HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-10-17 TranscriptionPage 1
Council Present: Botchway, Cole, Dickens, Mims, Taylor, Thomas, Throgmorton
Staff Present: Fruin, Monroe, Andrew, Sovers, Ralston, Havel, Knoche, Bockenstedt,
Seydell-Johnson, Fruehling, Dilkes, Yapp, Howard, Hightshoe
Others Present: Nelson, Stewart (UISG)
Overview of the Complete Streets Policy:
Throgmorton/ So let's get this show on the road! It's October the 17a'. This is the Iowa City
City Council holding our work session. So the first topic for tonight is an overview of the
Complete Streets Policy. Looks like Kent is gonna speak to us. Good evening, Kent!
Ralston/ Good evening! Good evening, everyone. Yeah, uh, Kent Ralston, Transportation
Planner. Uh, we've got three, uh, topics kinda rolled into one presentation here for you
this afternoon. Uh, the first is a presentation of the Complete Streets Policy, uh, which
I'll be covering. Uh, the next is a statewide urban design and specifications manual
presentation, which, uh, Ron Knoche and Jason Havel, I believe, will be covering. And
then a major projects review, um, for some parks project that Juli Seydell-Johnson'll be
covering, as well as some projects, uh, that the City engineer will be covering. But first
the Complete Streets Policy. Uh, quickly, um, the original Complete Streets Policy was
adopted, uh, back in 2007 by the City Council. It was one of the first in the state. In fact
I think it was the second in the state, uh, at that time, which was impressive. Uh, a
revised policy then was adopted by Council in 2015 to bolster the Blue Zones, uh, efforts
and becoming a Blue Zones community. And to provide some additional, uh, detail and
specificity to that 2007 plan, and what I want to drive home is the fact that the general
intent of that policy really remains unchanged, uh, from 2007. Largely, um, most of the
Complete Streets Policy were already in place and really we were just formalizing, uh,
what the City's really been doing for a decade, if not, uh, longer, at least since .... at least
since I've been here. Uh, as far as the vision of the Complete Streets Policy is concerned,
uh, the vision is to realize long-term cost savings and improve public health, reduce fuel
consumption, better environmental stewardship, and so forth, and it does so by ensuring
that all current and projected users of the public right-of-way can safely and conveniently
get to their, uh, destination. That's really the, kind of the goal or the key of a complete
streets policy, and when we say that all the current and projected users we mean, um,
motorists, pedestrians, bicycles, senior citizens, freight carriers, uh, the whole gamut.
Um (clears throat) excuse me! So, uh, as far as implementation goes, uh, who needs to
comply with the policy? The, uh, any City department or private ent... entity performing
work in the right-of-way would need to, uh, comply with the Complete Streets Policy, as
well as any, uh, building or infrastructure that gets dedicated to the City, um, after it's
completed. Uh, it implies to new and reconstructed streets and maintenance projects
when possible. Uh, it's accomplished by using ADA standards, uh, excuse me, ADA -
compliant sidewalks, bike lanes, shared use lanes, planting of street trees, uh.... um,
working on parks and infrastructure within the right-of-way, uh, and again, runs the
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whole gamut of, uh, of design options. Uh, capital projects will also incorporate facilities
found in Council -approved plans, and this is a big one. Uh, what comes to mind recently
is the Bike Master Plan, uh, the Parks Master Plan, uh, Riverfront Crossings Master Plan,
all of those have design elements for right-of-way, uh, that we should be complying with
and not just sitting on a shelf. All those had a lot of, uh, public vetting and a lot of public
input. So we want to make sure the Complete Streets Policy is followed and applied to
all those, um, key projects as well. Uh, in terms of context sensitive design, uh, the
Complete Streets Policy also takes that into account. Each street should be practically,
um, the design should be practically undertaken to complement the neighborhood for
which it exists and this is very important. Um, using accepted design standards, best
practices, and urban street design construction and operations and so forth. Um, and
what the Complete Streets Policy strives to do is consider all available design options and
manuals. Um, and in doing so, it's important to note the distinction between the
Complete Streets Policy and design and engineering. Really what the Complete Streets
Policy tries to do is sit down at the early stages of any planning project we're working on
and finding out who and where, uh, or who will be using the right-of-way and where they
need to be, and what mode they're traveling in. Later in the process then we work on, uh,
the design and the engineering, of course, and we want to make sure then that all those
folks that we've identified can get to their location safely and conveniently. That's really
the ... the distinction that we try to make between the Complete Streets Policy and then
design and engineering that comes later. Quickly I just wanted to walk through a couple
of,um, the more recent complete streets designs that I thought were important or, uh, of
note. Uh, on the left-hand side of the screen, looking south, uh, this is south Sycamore
looking towards Al .... the new Alexander Elementary School, and I've just put some call
outs in there of some of the different complete streets design elements that were, uh,
included in that project. Uh, there were a number of street tree plan .... street trees planted
on both sides of the corridor. Uh, there's a roundabout sort of the in distance in that, uh,
photo and many of you, I'm sure, have been around that. Um, street trees of course make
a more comfortable environment for pedestrians, uh, in the corridor. They also provide
additional safety for those pedestrians. Uh, the roundabout, of course, um, slows traffic,
as well as makes for a safer intersection design. Uh, this corridor had the addition of bike
lanes, which I think was important, uh, as again it leads toward an elementary school.
And then this even has a refuge island that was included in this project, um, to get folks
from the east side of the corridor, from the trail system, the Sycamore Greenway Trail
System, uh, to the west side of the corridor to the wide sidewalk to be able to access the
school, uh, residences, and so forth. So a lot of different complete streets type of designs
in just one simple project in Iowa City. Uh, and then the second example's on the right
side of the page. This is of course the, uh, First Avenue grade separation project. Uh, of
course there's the grade separation with the railroad there in the, uh, in the .... in the
forefront of the picture. Um, this was a .... one of our first and largest four to three -lane
conversions, uh, that were.....that were undertaken in the city, um, which of course then
adds the shared, uh, center left turn lane, adds additional safety for motorists because
you've got refuge then from, um, vehicles approaching you from the rear. Uh, this also
had wide sidewalks and of course bike lanes as an addition to the, uh, four to three -lane
conversion. Uh, this isn't all by any means of the complete streets, uh, type elements that
we've used. Uh, we've of course got a lot of different, urn .... uh, traffic calming features
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that we're now introducing into roadways. Uh, we've got bus pull -offs. We've got bus
shelters. Um, street furniture and so forth. Like any policy, um, there's also exceptions
that can be made. Uh, in this case, uh, given the right circumstance, exceptions can be
documented in writing by the City engineer and reviewed by the City Manager, uh, or of
course by the City Council. Um, exceptions include safety, legal, emergency,
environmental, uh, excessive cost, and other considerations. Uh, there's only one that's
been made to date, and this .... we believe is back to 2007, and that was one that you all
recently, uh, had a hand in and that was the Douglass Court, Douglass Street sidewalk,
um, Complete Streets Policy issue that came up. The issue, as you'll remember, was
there was a water main that was going in. Uh, Douglass Court currently did not have
sidewalks at the time of the, uh, project. Uh, City staff went through, um, as .... as we do,
We sit down and go through sort of at the project initiation phase and decide who and
what and where we need to .... we need to accommodate. Uh, having those sidewalks, we
thought it'd be a good time to introduce those sidewalks. What we learned was, uh, a
majority of that neighborhood did not really want sidewalks. And that ultimately they
really met some of the exceptions for, um, really lack of use, lack of pedestrian use, and
then they also have pretty low traffic volumes. So, there's a couple two or three different
exceptions that they probably made and ultimately they were granted and, um, the City
did not construct sidewalks. But that's the type of. ... policy, I think, and the approach
that we need to use for those types of projects then, is that even though we think at the
on -set we might be helping, we were really in that case, uh, potentially hurting the
neighborhood. And then lastly, um, there's a number of performance measures, um, that
we use to measure the success of the policy, and this is new from the 2007 version to the
2015 version, and now there's a number of, uh, of, uh, performance measures that we
track, including miles of bike lanes striped or built, linear feet of pedestrian
combinations, ADA ramps constructed, number of street trees, and so forth. Um, so
we're able to track those and sort of measure our success in terms of actual, um, facilities
introduced into town or improved, that sort of thing. Uh, with that, that's just a nutshell
of what the Complete Streets Policy is, um, and isn't, and I'm happy to answer any
questions that the Council has, unless we want to hold those until after, uh, the other folks
have given their presentations.
Throgmorton/ Thanks, Kent. You went through that pretty quickly.
Ralston/ I did!
Throgmorton/ Will you be able to provide us with a written version of it, please?
Ralston/ Of the policy itself? (both talking)
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
Ralston/ Of course!
Throgmorton/ Well, no! What .... what you just presented (both talking) the, uh, material on the
screen?
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Ralston/ Yeah!
Fruin/ We can put the whole, uh, Power Point, including the following slides, into your next Info
Packet.
Throgmorton/ Good. That'd be helpful. Thank you! Uh, okay, uh.....questions or reactions, uh,
from Council Members?
Thomas/ I think.....I think our policy's pretty strong. I think the .... the only area that, um, I
might have some comment would be on the performance measures, and, uh, there I
would suggest that we include, uh, the rates of crashes, injuries, and fatalities by mode.
Um, and we might want to also include, and I don't know where we are with this kind of
program, but, uh, if we complete safe routes to schools, that might be another measure as
well.
Ralston/ Sure! Yeah, those are all good ideas. And those are all things we already measure. So,
you know, whether we measure those as part of the policy or independently, it's ... you
know, either way is fine.
Botchway/ John, were you specifically asking for a change to the policy?
Thomas/ What I'm suggesting is .... is we could revise the .... the written document of the
Complete Streets Policy to include a couple more performance measures, such as I
suggested.
Botchway/ I just wanted to make sure. (both talking) ...written, does it have to be a written
change?
Fruin/ Well, it's a .... it's a policy, I mean if you want to change it we can certainly bring forward
that change to you. Urn .... you have to think about what you're trying to measure in
relation to the plan though. While I totally agree that tracking accidents rates is the right
thing to do and we should be doing that and we are and we can report that to you in any
number of different ways, um.....you're gonna.... are you looking to track accident rates
at....at streets that we haven't worked on? I mean, inevitably most of the accidents are
gonna be in ... in areas that haven't benefited from this policy yet. Um, what these try to
measure are how we're changing the streets as we're working on them. So if you're....
you know, if you wanted to measure, um. .... accidents, some of the locations, our highest
locations, are gonna be areas that.... that haven't had a complete streets makeover, if you
will. So you may see accident numbers, and I'm just not sure that .... that's gonna form
the policy that much. But .... I think what's important is you all identify those indicators
that you feel are really important citywide, irrespective of policies, and ... and let us report
those to ya in .... in the manner you want us to.
Ralston/ Yeah, I agree, and there are certain corridors, say the four to three -lane conversion that
was just completed on First Avenue. That would be one where Geoff and I have already
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had a discussion about just seeing what the DOT had collected in terms of collisions
before, and then, you know, every four years they rotate through our.....our corridor of
the state and then we can of course look at those again and see, uh, what the changes.
Like Geoff mentioned, some.... some of `em won't be apples to apples comparisons, but
in term of affo.... in terms of a four to three -lane conversion, that would be sort of an
apples to apples comparison where you see what happened before and then what
happened after.
Thomas/ Right.
Ralston/ You have to exclude some things like the actual grade separation itself from the tracks
and other collisions that just couldn't occur any more, but um, certainly those are things
that (both talking)
Thomas/ It's the four to three -lane conversions that I'm thinking of and also the, what I'm
hoping is our, uh, bike lane, our implementation of our bike .... bike master plan will also
reallocate existing roadway, and uh, I .... I think it will be .... I'd like to go into those
projects hoping we can, and this gets into kinda the next topic, which would be the, you
know, the design specifications, but that we will see with a reallocation of the roadway a
decrease in the number of crashes and... fatalities and injuries.
Ralston/ Yeah.
Throgmorton/ I think John makes a good suggestion, especially since we're talking about
performance measures, uh, measures of how successful the policy is. So I think if it's
applied to streets that have been revised, it makes complete sense to do this kind of thing.
