MINUTES
Boards & Commissions Conference Room
Meeting No. 08-04
August 24, 2004, 7:30 p.m.
Commissioners Present: Richard Resnick, Chairman
Ephrem Asebe
Elizabeth Crane
Alice Filemyr
Stanley Klein
Alan Levine
Jon Oberg
Amy Rosselle
City Staff: Katherine Kelly
1. Review and Approve Minutes
a. Minutes from the June 2004 meeting were approved.
2. Review of Staff Report
a. Commissioner Crane noted that the pedestrian push button at Shady Grove/Choke Cherry is broken, with protruding wires. Staff will notify County about this.
b. Commissioners requested a copy of the BMI Town Center capacity study be sent to them when it is completed.
c. Commissioners requested a copy of the letter sent to SHA from staff regarding intersection improvements.
3. Staff Updates: CTR and Parking Permits
a. Staff presented an overview of issues raised during the August 2, 2004 presentation of the CTR to the Mayor & Council.
Commissioners discussed relation of Transportation Master Plans and long-term capacity analyses, and how these are updated and calibrated.
Commissioners suggested that staff discuss origin-destination concepts, as well as regional growth factors, during the next Mayor & Council session on the CTR.
Commissioners agreed to the Mayor & Council’s suggested revision to the CTR whereby the Traffic & Transportation Commission provide comments on new developments generating more than 150 new trips. Previously the trigger was 700 new trips.
Staff is working with the Planning and Legal departments to respond to issues raised by the Mayor & Council. Commissioners requested a copy of these responses.
b. Parking Permits: A draft memo regarding the establishment of parking permit zones throughout the City was presented to Commissioners and they had the following comments:
Clarify the rationale for creating parking zones (i.e., the difference between the current and proposed methods for creating parking zones). Item 1 in the Memo is not clear with regard to the proposed advantage of the establishment of parking zones.
Does the Traffic & Transportation Commission’s proposed responsibility for issuing decisions on the designation of permit parking areas (for those requests made by more than 15 households) require a change in the Commission’s charter, since they are an advisory, and not an approving body? This is a quasi-judicial decision and would require that the Traffic & Transportation Commission has the authority to do so.
Would there be a cap on the amount of permit parking allowed in the City? Would there be a cap or certain percentage of permit parking allowed in a zone?
How would the permits be managed? What would be the process for enforcement?
Would there be restrictions on the number of permits allowed per household (i.e., a limit of two cars, three cars, etc.)? How would the determination be made for households with more than one car?
4. Approve Memorandum: Collision Reconstruction Reports
a. Grammatical changes were made to the draft memo. Staff will incorporate the changes and send the amended memo to Mayor & Council.
b. Commissioners requested that the City provide its inventory of accident data at the next meeting.
5. Streetlight Maintenance
a. Based on Bill Meyer’s presentation to the Commission in June, Chair Resnick agreed to draft a memo to Mayor & Council. Mr. Meyer had suggested the following:
A concerted effort by Mayor and Council to create partnerships and research possible shared maintenance and supply costs, perhaps with the Maryland Municipal League
Ask PEPCO if they hand over the wood poles to the City and the City maintains
6. Town Center Update
a. Status of pedestrian access
Staff presented architectural and engineering sketches for pedestrian access from N. Washington to the extended Maryland Ave.
Commissioners requested an update on the status of pedestrian access from the Maryland Ave. extension to MD355.
b. Public Outreach for Traffic Calming
Staff presented a draft timeline and strategy for outreach to areas surrounding Town Center.
The following Commissioners will attend meetings and/or charettes for the different areas surrounding Town Center and provide updates to the Commission:
c. Project Status
Chair Resnick stated that Town Center Phase II (north of Beall Ave.) has been discussed conceptually with citizens, but the development has not been approved.
Staff will provide a schedule of development phases for Town Square at the next meeting.
7. Other
a. Commissioner Oberg inquired about the status of the City’s letter to SHA regarding intersection improvements, particularly MD355/King Farm Blvd. He shared an email response from an SHA District Engineer that states that they will not implement a crosswalk on the North leg of that intersection. It was agreed that if the City’s letter has not been sent, a new version would need to be drafted.
b. Commissioner Oberg and others inquired about the status (approval of permits) of the Market Square/Rockville Gateway development and stressed that this development is a good opportunity to implement the CTR component of inter-jurisdictional coordination. They stressed the importance of pedestrian connections between Rockville and Gaithersburg.
c. Commissioner Levine noted a grammatical correction to the City Bike Map.
d. Commissioner Crane shared information about the Pace Car program (see: www.peds.org/prog_pace.htm).
e. Commissioner Oberg shared a series of emails from the King Farm list serve (see Attachment).
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 10:00 p.m.
