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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Meeting - Council Workshop - Minutes - 11/16/1999 COUNCIL WORKSHOP i NOVEMBER 16, 1999 COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: President Leona Orr, Sandy Amodt, Tom Brotherton, Tim Clark, Connie Epperly, Judy Woods, Rico Yingling STAFF PRESENT: Dena Laurent, Lori Flemm, Ernie Rideout, John Willits, Norm Angelo, Kevin O'Neill, Fred Satterstrom, John Hodgson, Gary Gill, Frank Spanjer, Jackie Bicknell PUBLIC PRESENT: John Santana, David Lee City Marketing Image Government Affairs Manager Dena Laurent presented design work for the new City marketing image. Amendments to Street Standards Senior Planner Kevin O'Neill said in August the Mayor had asked Planning and Public Works staff to put together a work plan for looking at residential streets and showing better connections between neighborhoods and other issues that related to streets and street standards. Staff from Planning, Public Works, the Fire Department and Parks met for 6-8 weeks to discuss issues that each of those departments had concerning the design of the streets themselves, such as the use of the right-of-way and connections between streets. Some members of the Council, in looking at the goals and policies in the Comprehensive Plan, were concerned about how and whether some of the policies were • actually being implemented on the ground, in terms of the way streets are laid out in subdivisions or when street improvements are made. There are a number of goals and policies in several elements of the Comprehensive Plan that relate to streets and street standards. Streets serve a transportation function but they also serve a community development function and are predominant land use in the city. A few years ago, when looking at future build-out potential for the City, a GIS analysis was done that showed 15% of all land in the City of Kent is public right-of-way. Specific goals and policies of the Comprehensive Plan talk about better connections so there won't be as many dead-end streets in the overall street network; layout of the streets and wider sidewalks that are more pedestrian friendly; landscaping and street trees incorporated into street design; and narrower paved roadways in some residential areas. (Mr. O'Neill handed out the Community Forum on Growth Management and Visioning, June 1992.) He said an extensive public participation process was undertaken with hundreds of citizens participating in the community forums when the Comprehensive Plan was developed. People were asked what kind of residential streets they thought functioned well and what pattern worked best for traffic,pedestrians, and bicycles. Images were shown of different kinds of residential streets: those with wider pavement versus streets with narrower pavement incorporating landscaping and street trees. When the Comprehensive Plan was adopted a lot of the goals and policies were chosen because of input at the forums. The questions now are how to translate these policies into standards of what's on the ground: if narrower paved widths are incorporated, what will that mean for on-street parking and emergency access; if there will be landscaping, how will that be incorporated; will more right-of-way be needed, and if so, what implications would that have on the whole development process. Another consideration is whether the development and subdivision codes should have actual development standards that try to limit the use of cul-de-sacs, or where cul-de-sacs are necessary for topographic i Council Workshop, 11/16/99 2 reasons or environmental reasons, should there be pedestrian and bicycle connections in between cul- de-sacs. • Gary Gill, City Engineer, said that Traffic Engineer Frank Spanj er, in working with staff,put together handouts which provide schematics of various major issues to analyze and discuss in more detail before coming up with final recommendations. The first table shows a list of all the roadway classifications that exist today in street standards from principle arterial streets to the local access residential streets. For example, the typical right-of-way for a residential street is 49 feet. If other improvements are incorporated, such as landscape medians or the sidewalks being separated from the curbs with planter strips, then it could be as wide as 69 feet. Tom Brotherton said he would like to see data incorporated into the process from the model set of traffic standards proposed by the Washington State Department of Community and Economic Development. Mr. Gill commented that that document had been used as a discussion document and it gives various cross sections for types of classifications and shows the parking widths for on-street parking, landscape medians, and other features. The paved width of the street is one of the major issues that would be looked at and whether to have a landscape median. Also to be considered is on- street parking and bicycle paths, and whether the bicycle paths would be in-street lanes or incorporated into the sidewalk. An administrative policy was adopted for the Kent School District that says if the distance is within a walking area to an elementary school, the preferred option is to put in extra wide sidewalks of 10 feet and have them be a combined pedestrian walkway and bicycle way for elementary age school children. Most parents of young school aged children prefer that their kids ride bicycles on the sidewalks. The school district and PTA have similar feelings in that regard. • There would be no parking allowed on the major residential collector arterial type streets such as 100`h Avenue or 94` . Those are fairly substantial roadways that provide access to a lot of abutting neighborhoods that may have their own internal street systems. Where there are minor or principal arterials, there would be no parking on the street. The local access residential collector streets, or