Thomas/ (several talking) I mean my observation has been there's fat in our roadways (laughs)
so I...I understand we're, you know, what Geoff s point is, but I do feel there are real
opportunities on our existing streets, which seem to have excess capacity, to redesign
them, uh, without getting into major CIP projects to reduce .... you know, the collisions.
Ralston/ Yeah, definitely.
Cole/ I'll give an example from last summer. Last summer we had a review of the performance
of the proposed four to three. Not proposed, but something we're evaluating the four to
three conversion on Gilbert. And there was a ranking I think from A, B, C, and D. Um,
when you rank, as I understood those rankings, those rankings were on likelihood or how
well the cars got through the intersection and the amount of time they would have to wait.
Ralston/ Correct!
Cole/ Um, does that ranking, cause I know you already collect the accident, um, data as well.
Does that include the safety factors as well, because I think to John's point, I think one of
the things that sort of overwhelming on the four to three conversion is the pretty high
probability that you're going to get a reduction in crashes, um, so as you rank those, and I
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guess it's more of a question rather than a comment, um, does that include that data, um,
in terms of the anticipated reduction in injuries, if you have a four to three conversion?
Ralston/ Yeah, I think it does, because we get percentages. You know, we know (both talking)
Cole/ Okay.
Ralston/ ....approximately what to expect as a percentage of, urn .... a reduction in collisions. So,
you know ... so we could translate that to a number for any number of corridors, like First
Avenue (mumbled) conversion. You know we could have said there was, um, maybe a
hundred collisions in the last 10 years or last five years, whatever the measure was, and
then we know, you know, you expect I think it's like a 30% reduction, uh, in the state of
Iowa anyway, for a reduction in collisions, so.....thereby we could say, you know, now
we've got 60 collisions or 70 collisions, whatever it might be.
Cole/ Cause if the cars are going faster, the .... one sense they may be performing better, but it has
an impact essentially on the .... (both talking)
Ralston/ Right.
Dickens/ Does it take into account that when you do the three -lane conversion that people drive
through neighborhoods or different, so there could be accidents within the area that aren't
on that same street anymore but .... moved somewhere.
Ralston/ A good study will, and that's .... and that's part of what the Gilbert Street study right
now, I mean, that's something that the consultant will definitely look into is, uh,
diversion, because that's what we don't want is to start diverting traffic down
neighborhoods that they should not be in, uh, and Gilbert Street is an arterial street, and
we should make it as comfortable as we can, but we also don't want to start pushing that
traffic places where it should not be. Yeah. So that's something we definitely take into
consideration.
Botchway/ Going back to Terry's point, is that something that we've done as far as follow up for
the First Avenue project, cause I know for me, I just go around.
Ralston/ Right!
Botchway/ I know I'm one of those people that drives slowly through neighborhoods.
Ralston/ Right. So we've got .... we've got the, um.....we've got the collision numbers before,
and we're waiting for the DOT to do the after counts. I mean we can do them this year,
but our .... our traffic speeds and counts are always slightly different than theirs. Different
mechanism we use. (both talking) But yeah, we have a lot of that data.
Dickens/ Has it been one year so far?
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Ralston/ Yeah. So, yeah .... not even really (both talking)
Throgmorton/ Yeah, I know every time I've driven on First Avenue since it was converted I've
had no difficulty whatsoever in driving on the street.
Mims/ My guess is you're not driving, at least from what I'm hearing anecdotally recently,
you're not driving through when Southeast is opening or closing, because just recently I
have run into a number of people who are really con.....they're not happy. I mean
they're saying it's really backing up the traffic. So that was the question I was gonna ask.
Like with those measures that we had that Rockne was talking about with Gilbert, in
terms of how well the traffic is moving through those intersections. I just don't recall,
was that .... that was actual data, I mean that was actual.... measures that were taken of
how long it was taking cars to get through (both talking)
Ralston/ Right. Right, so there's two different things. The .... the level of service I think
that ... that Rockne was discussing was the actual intersection level of service. So that's
the anticipated delay, or .... it's the modeled delay at each intersection. So if you get to
intersection A, you can expect to wait for 20 seconds. That's a level of service A. If you
can expect to wait for, you know, 80 seconds, that's a level of service F. Um, the other
thing we can do is travel time studies, and they did this for Mormon Trek and First
Avenue, where they actually traveled the corridor and they do it a number of times. They
do it like 10 times at different.... points in the day, and then when they use that level of
service per intersection, they try to calculate what the difference will be. So if it was, um
.....you know, two years ago when it was a four -lane road, and if it took four minutes to
get from Bradford to the highway, they then can try and estimate what the travel time for
the corridor will be under a three -lane condition. Um, and they've done that for Mormon
Trek. They'll do that for Gilbert as well. So we try to get an idea of really how much
more congestion there is. There's always a little bit more, you know, in a four to three -
lane conversion, but how much more and whether or not that trade-off is there from say,
if it's four minutes in .... in.....in, uh, scenario A and it's four minutes and 30 seconds in
scenario B, is that, you know, a trade-off we're willing to accept. So they do .... they do
both those things.
Throgmorton/ And it's worth remembering the overall purpose of the Complete Streets Policy.
It's not just about automobile traffic.
Ralston/ Right.
Throgmorton/ It's about pedestrians, about the bi.... it's about bicyclists, it's about buses, it's
about.... automobiles, which we all drive.
Ralston/ Yeah, no I agree, and that's.... again, that's the distinction between the Complete Streets
Policy because really when we .... when we look at a corridor under our .... our Complete
Streets Policy, we want to sit down and discuss who are .... who are those modes, you
know, who are those folks and what modes do they need. If we decided on First Avenue
there weren't any bikes, or there shouldn't be any bikes, then that then comes to the
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design process and saying, okay, we're not going... obviously going to design the street
for bikes. In the case of First Avenue, we sat down and said, `This makes complete
sense,' one to reduce collisions; two then of course to accommodate bikes and peds in ... in
a much safer and more comfortable way. So that's kinds that distinction again, you
know, the Complete Streets Policy is trying to figure out who we're trying to
accommodate and ... and where they're going and how we're going to do that, and then
when we get into design, that really gets in the nuts and bolts of how to do it safely and
efficiently.
Cole/ And are we weighing the modes, um, equally. So in other words, are we weighing
motorists convenience, pedestrian convenience, and cyclist convenience? Because it
does seem to me that in some cases we're primarily focused on the automobile....
Ralston/ Right.
Cole/ ...to the detriment of the other two. Are those equally weighted?
Ralston/ Yeah, I mean, we don't .... yes, I think they are. We don't weight them from the get -go.
We really just sit down and say, `Okay, who ... who needs to be in this corridor.' If that
corridor we know has five pedestrians a day, we probably will ultimately weigh it more
towards, uh, the automobile or transit or whatever it might be, but then you've also got to
think in our case too, if you build it, will they come? You know, if you build a better
sidewalk, will you get a hundred pedestrians a day or, you know, whatever that number
might be. So it's.....it's a little hard to judge that, so I don't think we really weigh them.
It's just through the thought process on.....in the planning and design process we try to...
try to get that, uh, try to get that mode split right.
Botchway/ Going back to Jim and Rockne's comments, you know, from that standpoint, I mean,
cause it .... you're right. Measuring modalities is super important, but you know, from
that standpoint even looking at the dedicated bike lane that's on First Avenue, I mean,
doesn't tend to seem to get a lot of use. However, is that a safety issue, cause I think
that's been brought up before as, you know, do people feel uncomfortable with it kinda
being, I don't know the technical term for it, but kinda naked.... entryway between both,
uh.... um, bicycle and the car and .... I wouldn't drive there (mumbled) or ride my bike
there, and so .... one of the things I was thinking of that ... totally maybe gets us off base
and maybe I'll just make the comment and we don't have .... we can move forward, or
move forward for me at least, is thinking about how we're splitting those streets, and so
in the sense if there was a way that the dedicated bike lane could be inside of, um, the
sidewalk or some type of barrier. Uh, it just seems from people I'm hearin' that that is....
I would say the only way that they're gonna feel comfortable riding their bike. Um,
outside of that I feel like we're just making bike lanes to make bike lanes, and we're not
really getting people on the road that really want to get on there.
Ralston/ Right. No, those are good points. I think we have to remember too, for First Avenue,
um, when the consultant came to us and when we came to the Council, really First
Avenue was to reduce collisions. We had a transportation safety improvement program
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grant, I think it was a half million dollars, for that particular corridor, because the
collision rate was so high. So really when we did that four to three -lane conversion, um,
if we wanted to we could have left the bike lanes off the street altogether, but really that
conversion was meant to increase motorists safety and then what happens then is you
have this extra street width you can use. So it ... really that's when it was sort of the
addition of bike lanes, and I think in a case like First Avenue, you've got a couple things
going on. One is that we don't have a lot of good connectivity to First Avenue right now.
So it's a little bit of, you know, you kind of put something out there that doesn't have a
lot of good connectivity to it, so you wonder how many people are going to use it. The
other thing about bike lanes is, um, you know, I've got children, I wouldn't put my
children on First Avenue. I mean that's just the truth, but it's an arterial street and it's
more meant for me, I think, who would ride on it and does ride on it. So you know it's...
it's personal choice. I mean ultimately you're right, I think having a separated facility
altogether is probably the safest and most effective way. Um, but there are some pitfalls
to that — one's cost; two is, you know, do you actually have the right-of-way to be able to
do something like that and that sort of thing. Um, in the bike master plan the .... the
Council adopted, um....very recently, uh, there are some cycle tracks and things that are
similar to that that are in there, uh, but they're..... they're things that we're gonna have to
deliberate pretty heavy later on, um, again because of costs and other considerations.
Throgmorton/ Excellent response, Kent, uh, and.... Kingsley, one thing I'm thinkin' about is the
sense of safety largely depends on the speed of the traffic. If the traffic's goin', I don't
know, 45 miles an hour, 40 miles an hour, it's pretty hazardous regardless of whether or
not you're a skilled bicyclists or not. But, if it's goin' 25 miles an hour, the .... the sense
of safety increases dramatically, and the injury, uh, severity of injuries declines
dramatically the lower the speeds are. So ... that's a crucial part of all this.
Thomas/ Yeah, I .... I would say speed is at the core of it, and there are .... I don't know if I've
shared these with Council, but graphics which depict, you know, the likelihood if you're
hit at 20, as a pedestrian, you have a chance of 1 in 10 fatality. If it goes up to 30, it's
50% fatality. At 40 it's 9 out of 10 fatality.
Botchway/ Well and too, kinda to that point, cause I .... I don't necessarily know that, and maybe,
Rockne, your question was answered cause I think Rockne was asking whether or not,
you know, I think maybe I understood it differently. When he was asking about that A,
B, C determination that.....I think that, during that Council meeting I was like super -
focused in on (laughs) urn .... and we're talking about how we are at Council weighing
these different options. Is there a grade or a model that basically weighs these
dif...different options, or are we left to kind of decipher from looking at different data
whether or not it's working or not?
Ralston/ Yeah, you know there.....there are things out there, but I think it's the latter. I think it's
really every situation's unique and there's trade-offs, and that's.... that's one thing that
I've learned, um.....thus far in my profession is that no transportation fix is gonna make
everyone happy. I mean that .... it just, it can't happen. Um, there's.... there's
the..... there's one side that's all about expediency and you know they're.... they don't
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walk and they don't bike. The other side is the exact opposite. So, every corridor... yeah,
I don't think there's a real, um, there's not a matrix I think that you can look at really.
It's really, um, taking all considerations into account, all the modes, and that's really
where I think the Complete Streets Policy is good. And again, you know, that's
somethin' that I think the City's really, for the last decade or more, done a really nice job
of and it's starting to show, I think, around town. Um, you know when I went to college
I think about what the street system was like and it was much different, um, than it is
today, and I think it's.... it's getting better and better. Because of policies like this, and
because Councils that ... you know, put some weight behind it.
Throgmorton/ So one of our strategic plan objectives was to ... I've forgotten the verb. I don't
know, consider the complete street policy. So that's why we're revisiting it.
Fruin/ No, I don't think it was included (both talking) in the strategic plan. I think it's come up a
couple times, and it came up at the last Council meeting. I think Councilman Thomas,
um....requested that ... that we give an overview of the Complete Streets Policy, in
addition to the .... the SUDAS concept that we had presented.
Throgmorton/ Okay (both talking)
Frain/ But certainly you can take it up at any time. We're happy to (both talking)
Throgmorton/ I must be remembering something else, so I apologize about that.
