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BPAC Minutes 09/17/2019 BICYCLE & PEDESTRIAN ADVISORY COMMITTEE of the COLLIER METROPOLITAN PLANNING ORGANIZATION Collier County Growth Management Division Conference Room 609/610 2800 North Horseshoe Drive Naples FL 34104 September 17, 2019 9:00 A.M. Meeting Minutes 1. Call to Order Mr. Matonti, Vice-Chair, called the meeting to order at approximately 9:02 a.m. 2. Roll Call Mr. Ortman called the roll and confirmed a quorum was present. Members Present Alan Musico, At-Large Dayna Fendrick, At-Large Andrea Halman, At-Large Victor Ordija, At-Large David Driapsa, At-Large Anthony Matonti, Vice-Chair, At-Large Reginald Wilson, At-Large Members Absent Susan Sonnenschein, At-Large Joe Bonness, Chair, At-Large Larry Smith, At-Large Dr. Mort Friedman, At-Large MPO Staff Eric Ortman, MPO Senior Planner Karen Intriago, MPO Administrative Assistant Others Present Victoria Peters, FDOT Lorraine Lantz, Collier CountyTransportation Planning Trinity Scott, Collier County Transportation Planning (CCTP) Deborah Chesna, FDOT Patty Huff, Florida Bicycle Association Tim Brock, Technical Advisory Committee Kathy Brock, Everglades City Bike/Ped Committee Greg Strakaluse, Engineering Manager, City of Naples Gisela Garfinkel, Minute Taker 3. Approval of the Agenda Mr. Musico moved to approve the agenda. Second by Ms. Fendrick. Carried unanimously. 4. Approval of the August 20, 2109 Meeting Minutes Ms. Fendrick commented that FDOT has had a change in philosophy shifting to shared use paths on road with speed limits in excess of 50 mph to increase safety which should be reflected in the minutes. Mr. Musico moved to approve the minutes with Ms. Fendrick’s change. Second by Ms. Halman. Carried unanimously. 5. Public Comments for Items not on the Agenda Ms. Huff -- SR29 is in design. SR29 interferes with water flow in and out of the Everglades. Urges BPAC to consider the total environment including shared use paths. Truck traffic on SR29 may adversely affect the safety of cyclists on SR29. Mr. Ortman – will email the letters referenced by Ms. Huff to the committee. 6. Agency Updates A. FDOT Ms. Chesna – there will be a call for Suntrail projects; applications will be accepted from October 1 through December 20th. There must already be a vision in place to be eligible. Submissions must be electronic using the GAP system; there will be a GAP training webinar on Sept. 26th. Ms. Peters – public meeting for SR82 from Gator Slough to SR29 to be held on October 10, 2019 from 4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. at the UF/IFAS Ext Office. This is the last segment of SR82; the intersection of SR82 and SR29 is still in design; no decision has been made as to a roundabout. E-Public Hearing Week is October 21- 25 for the FY25 Draft Tentative Work Program. FDOT and MPO staff will be doing public outreach on October 21, 2019 from 12pm-3pm at the Orange Blossom Library. Cconstruction of the 951 resurfacing project from the Judge Jolly Bridge to Fiddlers’s Creek began in August. Project is now going through 120- day material acquisition phase. B. MPO Executive Director None. 7. Committee Action A . Preliminary Scoring and Ranking of Non-Motorized Project Applications Mr. Ortman -- 10 applications were received; the Freedom Park Overpass cannot be determined to be ineligible based soley on its cost. Staff completed preliminary scoring based on the criteria listed on pages 68 & 69 of the Plan. There is one change to the list to the fifth ranked project District 3 44th Street Southwest and 31st Place Southwest. The County’s application was submitted based on a draft of the Golden Gate Walkability Study. The project submitted was Tier 1 in the draft but in the final plan it dropped to Tier 3 or no Tier. The County has asked to re-submit a project with a similar budget. Staff supports the County’s request. Mr. Ortman – there is $16 million of projects and $4 million of funds. The tables in Attachment 2 are the same except there is a $2 million cap on the Freedom Park Overpass in the bottom table. In the 2020 PE column, there are footnotes: the Marco Island project, $984K is for construction, Marco will do the PE; 15% of the cost estimate has been added as PE for the Everglades City project; the $6 million estimate for the Naples Freedom Park Overpass has been broken out using 15% of the $6 million estimate for PE ($900K); a substitute for the 44th Street & 31st Street project will be resubmitted in the same price range. Mr. Musico – projects with a rank of 1, 2, & 3 equal $8.5 million, close to the $8.2 million in funding. If the projects on Wiggins Pass and Pine Street were foregone, there would be enough money to fund the District 3 project. The ranking and priorities should be kept and the list should remain. Ms. Fendrick – Pine Street has a higher EJ ranking than some of the other projects. Mr. Ortman – reiterated that the committee voted last month to not separate projects in Districts 2 and 4. 