Ron Petrie said he is open for any additional comments. He said he is not sure if that will happen. Staff has requested a meeting with the neighborhood but nothing has happened. He said he is leaving the matter with Mr. Kenyon when he gets back. B. Presentation of the results of the public comment meeting held for the Zion Road Widening Project held on March 29, 2007 at the Fayetteville Athletic Club Chris Brown drew the Committee's attention to a memo in the agenda packet regarding this meeting. The meeting was held at the Fayetteville Athletic Club on March 29 and 13 people signed in. A summary sheet was handed out to each of the attendees (a copy of which is in the agenda packet for the Committee) and a comment form was provided to each. One written comment was also received. Some of the comments centered around the footprint of the street and the affect on properties in the area, the trees, parking lots, etc. Mr. Brown said as we proceed through the design process those comments will be taken into account. Retaining walls and green space will be used to minimize impact on the area. We will also save all the trees possible and try to stay out of some of the parking lots. We are proceeding with the design, starting the appraisal process and beginning property acquisition. In response to a question from Alderman Ferrell, Ron Petrie said staff is attempting to revise the concept plans to address some of the comments and concerns raised by a written comment received. He said this will be brought back to the Street Committee for final approval once we are further along in the design process. 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Street Committee Minutes April 16, 2007 Page 3 of 10 Alderman Ferrell said he would like to thank the Engineering staff for attending this meeting and he also wanted to thank the Fayetteville Athletic Club for providing the space. He understood that around 75% of the property owners attended the meeting. Alderman Jordan opened the floor for public comment. There being none, the discussion was brought back to the Street Committee. There was no further discussion. C. General update of the Street Bond Program Chris Brown reviewed the summary schedule outlining the progress of the items on the Street Bond Program. He pointed out that we are nearing the end of the concept phase on several projects, including Cato Springs Road, Mt. Comfort Road, the Expressway Corridor and College Avenue. We should be receiving those concept plans over the next couple of months and they will be presented to the Street Committee. Contracts will then need to be negotiated for the additional phases of engineering with all the firms involved. There is quite a lot of work to be done over the next couple of months to review the plans and proceed on to the next step. He said staff has more detailed schedules for each of the individual projects under the Street Bond Program. All the tasks for each project are listed on these schedules which are continuing to develop as we move through the phases of the projects and tasks are added. He said these schedules are available if anyone would like a copy. Alderman Jordan pointed out that it looks like we are a little behind schedule on the Expressway Corridor project and asked for an update. Chris Brown said the original plan was that the final report would be turned in at the end of March. The consultants made a preliminary presentation to the Committee and staff had planned to have them come back in a couple of weeks to make an "almost" final presentation. At that point the study will be completed. This has taken about a month longer than we originally planned. But what you don't see on the summary schedule is that we have about two to three months scheduled for review and beginning of the design process so we will be able to make up the time lost on this portion of the project. Alderman Allen said she appreciates the charts presented by the staff. She said she feels it is very important not only for the Committee to stay apprised of where we are on the projects but for the public to know as well. Alderman Jordan opened the floor for public comment. There being none, he brought the discussion back to the Committee. 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Street Committee Minutes April 16, 2007 Page 4 of 10 4. Discussion of a reuuest from Brovles Development, the developer of the Holcomb Heights PZD to consider a cost share for a portion of the offsite street improvements. This development was approved by the City Council on March 6. 2007 and forwarded to the Street Committee for a recommendation regarding this request. Ron Petrie said that the Committee's packet includes a letter from the applicants' engineer and designer. The applicant has provided some cost estimates and the original information presented to the Council, including the conditions of approval and off-site improvements, has also been provided in the Committee's packets. Since this is a request from the developer of Holcomb Heights, Mr. Petrie felt it would be appropriate that the developer make the presentation of the request. Hank Broyles presented a slide showing the Holcomb Heights subdivision. He said the request by the City is for the developer to abandon the existing Salem Road and move a parameter road onto their property to connect with the existing Gypsum Rd. which goes into Crystal Springs. He said he isn't sure what happened when Crystal Springs was developed but Weir Road and Gypsum Rd. are not aligned. He said his company has to do a lot of parameter street work. He presented a document with the pricing that shows Broyles Development has approximately $185,000 worth of work to do on the road. He said some of that is what they would normally be required to do if they were doing a normal parameter