Dickens/ ...talked about it but I think we pulled it out, cause (several talking)
Frain/ Yeah, there was an.....there was a .... an idea, Mayor, um, when the strategic plan was
adopted to do a complete streets project, and there was some funds we actually budet...
budgeted for for a complete street project, and at the last Council meeting we .... we
scratched that from the, um .... from the pending list, in .... in part because that's... that's
really what we're doing with the Gilbert Street corridor, is we're taking a good look at
that and eventually you guys'll make it a .... a go, no-go decision on that.
Throgmorton/ Okay! Anything else we want to say about this particular topic?
Thomas/ I .... I would just briefly say that in an overarching sense, having just spent 10 days in
the San Francisco Bay area, uh, L....I think it's important to kind of keep in .... for me
anyway, to keep .... a sense of the context that we're dealing in, dealing... with.... with
respect to traffic and congestion. I always remember talking to, um, Connie Chapman
(laughs) some years ago and she said, `You know, John, this is a 10 -minute town,' and by
and large it is. I.....I know that maybe it's an 11 -minute town now (laughs) I'm not sure
but.... compared to the Bay area, the .... the situation, Us .... the congestion here is so light
that one reason a person might choose to live here would be the lack of congestion. So I
always have to kind of (laughs) you know, when I hear people complain about traffic
here, I just think .... what do you expect? You know, we .... we live in an auto -oriented
culture, uh, but given the size of this place, congestion is relatively low. Um, and
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anything we do to slow down traffic, it isn't going to result in a 30 -minute trip across
town. So....so that, for me, this, you know, that's sort of the starting point. I really feel
that one of our great assets as a city is that we can, I think, seriously approach this idea of
promoting walking and bicycling, uh, as an alternative to driving and do it safely and
conveniently. Uh, in San Francisco when I was there, I thought, `They are aggressively
promoting bicycling but I'm not sure I'd want to get on the roads here,' I mean it was
just .... you know.....I just felt it would be too dangerous. Sol....I hope we, you know, in
the spirit of this place that, um, you know, I think we can adjust the, you know, the way
in which we move about town in a way where everyone, you know, again it's that
everyone's going to get something, no one's going to get everything approach that I think
should work for us.
Throgmorton/ Okay!
Fruin/ I think the important thing to take away as we transition with the Complete Streets Policy
is as you see projects, road projects come before you, you should be able to look at those
designs or ask us about those designs and have us point out exactly what complete
streets' elements are bein' infused into these projects, and Kent showed a couple there.
Now we're not out building new roads, uh, a whole lot, um, but we do and we have
some.... some big ones comin' up, but every .... every street should have that complete
streets element, and we should be able to articulate to you what those are. Even, you
know, a street like Washington Street that we redid a couple years ago. We made
changes to the way parking was. We have parallel parking on both sides. We did
neckdowns at intersections and those types of things. That should be a conversation that
we're having and if. ... if. ..... if we're not being clear when we bring these projects
forward, then .... then you need to let us know, and certainly if we're not taking it far
enough, you....it's your prerogative to step in and .... and tell us that.
Throgmorton/ I'm .... I'm remembering what I was thinking about when I referred to the strategic
plan. It's simply the previous list of pending work session topics, and that the .... the title
of that topic was `determine scope of Council identified complete street study.' So I'm
just wonderin' if there's anything else we need to do with regard to that particular topic,
given what Kent has just told us. So I think the answer's no, uh, other than a couple
recommendations which we seemed to favor.
Fruin/ Do you want us to bring back this policy to you with the added performance measures?
(several responding)
Throgmorton/ ...nodding heads. Yeah.
Thomas/ The .... the other piece, again, is, you know I'm interested to hear the SUDAS
presentation but, uh, the ... the critical element in my view is if we .... if we're adopting this
policy, the next step then is what are the standards by which we can assure that outcome?
And that's where I feel there's been a disconnect, and um .... so I'll be interested to....
Throgmorton/ Yeah!
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Fruin/ We'll transition on that note to SUDAS.
Introduction to Statewide Urban Design and Specifications (SUDAS) and update on staffs
review of the standards:
Throgmorton/ Yeah. Okay! Uh, Ron, are you gonna (both talking) Thank you, Kent!
Botchway/ Hold up, John. Don't .... that yes was for the complete streets project, not the .... how
the SUDAS conversation comes. (several talking) (mumbled)
Knoche/ Good evening! Ron Knoche, Public Works Director. Um, this .... this is a project, as far
as SUDAS goes, it's somethin' I've been involved in basically since I started as a City
engineers. So it's been .... it's been ongoing for quite a while. Um, so we'll just kind of
go through what it is, um, the why and the how. Um, you know, what does SUDAS, um,
the .... the pronunciation there, what does it stand for? Statewide Urban Design and
Specifications. Um, so we have a design aspect. So that's the design guide, and then
there's a construction specification standpoint. That's the specifications piece. Um, you
know, it's .... it's a statewide standard, um, for urban, uh, public works improvement
projects in Iowa. A voluntary.... it's not a requirement, um, these are... it's.... it's an
opportunity for anybody, any size to be able to use these standards to develop their
projects. Um, the way it sits today it's actually owned by a non-profit corporation, um,
and it has a board of directors. Um, I .... I st.... I sit on that board of directors, um, as a,
um, from our District 6 APWA group, um, but it's..... it's from folks all across the state.
Um, the (mumbled) transportation at Iowa State University actually operates the SUDAS
group. Um, and as far as I know, this is the only, um, statewide standard in the country.
So Iowa is kind of the forerunner in regards to this development. Um, the history behind
it, so this actually started in the Des Moines area. So Des Moines got together with their
surrounding communities and started developing their, kind of their core, uh, design
standards and construction specifications. Um, along with that they hired Snider and
Associates to do their management of their organiza... or their group. Um, in 1995, uh,
the Governor did a Blue, uh, Ribbon Task Force, um, basically it was to look at our road
use tax fund and how can we get a bigger bang for our buck, and .... and one of the things
that they .... came out of it was, um, a common standard for .... for construction in .... in
Iowa. Um, and .... and Rick Fosse actually sat on this Blue Ribbon Task Force. So, you
know, from the beginning we've had an involvement in this, um, statewide. Um, in
1998, they actually developed a Central Iowa committee. There again that's the group
around the .... the core, uh, metropolitan area in, uh, in Des Moines. Um, and then in
2000, uh, InTrans, um, at Iowa State was chosen to kind of take on the development
of...of the SUDAS program. Uh, 2002 the DOT and the Central Iowa committee, um,
entered into a contract with InTrans to start updating, um, and converting to kind of the
SUDAS manual. So starting to go from that more metro, um, group, kinda their specifics
to more of a statewide organization. Um, 2004, SUDAS was actually created, uh, so that
corporation's created, and then in 2005, uh, the Central Iowa committee actually turned
over the documents to SUDAS. Um, so we, um, you know, so at that point the board of
directors then took on the .... the responsibility for that, and that was a .... a pretty major
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thing, you know, you had a .... a group in .... in central Iowa that was invested in their...
their standards and their design guide, and to kinda turn over and give that to a different
corporation, that was a .... it was a really big step in regards to the development. Um, you
know, what .... what are the benefits of statewide standards? It's the uniformity, um, in
the design and the specifications across the state, um, reduces the contractors confusion
on what they're actually building. You know you go from a ... an Iowa City to a
Coralville, you know, if the standards are completely different, you're always retraining
your contractors, and it gives `em, um, the ability to make mistakes. So they're gonna
start, um, bidding in, um, those mistakes into their contract as .... as they're bidding our
projects, to make up for those things. So it encourages the bidders to be able to have that
tighter, uh, bid. Urn ... it .... the statewide standard allows for a, kind of a ... a rapid
implementation. So as they .... as ...... as standards are updated, um, it .... it's not Iowa City
havin' to figure out what Council Bluffs' doin'. It .... it's kinda of all at one time, um, and
it allows, uh, both the state, uh, the local govem... the local governments, uh, to
collaborate with the industry, with each other's industry, um, and .... and so you'll see
later on that, kind of what the make-up of the board is and how that happens. Um, there
again it allows for us to .... to, our staff to do the design versus havin' to worry about
those specifications as we ... as we move forward, um, and then it also allows for as
research occurs in the state of Iowa and across the country, um, to be infused into those
design standards a little bit quicker and move forward, um, kind of more of a, um,
breaking technology as we move forward on things. Um, so the statewide involvement,
um, you know the users — cities, counties, DOT, uh, the consultants, contractors, and
material suppliers. Uh, there's.... there's been 14 technical committees that have been a
part of developing various pieces of the design guides, and also the construction
specifications. Um, the way the .... Iowa is set up as far as DOT districts, there's six
districts in the state of Iowa. Each one of those districts has a SUDAS, uh, group that
meets to talk about the various things. So as .... as new ideas come up, uh, in .... in
District 4 in Council Bluffs, each one of those districts then has an opportunity to voice
their opinion on whether or not they think it's a good change, and then at the end, it goes
to the board of directors and the board of directors votes on whether they're gonna, um,
bring that into the documents. Um, the board of directors meets twice a year, um,
the .... the, kind of the critical piece in regards to the board of directors is the DOT, um,
reprints their .... their pieces in April and October, kind of when those pieces take on.
Um, SUDAS updates the manual annually, and it's updated with that October,
urn .... publishing of the new DOT specifications. So, it goes into their, um, electronic,
uh, research library piece, and .... and so it's electronic at that point. Um, you don't have
to buy anything. You can get everything online, uh, with that. Um, the board of
directors, you know, kind of the .... the big piece that's there, you know, so it's the MPOs.
So we have .... so for us specifically, we have a representative, um, from APWA.
That .... that's myself, and then we also have a local representative from our MPO, and
that currently is Scott Larson with the City of Coralville. Um, each one of the district
chairs sits on the board of directors, um, the County engineers, consulting engineers,
DOT staff, uh, and then the larger population — communities actually get an additional
three folks as far as representatives go and then, uh, from an advisory standpoint, AGC
(mumbled) the paving associations, they all have a seat at the table. They're not voting
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members, but they can at least have an opportunity to voice their concerns as new things
come before the board of directors.
Throgmorton/ Ron, are there 38 or more board members? Am I reading correctly?
Knoche/ Yeah, that's correct. Yeah.
Throgmorton/ Okay.
Knoche/ Um, and .... and so, you know, in the involvement over time, we've had over 300 people
that have been involved in the .... the development of these specifications across
(mumbled) it's, um, you know, there's been a lot of, um, time and effort put into the
development of these .... of these standards. Um, and, you know, as .... as you look at kind
of the graphic side of things, you know, these are locations where..... people have an
actual hard copy of the specifications sitting in their office. So, you know, not only are
we seeing it in Iowa, we're seeing it in, you know, the .... uh, entity .... or around us also
and .... in the other states around us locally. Um, you know, so there's 325 standards,
specifications around, so that's the construction piece. Um, there's 700 design manuals
out there. Um, every city in the state of Iowa with a population over 15,000 received a
free set. So I mean that's.... that's kinda where things started off at. Um .... there....
