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2017-11-14 Mobility Committee Minutes City of Denton City Hall MINUTES 215 E.McKinney Street 4.1 X Denton,Texas DENTON Mobility Committee Meeting www.cityofdenton.com Monday, November 14, 2017 9:30am City Council Work Session Room After determining that a quorum of the Mobility Committee Meeting of the City of Denton, Texas is present, the Chair of the Mobility Committee will thereafter convene into an open meeting on Monday,November 14, 2017 at 9:32a.m. in the Council Work Session Room at City Hall, 215 E. McKinney Street, Denton, Texas Committee Members Present: Council Member Dalton Gregory, Council Member Keely Briggs Absent: Council Member Sarah Baghari Also Present: Mario Canizares, ACM; Mark Nelson, Director of Transportation; Todd Estes; City Engineer; Pritam Deshmukh, Traffic Engineer; Julie Anderson, Bike Coordinator Pedestrian Coordinator; John Polster, ITS; Branden Barnett and Jay Loomis, AGL; Kim Mankin, Administrative Supervisor; Trey Lansford, Deputy City Attorney 1. REGULAR MEETING: A. MC17-044 - Consider approval of the Mobility Committee meeting minutes of October 10, 2017. Approved as circulated. B. MC17-048—Receive a report, hold a discussion, and provide direction regarding the options for regulating stationless bike share companies in Denton. Julie Anderson gave this presentation starting with a definition of the station-less bikes. The bikes are operated by private companies. Current state—Vbikes arrived in Denton in June with approximately 60 bikes. There have been multiple complaints about where bikes have been left. Staff is looking at options such as utilizing existing ordinances or creating new rules to better regulate how bike share companies operate in Denton. Regulation options include: -Do nothing. -Use existing an ordinance to regulate, no permit -Use existing ordinance to regulate,permit -Create new ordinance to regulate,permit The last option is what Legal recommended. Other cities that have added a permit system include Seattle, San Francisco, and Aurora, CO. The permits can cover safety, parking, operations, data sharing and fees. Briggs asked as a City are there bike laws. Anderson answered there are no helmet laws but there are requiring lights. Briggs stated she is in favor of the permit and appreciated the work. Anderson is working with other bike share companies to wait while staff works on the permits. Vbikes will have to comply with the new permit regulations. Gregory stated it is important to point out this is a Yd generation bike share. There are no upfront funds required by the City of Denton(to have them operate). Are the Vbikes in other areas that do require permits? Anderson answered they are. Briggs asked if this needs to come back to this Committee or straight to Council. Nelson stated it can work either way, Mobility or straight to Council. Gregory asked to bring back at the next Mobility Committee Meeting in January. Briggs asked for options for citizens when the bikes are left in ditches or other places they should not be. Anderson answered the best option is to contact the company directly. Briggs asked for the phone number to be added to the website. C. MC17-049—Receive a report and hold a discussion regarding plans for the 2017-2018 Bike Fund, and provide an update on projects. Julie Anderson talked about this 2017 bike fund projects. All in-house sharrows were completed this year. Currently there is no in-house bike engineer designer, it will be contracted out. Gregory asked if that will add pressure to the funds. Anderson answered it will add pressure. Todd Estes, City Engineer, stated we don't have staffing for all the design needs, contacting out would be faster. City staff will be project managers. Gregory asked if there was a thought to expand the Engineering Department to handle the needs. Estes answered it is a consideration long-term but short-term with all the Capital Projects it would need to be contracted out. Staff will put out an RFQ end of November, review in December and come back in January for contracts. Mario Canizares added that bundling projects to plan further ahead is beneficial. If design dollars are too much, then staff will go to Council to seek additional funding. Briggs asked if some qualify for grants. Anderson answered it is helpful for grants if you have a design. Gregory asked about the design `shelf life', Estes answered within six months. Anderson continued that Avenue A, Hercules and Crescent will be bundled. Malone will be completed next fiscal year due to utility work. There is a list of roads that was discussed as well as Pennsylvania and Windsor. There was discussion regarding the crossing at Spencer and Colorado, Gregory stated the current plan is not good. The former City Engineer did not like mid-block crossings. There are many mid-block crossings all over the nation. Anderson stated they are hoping to advance this project before the consultant arrives in January. Anderson then talked about the Bike Budget Breakdown and shared it with the group. A lot of the funds will be used as the