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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005-09-06 Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Minutes Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Tuesday, September 6, 2005 Minutes Councilors Attending: Geoffrey Gratwick, Susan Hawes, Councilor Farrington Staff Attending: Ed Barrett, Jim Ring, Lt. Ron Gastia, Sally Bates Others Attending: Mr. & Mrs. Gallant, Ed Seltzer, Mr. Dowd & 2 Staff Members Committee convened at 5:15 p.m. 1. Request for Easement for Bangor Hydro Electric Installation at Eastern Maine Healthcare System A routine action which will allow Bangor Hydro to install electrical utility services on leased City land of Eastern Maine Healthcare System’s new building on Union Street. This is a preliminary before going to the full Council and turns it over to Jim Ring for a brief comment. Jim Ring distributes a sketch and explains an easement will be required from the City to Bangor Hydro to install the underground portion of the electric service, which is necessary for the proposed Eastern Maine Healthcare building at the former Slager property site. On page two and three in Council packet there is a draft Council Action and Order form that will be for consideration under the consent agenda at next Monday’s Council meeting. It does require City to grant this. Councilor Farrington states the Committee has had considerable discussion on this and having known about it and move the Staff recommendation to refer it to the full Council. Councilor Gratwick states it is so moved. 2. Discussion –Parking Issues on Otis Street Councilor Gratwick comments this is on lower Otis Street. This is something that has been considered by the Police Department as well as neighbors. Turning it over to Lt. Ron Gastia for introduction and invites citizens to the table for their chance to speak. 1 Lt. Gastia states that this issue surrounds parking on Otis Street and some of the current residents have had problems getting out of their driveways. Occasionally there have been complaints brought to the Police Department about parking. Otis Street is a narrow street being 25 ft wide and a very short street. Most recently over the last year and a half the Police Department has received several complaints from at least one particular resident who has had problems getting out of their driveway with a larger vehicle, an RV. The reason for that is the east side of Otis Street has parking for the entire length of the street. When somebody tries to back out of their driveway there isn’t enough room. During the winter months the snow narrows it down even more. It’s three feet narrower than what is normally allowed for parking on either side of street. Emergency vehicles and snowplows can’t go up the street if it is too narrow. The Department realizes the problem is a result from primarily Eastern Maine Medical Center. They park off-site, using the City streets during the day, and because there’s no guidance there or regulations for timed parking, they park there the entire day. Which doesn’t allow for anybody else to park there, this doesn’t allow for residents or visitors to park on the street. We do know Eastern Maine has addressed this issue with their employees and tried to gain voluntary compliance from their employees and have had very little success. Also, would like to point out that Steve Russell, representative of Eastern Maine is present to answer any questions the Committee may have. Steve Russell stated to him that they have tried to notify the employees to park someplace else, but since it is off-site they don’t have any control over that. The Police Department sent a survey out to all the residents around Otis Street. The survey gave some options for a solution to this problem and we received a number of responses. The most prominent response is that we eliminate all parking on Otis Street. In order to continue to be in the best interest of the street and the residents, we decided that was not a viable option, because it would eliminate parking for residents, visitors, or the daycare business that utilizes on street parking from time to time. The recommendation the Police Department would be to make Otis Street parking a two-hour time zone. This will not be a total answer to the problem because it’s out of the downtown parking district which means it’s up to police officers themselves to patrol that. And because patrol officers are out doing other things they can not be every two hours to check a vehicle, chalk it, and then come back and ticket it. So we are relying upon residents to let us know when there is an issue. But we also encourage the beat officer to get over there as often as possible to keep an eye on this area. We hope the time zone will be a deterrent factor for Eastern Maine employees and will certainly do our best to patrol this area and ticket when deserved. We think this is the best answer under the circumstances. 