there's.... there's not a real count of who actually's adopted these things cause it's
adopted in various manners. Um ... but, uh, it ... because it's voluntary, and there again, the
consultants, contractors, and material suppliers, um, strongly support the program. It .... it
kind of. ... it brings that unit .... kind of a more of a uniform side of things so that they
know what to expect on those projects and the consultants, obviously, they.....they can
help develop those things, both for large communities and for those smaller communities,
and the .... the idea for those small communities is, you know, if you have a city clerk
that's puttin' together your asphalt program, whether it's a chip seal program, they have a
document that they can actually look to to help them, help guide them on those things,
um, just as, you know, we have the construction specifications for our projects that we
can move forward with. Um, so, you know, the SUDAS piece, um, there's a couple
different way things have been funded with SUDAS. Um, obviously the public agencies
and the State of Iowa have a vested interest in SUDAS. Um, the Iowa DOT, um,
currently funds about 40% of the SUDAS, um, budget. Annually it's about $300,000 or
so is what .... what is actually spent on SUDAS in the state of Iowa. Um, 40% of that is
the Iowa DOT and 60% of that is from the cities and counties through the TMAs, MPOs,
and RPAs. So .... if. ... if you've been around long enough, you may recall when we would
go through and do our MPOJC budget, some of the STP funds that were pulled off the
top went to SUDAS. Now what happens is that happens at the DOT now. So those funds
are .... are pulled off before any of the .... any of those, the transportation groups see it, um,
and then as new research happens, um, we have the Iowa High Research Board fund
some of those projects. Uh, the Iowa High Research Board actually funded a lot of the
kind of the kick-off of, uh, that research of, you know, what are the benefits of actually
goin' with SUDAS. And that's .... and that's kinda.... there's those two documents. So,
um, the joke is we started off early on, it was in the central Iowa group. Their .... their
goal was to have basically a book that inspectors could put in their back pocket and take
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out on a job site. Clearly we didn't get there. Um, basically there's two manuals, they're
basically a five -inch binder is ... is what we're dealin' with, so, um, obviously the design
piece are .... is (mumbled) where the construction specifications are. Um, so the design
manual, there's 14 chapters in the design manual. Um, you know, kind of the general
provisions, uh, the storm water piece, what .... what each one of these chapters does is
helps guide the designer in what is necessary to be able to design those things. So, um,
the storm water, uh, piece for example talks about the calculations, what reports they
need to submit as a part of their design package, um, sanitary sewers, water mains,
similar thing. You're.....you're lookin' at what the use is, um, and .... and you know what
the capacity needs are, um, and .... and so, you know, so that you know as you work your
way through, um, it....it just....it gives that guidance for .... for folks in the design of
those things. Um, Chapter 5, the Roadway Design piece. We'll talk about that a little bit
later, um, but that actually is where the complete streets piece of the design manual lies
right now is in that Chapter 5 piece. Um, you know so the design manual's accomplished
and the information relevant for those designs. Um, it doesn't limit the designer. It gives
`em the option, so it's really kinda opening up, um, their eyes to what the innovative
pieces are out there, or you have the ability to incorporate those as a part of your own
design. Um, and there again it talks about what the requirements are for those plans, as...
as things are laid out, um, so there again it's that uniformity. A contractor knows that,
you know, in the u -sheets, which are utility sheets, they know it's gonna be in those
sheets from .... from community to community versus, um, where I may put something on
the u -sheet where Coralville puts it on an m -sheet, so they miss it as they're going
through doing their design. Um; it's a .... it's a menu; um, it leaves it .... the number of
decisions up to the engineer as far as, um, the designer, um, and then it identifies the
actions that are needed by the designer to help minimize those confusions for the
contractor. Um, and this is an example of that. So, um, you know, this is (mumbled)
pipe fitting so we're talking about water main. For example, um, you know .... in here
(mumbled) specify, you know, how you're gonna measure various things, you know,
what .... what the pipe sizes are gonna be and .... and those types of things they work
through. So those are the things that .... it's a reminder to the designer to make sure that
they're doing those things to help the contractor, uh, as far as the plan set goes. Um, and
then also talks about, um, an example (mumbled) items. So, um, there again it's the
uniformity. I may say that the .... the pipe bedding is .... is incidental to the pipe insulation,
whereas another community may pay for that. So it's that confusion of, you know, does
a contractor bid it at $50 a foot or do they bid it at $100 a foot to try to incorporate those
things. Um, and then it also gives us the ability to have a.....a bid item list that's more
uniform across the state. So, you know, the DOT is very rigid in how they formulate
their bid items. For a ... for .... for municipalities, it's kind of all over the place. So
what ... we don't have a very good, uh, ability to do is compare project to project, kind of
where things are at, uh, across the state as far as bid items, and so, um, it kind of really
lays things out for a .... an entity and you would be able to compare things in the future.
Um, and so, you know, what we've done as far as working with the DOT, um, there's....
there's one, um, chapter in the design standards that is common with the Iowa DOT. So
the DOT has their own design guide that they ... that they deal with, um, but the Chapter
12 piece is the sidewalks and bicycle facilities, um, is shared, and that currently is the
only design chapter that's shared with the DOT. Um, and then that addresses the ADA
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requirements. So that's kinda, you know, the ADA requirements end up being kind of
more a municipal thing. Obviously the State has highways that are in municipalities, um,
so they kind of viewed that as kind of the beginning of, uh, where we would work
together on those things. Um, construction specifications, so the standard specifications,
um, there's 11 divisions. So this is where we start getting into how .... how we want the
contractor to build things for us. Um, every one of the specifications is set up in a three-
part format. Um, there's a general, part one is general, kinda talking about what the work
is, the requirements, how we're gonna pay for it. Um, part two is the products, um,
talkin' about what they can actually install, and then part three is the execution or what
the expectation is by us when you're installing it out in the field. Um, so there again the
measurement of payment, this is telling how we're going to pay for things. Um, part two
is, in this case we're talkin' about PVC water main or sanitary sewer in this case. Um,
so, you know, what .... what they're required to supply as far as the products and then how
they're gonna install it, and so these are the expectations of ...of what we would have for
them. So, you know, as .... as they bid it (mumbled) our inspectors then would also be
looking at this and making sure they're installing it as they bid it. Um, so common
SUDAS and Iowa DOT specifications, so what.... what's...... what's happened is as.....as
we've been going down this road of SUDAS and the DOT specifications, the DOT has
determined, you know what, there is some areas that it doesn't make sense for us because
of the projects that we do versus what a municipality does to have two separate
specifications. So, urn .... now the DOT uses, for example sanitary sewers, their
specification they have in their book is the same specification that SUDAS has. So it gets
updated annually on those things. Same as traffic signals, uh, so these are the items that
as .... as, when a contractor bids a State job, their.....they know that the SUDAS
specifications are what they're gonna be going by. Um, with this project, there ... there a
common figure. So the DOT had a bunch of design, um, standards, specs.... standard
drawings that they would use. Um, we've now combined SUDAS and the DOT figures
together, so it's .... we're referring to the same things when we're going through on those
projects. And there again it's the collaboration with the DOT, you know..... even though,
urn .... even if you have one specification and the .... the, kind of the kicker is, because of
the DOT and the way that their .... their funding is done through the .... through the federal
government, there's just things that we can't combine `em all and just work out of one
book, which would be great, and so....but.... but what we can do is .... is we can
implement things and we can share things and that's kinda what I've talked about with,
uh, with .... having the same design guides, um, and then also the construction standards.
And then obviously the updating piece is the .... the process, you know, so, um, I come
across something that I want to incorporate into my project. I have the ability to do that,
but if I think it's something that everybody should be lookin' at, um, then I can ... I can
propose that to SUDAS as far as updating that piece of it. Um, so it goes then before the
technical committee. There's some review. Discuss at each of the district meetings, and
then from there there's a recommendation that goes to the board of directors, then the
board of directors would vote on that change, and that updating process. So it's ... it's
constantly being updated. You know, so .... you know, in .... in 1995 when Rick was
sitting on the Blue Ribbon Task Force, he started going through and developing, uh, a
common standards for Iowa City to have, and it was Iowa City, Coralville, North Liberty,
and Solon. Well .... so that happened, but then it kind of. ... it's stagnant because
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there ... that took a lot of time to do that, where here it ... it's not on us to .... to be the
updating piece. It's kind of upon all the users to be that updating piece. Um, so, um, you
know, so .... kind of the .... one of the things, I'm going to go into the roadway design a
little bit. So the complete streets piece is one that, um, right now, you know, locally
Coralville, North Liberty are using SUDAS. Um, so we use the SUDAS piece and
the ... and the specifications piece, so we're using that for the construction piece, various
pieces of it, um, Cedar Rapids hasn't moved to SUDAS yet, but the complete streets
piece of the SUDAS really is built off of what Cedar Rapids has developed, um, when
Jeff Speck was .... was there a few years ago, um kind of looking at things, and so we're
kinda working together on, um, on that piece. So even though we can't be common, you
know, we're .... we're workin' together to .... to be, um, sharing that knowledge. Um, so
there, you know, the complete streets piece, um, you know, in the past, obviously motor
vehicles is what we talked about, right? Um (mumbled) all based on future forecasts.
You know you look at a Sycamore Street, you look at a Keokuk, you know, south of
Highway 6 you have four lane streets out there that, you know, it was all based on what
that future growth was gonna be, um, and so, um, and then the functional classification,
and then the integration of the pedestrian and bicyclists, um, was not always a high
priority, um, in the past. So now with the complete streets, um, is ... it's a major
discussion point as we're movin' forward. Um, the complete street design, we're talkin'
about safe access, all modes — um, pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users, um, and .... and
there again, we're dealin' with over 700 communities nationwide and 20 in Iowa, over 20
in Iowa, that have now, um, formally adopted that Complete Streets Policy that ... that
Kent was talking about. You know, there's no one answer, um, but there again as....as
we're looking at it based on the needs of all the users and for the land use that's in that
area. And those are the ... the complete streets, um .... that have been adopted,
um .... so ..... you know, the complete streets, you know, is .... is (mumbled) design, you
know, Kent talked about that. Um, you know, we're gonna take into account a lot of
factors, um, number and types of users, uh, available right-of-way and adjacent land use,
available budget, um, the parking needs that the community desires, urn .... the .... the
context piece, you know, we're talking about rural versus urban, um, larger cities, uh,
versus smaller cities, um, you know, neighborhoods versus commercial areas, and
there.....that's a land use piece as far as the large tracts, urn .... and there again, are
less .... are less effective (mumbled) encouraging the walking and the biking trips. So
we're .... we're workin' through those things. Design standard guidelines for complete
streets, um, involved a discussion of various aspects of including (mumbled) which is,
you know, what... basically the design standard that we were all trained on working on as
engineers when we were in school and what the DOT, you know, really was .... was
hammering home on us, um ..... safety liability, uh (mumbled) so you know these are
the .... the pieces that were .... that are involved in the discussion as we're moving forward.
Um .... the standards, you know, some are standards, uh, others are guidelines.
(mumbled) the manual uniform traffic control, um, is a requirement. That's a federal
law, um, the State of Iowa has adopted that. So anything that we do in regards to
signage, whether it be traffic signals, all that is controlled by the WTCD,
um.....different, um, standards for federal and state highways, compared to local streets.
Um, guidelines generally have ranges to consider, you know, we've talked about that a
little bit, and .... but in the end, you know, our .... the standard that we have as engineers,
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and as far as the municipality goes is, you know, if. ... if we can say that we designed
a .... a road to the design of the time and we get sued, you know, because of something
that's happened, we have some indemnity there. Now that.... that's, so that's the
whole... the.... the premise of having the design guides that are, you know, accepted, um,
across the state and as a part of an industry goes. Um, so (mumbled) design guide,
obviously you know there's the land use, um, functional classifications, um, speeds. You
know the ... the discussion of do you design for five miles above the .... the posted speed,
do ya design for the speed, um, and then, uh, the vehicle design, you know, large trucks,
um, as far ... that's for the turning radii come in, um, obviously for us and (mumbled)
we're looking more along the buses and how we accommodate those things, and .... and to
a degree the .... the, um, fire, uh, equipment that we're using. Um, land widths, you know,
vary from nine to 12 feet. Um, and ... and the impacts of those, uh, as far as the capacity is
minimal, um, but ..... but, uh, you know, we've talked about the too wide it encourages
speeding. Um, but then we also have to make sure that, um, with those lane widths we
can accommodate the traffic (mumbled) be on a bus route, um, whether it be on a truck
route (mumbled) the curb radii, um, obviously, um, the wider the radius the easier it is for
a truck to turn on it. Obviously the wider it is, the.... the.... the larger it is, the ... the more
difficult it is for a pedestrian to get across the street in a timely manner. On the bicycle
facilities, um, on -street parking, um, sidewalks, you know, the (mumbled) piece as far as
ADA, and then the connectivity is .... is critical for the users. Um, turn lanes (mumbled)
turn lanes, um, the medians as far as the pedestrian refuge, um, transit systems, and then
traffic signals. I think the, one of the larger discussions right now is, um, the .... that
crossing phase, um, how long does it take somebody to get across, um, you know, three
feet per second is kinda what the standard is, uh, 2.7 feet is ... is what the recommended is.
And then the ADA elements as .... as they go into those traffic signal pieces. Um, and so,
you know, what we're seein', um, whether it be in this photo, a .... a buffered bike lane or
we're dealing with, um, actual, uh, an off site, uh, an off site, uh, separated bike lanes,
um, in that photo. Um (mumbled) Jason's gonna come up and actually talk about, um,
where we're at in the process of adopting this and kinda what the next steps are gonna be
for us.