match to leverage TSA set aside funds and to leverage funds on US380 side path. Julie then showed a map of completed and proposed projects for FY 2017-2018. D. MC17-050—Receive a report, hold a discussion and provide direction regarding Denton County Transportation Authority fare schedules to include reduced fares for low income residents. Mark Nelson talked about this item stating that they had reached out to DCTA about low income fare schedule. The local standard fare for two hours is $3.00 and the day pass is $6.00, reduced fare for seniors (65+) and students between the ages of five and eighteen is $1.25 with the day pass $2.50. In speaking with DCTA about expanding the reduced fares is how do you demonstrate `low income'. They indicated they are willing to work with organizations in the city where books can be purchased and distributed at a reduced rate. Briggs stated she is the one that had asked about this item. There is a large section of people that has transportation problems getting to their jobs. She had bought a bus pass and was surprised that it cost so much. Maybe the city could partner with non-profits to help in this area. Nelson stated that DCTA can present to this Committee and have them talk about this item. Briggs answered that would be good. Nelson asked if Briggs would like him to look into purchasing those passes. Briggs answered we have a community development that works with low income and didn't know if they can take that up. Nelson spoke with Barbara and maybe they can find a solution. E. MC17-051 —Receive a report, hold a discussion and provide direction regarding Regional Transportation Council monthly reports and actions. Mark Nelson gave the update on this item regarding the Transit Grant Funding cleanup and the amount provided of$2 million that would assist with a connectivity between Denton and Fort Worth for the I-35W corridor. The other item is regarding Loop 288 and the planning cycle. The Mobility 2045 Plan is moving forward and should be in front of RTC in the April May timeframe for formal consideration. 288 West Loop will be included as part of that planning document. The information can be found on-line. F. MC17-052—Receive a report, hold a discussion and provide staff direction on an increase in project scope to the Hickory Street Roadway Improvements project by adding pedestrian lights along the north side of W. Hickory Street from Welch Street to Carroll Boulevard. Todd Estes gave this presentation regarding the Hickory Street pedestrian lighting. Currently Hickory Street project goes from Bonnie Brae to Carroll Boulevard and is about$4.2 million. Primarily constructed by city crews. The work began at Bonnie Brae working east to Carroll. If we want to expand the scope from Welch to Carroll we still have some time. During public meetings with stakeholders a desire for pedestrian lighting on both sides of W. Hickory was expressed. Stakeholders expressed a desire to have pedestrian street lighting added to the north side staggered in the location with the southside. Currently there is not enough right of way to simply add the pedestrian lighting requested without acquiring additional right of way. Estes showed pictures of Oak Street and Hickory Street and talked about distances of the streets. If the street was narrowed, it would be a calming feature as well as provide room for the lights. Briggs asked if the bike lane would stay, Estes agreed it would and be about five feet wide. Estes went on to talk about what would be required. To achieve the desired request,the south curb line would need to stay in place to minimize increased costs. Current travel lanes widths will be reduced to 11 feet wide. Existing sidewalk on the north side would be demolished and reconstructed approximately five feet south of its current location. Survey, Subsurface Underground Exploration and Design services will need to be acquired. Temporary Construction Easements will be required to adjust existing slope (grade) issues (i.e. existing retaining walls). Briggs asked if this is the same item that homeowners asked about through Council. Mario Canizares stated this project was brought up in September and the question was asked to take another look to see if Hickory Street can mirror Oak Street. Briggs stated she is in favor of streets to match. Gregory asked where the funds would come from. Canizares answered staff would look within the City budget where funding may be available. First step to make sure this is what the Committee wants. Gregory is not in favor of acquiring ROW it is too expensive,narrowing the lanes is good as long as it does not impact the bike lanes. Hesitant of lighting on north side since there are lights on the south side. He will walk at night to see if there is adequate lighting. Would also like to see where the funds would come from. Briggs would like a report of adequate lighting at night. G. MC17-045—Receive a report, hold a discussion and provide direction regarding Texas Department of Transportation On-System projects in the Denton area to include the 35Express Project. This item was moved to