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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-06-03 Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Minutes Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Tuesday, June 3, 2008 Minutes Councilors Attending: Peter D’Errico, Patricia Blanchette, Richard Stone, Geoffrey Gratwick, Harold Wheeler Staff Attending: Ed Barrett, Jim Ring, Sally Bilancia, Parke Clemons, Andy Rudzinski Others Attending: Parking Advisory Committee Members, Downtown Business Owner Committee convened at 5:00 p.m. Consent Agenda 1. Sewer Abatement Request: 543 Hammond Street- Account # 065139 2. Sewer Abatement Request: 733 Union Street – Account # 066270 Both items were moved by Councilor Stone and seconded by Councilor D’Errico with no discussion. Regular Agenda 3. Easement for Bangor Gas to Provide Service to Sheraton Four Points Hotel - BGR Jim Ring provided an overview and informed the Committee that Bangor Gas spoke with Legal regarding an easement across Airport land and provided a memo from Legal. This was a standard agreement requiring full Council approval. Jim explained to the Committee that public utilities have the right to locate within the public right-of-way with a Utility Location Permit. However, an easement is needed when it is outside the public way. Jim stated he contacted Bangor Gas and hadn’t seen an exact location for it and may be premature at this time. Bangor Gas discussed with Sheraton their intent to provide service. Ed stated that they’re under a time constraint and suggested the Council approve subject to final location being acceptable to the City Engineer. Councilor Stone moved, Councilor Blanchette seconded for passage. 1 Councilor D’Errico asked about existing gas lines which Jim stated there was also there would be lines on Polk Street to provide service to General Electric. Councilor Blanchette asked what the existing setup was for the Airport, if oil? And would it to be prudent now to take lines to the terminal building? Ed stated they’re looking at a bio mass boiler by Honeywell, and converting to gas with the existing system. An agreement may be required to purchase at a certain quantity over a period of time. Councilor Blanchette asked if converting to gas what would be the payback? Ed stated there was no exact figure and provided an example that the City of Bangor was hooking up along with four other buildings and they were looking at a savings of $100,000.00, a 25%-40% savings. Jim stated the payback would be under ten years. Ed stated it would be closer to five years. 4. Recommendations from Downtown Parking Advisory Committee Councilor Gratwick provide a brief overview of the actions of the Advisory Committee  Amending the Map of the Downtown Parking Management District to include a portion of the waterfront area. Sally Balancia stated this item was a request to include Pleasant Street, tabled for now, but advised to include in the district. Councilor Stone moved and Councilor D’Errico seconded for passage.  Changing spaces 113 & 114 from 30 minutes to 1 hour. Sally stated the spaces were located in front of Ames and the Bib & Tucker. The request was to make both spaces one hour to match the surrounding spaces. Council Stone moved and Councilor D’Errico seconded for passage.  Adding “persons with disabilities” designation to space 232. Sally stated there was a request for parking next to existing handicap space to provide a solution for the parking for the Hammond Street Senior Center. The folks with disabilities have difficulty walking long distances. Councilor Stone stated that at a meeting a member approached him to see if they could work out a program so they could pay for a sticker, which would entitle them to a certain amount of parking on the street. Sally stated there wasn’t a program to pay for on-street parking. That same individual initiated this request. Ed reminded the Committee that handicap spaces were double the time. Councilor Stone moved and it was seconded for passage.  Adding “persons with disabilities” designation to space 812. 2 Sally stated the location was under the Chamberlain Bridge near 4 Union Street. The owner of the Hairlines Head Salon requested. Councilor Stone moved and Councilor Blanchette seconded for passage.  Amending the fees and procedures for issuing contractor permits with Downtown Parking Management District Sally stated the Advisory Committee was approached by Dan Wellington in the Code Enforcement Department. The fees hadn’t been reviewed since 1996. The suggestion would be to tie in the price to the Pickering Square price and a per day fee of twice the daily rate be considered. Contractors would pay a rate of $9.00 per space a day. Councilor Stone moved and it was seconded for passage. Ed stated there would be revisions to improve the language. Councilor Gratwick stated there was a final item which was not in the packet. 5. Parking Lease Agreement for Eastern Maine Medical Center Sally stated the agreement with Eastern Maine Medical Center was for 210 parking spaces at the parking garage. There would be a revision of that lease to change it to give the City more flexibility when parking demand increased at the parking garage. Suggestion to negotiate and if they’re agreeable to displacement to the Bass Park Complex if parking was overtaxed at the parking garage and the Kenduskeag parking lot. Mike Dyer would be open to working with them as well, if needed. The lease term would go through to October 2009, and would revisit the issue then. Ed stated this item was not going to Council and that EMMC was working on a plan to expand their parking within a year. Jim informed the Committee that he had email correspondence from the designer of the project and had a meeting. EMMC was interested in moving that along as quickly as possible. Parke Clemons provided clarification that there would be an adjustment to their fees as well and to consider tying into the rates of the parking garage. Councilor Stone moved and it was seconded for passage. Councilor Stone asked what revenue was produced from their parking at the garage and how would the loss be made up once EMMC built their garage. Parke stated the rate was a fixed $8,400 per month for up to 210 spaces. Typically, EMMC use was 125-140 per day and that the new courthouse parking needs would likely supplement. Councilor Wheeler noted there has been a significant renaissance of retail and restaurants in the last 20 years, i.e. Grasshopper Shop, Rebecca’s, Epic Sports who are open from lunchtime to evening. He had been in discussion with some of the owners regarding the one hour parking on Main and Central Street. There has been a distinct disadvantage to establishments. By the time individuals took ten minutes to find a space, get to their desired location then return they would only have about 40-45 minutes to browse, have lunch, or make a purchase. It costs the businesses. He would not advocate increasing the parking limit throughout the downtown area. His feeling was he did not want to diminish the 3 work of the Advisory Committee but to request a drafting of an Order increasing the parking on Main Street and Central Street from 60 minutes to 90 minutes when the City Attorney returns from vacation, have it go to first reading, referral, and then Council. Councilor Blanchette presented a procedural matter requesting if the website was updated, to repost so people could view who might want to address the issue. Ed stated it was not on the website. Ed provided options for a required Ordinance 1) Go to the Parking Advisory Committee. 