Havel/ All right, so wanted to kick things off here, um, this slide just kinda lays out sort of the,
um, standard process I guess we're using to adopt these manuals. Um, just a reminder,
you know we're talkin' about two different manuals. On the design side, that's
everything from, you know, street, uh, lane widths. Um, it also is intake spacing, that
kind of stuff. So it's all the stuff on sort of the front-end of the .... the project design.
Um, and then the specifications are really what happens in the field. So when you're,
you know, installing water main, what ... what are gonna be your backfill requirements,
that kind of stuff that's really more the construction based, um, items. So with this, um,
kind of how we kick things off, we take each manual kind of separately, um, and we look
at what does SUDAS include, um, and then what do our current standards or design
manual include, and really kind of put `em side by side, and....and look at is there stuff
we're doin' now that maybe SUDAS doesn't have that we want to add? Um, is there
additional details that we want to add to SUDAS, you know, there's some, um, parts of
SUDAS that are a little, um, less specific to give you that flexibility, um, so we're kinda
seein' what are we doing now, what works. We want to make sure we ... we continue that.
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Um, if there's stuff that's in SUDAS that we think might be a better fit, um, we can
continue... or we can implement that as well. So that's kinda what this second point
talks about is, you know, making those .... those changes and .... and those revisions, and
with that we would then put together either supplemental specifications or modifications
to the design manual to basically be sort of our version of SUDAS. So it would be kind
of taking that standard, but then also, um, I guess sort of personalizing it for Iowa City.
And then at the end of that would then be, uh, adoption, um, by City Council. We would
bring it back to you and ask for, um, you guys to adopt that. As far as the typical
adoption schedule, it... it's not uncommon that.... for.... for the process to take a year or
more. Um, and I think we're.... we're pretty much right on track with that, you know, we
really kind of started taking a look at this, um, probably last winter, um, really kind of
sittin' down and gettin' into the .... the meat of the .... the material, and so I think we're
pretty close to on schedule with that at about a year. So specifically talking about the
specifications manual, and I'll talk about that one first cause that one's a little more
straightforward, um, that really is more to do with kind of public works, um, and that
really is, again, dealing with the stuff in the field. So that's, um, installing water mains,
uh, sewer, you know, building streets, that kinda stuff. What we've done is
we've .... we've sort of completed our review, so we've kind of sat down and said what
does SUDAS have, what are .... what do our current specifications have, and what do we
want that to look like, um, for adoption. So we've kind of gone through, completed our
review, urn .... and so now we're kinda pullin' that together, gettin' to the point where we
can get that, uh, supplemental specification document ready, um, to kind of get our
version of the specification manual ready for adoption. Um, and we're looking at, uh,
February of 2018, so this coming February, for having that ready for, um, your
consideration. The design manual is a little more .... I don't know if I'd say complicated
as much as it involves, um, other departments a little bit more, um, you know when you
start talking about storm water and, um, street design, you know, you start getting into
development side of things, you start getting into Neighborhood and Development
Services and how that all kind of fits together. So I think this one is .... likely to take a
little bit longer. Again, just kind of having those conversations with, uh, a larger group
and more departments as we work through it. Um, we're at kind of a.....a similar.... spot,
I guess, as far as our review. As Public Works we've kind of sat down, reviewed a lot of
that, and when I say it's .... it's complete for Public Works, what I really mean is, you
know, more on the water main and sewer side of things it's really the utility stuff. I think
we feel pretty good about it. Our .... our next step really is to kinda broaden that scope
and start talking to other departments and figuring out, um, you know, again, what does
Neighborhood and Development Services have to say about some of this and City
Manager's office, and .... and having those larger conversations to get to the point where
we all feel comfortable with what, um, either additions or changes we need to make to
the ... to those, uh, manuals. Um, and so like I said, the ... the design manual modifications
are on-going. Um, with that I think that one will be a little bit further behind and so
we're saying, um, April of 2018 is when we anticipate having that ready for .... for you
guys to take a look at. And with that, that kind of:..ends sort of the SUDAS portion of the
presentation. So certainly can open that up to questions.
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Throgmorton/ Well, Ron and, uh.... Ron and Jason, thank you so much. Uh, I think we're all
very happy that you're doing the work and we aren't (laughter) I don't think we're
prepared to do any of that. Uh, and .... and it's pretty impressive to see what y'all are, uh,
havin' to deal with. But I think there are some concerns havin' to do with roadway
design and havin' to do with storm water run-off. Those are the two that I've heard in
any event. So .... I don't think we have much interest in talking about the whole thing,
which y'all need to deal with. It's really important. We trust that you're doin' great
work, etc. Um, but we do have some concerns about those two elements and I .... I don't
know if everybody wants to talk about all of them tonight, but .... um ..... maybe we could
deal with roadway design first and just .... see what thoughts people have about that and
then get some feedback from .... from the two of you about it. So, uh, John, I know you
have thoughts about (several talking and laughing) go ahead and....
Thomas/ Yeah, I mean this is something.... concerned with ever since moving to Iowa City, and
it seemed to kind of coincide with .... a.....a great deal of work in the traffic engineering
world in terms of looking at street design standards. Uh, Jeff Speck's walkable city I
think came out in, you know I want to say 2012, something like that. Um, Dan Burden's
work. We .... we've had these folks come to town, um, Dan, Jeff, urn ..... Jay
Wal ... Walljasper, a number of people have come to town, and I would have to say that
they all point, uh, their .... their suggestions, the Blue Zones report, all point toward a
certain set of design standards that.....in their view, and I would .... I would share their
view, um, would result in a better .... urn, synthesis of walking, bicycling, and driving.
Uh, and in fact, uh, and this I found encouraging. I .... I discovered the, um, Des Moines
MPOJ.... uh, MPO, Des Moines Area MPO, published `Mobilizing Tomorrow With
Transportation Plan for a Greener, Greater Des Moines.' It was adopted in 2014 and
amended in 2015, and in the technical section of that document they talked about, um, a
complete streets policy at the MPO level, as well as at the local level. I think our local
MPO policy is .... is pretty solid with, you know, a few suggestions and .... and more in the
measuring aspect. Um, but the technical section also included recommended design,
roadway design standards. And .... and those standards were based on principles of
facilitating movement and socialization of people, that streets should be designed to
create high quality public spaces that have a positive influence on the built environment.
And, you know, there are more than half a dozen different design standards. I referenced
them back in March in that memo to Council. Um, things like travel lanes, sidewalks,
comer radii, uh, on -street parking, trees, and so forth, um, they're all critical elements, in
my view, in terms of ensuring that, you know, when we design say our bicycle network,
um, Kingsley will ride on it, I mean he (laughs) I think he will be our litmus test, you
know! And ... and so these standards become critical, cause if we don't want to ... expand
the scope of a project to include realigning the curbs. We have a certain set dimension
and so the degree to which travel lanes can be reduced to create space for the bicycle
lane, perhaps even with a buffered bicycle lane, I think that increases the comfort and
safety, not only of bicyclists but pedestrians, as well as drivers. I .... I've become
convinced through looking at the collision data that (laughs) the existing conditions aren't
working well even for drivers, in a lot of collisions, $11 million in .... urn, property
damage just in the last three .... or 2013 to 2015. So .... so I'll just give an example of ...of
the language in the, urn .... in this MPO. So we're talking Iowa. It's all under SUDAS.
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It's all sort of the .... the world we live in in Iowa. Um, and ... and travel lanes, which
Speck has, you know, that's his focus, and I think it is important with respect to speed.
Uh, and it ... and it states the width of travel lanes has a significant impact on the quality of
the public space. Travel lanes wider than 11 -feet degrade the public realm. Wider travel
lanes increase the speed of vehic.... vehicular traffic and increase the crossing distance for
pedestrians at intersections. The ideal travel lane width for most urban streets, with
speeds below 35 miles -per -hour, is 10 -feet. And that's consistent with Speck's
recommendations, uh, the ITE manual for context sensitive streets. So .... so I look at that
and I think .... you know, that .... that seems to be the direction.... the Des Moines MPO is
going. I think we as a city, uh.... are .... are looking at .... if I'm looking for comparables,
I'm looking at Des Moines, and I'm probably looking at Cedar Rapids. You know, we're
in a sense, I feel, competing, if ...if you will, with respect to, you know, if we want to
attract residents, these are some of the variables that .... that residents are looking at now.
So .... so my suggestion, and, you know, I'm looking at the SUDAS. The SUDAS has a
set of standards. They're referred to in the complete streets component. They're
recomen.....they're shown as preferred. They're not..... they're not in any way
mandatory, and in fact, you know, I think they themselves acknowledge there is a range
of. ... of standards that can be applied to any given street. But my suggestion would be
that we as a city begin to seriously look at what we should a .... adopt as our .... as a default
standard, it might be said, for these variables that .... that go into roadway design. It
doesn't mean that they're adopted in every case. But, you know, as .... as what I
referenced that on most urban streets, um, I think we should find the default standards to
be acceptable. Um .... so .... so that's sort of where I .... I think, you know, I think this, it
sounds like in terms of your schedule, you're in the process of looking at design manual
modifications. I would, you know, urge you to look at the .... the MPO for Greater Des
Moines and their recommendations. I think they seem to be current, urn ..... and I feel it
will really help us with our bicycle network design because it....it may give us more
latitude to improve the safety and convenience of.....you know, walking and bicycling
than if we .... if we stay with what I see to be the standard SUDAS specifications, um,
which end up widening the roadway and making crossing distance greater and speeds
higher and so forth.
Havel/ And I guess just as sort of a response to that. I .... I, that would be our intent, I think, is to
look at those things and figure out what's gonna be the best fit for us. Um, you know,
part of the challenge is you're dealing with not only brand new construction that runs
through the middle of a corn field for development, but also you know urban corridors
where maybe you don't have the right-of-way that ... that you'd like and so it's how do
you find that balance, but certainly we can take a look at that and ... and figure out what's
gonna be best for us for kind that .... you're starting point I would say, um, for your
design.
Throgmorton/ If I could say, Jason, you know, we're doin' this, uh, developing a form based
code, uh, at least that we will eventually consider adopting, for the area around Alexander
Elementary. So, corn field, right? And I think it's absolutely crucial that the design of
the neigh .... of the new neighborhood drive the street design rather than just the reverse.
So, in my judgment, we should not be developing that neighborhood to have more streets
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like Langenberg, which is so wide that people are drivin' 42, 45 miles an hour on it, till
they, you know, neighbors... rightly said this is not safe! We need to have speed humps or
whatever, something to, uh, calm the traffic. So it's really crucial that we get our, um....
uh.....uh, the .... the, what are the words I'm after here? Our neighborhood design
elements compatible with the roadway design elements so that they're mutually
reinforcing in a way that moves in the direction, policy direction I believe this Council
wants to move, and I think we've been pretty clear about it as the last 18 months have
gone on, so .... if y'all can really look carefully at .... at, uh, the section John's referring to
and other .... other parts of that Des Moines, um ..... uh, was it the MPO plan, John? Yeah.
Thomas/ Yeah. Uh....
Throgmorton/ Yeah, that'd be very helpful, uh.... cause, you know, I mean that's my judgment
about this, and I don't know what other people have to say. I'd be very curious to hear it.
Cole/ I guess I would echo John and Jim (clears throat) but I guess the larger issue is is this ... this
topic of lane widths. Uh, superficially seems like such sort of an arcane topic. Um, it's
sort of an esoteric topic in terms of why ... why do we care so much? And I think that's
one of the things that Jeff Speck really articulates so well that the lane width drives
speed, and the speed drives nearly everything else, other modes, people's perce... uh,
perception of safety, pedestrian use, bicycle use, and if you look at a lot of the great
cities, the width of the streets is a critical factor, and not only that, in the last 10 to 15
years, we've seen a lot of cities who've adopted these narrower standards that have really
seen revitalization of their networks. One of the standards that Speck talked about was
the NACTO. So I'm wondering whether either you or Ron could talk about, as it pertains
to lane width, how does SUDAS, cause the other thing too is that if SUDAS already
addresses what we care about, um, then we don't need to have as many concerns, but
how does NACTO compare with SUDAS as it applies to lane width recommendations. I
know there's a lot of variables, but at least Speck seemed to imply that NACTO had more
neighborhood, pedestrian -friendly design standards.