a local residential street,which might dead end into a cul-de-sac, could have on-street parking. Right now parking is allowed on both sides of the minimum width 32 foot street, allowing 16 feet for a through lane with 8 feet on both sides for on-street parallel parking. A lower standard of 28 feet is used for local dead end cul-de-sacs that serve 9 lots or less. That standard has been done administratively, but it's not technically in the standards as a separate drawing right now. When the latest update of the standards was done, the width was increased from 28 feet to 32 feet. Landscaping issues with on-street parking is a major issue, and also bicycle paths, whether they're in the street or on the sidewalk. The Parks Department can provide some additional information on their recently initiated proposal on landscaping, planter boxes, and spacing and types guidelines for street trees. That will be carefully considered in conjunction with any standards that engineering adopts. Parks is recommending minimum spacing for trees as defined in three different categories of small, medium, and large, and the minimum area required for trees of various sizes for the root ball and healthy tree survival. For the smaller trees that have a height of 15-30 feet,the recommendation is a minimum planting area of two feet on each side of the tree plus about a foot for the trunk of the tree, so a five foot planter would be needed. If that's incorporated into the street standard, then an additional five feet would need to be added on each side of the street for trees. The other option is putting them behind the sidewalk,which is what is done now, primarily due to the problems in the downtown area with the sidewalks buckling because of the roots of the Sweet Gum and other varieties of trees that were not the right species for that environment. Those trees causing the root Council Workshop, 11/16/99 3 problems would probably fall under the medium to larger tree sizes,which require a lot larger planter area. • The very last page of the handout lists some of the tradeoffs that staff has looked at with regard to some of the particular issues such as the advantages and disadvantages of landscape medians. For example, more right-of-way would be needed for landscape medians, planter strips, or bicycle lanes. Right-of-way means money, especially to the private development community who may be told that instead of 49 feet they will be required to dedicate 60 feet of right-of-way or more. That means less area for lots and development, so there's tradeoffs that have to be looked at. If the streets can be narrowed down and some of these features still incorporated, then restricting on-street parking may have to be looked at. Enforcement and public safety issues would also need to be addressed. The Neighborhood Traffic Control Program has been adopted with Phase 1 and Phase 2 processes being followed in that program. One of the concerns that the Council had mentioned at an earlier meeting was how to slow traffic down on the local residential streets, but still allow traffic to move freely on the arterial classification roads. Illustrations are provided in the handout of certain types of traffic control devices such as chicaners, diagonal diverters, or mid-block chokers that are used to slow traffic down. Roadway designs have been typically based on how to provide safe movement. When design speeds are computed for a roadway they might be 5-10 miles an hour over the posted speed because, in the past, the theory has always been to try and move traffic safely, realizing that people may exceed the speed limit. For the local access streets some of the geometric design standards might be more appropriate to make it uncomfortable for drivers to exceed the speed limit, providing built-in features that would require them to slow down in a residential community. One of the next steps will be to move forward with the task force. This could mean hiring a consultant to . guide staff through a study to bring a recommendation to the council. Tom Brotherton proposed, as a recommendation, that for all new streets, standards be established so that the design speed of the road is at or less than the posted speed and to make it so that people are more comfortable driving at 25 or less within the neighborhood. This would be simple, straightforward guidance that could be adopted as a goal,with staff working out the possibilities for new construction, or for retrofits to existing streets, and addressing problems such as how to increase the flow and minimize delays on the major arterials where there is congestion. Tim Clark responded that the nature of the arterial and collector arterial networks tend to be a game of people slowing down in their own neighborhood,but using streets on the other side as cut-throughs because the arterial and its lights have slowed traffic down so much they are trying to find an escape valve. Mr. Brotherton said he was looking for road design that would cause anyone driving through the neighborhood to feel compelled to travel at or below the speed limit. If 85%of the people drive below the design speed, the design speed in any residential neighborhood should be 20 miles per hour so that very few people would go over 25 MPH. Mr. Clark said he would prefer an overlay view put into the design scheme that would address the speed and volume of traffic in the immediate, greater regional neighborhood. When some neighborhoods were built and roads connected several years ago, they weren't that heavily used, but now because of new construction and egresses they are facing much heavier traffic than what had originally been planned for. Mr. Brotherton explained that he was looking more at new development or retrofit on residential streets, not arterials and collectors. There are already standards of 25 MPH speed limits on residential streets, with collectors at 30 or 35 MPH. New streets should be designed so that