2) Refer to Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Councilor Wheeler was in favor of either procedure, Councilor Blanchette was in favor of sending to the Parking Committee first. The Committee heard from business owners regarding the abuse of the parking spaces by employees and that increasing the parking times may not ease the parking problem. Councilor Blanchette suggested before taking to the Parking Committee they would need to know when the Ordinance was changed and parking times were changed on Central and Main Street and requested a list of dates when parking zones were changed to avoid repeating history. 6. Referral: Ordinance 08-183, Amending Chapter 128.14.1 of the Code of Ordinances-Construction and Maintenance of Solid Fuel Boilers Ed gave an overview and stated the purpose was to eliminate potential in the City for stand alone wood boiler or boiler located in separate building which was adopted at a time when there was concern about backyard barbeques, pit type installations with a lot of smoke. There was consideration of installing bio mass boilers at Bangor International Airport and Bangor High School, eliminating the vast majority of pollution, which would burn cleaner than an oil burner. Bangor International Airport, Dock 10 building would be piping hot water to the terminal building. Bangor High School would build a separate building to house unit. Under the current Ordinances this would not be allowed. The request was to amend the Code to allow the bio mass boilers to be installed in accessory structures or separate from the main structure. This would be in the Industrial District not to extend to Residential. However, there may be a future visit discussion regarding the residential district as related to cost of rising fuel prices. Councilor Stone asked how the City would ensure anyone installing one, was up to Code and how it would be policed. Ed stated there is a requirement that the unit must meet the Maine Environmental Protection Regulations and the building owner could be contacted by Code to have their unit serviced, even if there is black smoke. Enforcement in reference to the Code, suspect Bangor International would be subject to emissions from DEP. Councilor Stone didn’t want to deny someone trying to save a dollar but also didn’t want to deny somebody the right to breathe. Ed assured that this would apply to large industrial applications and stated Staff visited a large installation in New Hampshire that produced steam/heat from stack. He also noted that City Staff and DEP are cognoscente of places with a great deal of smoke. He stated these were high tech and emissions controlled. Jim noted if someone wanted to save money they would likely spend their money best by buying a high efficiency unit. Councilor Stone inquired as to whether Code would issue a permit and if there would be an opportunity to inspect the specification sheet. Ed responded that it 4 would require a permit and an opportunity to inspect the specification sheet. Jim added that heating devices that were installed must procure a license, usually building inspection/Code folks are out and around and if a permit was obtained for installation it would need to be inspected for Fire and State Codes. These appliances require certification. Councilor Blanchette advised this was new territory and Council does not have the expertise. A request to have someone come and explain, she also requested a representative from DEP. Councilor Gratwick requested an estimated date and time for “show and tell”. Jim stated he would contact Honeywell and inquire at DEP for a representative. Ed would provide information on oil burners versus bio mass boilers with regards to emissions. Councilor Blanchette requested information on the type of filter used and the regulations. Councilor Gratwick suggested the data and experts come back to the Committee in two weeks. Ed stated he would check with the school who is “pretty much committed” to the installation – he was concerned about hold them up. Councilor Gratwick suggested not to holding up that, the information could be emailed. This item would be on hold for two to four weeks. 7. Referral: Ordinance 08-195, Amending the Code of the City of Bangor, Chapter 252, Sewers and Drains, to Comply with State and Federal Law, Allow for Greater Latitude in Operations and Oversight, and Make Various Other Changes Jim provided the Committee with an overview. This Ordinance change would bring Code into compliance with State and Federal Law. The bulk of the changes would be to the Industrial Pretreatment. He noted Andy Rudzinski, Industrial Pretreatment Coordinator and stated there were changes to the Federal and State Regulations. Updates recently to the Federal Clean Water Act made by EPA in 2006 and adopted by the State in 2007. Important note that these changes could give greater operation/oversight latitude to the treatment plant, also regulate entities that follow under the City’s pretreatment program. Currently the Ordinance referenced the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System. Since Maine adopted and has oversight, the name is Maine Pollution Discharge Elimination System. There were two points. Page 75-76 paragraph D. “Surcharge Fees”, the suggestion would be to make the change that “the City may impose a surcharge” one which could not exceed 50% of usual rate if the Committee was interested. He stated the trouble with the Ordinance during the Garelick Farms item was due to wording. The second item, Section E., instead of the surcharge being set by Council Order, it could be done by the superintendent, who had a very specific formula on how that’s calculated. With Council Order 08-154, changes to surcharge all be incorporated into this. Section I, the allowance for abatements when water was used in a manufactured product wasn’t clear. The change would clarify water used for “wholesale” would be eligible for an abatement. Councilor Blanchette requested information on how Brewer handled Getchell Ice. After some discussion with Andy about the changes, Andy stated he would inquire about Getchell Ice. Councilor D’Errico moved and Councilor Stone seconded for passage. Motion and seconded to adjourn meeting at approximately 6:08 p.m. 5