2 Councilor Farrington asks Lt. Gastia in situations like this where there are workers and residents, is there a precedence of favoring one or the other, or how do we generally handle this. Ed Barrett inserts that the City has in the Ordinance a provision that would allow for going to a resident parking by permit only system. We have done that in very limited occasions for relatively limited period of times. For example when St. Joseph’s Hospital was doing it’s expansion we had a lot of people particularly contractors parking on Montgomery Street, so we put the resident parking by permit only into effect on a couple of blocks on Montgomery Street. When Eastern Maine Medical Center was building the newest Weber building we had a lot of people parking on Hancock Street, a lot of those being contractors, again we put resident parking by permit only on a short stretch of Hancock Street for a limited period of time. They were set in there for a period of time, at the end of the sunset period they expired. That is an option, it is a little inconvenient for the residents because there are limitations on how many permits you can have. You have to come down and get the permits, there however is no charge for the permit, but you are limited to one per vehicle, plus two visitors passes. Councilor Farrington asks how many streets in the City that have this unfortunate uniqueness of being narrow. Ed Barrett states that we have a lot of narrow streets. Many of the narrow streets on the eastside we tried to address in a comprehensive fashion back in the late 80’s. We looked at all of the streets, looked at their widths, we had some standards we tried to apply; we made some changes over there. I suspect that was probably when Otis St. went no parking on one side, prior to that parking was allowed on both sides of the street. That was highly controversial because it was a dramatic change, there were huge disagreements among neighbors on what was the right answer for their street. Pearl Street or one of the others came back three times, we had gone to a one way system and that came back a number of times. We finally concluded after that experience is that dealing with these issues would be better taking it on a case by case basis. Rather than do it in a comprehensive fashion because each situation is different, we tried to do a similar thing on the west side, the difficulty we ran into is the west side streets from Main Street back are so long, have hills, and other difficulties. As a general rule, our thinking has changed. In the past we were looking primarily at traffic movement. We’ve come to appreciate the role of parking on street parking as a way to slow traffic and eliminate some of the problems you get on the long stretches of residential streets and they can get up to 40 mph half way down the block. On street parking is probably one the simplest calming device there is. Our biggest concern is getting emergency equipment in. As long as we can accomplish that we’re satisfied. 3 Jim comments on a couple of other items to supplement what Ed said. On the eastside we have a number of streets with narrow right-of-ways. One of the questions or suggestions we often hear when we get in these situations is to widen the street. We don’t have the right-of-way on this particular street to do that without taking some additional width. Otis, Fruit, and Pearl are very similar in that they have very tight front yards. When we looked at what we needed for our minimum widths we generally like to see 28 feet for parking on one side and not the other and still maintain two way traffic. This street is less than that. We went in and looked at the individual situations, we found that neighborhoods generally like to have some parking. That is not always the case, there maybe not be total agreement there, generally we relax that, understanding if we do have a lot of snow periods we then will temporarily post. It has worked fairly well, the issue is that the parking never frees up. As we’ve looked at this the notion of go to two hour parking would at least theoretically free it up periodically so residents would have some use. That’s the basis of our recommendation. Councilor Gratwick asks if it is possible to have a section of road, opposite the driveway, have sixty feet without parking, parking, then seventy of no parking. The second question asked, is if there are other places in the City where it is successful. Is this an experiment that you want to run at this time, given it’s a manpower, budget expenditure of time? You’re going to have to put more people over there. Is there some other structural way we can deal with that? Lt. Gastia states that they have looked at making part of the street a time zone or no parking, or part of the street parking. The problem with doing that in that area is because there are Eastern Maine Medical Center employees who tend to park there all day long during their shift will wind up with part of the street being satisfactory for those residents. But the middle or other end of the street, Eastern Maine Medical Center employees are still going to park there. Which creates the issue of those residents who are now living in front of those spaces coming back to us saying, how come we don’t have that luxury of not having parking on that side of the street, why are we blocked. Once we sent out the survey, we realized it wasn’t only an issue for one end of the street but an issue for the whole street. Ed Barrett states that Jim reminded him they do have some time limited parking in front of John Bapst for the same issue. Where the students were up there parking all day long. Ed asks if Lt. Gastia if he knows how that is working out. Lt. Gastia stated that has not worked out very well. There are some spaces that are time zone and some aren’t time zone, we are currently feeling issues with some of the businesses as early as today who are again starting to complain about John Bapst students parking all day long in those areas. We have 4 problems with John Bapst students parking in time zone areas, as well as the permanent or non-time zone areas. We are