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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTrans 2012-05-07 Item 3A - SCATBd - 3/20/2012 Meeting SummarySOUTH COUNTY AREA TRANSPORTATION BOARD (SCATBd) March 20, 2012 Members MEETING SUMMARY Mayor Pete Lewis City of Auburn (Vice Chair) Councilmember Barry Ladenburg City of SeaTac Councilmember Bill Peloza City of Auburn (Alternate) Stacy Trussler WSDOT Councilmember Stacia Jenkins Councilmember Bart Taylor Councilmember Wayne Snoey Councilmember Jeanie Burbidge AJ McClure Mayor Suzette Cooke Chris Arkills Councilmember Noel Gerken Mayor Dave Kaplan City of Normandy Park City of Milton City of Covington City of Federal Way King County Council (Alternate) City of Kent (Alternate) King County (Alternate) City of Maple Valley City of Des Moines L Introduction, Comments, February 21, Meeting Summary Mayor Hill was unable to attend the SCATBd meeting, Mayor Pete Lewis chaired the meeting. After the introductions, the Board adopted the meeting summary for the February 21. H. Reports, Communications and Citizen Requests to Comment Mayor Lewis reported to the Board he attended the National League of Cities meeting in Washington D.C. He said the message that they heard from United States Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood was that successful future grant applications should have partnerships, the more partners the higher the project will score. Mayor Lewis said that local jurisdictions should always consider including partners when applying for federal grants. HI. 2012 Regional Project Section Process, SCATBd TAC's Top Five Project Recommendations for Regional Competition. Action Item Paul Takamine, King County, gave a brief summary of the PSRC's Regional Project Section Process. He informed the Board there was about $36 million available for the regional grant competition in the four county region. Mr. Takamine said SCATBd was part of the process that identified a list of 20 projects, to be evaluated by the King County Project Evaluation Committee (KCPEC which would recommend 12 projects from that list for regional competition. Mr. Takamine said the SCATBd TAC met on March 8 and recommended the top five projects for the SCATBd area. 71 Page 2 The following top five project sponsors briefed the Board on their projects. He said the Board was expected to make a recommendation on the five projects to be forwarded to the KCPEC for further consideration: Auburn's South 272" Street Corridor Project Dennis Dowdy briefed the Board on the City of Auburn's South 272" /277th Street corridor capacity and nonmotorized trail improvement project. The project consists of the design, environmental permitting, right of way acquisition /dedication, and construction of intersection improvements and major roadway widening of S 277th St from Auburn Way North to L Street NE. The project length is about 3,300 feet, and the request is for a $4.9 million Surface Transportation Program (STP) grant. Mr. Dowdy said that the S 277th Street corridor was Auburn's only remaining two lane segment on the corridor between SR -99 and SR -18. He said this bottleneck causes congestion, delays, and degradation of safety for the transportation network in the region. This project is needed to complete the final unimproved segment on this vital arterial connection. The goal of the project is to eliminate this bottleneck, improve safety, reduce travel time, and improve freight movement across the Green River Valley. Mr. Dowdy said the project will improve access to the Urban Centers in Auburn, Kent, and Federal Way. The project also includes a separated non motorized trail connection between the Interurban and Green River Trail systems and connects with City of Kent's Trail across the Green River. Wayne Snoey said that this was a very worthy project, and he has gotten a lot of comments asking why was this segment was left undone. Mayor Cooke noted that this was one of the routes that the City of Kent kept open during snow and ice events. Des Moines /SeaTac's 28 I Ave /24 Ave South Connection Project Grant Fredricks from the City of Des Moines and Tom Gut from the City of SeaTac presented their joint project application to the Board. They said that this was a regionally significant corridor improvement, and will complete a new five lane principal arterial between South 200 Street and South 216 Street. The project includes bicycle lanes, curbs, gutter, and sidewalks. They said this project provides a vital connection between the City of SeaTac's Regional Growth Center, the City of Des Moines, the Seattle Tacoma International Airport, the pending Sound Transit Link Light Rail Station at South 200th Street, is adjacent to developable properties, and will be compatible with the future extension of SR 509. The project will also create a parallel alternative to the congested SR -99 corridor. The grant request of $4 million is intended to advance the 2nd and 3rd phases of this 3 phase project through constriction and final design as follows: Phase 1 (S 188th to S 200th Street) has been completed. Phase 2 (City of Des Moines) is requesting construction funds for obligation in 2013. Phase 3 (City of SeaTac) is requesting PE /Design funds for obligation in 2013. 