road. What is left is $96,000 for which they are asking a cost -share with the City. He said for these figures they are using estimates only. He said whatever the actually costs are, his company would pay the invoices and submit them to the City (Engineering) for approval and would cost share on what was approved by that department. He said they would limit the maximum exposure to the City at $50,000. He said his company is committed to building attainable housing in all of their projects. They have been asked to drop the price of their attainable houses from $131,000 to $120,000. They agree that they will develop 5% of the total lots, or six houses in Phase 1 and Phase 2 combined, priced at $120,000 or less. He said there are 105 total lots in the two phases. In response to a question from Alderman Allen, Hank Broyles said those houses will be mixed in with the other houses in the development. He said they do not want to have them set aside from the rest of the houses. He said they will be built on full sized lots. Alderman Ferrell said he likes this idea. It is what we've been working for for quite a while. Alderwoman Lucas said she believes this cost share is a good thing to do. Alderman Cook said the City has talked about trying to get an inclusionary zoning bill passed at the State level. He said he struggles with enforcing inclusionary zoning and would much rather have situations such as this one where the developer is willing to bring it forward as part of their proposal. He thinks this sets a good standard. 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Street Committee Minutes April 16, 2007 Page 5 of 10 Alderman Jordan said his question is where do we go from here if we decide to do the cost share. Does the Committee make the decision or would it need to go to the Council? Ron Petrie said it would require Council approval. Staff would prepare a cost share agreement such as is typically done and prepare an agenda item to take it to the Council. Alderman Ferrell moved that this cost share agreement be forwarded to the City Council with a positive recommendation. Alderman Allen seconded the motion. Alder -woman Lucas said with this we are getting a street lined up with Gypsum which has been out of whack, as well as affordable houses which is what we desperately need. Alderman Jordan agreed that this is a good project and he thanked Mr. Broyles for working on this. Hank Broyles said they don't want to take too much credit. He said Gary Dumas got them started on this and they are glad to be participants with the City to try to get attainable housing all over, especially for people who work for the City. He said they will be doing some pretty strong deed restrictions on these. The houses cannot be leased for five years and must be owner occupied. Whoever buys the house has to live in it. They will not allow investors to come in and buy them to lease. He said they will market the houses to City employees. Alderman Jordan opened the floor for public comment There being none, the discussion was returned to the Committee. There being a motion and second on the floor, a vote was taken and the motion passed unanimously. 5. Discussion of a request from Sloan Properties, the developer of a proposed 180 lot Ron Petrie said this item is similar to the previous item in that it is a request from the developers. It is different in that the subdivision is a proposed subdivision and has not gone through any processes for zoning and development rights. Ron showed a slide of the proposed development and a slide of the area. He pointed out Dot Tipton Road and Double Springs Road and indicated the portion of property Mr. Sloan owns in relationship to city property. Charlie Sloan said he owns two pieces of property in this area which is divided by city -owned property. He said Dot Tipton is a dirt road that was a County road until the area was annexed by the City. Rather than improving the two different sections of the road that are on his property as will be required as he develops, he is proposing that he contribute that amount toward a cost share with the City to pave the road all the way to 54th Street. He said with the money he 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Street Committee Minutes April 16, 2007 Page 6 of 10 contributes and labor by the City they are hoping to get a 20 ft. wide section paved, not necessarily putting in the curbs and gutters at this time. He spoke about what he intends to request of the City as far as re -zoning the property. He said they will request RSF-4 in one area and RSF-8 in another in order to build homes in the $120,000 range. He said his goal is to build close to 100 homes in that price range. Alderman Ferrell asked if there would be curbs and gutters for the stretches in the area Mr. Sloan owns and is developing. Charlie Sloan said he was suggesting that the money that would normally be spent on curbs and gutters would be spent on materials for paving the extra portion of road. Normally they would put in the street with curbs and gutters through the one section of their property, leave the section that belongs to the City alone, and then continue with the street once it reaches the rest of his property. Rather than doing that and having only portions of the street paved, he is suggesting that the total dollars that would be spent could be put toward the materials to pave a 20 ft. wide section of street all the way through. In response to a question from Alderman Ferrell, Chris Brackett from Jorgensen & Associates said the stretch of road under discussion is just less than 3,900 linear feet. Alderwoman Allen asked what the high end projected cost of the houses in this development would be. Charlie Sloan said he hasn't really figured all of that up yet. He said he had primarily been looking at