Havel/ Jump in here if you want, but I guess my response to that would be I .... I think SUDAS
gives you flexibility. I, you know, and I think NACTO does the same thing. Neither one
of `em is gonna tell you every lane needs to be 10 -feet. I mean they're gonna say that
there's, you know, again, the context sensitive design. There's different variables that go
into this. Um, you know, NACTO tends to be more on the very urban side, and so I think
they really focus more on the.... pedestrian, the bicycle .... I mean really focus on those
other modes maybe a little bit more than the vehicle. Um, I think SUDAS is ... they
almost seem to be coming from different directions and headed to the same place. So I
think SUDAS gives you that flexibility. It .... it allows you to design streets, um, again,
you know, I think it was what, nine to 12, maybe even more, uh, for lane widths. So it
gives you that flexibility, so I don't think it's prohibiting you from doing anything that
I've heard here tonight. So I .... I think, again, it's kinda having that conversation of what
do we want our version to be, what do we want our standards to be. I think we can get
there, um, with SUDAS, and I think it would be, uh, a very good document. So I .... I
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don't think that.....going with SUDAS prohibits you from incorporating things that are
included in NACTO in the least.
Cole/ And one quick follow up to that. I guess in terms of my takeaway from (mumbled) I
would like our design standards to match our .... to encourage the posted speed limit.
Because I think we see a lot of areas of town where it's posted at 25 and it's designed for
45. I mean I think for example of south Sycamore, Lower Muscatine, um, those are
really wide streets, that I think have a posted limit of 25, um, so that would be my
takeaway, and I don't think that that's, you know, I think that should be a reasonable goal
that we would try to achieve.
Dickens/ I just have a question on the.... input from, do you get input from the contractors when
you're doing these designs through .... the State or.....is there any practical .... I mean, you
guys design it, but these guys have to build it. Do they give you any ideas on what could
be done better as well, or is there any input from.... outside sources? (both talking)
Havel/ I think there's.... there's some contractor input on the .... the SUDAS board. Again,
they're not voting members, but they do have their input there. Um, routinely we also get
feedback on projects, um, usually in the, you know, complaint department (laughter)
from contractors but ... um, I .... I think there's.... there's that constant dialogue of. ... here's
how we designed it and then maybe what they think could have been better or how we
could have done it better. So I think there's always that evolving, um, from the design.
Knoche/ And they're also involved at the district level meetings. There's a lot of contractors that
actually sit on those committees and give those feedback, um, on .... on those .... not
necessarily on design standards piece. It's more on the construction specification (both
talking)
Dickens/ Right, cause they're the ones that end up Navin' to do it so.....
Knoche/ Right. Exactly.
Fruin/ I think what I'm hearing, um, from.... most of the Council that spoke up is, um .... you're, I
think you're comfortable with us going forward under the SUDAS umbrella and I think
that's really important from a statewide perspective. Um, but you're interested in that
default standard, or maybe even shrinking that nine to 12 -foot flexibility. You don't
want, you know, maybe the nine to 12 -foot flexibility is okay, except if we're approvin'
11 1/2 -foot lanes 90% of the time then it's not okay. So I think when we come back to
you, we can give you a .... a tighter kind of default standard for different types of streets,
and .... and then you can decide whether that's adequate or not.
Knoche/ Yeah, and I ... and I, the other thing that we have to keep in mind is when we look at
kinda what that cross section is, back of curb to back of curb. You know we ... and .... and,
in our subdivision code currently there's a 26 -foot standard that's allowable, but 28 -foot
is al .... they can also build a 28 -foot wide, you know, back to back. So when you look at
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that, and there's no cars parked on the street, you're.....you're lookin', you know, at....at
13 '/2 -foot lanes, right, I mean (several talking)
Thomas/ Exactly!
Throgmorton/ So that needs to be revisited!
Knoche/ Right. Well, but .... but hardly ever do you not have a local street that has a car parked
on it. Right? So .... so now, now you have eight foot of car or six foot of car sitting there,
and so now you're 20 -foot effective. So now you are your 10 -foot lanes. Uh, or on a 20 -
foot wide street where you have parking on both sides, you know, effectively as far as the
lane width .... there again, you have to have those other side impediments to ... to create
that space, um, but .... but I think .... I don't, we're not arguing that ... that a 12 -foot lane is
what we should have across our community. I think effectively today, we have much less
than that. It's.... it's just that it's not stripped today. You know, so there's not that ... that
delineation of what that lane width actually is. And the other part of it that we have to
keep in mind is not only are the streets, you know, there for the .... the....the mostly modal
travel, it's also there to .... to help convey our storm water. You know, curb and gutter is
there, I mean basically that's our (mumbled) so we have to be able to convey the storm
water in those areas and not have it be a major impact to .... to the traffic, um, not only
from the standpoint if you make `em too narrow and the cars are always running in that
gutter line, anybody, you know, on the side of the street is gonna get splashed every time
by a car drivin' by `em. So there's that part of it that we have to consider, and then the
other part of it, obviously, is in the winter, uh, when we're out plowin' snow, you know,
we .... we have to be able to get our equipment through to be able to plow those streets.
So, I mean, there's.... there's a lot of pieces that go, but there again, I .... I think that, you
know, the nine foot to 12 -foot, you know, 11 -foot, 10 -foot, wherever we land at, I think
that we can accommodate that, maybe not in every aspect on every street that we're
lookin' at because obviously we .... we have to deal with, you know, it's a bus corridor,
whether it's, you know, and ... and we .... we dealt with that in the Dubuque Street project,
you know, on the Gateway project, in looking at the various pieces of where we're gonna
be at on that as far as lane widths go. Um, so there's.... there's, I mean, it really is a ... it's
a big picture discussion and there's a lot of things that go into it, and I think, you know,
when you look at the complete streets' piece that, um, SURAS has identified, NACTO is
one of the design guides that ... that they reference within that design guide piece. So, you
know, the .... the reference is there. Um, and so, you know, there again it—it gives that
designer the idea of, okay, well if I need more guidance here, I can go to this document
and .... and help me, you know, get to my decision.
Throgmorton/ I think Ro... Rockne's rule of thumb is very useful here. My sense is the roadway
should be designed to have people drive the speed limit. If the speed limit's 25, the
roadway should signal to drivers that's the speed limit. Not expect police to enforce it,
not expect... whatever, I mean, roadway design. So, that's.... that's a really useful rule of
thumb I think.
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Thomas/ Yeah, and ... and that's perception of the drivers.... risk. It's tied to lane widths, it's tied
to is there on -street parking, um .... how many intersections intersect the road one is
driving on, a whole ra.... topography, but ... but that is the key, and just for example, again,
the SUDAS, uh, and we see it in our traffic calming program, says, okay, if the speed is
posted at 25, 30 is okay. You know (laughs) so .... so straight off (both talking)
Knoche/ Right, and .... and there again, as we've talked about, I mean .... based on the input
tonight, I think what we're hearing is if it's posted 25, that's what the design speed is is
25 miles an hour, right? And I .... and I think there again, that .... that's one of those things
that we can incorporate into those design standards as we move forward. Now, and ... and
we'll work through those things. So I think clearly .... I think we .... we can set that design
speed.... easily at .... at, you know, wherever we want to be at, whether it be, you know
(both talking) equal that's what we'll go with. So....
Throgmorton/ Okay. Anything else, anybody?
Botchway/ I think for me I'm interested more in the process, um, and how you're comin' back to
us, I mean, I'll be honest with ya, I'm not gonna sit here and say that I have any
knowledge of like road design or .... um, you know, uh, lane width or anything along
those lines. You know, obviously everybody knows I'm a speed driver, and so like when
we're talking about changing speeds, you know, I start to cringe a little bit. I mean if
anything (both talking)
Throgmorton/ ...goin' over the speed limit? (several talking)
Botchway/ Well I .... I would just say that, you know, if anything if we're talking about (several
talking) rule of thumb, you know, just change the speed limit to be higher, and then make
the, you know, design guidelines match those, but..... urn ...... (laughter) for me, uh, at
least for me from an input and process standpoint, um, I ... I would just want to know that
we had .... there was enough time or space to get that feedback. I'm not sure how it would
come back for us, or to us, and wanted to make sure that we had enough time to kind of
reach out to people, and then for me, one of the things that really kind of changed my
mind about the conversation. I can't remember who it was. Maybe it was Speck, but
having those pictures that kind of spoke to what exactly we're talking about, um, with
these, um, changing road designs, because I mean .... what you said at the end there when
we were talking about how the .... uh, the lane width has to accommodate some other
things as far as, you know, people parking in streets, or people parking, um, on a local
street or whatever the case may be, is somethin' that I would not have thought about
without you saying something, but it's something that I .... I frequently drive through,
every single day, um, and so it's an important kind of accommodation that we have to
think about that .... I ..... I'm not saying have a picture for every single thing that you, you
know, list on here but .... you know at least some type of guidance for somebody like me
that just doesn't have the same type of knowledge or acumen around this particular topic,
so I have just a better understanding.
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Throgmorton/ Okay, I'm very conscious of the time and know that Juli was going to do the third
piece of this presentation, right, so....
Knoche/ One .... one thing I do want to .... you had talked about storm water management
and ... and, you know, and I think, you know, we're ... where we're at, I think there's been
discussions among the community that our .... our standards are 40 years old or ... or
wherever, whatever number's been stated. Um, you know, basically where we stand at
today with our storm water management ordinance, um, we release, um, I ... I think our
storm water management ordinance is very comparable to what anybody else in the state
is using, um, the difference is the method in the way that storm water run-off is
calculated. So .... so the .... the Ven Ti Chow method is an old method. That was what
was written into our original storm water management ordinance. That's what we expect
our, uh, consulting firms to use to design to today. Um, you know, the storm water
management ordinance within, um, the SUDAS is ... is basically usin' the rational method,
um, so, you know, the .... the run-off that they're calculating is .... is maybe gonna be a
little bit less than what the Ven Ti Chow method calculates, um, but they...for their .... for
their storm water management, they're designing to a hundred -year storm with a five-
year non-developed release rate. That's what they're.... that's what they're building all
their.... their, you know, those detention basins to. What we are doing currently is a
hundred -year storm and then we have a .... a .15 CFS per .... so I, we .... we throw an out,
we throw a discharge number in there, um, and I think we're more restrictive than what
they.... the.... the current practice is across the state. Um, and .... and, so .... in 1996 when
Rick was going through and was looking at this, it was .... we .... we, the intent was that we
were going to change that storm water management ordinance and to .... to the common
practice of the .... the hundred year, five-year. Um, there was enough feedback from the
community that ... that we chose not to go in that direction. We maintained what we had
existing. Um, as far as the .... the storm water management ordinance. So there again, so
when we go to SUDAS, we're lookin' at the hundred year, five-year is what we're
looking at, urn .... to going to. That would .... we'll have to update our .... our ordinances
within our code to be able to go to that ... go in that direction. Um, but that's something
we will weigh out and see what impacts that'll have, cause I .... I don't think there'll be a
huge change in the way things are handled, but I think we are pretty conservative in the
way we do our storm water management today.
Throgmorton/ Okay. Thanks for a very enlightening presentation. I think we've all learned a lot
more about SUDAS than we ever knew before and, uh, I'm glad y'all are doin' the work.
Thank you.
Fruin/ So (both talking) we're gonna stay with Public Works for a couple projects and then turn
it over to Juli.
Throgmorton/ Okay. Fire away!
