MINUTES

CITY OF ROCKVILLE
 TRAFFIC AND TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION

Boards and Commissions Room
Meeting No. 09-03
October 28, 2003
7:30 p.m.

Present: 
Stanley Klein, former Chairman
Ephrem Asebe
Elizabeth Crane
Alice Filemyr
Alan Levine
Jon Oberg  
  

Guest: Carol Nicholas

City Staff: 
Sandra Marks
Melissa Tiarks

1.  Minutes from Previous Meetings

The commissioners reviewed the March, April and September 2003 meeting minutes. 

The March 2003 meeting minutes were approved with minor modifications and the April 2003 and September 2003 meeting minutes were approved without amendment. 

Commissioners discussed Item 3, Budget Review, from the April 22, 2003 minutes.   As the widening of Wootton Parkway is not in the Master Plan, Al Levine agreed to draft a letter about the procedural history of removing Wootton Parkway widening from the CIP and Master Plan.

Commissioners requested that the latest draft of the Pedestrian Policy be sent to the Commission for comment and review since it was tabled in April. 

Al Levine requested that his email address be changed to alevine@comcast.net. 

2.  Review of Division Report

The Division Report was presented for review.  The following topics were discussed:

• Mr. Oberg requested to have a future meeting at the RRTC in Fallsgrove. Commissioners will contact Mr. Marcus to discuss this.

3.  Town Center Update

Ms. Marks informed the commissioners that there was no update on the Town Center project.

4.  Bikeway Master Plan

Ms. Tiarks informed the commissioners that the Department of Recreation and Parks received and addressed the T & T Commission’s memo regarding the Bikeway Master Plan.

 5.  Review of Public Hearing Draft of the Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance (APFO)

Ms. Marks handed out copies of the public hearing draft of the Adequate Public Facilities Standards and provided an overview of the APFO.  Ms. Tiarks provided the commissioners with the date scheduled for the public hearing.  The commissioners requested information on when the APFO was going to the Planning Commission.  Transportation staff will email an APFO schedule to the Commission.  They discussed several comments on the APFO and will prepare written comments for the Planning Commission. 

Mr. Klein inquired how the capacity described in the Rockville Pike Plan compared with how capacity is described in the APFO. 

Mr. Oberg inquired how the transportation requirements of the APFO apply to schools and city, state and federal projects.  In particular, he was concerned how transportation projects will be dealt with by the APFO and what the transportation impact review process will be.  Mr. Oberg raised the example of the CCT and its potential to attract new trips.  

The commissioners were concerned about the length of the validity periods for already approved but not yet completed development projects, discussed in APFO Section II.C.  They discussed the need for the developers to demonstrate good faith towards completing these development projects. 

Commissioners felt that the meaning of “service commitments” was unclear.  Mr. Levine disputed that Rockville’s roadway system is essentially built out.  Commissioners were unclear about the meaning of the last sentence in the first paragraph of the transportation section of the APFO.  Commissioners felt it was misleading to say that TOAs were created to address increased congestion since they allow for increased congestion.  Commissioners requested that roadway improvements required to meet APFO standards be proximate mitigation.  Ms. Crane requested a scale or a legend for Tables IV and V.

Ms. Marks distributed an outline of the CTR, a description of the CTR process, the format of the required CTR Transportation Report (TR), an outline of the required CTR TR, and the CTR schedule.  Ms. Marks provided a description of the CTR and explained the CTR process and its relationship to the APFO.  Mr. Asebe suggested identifying issues and summarizing the problems discussed in each section of the TR and then synthesizing this into a summary analysis of the identified problems in Component E of the TR. 

Mr. Oberg discussed the pedestrian fatality that occurred on MD 355 and King Farm Blvd. On October 17, 2003 and presented a letter regarding this incident.  Commissioners discussed how realistic a four feet per second walking time is for crossing intersections.  The Commission requested help from the Traffic and Transportation Division in gathering more information about this accident and developing suggestions to increase the safety of crossing this intersection.  Suggestions included a pedestrian refuse and right on red restrictions.  There was also concern regarding striping and the sidewalk connection from Shady Grove Metro to King Farm Blvd.  A Commissioner requested that the intersection of Chapman and Twinbrook also be examined for similar problems.  Mr. Levine will work on revising Mr. Oberg’s letter to send it to the Mayor and copy it to the Chief of Traffic and Transportation.  Carol Nichols requested to be involved in examining pedestrian facilities.

Ms. Crane discussed the www.walkdc.org resource on neighborhood connectivity and its message board.

9.  Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 10:15 p.m.