there at least two or three times a week. First thing in the morning as soon as the students park there we are issuing tickets. The school has been very good with us by putting the word in the principal’s office that they can’t park in those areas or you’re going to get ticketed. We are constantly fielding complaints for those issues. So it has not worked out what we had hoped that it would by splitting those up. Responding to the second question about using this as an experiment. There are several areas in the City that we do that. Another one is Center Street by St. Joseph’s Hospital. That one actually works out quite well because those people are employees that park there all day, they realize it’s a time zone, they realize they’re going to get ticketed. It’s not every day, it’s up to the beat officer to get over there to take care of that problem. He can’t always get there. But the employees never know when it’s going to happen, so they choose not to park there all day long. We get complaints on it and when we get a complaint we go mark the vehicles and ticket those that are appropriate. Again it’s not a fix all, it’s a resource issue. Councilor Gratwick invites citizens to speak. Rock Gallant is a resident of 18 Otis Street. He states he does have a large camper he navigates through the streets, at times. He also states it is hard leaving his property in the middle of the day and has tried parking the vehicles in the spaces in front of his house, but the minute you move a vehicle somebody moves in. Usually at the end of the day about 4:00 most of the vehicles have left, but the ones left are right in front of his driveway. When the street was redone the grassy area before the sidewalk, if it hadn’t been put in and brought the curb up to the sidewalk there may have been plenty of room to park vehicles. Ambulances would have to go up on his lawn in front of his house to get around the vehicles parked. In reference to speeding, people are trying to beat the oncoming traffic to get around the vehicles. When EMMC approached about the parking lot going in, the understanding was that they would take care of their employees and there wouldn’t be parking on the street. And speculates in time he can see a parking garage coming in. Kathy Gallant also states the citizen concern about speeding up the streets. Ed Steltzer owns the Bangor Montessori School on 30 Otis Street. The school being in existence prior to acquiring, which was approximately ten years ago. Also states parking and traffic have been an issue, for his employees and tenants. It would be a very big burden on his staff if they had no place to park. Requests the Committee to consider something that would appease everyone. Two hour parking will not help as there is a teacher to student ratio and he can’t 5 have teachers going out to move their vehicles. Suggestion to park on the west side and make it one way or make it two way and park on the west side. Councilor Gratwick asks where to go with these different opinions. Lt. Gastia responds that this is unique because it’s out of the downtown area. They did look at parking on the west side of the street. There is a limited amount of spaces due to driveways on the west side than the east side. There aren’t any residences on the east side of the street. Being narrow and congested the only thing they came up with is the two hour parking, however are very open to suggestions but have been able to come up with one to satisfy everyone. Ed Barrett states there may have been a survey back when a parking study was performed in the area. Mr. Gallant suggest moving the “no parking from here to corner” sign. Lt Gastia states that the concern is on taking care of the Gallant’s issue who brought this issue forward. It will not take care of every other resident on Otis Street. Also comments that making it a one way street will stop people from parking. It would have to be in conjunction with some sort of Ordinance. Councilor Gratwick the options being are one is make it a two hour restriction. Two, to make it a one-way street. Three, restricted areas with yellow curb. And four, permit parking system, in a permanent sense. Jim Ring states it would seem the first thing that might work to improve would be to move the “no parking here to curb”. The second thing may be time limited. He asks Lt. Gastia if he has heard from other residents regarding lack of parking? Lt. Gastia states not specifically a lack of parking ability. The packet contains the responses from citizens. Jim Ring states it would seem moving the parking restriction might be the first thing to consider. Availability of parking continues to be a source of complaints, the time parking is the best bet. Eliminating parking will most likely generate more vehicular traffic complaints. The residential permit parking if that is a regular practice here, it limits parking to visitors and be a policing nightmare. 