Update on the Gateway Project and Riverfront Crossings Park:
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Havel/ So, um, kickin' things off here with the Gateway project. Just wanted to give you an
update kinda on where we're at and, uh, I tried to put together here kind of, um,
a ... approximate milestones, so kind of the big steps that are left along the way. You
know, currently the vehicle cross-over, so where you're goin' from the new southbound
pavement to the old, um, is located pretty much in front of Mayflower. Um, the goal
would be to basically push that further south down to essentially at the Park Road
intersection. We're lookin' at that bein' late November, kind of in saying hopefully
around the Thanksgiving time is when that would occur. Um, completion of the bridge,
so that would be, uh, the goal there would be summer of 2018. So that would be next
summer. Um, with that, once the bridge is complete and .... and able to have traffic on
there, there would actually be a road closure that will occur, um, on Park Road, at the
Park Road, Dubuque Street intersection, um, and that's a 60 -day closure. The intent is
that, uh, traffic on Dubuque Street would be maintained, so we would still have one lane
each direction on Dubuque Street. They would basically pushed all the way to the east as
we reconstruct the west half of the intersection. Um, and then ... so that would be a...
approximately August I" to September 29`h of next year is what the contractor is saying,
uh, obviously all this is weather -dependent so I think the goal for them, um, sort of off
the record, is to try and get stuff open for start of school. That really banks on a .... a
productive winter. So obviously if, uh, weather doesn't cooperate, that's subject to
change, but that's kinda where we're at right now. Um .... as far as the open to traffic
item here, that .... that again kinda talks about that, um. .... Park Road intersection. So
Oc... October I" kinda being the, um, when the bridge'll be opened and kind of have
that, uh, west side open so that would then push the construction to the .... the east side,
um, and so we'd kinda be shifting traffic around there again to .... to maintain traffic on
Dubuque Street. Um, so basically that November 2018 is kinda what the contractor is
saying for everything's open, um, again I think they're hoping it'll be a little bit earlier
than that, but that's kinda what the, uh, official schedule says at this point.
Mims/ Jason, can you clarify for me, on the road closure that 60 days. Are you saying we're
gonna have 60 days that there will be no traffic from Dubuque Street on to Park Road?
Havel/ Correct.
Mims/ Or from Park Road onto Dubuque Street.
Havel/ Correct. So there'll be through traffic on Dubuque Street, but there'll be no traffic
between Park Road and Dubuque Street.
Mims/ Okay. Thank you.
Havel/ Yep! And then final completion looking at, um, probably spring of 2019. Uh, and then
just kind of some pictures here of kind of the ongoing progress. Um, you know, one of
the arches is ... is more or less complete, um, as far as construction goes, uh, and then
they're working on the second one there. So you can see just the .... the sheer amount of
rebar and metal kind of goin' in to all this concrete is .... is pretty amazing. So it's .... it's
really a unique opportunity to see this, uh, product happening right here, um, so just a
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number of bridge shots here from different angles, kinda showin' just the scope of
the .... the construction that's ongoing. And then here, just kinda some of the other work,
um, you know, along the Dubuque Street corridor, um, showing the MSE walls, the
riprap that's goin' in along the river, um, as well as the, uh, up there in the upper left you
can kinda see, um, some of the street elevation and street changes that are occurring
there. That's near the .... the boathouse intersection, um, so obviously this is a little
behind as that's, uh, now open, at least that portion of it, um, and then again, kind of
another picture of just the .... the look of the MSE wall with the ... the riprap that's been
installed. Uh, just want to kind of highlight, again, you know, we've kind of been
focused a lot on all the concrete and that kind of stuff that's goin' in. Also wanted to, uh,
remind everyone of some of the landscaping that's gonna go in with the project that
would likely be next fall, uh, probably, once we start gettin' things wrapped up, um, have
this be kinda towards the tail end of the project. With just the number of trees and shrubs
and perennials that are goin' in with the project, uh, you know, a lot of it focused kind of
on the medians with some landscape berms, um, some trees, um, that will go in with the
project. So really it's, uh, you know, a lot of the ... the landscaping items that will be, uh,
put in place once we're done with construction as well. That, unless there's any
questions, I'll pass it off to Juli for kind of Riverfront Crossings.
Throgmorton/ Okay. Great! Thank you, Jason. Hi, Juli.
Seydell-Johnson: Hi. Juli Seydell-Johnson, Parks and Ree Director. Uh, update on Riverfront
Crossing Park and I have to preface this by every time I've done an update on this park to
any community group in the last probably two months, someone in the group says when I
say this will just.... this'll be done next week. Someone pipes up and says, `Wait! It's
done!' It is literally moving that fast out there, that we're having updates almost every
day. Uh, just to take you back through the master plan, oops! Sorry! Um ... phase one is
what we're working on right now. It includes most of the trails within the park, the
parking area, the five -acre wetland, which was part of the original scope of the project
with removing the waste water treatment plant and making this a floodable area. Um, the
events area, kind of in the northwest corner, um, and the bridge, uh, that crosses at the
Second Street alignment, um, and then also the crossing.... across the box culvert down
by Highway 6. Uh, construction just moving like crazy. We're about halfway through
the actual construction. Um .... these slides got a little out of order here. So .... just some,
um .... where, this is the information that's been completed, the parts that have been
completed. So we had the initial, uh, master plan; waste water plant demo; base grading,
over $6 million for that; park design for phases one and two has been completed; park
construction phase one which I just talked through. PCI is working on that. We
anticipate it being done by early summer 2018. So you'll see a cover crop, uh, seeded
across the site. That's growing in right now but the actual wetland planting and a lot of
the other plantings on the site won't happen till spring, um, but it's coming along quite
nicely and then phase two, uh, we have contracted that to TriCon Construction and that's
largely the nature play area. Uh, and that will be completed also by late spring, early
summer. Um, they don't expect to start work on the actual playground installation until
spring. So probably in hopefully late February, early March. Uh, one of our grants
stipulates that it's done by April 30a`. So it'll be quick once they start construction on
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that. Uh, some funding ... uh, information on ... through phase two. So 78% of the funding
for the work that we've contracted or that is completed at this point has been non -local
grant or donated funds. Uh, large part of that is the State hazard mitigation funds, uh,
that started with the demolition and the moving of the waste water treatment plant. Then
we have the hundred .... $157,300 federal land and water conservation fund grant, which
is on the agenda tonight, uh, for acceptance. That is for the nature play area. We
received a $50,000 grant from the Disney Corporation and the National Recreation of
Park Association also for the nature play area, and then so far we've brought in, um,
$16,500 private donations and service club donations. Uh, specifically again for the
nature play area. One private donation was, um, for the limestone, uh, area that will get
children down to the creek to play in the creek. That was a $10,000 donation and then
$6,500 from the Noon Pilot Club, um, to add the accessible swing or the accessible seat
to the zip lines. We'll have a dual child -size zip line. Everyone's excited when they hear
zip line (laughs) It's .... it's sized for children; one side for able-bodied kids and one side
that has special accommodations for kids that need additional assistance. Still to come,
park design phases three and four. Uh, this contract is on the agenda later tonight with
Confluence, HR Green, and Marock, uh, Architects to do the design for the restrooms,
shelter, lighting throughout the park, signage, and then the river terrace area, and then
below that I have the information on estimates for those two different parts of the project,
phase three being the restroom, shelter, lighting, and signage, and then phase four is river
terrace area. That is, uh, kind of like a small amphitheater area, right along the Iowa
River, along with creek bank work along the river and more additional trails that will let
people get closer down to the riverside. A little bit of change from what you saw in the
master plan and we'll be shifting it a little bit to the south most likely with design, um,
but that would be a future, probably phase four, and then other things that were shown in
the master plan that are future phases that are not, uh, do not have design yet. There's a
rain water terrace which would come from the parking area, south to the wetland area.
That is some artistic work in there. The artist work in the middle of the traffic circles, so
the traffic.....parking lot and traffic circle is being put in with phase one, in anticipation
of some sort of art installation in the middle of that, but that is not included in any of the
funding packages at this point. The second bridge crossing to the east, and then a
Kirkwood Plaza area, so on the northwest side, and then anything else that might happen
if we acquire additional land, um, where the City Carton site is or .... beyond that. I
wanted to show you this. This is, uh, concept design for the restroom and shelter
combination. Uh, we were looking at two of these in the next phase of the park
development. Uh, the lines of it are similar to the, uh, buildings that we have at Terry
Trueblood, but with a more contemporary twist to it. Um, so this is, you know, any
feedback you might have on this, make sure you .... we hear it soon, um, as we are moving
forward in the next part, and the signage would be somewhat based, kind of a
combination of this, uh, contemporary design and the park signs that you just saw in the
park master plan. Photos, you've seen what it looks like out there. It's
changing.... changing all the time. These are photos from early in the process. The trail
along the east side of the park was still there. Um, then you see the .... the work on the
creek happening on the second photo. So the entire creek bank has been pulled back on
the west side into the park so that we talk about kids having as ... access down to the creek,
being able to go play in the mud and in the water. Um, we've accomplished that and
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that .... that's in the works. This is the site ... this picture was taken at the end of August.
So it has changed significantly even from this time, but we have over here the large event
space. Uh, it's slightly higher, the southern edge, um, meant to be almost like an
amphitheater with, um, availability for a stage and performance to be put at the north end.
The parking area is just going to the east of it, so the parking circle, and if you'll
remember from the design early on, that is being designed so that things like food trucks,
beverage trucks, things that would service a large community event in this park are able
to pull in. The restroom, one of the restroom shelters will be close to that area and would
also house all of the electrical service that we would need to host those large events.
Nature play area'11 be in this area here, if you can see my, uh, sign, and then the wetlands
area, and I'll talk just a little bit more about that. The five -acres of wetlands that were
created, it's in a horseshoe shape, and the idea is that Ralston Creek will feed those
wetlands. It'll come down .... it is not going to be a very, much of a water feed through
there most of the time. This is more of like an inch or two of water coming through the
wetlands. They will come down, if you go and look out over the fence from Big Grove
right now, you'll see right in this area a big, what they're calling the wading pool. It's a
rock structure. The water will come into that structure and then gradually feed into the
horseshoe area around the wetland. You see, um, burlap around .... they call these like
dirt burritos is I think the non-technical term (laughs) for what they've (mumbled) that's
stabilizing the sides of the wetland and the creek until it grows in. Uh, the idea is the
water will flow slowly through there during normal times. If there is a flash rain or a
large rain event, there's a structure here that will allow it to flow directly over and miss
the wetlands. It won't blow out any of the seeding and .... and the work being done in
those wetlands, and will flow directly down to the river. Um ... it will be somewhat of a
dry wetland in the end, enough water to establish the plants and keep the wetland's
plans .... plants, but you won't see a lot of marsh through it most of the time. Um, kind of
an interesting process. Urn .... and the last thing is the bridge, the 150 -foot, uh, span
bridge came in, uh, little over a month ago. 150 -foot bridge, the largest bridge that's
allowed on state highways. It came down from Minnesota. Uh, interesting story, it was
planned to be here around noon, so we had all kinds of people lined up to go watch it be
installed by the crane. It left Albert Lea at daybreak because they had to wait until ... they
could only travel down the roads as it was light, uh, the truck first broke down by
Webster City and they had to send a new truck (laughs) from Minnesota and then it got a
flat tire at Ankeny, so it limped its way in finally around 6:00 that night, and they did go
ahead and set it on a Friday night, um, and had everything ready to go, so .... um, the
decking has been poured and I don't think the approaches have been poured, so it's not
quite ready, uh, for use, but it's coming soon. So .... I can take any questions you might
have.
Throgmorton/ It's good to see it movin' along.
Seydell-Johnson/ It's been a really fun project. I'm so excited to be a part (both talking)
Throgmorton/ I go down every couple weeks or so and look out at it. It's fun to do.
Cole/ (several talking) ...is the bridge ready to use or....
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Seydell-Johnson/ No, unless (both talking)
Cole/ I always get that question.
Seydell-Johnson/ Last time I was down there, no. Um, we're waiting on some things happening
on the development on the east side, uh, so they will pour the bridge approaches at the
same time they pour the trail along Highway 6, and we're waiting for the water line to go
in with Randy Miller's project on the east side of the creek. So, I keep hearing any day
now but I'm not aware that it's been done.
Throgmorton/ Okie dokie. Thank you, Juli.
Havel/ Last slide, I promise! Um, just wanted .... a couple quick highlights on .... on some of the
other projects. Obviously Davenport brick street replacement, uh, two blocks of new
brick street, um, has been completed. So I think that looks really great, if you haven't
seen that yet. Um, just a reminder that out on the Washington streetscape project, the
kiosks have now been installed. So those look really great (several responding) uh, yeah,
definitely get out, check those out, and to end things on a high note, uh, the First Avenue
grade separation, we just received a Project of the Year Award from the APWA Iowa
Chapter, um, so with that, um, it is eligible to be submitted for a national award, so we'll
go ahead and move forward with that. Um, we also just received notice that we received
a ... a Project of the Year Award for the Iowa Concrete Paving Association as well for that
project so, um, it's now an award-winning project.