18 months went into developing the Plan with significant time spent discussing criteria and points. We should stick to the Plan for the first go around. Ms. Fendrick – the system needs a more equitable distribution in scores or cities like Everglades City will always score low. Mr. Musico – while census data is easy to get, it’s not always accurate and there needs to be more granularity in the ranking system. We should re-evaluate and fine tune the ranking criteria to include both quantitative and qualitative data. Today, we need to get close to the $8.2 million number and reevaluate the process for the next round of projects and funding. Mr. Ortman and Ms. Peters reiterated that FDOT will review the projects and that there may be other sources of funds. Mr. Driapsa – all the projects are favored, why should we rank them even further? It is important to consider underserved communities that are heavily reliant on bicycle mobility. Encouraged committee to fill the gaps in underserved communities. Likes using EJ but thought that it could be more granular. Ms. Fendrick – this is the first time through the process, we were told what the top two criteria were and did not have a choice. We are now seeing the unintended consequences. We need to manage the process not let the process manage us. Ms. Halman – safety is the most important, the committee needs to proceed with the existing system. Ms. Kathy Brock, Everglades City – Everglades City needs increased bike safety. We have a small population so we do not have a lot of crashes, but we do have a large number of tourists going through our city; many of the safety markings were washed away during Hurricane Irma. Looking at census data, we are considered a low-income area; 70% of our students are eligible for Title 1. Everglades City generates substantial tourism dollars in Collier County; we are not serving tourists’ bike and ped safety. Suggested looking at adding other safety criteria and not using just crash data. Mr. Tim Brock, MPO TAC member – all of the projects are good projects. Crash data is reactive not proactive; perhaps where crashes might happen should be included. Millions of tourists come through Everglades City; Copeland Ave. could be a gateway to Everglades National Park. Everglades City has a vision. Ms. Chesna – important to have a vision in place that FDOT can reference when reviewing applications. Mr. Musico – thinks that the projects in District 2 and District 4 should be considered as separate projects. Suggests making EJ more granular. Ms. Patty Huff – our main industries are tourism, crabbing and fishing. We do not have high incomes. Environmental Justice for Everglades City and Marco are both ranked 2, it doesn’t seem they should be the same. We have completed the first two phases of our vision; we are requesting funding for phase 3; 4 & 5 will be down the road.. Ms. Fendrick – inquired about less expensive alternatives to the Freedom Park Overpass. Mr. Strakaluse -- a feasibility study was done in 2015. The City is exploring all funding options. Ms. Scott – the study looked at alternatives including underground but found it too difficult due to the Gordon River. Alternative funding sources are being considered. Ms. Chesna –asked about improvements to the intersection of Goodlette-Frank Road and Golden Gate Parkway. Mr. Strakaluse – the intersection is outside of the area of this project. Mr. Matonti – perhaps qualitative data could be added to the scoring the next time. Mr. Ortman – asked for any additional comments. The MPO’s project is for a $90,000 feasibility study on 951 and San Marco south of 41 to determine what, if any, facilities are feasible . Hopefully, this will resolve the issue of whether anything can be done there. Mr. Musico & Mr. Ordija agreed that it is a good study. Mr. Musico motioned to consider all projects using two funding cycles. Second by Ms. Halman. Motion passed unanimously. Ms. Peters – FDOT tries to fund as much as possible, there is no harm in putting everything on the list so that, if additional funding becomes available, these projects can also be considered. Ms. Scott – all projects should complete constructability reviews and then determine project ranking. Mr. Musico motioned to accept the entire list as is and move forward to the constructability reviews. Second by Ms. Halman. Motion passed unanimously. Mr. Ortman – constructability reviews are due November 1 or earlier. Projects requiring right-of-way are not eligible. 8. Reports and Presentations None 9. Member Comments Mr. Ortman – thanked City of Naples for being present and participating in today’s meeting. Mr. Driapsa – sent diagram to Mr. Ortman showing that bike lanes can fit on 91st Ave. Requests that Mr. Ortman forward the diagram. Mr. Ortman stated that a feasibility study was done and a bike lane on 91st Ave. is not feasible. The County has selected the projects they feel are most appropriate for each area. Mr. Matonti agreed that more could be done for bike safety on Vanderbilt Beach Road. Ms. Scott – there is a bike project underway on Vanderbilt Beach Road. Ms. Scott commented that the sidewalk on Linwood Ave. (project) has been funded. Good news to assist in getting kids to school safely. Mr. Ortman – all projects need to be connected to the adopted Bicycle & Pedestrian Master Plan (BPMP) in response to Ms. Chesna’s question on how to list requested projects. Ms. Chesna asked for copies of the BPMP. 10. Distribution Items None 11. Next Meeting Date October 15, 2019 at 9:00 a.m. 12. Adjourn With no further comments or items to attend to, Mr. Matonti adjourned the meeting at 10:48 a.m.