6 Councilor Farrington comments he hasn’t seen any speed bumps in Bangor and the area of grass uses and that parking is going to be an issue in all areas, as we grow. Councilor Gratwick states the most forward thing to do is extend the yellow curb back, then come back in six months and discuss the possibility of limited parking or one way street. Ed Barrett states that would solve the problem for 10%-20% percent. He is concerned when you solve the problem for one resident and don’t solve the problem for residents three to four houses up. Speed bumps can’t be put in because of the snow plowing and they are hazardous. You can however, put in speed humps, those are gradual rises with plateaus and gradual declines. Those are highly controversial, reference Blackstone Street. There national organization that opposes speed humps. They can be a potential maintenance hazard, also drainage with ice dams can be produced. Will speak with Jim regarding widening. It doesn’t create more parking but will create more backing room. But that does carry a semi-significant price tag. Jim Ring states probably $20,000.00 to $25,000.00. Councilor Gratwick states they need to gather more data and to come back in six months. Ed Barrett asks how many parking spaces are needed. Ed Seltzer states he has five staff and others that come in. Ed Barrett requests Mr. Selzter inform Lt. Gastia what the peak on street parking demand is. Lt. Gastia would support the moving of the signage, but caution revisiting will be necessary in the future. Ed Barrett states that the recommendation is to move the no parking back to Mr. Gallant’s driveway. This has to come back to the Council for first reading, then come back to the Council a second time for passage. Councilor Gratwick states the issue will be revisited in six months time, with the other three items. 3. Request for Permit Parking – French Street 7 Sally Bates has provided a portion of the Downtown Parking Management District map and noted where Dr. Dowd’s location is, to give a context. Also providing a map of where all the City owned permit lots are. The closest permit parking to the Dowd building are Abbott Square and the lot called Hancock Square lot. Having timed walking from lower Abbott parking area to the entrance of the Dowd building entrance on State Street takes approximately six minutes. Then did a timed walk from the building to the Hancock Square lot that was about a five-minute walk. There are existing current permit parking in a reasonable distance. The request is to make on street parking in the vicinity of the building particularly on French Street permit spaces and requesting the North side of State Street. We typically look at these issues at the Downtown Advisory Committee meetings in the summertime. We found this summer the most complex parking situation thus far. The Court system is moving in, addition of 125 new employees, the Waterfront development, a potential condominium project will all add a demand on parking in the downtown area. At the next City th Council meeting on September 12, will introduce the Council Order that will establish an appointment of a Downtown Management Parking Advisory Committee. The Mayor then will appoint citizens who have voting power, who are on the Committee, and staff. That Committee will report to Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, at which time it will agree or disagree with recommendations, then send it to the Council. Sally’s recommendation is to have the Downtown Advisory Committee look at this situation carefully. If allowed the permit parking prices will then be determined. Ed Barrett asks Sally if the parking on French Street is two hours. Sally Bates responds that it is two hours. Councilor Gratwick asks if there are other streets with permit parking where X amount is paid per month, equivalent to a lot. Sally states on a technicality Lower Abbott, Hanes Court is a street but never functioned as such. Dr. Dowd asks what the eastern street border would be of downtown. Sally Bates states parts of Broadway and parts of Oak. Dr. Dowd states French Street doesn’t present the same parking issues as the downtown area because it always has parking open. So he doesn’t see the requesting of six parking spaces on French Street next to State Street having a negative impact to the downtown area. 8 Councilor Farrington asks how many professional businesses downtown have permit parking. Ed Barrett states approached from time to time over the years and the general response is to not permit that, because that creates the issue of where and when not to allow it. Where it has been permitted, they are placed in a general permit system. Which is if they allow permit parking on French Street, from State to Verizon building area, they would all be on a first come first serve basis. Not designated to anyone in particular and to respond to why French Street is part of the downtown area is because it would be heavily impacted if the time limit were taken off. If it were free all day parking it would be occupied by downtown people, thus the two-hour parking signs. Lt. Gastia commenting on the Doctor’s office that just went in on Broadway and will be looking for him to request permit parking for his office staff and patients. Dr. Dowd suggests perhaps window decals for employees permit parking. Ed Barrett states that if in selling a permit there is an implied guarantee that there is going to be space and should some need to move to run an errand, they come back there might not be a space, thus could be a problem. Lt. Gastia informed that the parking enforcement to collect data regarding parking in the immediate area on French Street. Over a two-week period there were 75 different registered vehicles in that area. Of those 75, 60 vehicles were one-time visitors 15 of those vehicles parked more than once in one week. But unable at this time to provide who those vehicles were registered to. Dr. Dowd expresses he is not looking for special treatment. Councilor Gratwick stated Dr. Dowd will be kept informed of the Parking Advisory Committee will be meeting. Councilor Farrington motions to adjourn, Councilor Gratwick seconds. 9