people have to drive at listed speeds and don't have an easy choice to speed. Council Workshop, 11/16/99 4 Rico Yingling said he wouldn't want to have streets designed so that people had to go 20 MPH because it was unsafe to go any faster than that. He liked the idea of making people feel . uncomfortable to go faster, but not if it meant that it was unsafe to go faster. Gary Gill commented that safe sight distance was very important so that people could enter and exit the roadway safely and be able to see objects in a timely manner in order to stop safely. Sometimes the roads are straight and the topography doesn't lend itself to a meandering road. Those roads need to be made safe for people too. Tim Clark said the concept of the regional network load needs to be part of the standards. More housing gets added to the outlying areas which floods the system and adds to the higher density of traffic, and then another traffic light is put in and the entire neighborhood pattern gets dramatically altered. If the whole network isn't taken into consideration, the tacking on ultimately overloads the system as it moves closer towards the core of the city. Tom Brotherton said he thought the proper way to address that would be to look at increasing flows on arterials, and minimizing congestion as the speeds are slowed down in the neighborhoods. Higher speeds in cut-throughs to accommodate people in a hurry is not a good trade-off. Safety should be the overall consideration and then a look taken at how to increase traffic flows in the regional system to try to keep people on the regional system so they don't go off in the neighborhoods. Gary Gill said the connectivity issue would be looked at in more detail at the residential collector arterial level and maybe the collector level. Sometimes it's hard to determine where the roads have to be because,with a lot of small lots, the developer may only be able to acquire two, and so a grid system is needed that makes sense. Sometimes the lot ownership doesn't lend itself to the roads going through, and there are also ongoing concerns where people may not want the connection that would link it to an existing neighborhood. Tom Brotherton remembered Bayberry Crest where the residents in the existing neighborhood didn't want the potential flow from the new development as people tried to avoid a congested intersection. That problem could have been avoided if the standards were such that new traffic going through had to go at 25 MPH or less and the residents could feel confident there wouldn't be speeding problems through their neighborhood. It would make a better connected traffic system and unnecessary trips could be avoided of people driving around to get to the other neighborhoods. Mr. Gill agreed that what happens when the roads are closed off, is that traffic is forced to go out and through the already congested and gridlocked intersections when there may have been an easier way to get out and the intersection totally avoided if traffic could have gone through the neighborhood. Rico Yingling said there has to be a safety valve for gridlock at intersections and ways for people to get out. One of the nice things about the downtown area is when there is gridlock in different places, traffic can go out different ways and the gridlock gets cleared up. Gary Gill summarized that traffic flow was obviously one of the issues staff should look at. Other design elements to look at would be how to place the sidewalks and the costs of providing additional right of way for planter strips or the width of the sidewalks. Tom Brotherton commented that the vision statement gives a lot of guidance on what the people at that time felt was comfortable street design with street trees separating the sidewalks from the traffic instead of putting people right next to traffic. Mr. Gill said trees in planter strips may become a roadside hazard if they're struck by a car, but planter strips could instead have grass or shrubs. Trees also tend to block the directional or stop signs, traffic signals, and street lighting as well. Trees can be put behind the sidewalk where they can be incorporated and blended into the on-sight landscaping. Leona Orr said sidewalks right on the street are a problem because they are not safe. Ms. Orr gave as an example of 109`h between 248`h and 256`h, and said it is the worst City street she has seen. When the street was striped, a huge,wide, left turn lane was put in with a very narrow driving lane right up Council Worksbop, 11/16/99 5 against the sidewalk. One woman wrote to the newspaper, saying she'd almost been hit by the mirror on a pickup. Ms. Orr said she could see that happening because when her husband drives his pickup down that street his mirrors are sticking over the sidewalk. Anyone who's on that sidewalk is in danger of being bumped because the way the street was striped, cars are shoved right into the sidewalk. The intention was probably to slow traffic down but it also shoved the traffic into the people using the sidewalk. Gary Gill said he thought the main reason why the sidewalks got pushed up to the curb was because of the problems with street trees buckling the sidewalks and the increased maintenance and other problems associated with that. A planter could still be used,but it might not incorporate street trees. Street trees could be incorporated behind the sidewalk with a planter area filled with other types of vegetation. Connie Epperly agreed that the planter area could be a space to keep the pedestrians out of the direct line of traffic and something like white rock used if nothing was planted. Rico Yingling asked how the design standards would be made neighborhood appropriate, as some neighborhoods have fairly low cost housing, and expensive landscape designs would keep the housing from being low cost. Mr. Yingling said when five feet for trees are added, that's a lot of additional cost to the developer, and having those