B. Mark Nelson started talking about this item beginning with 35Express, Phase 1B. AGL has mostly completed Phase 1 of the 35Express Project which is 28 miles long. There are some cleanup projects that have to be completed such as the aesthetics—medallions at the North Texas Blvd Bridge. The Phase 1B project came after the original project was let. This opens up the Loop 288 intersection and pushes Brinker through(under 35E)to help with mobility options in the area. John Polster spoke about the funding associated with this project. OHL will be the constructor for the improvements from Mayhill to just north of Loop 288. They are working to get the construction complete in the summer of 2018. With the changes there are some closures that will have to be re-instated. Dallas Drive where it goes into I-35 south bound will be closed during this project. They have looked into alternatives to closing this, but there are not any that do not impact the timeline. Branden Barnett and Jay Loomis are TxDOT Project Managers for this project. The next twelve months will be painful in this area with all the changes and construction. Branden Barnett spoke about phasing the project that will start with a new frontage road south of Good Will to just past the Achievers Gymnastics. There will be a shift in traffic that was laid out by Barnett. The traffic lanes will be moved much like when the McCormick Street Bridge was built. Gregory stated it will be helpful if the PIO office would send a press release to the newspaper and add this information to the City of Denton website. It is important to add that locally the City continued to work on mobility within the city and add the information regarding this phase. Gregory asked is there any feedback from citizens regarding the I-35 to Dallas Drive exit. Polster answered TxDOT is working on a punch list for this project. They will then come back to the City to see any items that they would like resolved. Polster stated the information can be sent to Mark Nelson or Mario Canizares and they will send on to TxDOT. Polster then talked about FM2181 —North/South which started construction November 6. Ft Worth Drive—May 2018 let date—Utilities will be cleared November 2017. FM 2499 Sec 5—December 2017 complete—The signal at Robinson Rd will be constructed,but the road will not be open until signal complete. Materials are being delayed because of Hurricane Harvey. I-35/Mayhi11/FM2499—NCTCOG help with funding on bridge. I-35N—There is a significant push in process looking for new funding and should be identified by next year. US380 In-town—Open working on a punch list. US380/Loop 288 intersection improvements—TxDOT will take care of the exit ramp back up issue. US380 East—Fully funded $130 million, design is in-house TxDOT from Loop 288 to US377. TxDOT working on purchase of the ROW. Should be environmentally cleared summer 2018. Briggs stated this section was widened a few years ago, was this part of the plan. Polster answered Denton County knew it needed to be done originally and tried to get additional funding. The Region didn't think it was necessary. There was more discussion and explanation. Loop 288 West—Getting environmentally cleared December 2020. Gregory asked if Denton is communicating with Krum. Polster answered Denton County is communicating with transportation issues including FM1173. FM1515—Widen from two lane to six lane. This will be coordinated with the City of Denton. FM1830—Cost complete August 2018, there are discussions regarding the medians. There will be improvements to the intersections at Hobson and Ryan. Nelson added this will be uploaded to the City of Denton website. H. MC17-046 - Staff Reports: 1. 35Express Aesthetic Enhancements -Medallions 2. Matrix #6 McKinney Street update given by Pritam Deshmukh CONCLUDING ITEMS A. Under Section 551.042 of the Texas Open Meetings Act, respond to inquiries from the Committee on the Environment or the public with specific factual information or recitation of policy, or accept a proposal to place the matter on the agenda for an upcoming meeting AND Under Section 551.0415 of the Texas Open Meetings Act,provide reports about items of community interest regarding which no action will be taken, to include: expressions of thanks, congratulations, or condolence; information regarding holiday schedules; an honorary or salutary recognition of a public official, public employee, or other citizen; a reminder about an upcoming event organized or sponsored by the governing body; information regarding a social, ceremonial, or community event organized or sponsored by an entity other than the governing body that was attended or is scheduled to be attended by a member of the governing body or an official or employee of the municipality; or an announcement involving an imminent threat to the public health and safety of people in the municipality that has arisen after the posting of the agenda. Briggs—Turning left from Old North to US380 update, what can be done and wrecks associated. The meeting was adjourned by consensus at 11:14 a.m. Minutes approved on January 17, 2018.