72 Page 3 They said the adjacent vacant Port properties, along with other property, are primed for redevelopment, and proximity to light rail will result in over 23,000 jobs increased demand for non motorized facilities and freight mobility. Mr. Gut noted that this project was recently approved by the Freight Mobility Investment Board proving the project's value for freight mobility. Mayor Kaplan noted that this project hits the marls on the scoring criteria and was one of the projects that were discussed at the National League of Cities meeting in Washington D.C. Councilmember Ladenburg noted that this project has completed SEPA, NEPA and ROW, would support new jobs and the economy, and should help in the ability to acquire funding for the SR 509 project. Federal Way's SR 99 HOV Lane Project Rick Perez from the City of Federal Way briefed the Board on Federal Way's SR 99 HOV Lanes Phase V project. He said the project will reconstruct portions of and widen Pacific Highway South, and provide HOV lanes between South 340 Street and South 359 Street. He said the project also includes constricting new transit shelters, curb, gutter and sidewalk, medians, and new and modified signal systems. Mr. Perez said this project will complete the final gap of the corridor, continuing the improvements on Pacific Highway South/International Blvd from South 359th Street in Federal Way to South 116th Street in Tukwila. He said the improvements are consistent with the Pacific Highway South /International Blvd Corridor. Mr. Perez said they were asking for a $4 million grant to complete the design and right -of -way acquisition phase of the project. Kent SE 256 Street Improvement Project Mark Howell from the City of Kent presented Kent's project to the Board. He said that this project will replace a substandard two -lane roadway along Southeast 256th Street with a three -lane arterial with bicycle lanes, curbs and gutters, concrete sidewalks, and street lighting. Mr. Howell said the project will complete a missing gap in 256th Street, a major east -west corridor connecting Kent's urban center with the cities of Covington, Maple Valley, and Highway 18. He also said this roadway improvement completes a missing link between two previously upgraded portions of Southeast 256th Street, east of 116th Avenue Southeast and west of 104th Avenue Southeast. This gap now creates large delays for vehicular traffic and hazards for pedestrians. Mr. Howell said that the City of Kent is looking into the possibility of creating a Local Improvement District to collect about $1 million for this project. He said the City of Kent has invested about $800,000 in stormwater drainage fees and about $200,000 in Impact Mitigation Fees. The City is applying for a $3 million grant in the Regional Competition that would complete the constriction of this arterial improvement project. 73 Page 4 Mayor Cooke noted that SE 256 was part a major corridor connecting SR 18 to the Kent Valley area, and this was a bottle neck in that corridor. Mayor Cooke and Councilmember Snoey both noted that pedestrian safety and social justice issues are important elements of this project. Councilmember Gerken also voiced his support for this project. Tukwila's Interurban Avenue South Corridor Improvement Project Robin Tischmak from the City of Tukwila brief the Board on their project to improve the Interurban Avenue South corridor between South 143' Street to Fort Dent Way. He said this project will constrict new urban roadway amenities to support multi -modal transportation with a focus on adding /enhancing non motorized and transit related components. Mr. Tischmak said the improvements will include reconstructing the roadway pavement section, new curbs, gutters, separated sidewalks, and storm drainage facilities. He said existing overhead utilities and poles will be relocated outside of the proposed improvements or relocated to underground facilities. Mr. Tischmak explained that pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users, and recreational users lack adequate facilities in the project area to safely move through the corridor to access existing residences and businesses and the Regional Centers to the north and south. The south end of the project currently includes a narrow section of roadway pinched between a steep hillside and the Green River. Narrow shoulders and high speeds create an undesirable situation for pedestrians and bicyclists. He said Tukwila was asking for a $5 million grant to complete constriction of the remaining gap in urban roadway improvements on Interurban Ave South. Mayor Lewis thanked city staff for their work in putting the project applications together for presenting them to the Board. SCATBd Action: A Motion was made. seconded and approved to recommend that the above five ton SCATBd proiects be forwarded to the King Countv Proiect Evaluation Committee for further consideration in the PSRC's Regional Proiect Competition Process. IV. Other Business Vice -Chair Lewis informed the Board that the Regional Access Mobility Partnership (RAMP) was interested in holding a joint meeting with SCATBd. He noted that some of the South King County cities already meet with RAMP members on a monthly basis. RAMP staff has scheduled gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna to RAMP's May 2 meeting and has asked SCATBd if they are interested in a joint meeting. Mayor Lewis thought that it would be a good idea to meet with RAMP counterparts to discuss projects of mutual priority. He noted that this would be a good opportunity for SCATBd and RAMP to begin discussion on how they could support each others transportation priorities. The April 4 meeting is from 8:00 to 9:00 am at Fabulich Center in the Port of 74 Page 5 Tacoma. The Board supported a joint meeting on April 4 and asked SCATBd staff to investigate the possibility of extending the April 4 meeting another hour to cover SCATBd business. V. King County Metro Briefing on Service Alternatives, Matt Hansen King County Metro Mr. Hansen said that his group, Metro's Market Development Section, has been tasked to explore a variety of alternatives for "right- sizing" services recognizing that one type of transit service may not fit every community's needs. These alternatives are called for in Metro's new Strategic Plan for Public Transportation, and provide new tools to help maintain transit service for communities that do not have high ridership due to their rural character. The King County Transit Strategic Plan said that Metro should develop alternatives to regular fixed route transit service, to help provide transit mobility at a lower cost. Mr. Hansen said that community outreach is important in this process, noting that they already have had two stake holder meetings in Fall City and Kent. Another stake holder meeting is scheduled for March 29 in Woodinville to discuss emerging alternative concepts. He said the key points that came out of stake holders meeting so far include: The need to know how current riders use transit service The need to do extensive on -board conversations with transit riders, and in the communities and cities to get feed back The need to keep it simple Mr. Hansen said the next steps in the service alternatives discussion will be to open up a public comment piece on web site, develop public information kiosks at libraries and community centers, and hold a workshop with the Regional Transit Committee on April 18. He also said that a number of policies in Strategic Plan and county code may need to be changed in order to allow the effective use of alternative services. As an example, he said the existing community access van service restricts service to people with disabilities, low income riders, or immigrant populations. He said a policy or code change may be needed to allow the general public to use community access vans. AJ McClure asked if there were federal funds /grants that the alternative Service could use. Mr. Hansen said the Jobs Access and Reverse Commute could be used to support alternative services, and the Rural Mobility Grants and state funds can be used to support the program. Mr. Hansen also said that Metro places a premium on partnership opportunities. Rick Perez said there should also be opportunities where communities that might end up with alternative transit service are able to switch back to fixed routes when situations change. Mayor Cooke applauded the alternative transit service discussion Metro is 75 SCATBd Meeting Minutes March ?0, ?01? Page 6 engaged in and asked about labor's reaction, she asked what insight could Matt give on easing labor concerns. Mr. Hansen said that the unions will review proposals, and conversations will occur. Chris Arkills said that the unions have been supportive in expanding the reach of transit into areas that are not currently served by transit. Alina Aaron noted that when Metro out sources services, it has take into consideration that non profits have other funding sources that may be experiencing funding cut backs. She also said that partnerships need to work together to identify gaps and increase awareness of the services available, travel options and making information available to communities. Dennis Dowdy said that reliability should be brought into the delivery of alternative transit service to communities. He said that riders want to be assured that they can get to their appointment on time. Mayor Lewis said that Auburn has a shuttle that is funded in part by the city, and said talking to drivers resulted in a more effective routing for the shuttle. He also said that Metro should take into consideration what a city pays into the system before talking about the cost per ridership when making decisions on service cutbacks. Other Attendees: Cathy Mooney, City of Kent Jim Seitz, City of Renton Rick Perez, City of Federal Way Maiya Andrews, City of Burien Bob Giberson, City of Tukwila Demos Dowdy, City of Auburn Robin Tishmack, City of Tukwila Grant Fredricks, City of Des Moines Susan Sanderson, City of SeaTac Paul Takamine, Ding County DOT Monica Whitman, SCA Doug Levy Marwan Salloum, City of Federal Way Alina Aaron, Hope Link Tom Gut, City of SeaTac Dan Brewer, City of Des Moines 6 76