the low end dollars. He said they have discussed covenants, etc. for the houses to prevent investors from coming in and buying up the homes for lease. He said there will definitely be a range of houses built for high, low and middle incomes. Alderman Cook asked Terry Gulley if he had been out to look at Dot Tipton Road. Terry Gulley said he has looked at the area but his staff has not evaluated the surface to determine how much excavation would have to be done. He said if this is something the Committee wants to do, he can run the numbers on it. Kit Williams said he was interested in hearing from Ron Petrie whether he believes that 20 feet is an acceptable width for that area or should it be 24 feet and still be able to put in the curbs and gutter later. Ron Petrie said 20 feet is the standard County section. It worked for the County but he would recommend that we go 24 feet with the paved portion of the street. He said there is still a lot to be discussed on the project, but that would be his recommendation. 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Street Committee Minutes April 16, 2007 Page 7 of 10 In response to a question from Alderman Jordan, Charlie Sloan said they are okay with whatever the City decides Alderman Ferrell said we are talking about gaining around 100 attainable homes. He mentioned that some money has been put aside in the bond issue especially for cost shares. He said if we can make the 24 feet width work instead of the 20 feet, he is in favor of this. Alderwoman Lucas said she likes the fact that we'll get the road all the way over from 54"' . She said she also likes getting the attainable housing. She had understood Mr. Sloan to say the houses would blend in with the neighborhood and that sounds good to her. In response to a question from Alderwoman Lucas, Charlie Sloan said they will put the sidewalks in on their sections of the street. Alderman Ferrell moved that the Committee recommend that the Planning Commission look at this item favorably. Alderwoman Allen seconded the motion. Alderman Cook said his only concern is that further down the road as this area continues to develop, whether it will cost more for the City to build the street out to City standards. Ron Petrie agreed. Gary Dumas said 54th Street varies in width now because of existing restraints in right-of-way from 16 feet to 22 feet. So we already have the situation out there. The next road to the south, Sellers Road, is on our overlay program for this year and the plan for that is to do it as a County section until the adjoining property owners develop, at which time it will be widened with curb and gutter, etc. So this is not a unique situation. He said on the one curve there is an extraordinarily tight right-of-way. He doesn't believe you can get 24 feet of street in there. Alderman Jordan said he knows this is not perfect but at some point we have to start discussing these things and decide what we are going to do. We need to start somewhere. With the motion and second on the floor, a vote was taken and the vote was unanimous. 6. Discussion of an engineering contract with McClelland Consulting Engineers in the amount of $71,302.00 to perform a drainage study on the upper Scull Creek watershed and provide recommendations for drainage improvements between College Avenue and Mission Boulevard complete with cost estimates. Ron Petrie gave some history on this item. He said last year we had two fairly significant rainfall events and we had several areas within the City that experienced flooding. The hardest hit was this area bounded by College Ave. (to the west), Lafayette, Mission and Prospect. There are two areas through here where we have an open ditch coming through from Mission which 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Street Committee Minutes April 16, 2007 Page 8 of 10 goes into a very old (80 to 100 years old) native stone box and under some houses. This has been a problem for many years and we have experienced some very serious flooding. Back in October of last year staff brought forward to the Street Committee the idea of hiring someone to begin the process of looking for a solution to solve the problems to this area. He said we did not have drainage easements 80 years ago and these old boxes are not in drainage easements. The City has claimed no responsibility in the past but he's not sure that's the way to take care of the problem. He said McClelland Engineers was selected to do the study and they have some very specific tasks to perform, starting with inventorying and modeling everything that is out there, identifying the problems, listing the needed improvements and providing priorities and cost estimates. We know when we get the results of this study, the needs will be many and the amount of money allocated for drainage improvements is very slim. We know we won't have enough money to fix every problem that is identified but we have to start somewhere, getting a priority list of what we can do and how we need to budget the next few years. Alderman Ferrell asked if there are any Federal matching grants that might be able to help with this expense. Ron Petrie said he doesn't know the answer to that question off the top of his head. He said with some investigation we could probably identify some grants. He said he is not sure how this fits in to the categories and what is required by these agencies. He doesn't know of anything right now. Alderman Ferrell said at one time there was some Federal matching money out there for drainage issues but he isn't sure it is still available. It is something we probably should consider. Alderman Cook clarified that this study would give us a list of prioritized recommendations but it won't give us any plans. Ron Petrie said there will be conceptual plans to allow them to do