Throgmorton/ All right. Bravo! (applause and several talking)
Havel/ That's all I had!
Throgmorton/ Great news, thanks!
Havel/ Sure!
Throgmorton/ All right, folks, it's 20 till. We probably don't have any time to get into the rest of
the .... Info Packet stuff. I think we'll have to do it after regular formal meeting. So let's
take a break, get back together at 7:00.
(BREAK FOR FORMAL MEETING)
(RECONVENE AFTER FORMAL MEETING)
Clarification of Agenda Items:
Throgmorton/ ....stopped. (several talking) Where is that at, uh.... yeah, we actually stopped
clarification of agenda items and I wanted to ... note .... uh.....a couple things I guess. One
has to do with Item 5d(5). It has to do with the resolution amending budgeted positions
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in the Parks and Recreation Department by deleting a full-time office coordinator
recreation position and adding two full-time maintenance worker 1 Forestry positions.
So I'm pleased to see this. I think it will enable us to do more of the .... tree related work
that we need to do out in the .... out in the city. The other thing has to do, uh, Rockne, has
to do with 5f(2), which is Mark McCallum's email. Uh, I .... I just wanted to note that on -
street parking in core neighborhoods is a topic for the November 6 work session, so we're
going to be addressing that. Anything else .... with regard to agenda items? Okay, so
Inf Anformation Packet discussion for the October 5th packet.
Information Packet Discussion [October 5, October 121:
Taylor/ IP3, I believe that's about the Human Rights awards breakfast, which is coming up, uh,
Wednesday, October 25th and I'd just like to congratulate all the award winners that were
listed in our packet, uh, particularly of course good job to, uh, good friend of mine, Greg
Kems, well -deserving of the award, um, because he's worked many years of his life, uh,
fighting for worker's rights and so it should be a great event, Wednesday, October 25th,
7:15 for the breakfast, second floor ballroom of the IMU!
Throgmorton/ Good deal! Anything else in that very short packet? Okay, October the 12th.
Mims/ Just on IP6, uh.... Housing Trust Fund of Johnson County. Just noting, you know, the
work that they're doing and the amount of money that we've given them, um, it .... it' s
great to have partners in the community like the Housing Fellowship and the Housing
Trust Fund of Johnson County who have the experience, have the staff to do the work in
the affordable housing area and where we can, you know, if we have the funds, we can
kind of funnel it off to them and they can do the hard work. So .... and they do a good job
with it!
Throgmorton/ Anything else, folks? Okay, I want to bring up, uh, two topics — one is IP #5, a
New York Times article about the U.S. withdrawing from UNESCO, uh, which has
implications, uh.....some implications for the UNESCO City of Literature. Uh, I .... I find
this to be a really short-sighted, poorly informed action that undermines the United States
in the world, but we don't control what the United States does. The good news is that we
live in a City of Literature, a city that's open to engagement with the world, and a city
that is full of people who learn by reading, thinking, writing, compassionately engaging
one another. That's absolutely central to the identity of this city, and there's nothing the
President can do to alter that. The other thing I wanted to mention is, uh.... I .... I don't
know, it was supposed to be part of the late handout. Did .... did it appear? Yeah, okay!
So there's an October 11th memo from Tajos... I don't know how to pronounce this.
Tejasvi Sharma, President and other leaders of the University of Iowa's Graduate and
Professional Student Government, asking, uh.... that we appoint a graduate student to
serve as an ex -officio, non-voting member of the City Council, similar to the UISG's
student liaison position. And, uh, I met with, um, Luke McClanahan and Scott Roberts in
early September. They told me they wanted to do this, and I said I .... I couldn't predict
how the Council would respond, but what they should do is put together a memo, make a
request to us, and we'd deliberate about it and see what we wanted to do. So, I .... I can
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say I think their rec.... or their suggestion has considerable merit, but I see a couple
challenges too. Uh, one is .... just kind of a straightforward question. Why should we
appoint liaisons from a particular group in the community when there're all sorts of other
groups in the community. So, why ... that particular group rather than any other. Now we
know why the, uh, UISG, uh.... uh, why (mumbled) have that relationship with UISG.
It ... it dates back to, I don't know, what, 2007? I don't know. (several talking) Back
then, you know, when there were concerns about excessive drinking and all that. Uh,
nonetheless, I think the question, uh.... uh, needs to be, uh, addressed and thought
through. Uh, and secondly, there are other things we could do. Uh, instead of formally
appointing a liaison, perhaps we could assign a liaison to work with, uh, the Graduate and
Professional Student organization, so that we do have a relationship with `em, and they
do have a way of, uh.... uh, bringing their concerns and ideas, etc., in .... into, uh, our
consciousness, uh, but maybe not by doing it through the student liaison process. Those
are just a couple thoughts I have. I .... I don't know if you have specific thoughts. We
don't have to decide anything tonight. I just wanted to draw your attention to it. If you
have some initial thoughts, we could hear them, and .... and then, uh, bring it back up at a
later date.
Cole/ Well I guess for my thought is I initially was going to be pretty receptive to this because
we have the UISG reps, but to your point, Jim, the where do we draw the line problem, I
think is absolutely valid, urn ... because I (mumbled) lot of respect for these guys, all the
graduate students that work and study and live here and hopefully stay here, um, but there
is that question and it's sort of we made a historical decision, or the previous Councils
did, um, with the drinking issue, which was a major public policy issue that they needed
to get a hold of, um, so I'd be cautious on that, but as to your second point, figuring out
ways to engage. I think absolutely if there's some way that we can do that, um, I like the
concept of a liaison, but I guess I'm not ready to support a liaison at this point.
Botchway/ So I'm actually supportive, I mean for me it's just a representative government, um,
you know ..... UISG is the undergraduate representative of government, graduate students,
professional students are representative government for graduate students. Um, so I don't
see any issue from a standpoint as far as how we delineate why we wouldn't then
support, um, another, you know, organization such as .... the, um, Law School government
organization or something along those lines. I think its ... to me it's two different, um,
situations. So I'd be very supportive. Um, you know I think that if we're thinking about
kind of the where does it end question, I mean, you know I think personally, I mean if we
think about, um ... from a liaison standpoint, going out and participating some of these
meetings, um, that have that relevancy from a Council perspective, I think that's
important, but for this particular one I see no reason why, um, we wouldn't have a rep
from them, you know, join us in the same way that UISG and Ben does, um, in this
particular situation. Again, I'm focusing on kind of the governmental body, um,
structure, um, and just that.
Mims/ I guess to me, Kingsley, when you .... when you focus on that governmental entity
structure .... I mean I come back to what Jim said. I .... it .... I don't know how you're
drawing the line, unless you're just saying if it's University then it's okay, but if it's any
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group outside of the University, we're not gonna do it that way, because otherwise
we ... we are opening it up. I mean it was .... it was a big deal when the undergraduates got
the liaison, okay, and that has stayed that way for a long time. But... unless you're gonna
say it's only okay to have a liaison from the University system, then .... then there is a
whole ..... you could draw the line that way, and I think you could have people outside of
the University would say `wait a minute,' you know, `what about .... this community, that
community,' I mean immigrant community, whatever, within..... within the city that
would want, you know, a liaison. So I .... I do think it's a real challenge in terms of how
you draw the line. I guess .... on the one hand, I want to be really supportive of this, but
on the other, I am really concerned about.....the line drawing, as you're saying, Jim. And
while we don't have to make a decision tonight, my interest in moving forward would be
maybe to start with us having a liaison to them, find out kind of what their meeting
structure is, see if we have somebody who would be able and willing to attend their
meetings, urn .... start getting an idea of what their issues are, what their concerns are, and
bringing those back, um .... just as we could do that, I mean we've got our listening posts,
we've got other ways we, you know, we do the outreach with the .... the neighborhood
group. What's the .... the board of all the neighborhood groups (several talking) Yeah,
the Neighborhood Council, we do that. Um, maybe to start by .... having some attendance
regularly for a little while at their meetings and see what develops from there in terms of
what their real needs are, what kinds of communication is needed to address some of
those.
Taylor/ Kind of along the lines of what Susan's saying, and maybe Benjamin can help me out on
this, I'm trying to think of what kinds of interests or concerns they would have that would
be different than .... than the undergrads. I mean, don't take me wrong, my daughter's a
graduate student, but .... and then on the lines of where do we draw the line, there also is a
Faculty, um, and Staff, uh, Committee at the University and ... and perhaps they would
want to have some input on the Council also. So, you know, where would we (both
talking)
Throgmorton/ I think their memo actually states their particular interests and they are
significantly different, even though there's some overlap with UISG, and there, I don't
know, something like 7,000 graduate and professional students (several talking)
Mims/ ...10,000 (several talking)
Throgmorton/ So, I mean, it's a significant body of people, right? John, did you have any quick
response?
Thomas/ You know, um, unfortunately partly because I was.. A didn't get back till Sunday
night, I didn't have a chance to read this material, but what you just said, I think, is
important. It was a question brewing in my mind was how large is this group of people.
It's a sizable group! Um, so I think that suggests, uh, you know, that there's some
validity to having their representation.
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Throgmorton/ All right. Let me make this suggestion. Uh, Geoff, I wonder if...if, uh, staff could
get back in touch with the ... the folks who wrote this letter to us, and indicate that we're
not inclined to support appointing a liaison, but that we are in ... uh, strongly, um, we
strongly desire to, uh, establish some kind of relationship, so that we can, uh.... uh, learn
from them and make sure that they're able to, uh, have a say in, uh, development of any
policy that has to do with their well-being and so on, you know, and .... and then we could
have .... they could send us another proposal, a different kind of proposal, and we could
discuss it in a work session. Sorry.....I noticed our work session agenda's pretty light
now. I'm worried about that (laughs) So .... so we could have a (both talking)
Fruin/ I can communicate that. I think they.....I think they are out here too and they, uh (both
talking)
Throgmorton/ Oh! Sorry, should have .... should have recognized you for sure. Sorry, my bad!
So, I think that's where we're at.
Nelson/ I have a question!
Throgmorton/ Yeah!
Nelson/ Um, for like the proposed work session topic, would it .... would it be limited to like this
new proposal or would it include the current one, because I think there's.....I don `t think
we've fully fleshed out a lot of the problem .... a lot of the problems that y'all might have
with the current proposal. Um, I know Kingsley expressed support for the current
proposal, so I wouldn't want to limit our conversation. I'd .... I prefer to just have a work
session over a liaison, or somehow building relationships with GPSG in the general,
rather than, you know, some nuance to it. Does that make sense?
Throgmorton/ Yeah, I get your point. That makes sense to me. I .... I have no objection to that.
Fruin/ Okay, so we're just gonna add this to the pending list?
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
Fruin/ Okay.
Throgmorton/ Okay, anything else havin' to do with, uh, Information Packets? If not, um, we
want Council updates, and I guess we're gonna start with Kingsley. (mumbled) Nothing
from Kingsley. Susan?
Council updates on assigned boards, commissions and committees:
Mims/ (laughs) Trying to think back. No, I don't think I've had any committee meetings in the
last two weeks.
Throgmorton/ John?
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Thomas/ No, I don't .... I don't have any.
Throgmorton/ Pauline? Rockne?
Cole/ The UNESCO issue, um, as soon as it was announced that the United States was
withdrawing from UNESCO, John Kenyon, uh, confirmed to us that that would not affect
our City of Literature status. The public can rest assured, he's already communicated that
in detail, um, but that is the big news on the City of Literature board, um, and of course
(mumbled) finished the wonderful conference, which is kudos to John Kenyon and
everyone who put that together.
Dickens/ Para -transit meets, uh, I believe it's the first week of December. After that we'll need
to replace me. (both talking)
Throgmorton/ Irreplaceable Terry! (several talking and laughing)
Dickens/ Somebody's gotta move on! (laughter)
Throgmorton/ Okie dokie! Uh, well I want to mention two things. Uh, I'm on this Convention
and Visitors Bureau board. They're having a meeting Thursday afternoon, 4:00 P.M.
Also on the ... uh, Partnership for Alcohol Safety, I'm co-chair of that, they're having a
meeting Tuesday from 3:30 to 5:00. So I have nothing to report. Okay! I think, uh, I
think that's it, isn't it? Work session is adjourned!
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