their cost estimates but that would be the extent of it. The contract is a 150 -day contract. Gary Dumas said this will be a minor fraction of the total cost for this project. Alderman Jordan opened the floor for public comment. There being none, he returned the discussion to the Committee. Ron Petrie said this is an engineering contract. The agenda request has been submitted for the first meeting in May. He said he felt it would be appropriate for the Committee to make a recommendation to the City Council. Alderwoman Allen moved that the item be forwarded to the City Council recommending approval. Alderman Ferrell seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Street Committee Minutes April 16, 2007 Page 9 of 10 7. Discussion of future improvements to Mission Boulevard Alderman Ferrell said he has had a lot of people talk to him about Mission Boulevard and he has observed the problems. His understanding is that City staff has been looking at the possibility of making Mission Blvd. three lanes going from North Street on out east. He thinks this is something that is doable. He would like to move forward in making plans for improvements to this street. Alderwoman Allen said she has some concerns about the safety of a three -lane road. She asked how far out it would be extended. Alderman Ferrell said that is yet to be determined but he thought staff was originally looking at extending it to Hwy. 265. He asked if Alderwoman Allen had noticed the turn lane at Root Elementary School. He said this had afforded some relief in that area. He believes there is enough existing right-of-way along Mission so we wouldn't have to acquire right-of-way. Alderman Cook said he had the same issue with the suicide lane. He said he had mentioned to Alderman Ferrell the possibility of turn -out lanes in key spots but the question is then which spots. He said some people were concerned about if you stop the 3 -lane at North Street, where is the traffic going to go. He's heard comments suggesting that the street handles the traffic during normal hours, that it is only at peak times that it gets clogged up and that we should just do the specific improvements that will keep the flow going during those hours. Alderman Ferrell said that wouldn't be his preference but it may be that it is an option. He said the street is handling the traffic now that it would handle if it was three -lane but he feels the three lanes would handle it in a safer manner. He said Alderman Cook had suggested that both Ward 2 and Ward 3 have meetings and then get together for a joint meeting to talk about this issue. Alderman Cook said he agrees with doing that. He said the people who live on the east side of town have their opinion and those who live in the center of town have theirs. It might be valuable to get those opinions out in the open to discuss them. Alderwoman Allen agreed. She said she believes some will be concerned with stopping at North Street — that North will be a cut -through to Wedington or that Mission Blvd. will go on down to College on Lafayette. There is no ideal place to stop the three lanes. Alderman Ferrell said he doesn't disagree with anything that Alderwoman Allen has said. But the same problem exists today. If we don't start somewhere, we won't get anywhere. Alderman Jordan opened the floor for public comment. Glenn Sowder asked that Ward 1 not be left out of the meetings since that ward borders the south side of this area. 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org City Council Street Committee Minutes April 16, 2007 Page 10 of 10 Alderman Jordan said Alderwoman Thiel had mentioned that she would very much like to be in on the discussions of this. Alderwoman Lucas asked if Mission is indeed improved with some turn lanes if it might make more people use the street. Right now some people are taking Dickson and North and other streets, reducing the traffic and she wonders if improving the road will encourage more traffic. Alderman Ferrell said he thinks the traffic is already there but he would be interested in a professional engineer's opinion. Ron Petrie said he doesn't have any statistics right now on the safety of a three -lane road. He said traffic flow is a lot like liquid in pipes. He said traffic always goes the path of least resistance, where there is less pressure. So certainly, if you take less pressure and add some capacity, you tend to get some new vehicles. The argument against that is that there are more vehicles on this road than what a two-lane road can handle and that these would quickly "suck - up" the new capacity. But in general, if you add capacity to a road, you do invite additional cars. Whether that will be a big number or a little number is a matter of opinion. Alderwoman Allen said she doesn't think it will hurt to have a meeting of the three wards. Alderman Ferrell said we have to start somewhere. He said he remembered Ward 2 had an intolerable situation around the park and he was extremely sympathetic to it as were those in his ward. He feels there is a problem on this street that is not getting any better and we need to do something even if it is a compromise. He believes we are starting off in the right direction. Alderman Jordan said he will drop into the meeting also. 8. Scheduling of the next Street Committee Meeting Ron Petrie said we have several items coming up soon that will need action. The conceptual plans for the Expressway Economic Development Corridor project, Garland/Mt. Comfort, etc. will be coming up in the next couple of months. Staff recommends a meeting in two weeks. The next meeting of the Street Committee was scheduled for Monday, April 30, 2007 at 4:30 p.m. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned 113 West Mountain 72701 (479) 521-7700 (479) 575-8257 (Fax) accessfayetteville.org