standards could prevent the development of low cost housing. He questioned also whether there was a consideration of environmental issues and asked if there were ways to make more of the 15% of City streets that don't percolate more permeable or less impermeable to take care of some of the water and drainage issues. Tom Brotherton mentioned that, with the ESA concerns, porous pavements should be considered, Porous pavements are created by changing how the sub pavement is put down,not by changing the equipment. Use may require pre-training for the contractors,but it can be made a specific standard. Mr. Gill said that would present another trade off as it's very expensive pavement and very • susceptible to problems such as flaking. Mr. Brotherton said that the DOT has a report on use of porous pavement in Europe where it's used a lot more than here. The Europeans seem to be more successful in making it last a long time. Rico Yingling specified that he did not want any rolled curbs anywhere. Gary Gill said the development community pushes for rolled curbs. ADA required specific standards for ramp grades, but as lots got smaller and smaller, the street frontage between lots got to the point where the driveways were so close together that by the time they were ramped up and ramped down there was almost nothing but one big continuous driveway section. So the rolled curbs actually worked better for the local streets where there were real small 50' frontage lots. Judy Woods said it would depend on the street. Rolled curbs wouldn't work down a hill. Connie Epperly said she thought they would work fine for tiny lots. Tom Brotherton stated that there are always exceptions and the conditions should be defined where it would be appropriate and useful and would prevent problems. In general, people should not be able to drive on the sidewalk. Gary Gill said that right now rolled curbs are only allowed in the residential local access streets and not on arterials. Residential collector arterials and above would definitely have vertical curbs. Ms. Epperly commented that with the amount of building being done,those streets once considered to be residential streets have become the arterials. Rico Yingling said parking on the sidewalks prevents them from being useful because they're half used up for parking. Mr. Gill said some of the problems were inherited because the county had a more lenient design criteria. Kent typically only allows rolled curbs on local access streets. Leona Orr said one of the biggest complaints she gets from people is what to do about parking on the sidewalks. Council Workshop, 11/16/99 6 Fire Chief Norm Angelo said firefighters are trained to do many things and must be adaptable because it's not known which alarm they will be sent to. The Department has been very successful and very efficient in delivering services with the closest unit being the one sent to an emergency. Usually it takes more than one apparatus to serve an area and more than one agency interfaces on the call. For example, on an emergency medical service call there will be a fire engine or ladder truck depending on the area it's in, and then probably at least one aid car and possibly a medic unit or ambulance. Considerations are how the units will get past one another, whether there is a cul-de-sac for turn around, where lines can be laid in the road, and how the compartments of the fire engine will be accessed if there are cars parked in the street. Fire Inspector Ernie Rideout handed out visuals of some of the issues important to consider in designing streets. Page 1 shows a typical engine/aid car perspective from the widest point of the fire engine which is the mirrors. From minor to mirror the engine is 9 feet 4 inches wide. With a minimal driving width of 12 feet, there is under 3 feet of clearance just going down the road and that's not allowing for opening up compartments or opening the patient compartment or getting someone inside the aid cabinet on a gurney. Page 2 shows the residential parking street, looking at it from a 7 foot wide parking strip with a 16 foot wide driving surface and parking on both sides. Tom Brotherton commented that with the 16 foot lane, two cars might have trouble passing each other,but in general that would not be a problem for a fire engine as there are several feet on each side and the engine could be pulled over to one side to get into a compartment. Ernie Rideout said two engines side by side and minor to mirror would be over 18 feet wide which is what would be needed to have the ability to pass each other. Assistant Fire Chief John Willets said that the fire engine has to be parked with clear access all the • way around to get to the equipment. The cabinet doors are 2% feet wide. If breathing apparatus has to be put on, it has to clear the door, be flipped over the head without hitting the car behind and put on the back. Page 4 shows hose loads that pull off sideways. The hose has to be loaded on the shoulder and then the firefighter has to turn around and pull it. Clearance is needed to be able to do all of that without hitting somebody's car. Firefighters have to have enough room to turn around without hurting their backs or creating a claim against the City for damage to someone's vehicle. Chief Angelo said it was the physical mechanics of getting a hose load on the shoulder, which sticks out a distance from the body, and turning around with it. The main concern is that of the firefighters' safety. Two feet is needed past the opening of the doors. Assistant Chief Willets said Page 5 shows 7 feet of parking on each side of the stree,with vehicles in the way, and a 16 foot wide roadway. A fire engine with open cabinet on the left side and ladders down on the right side leaves about 3.75 feet. That limits the ability to get into any of the cabinets on the left side. Realistically, the fire engine should have positioned to the right of the yellow line. Chief Angelo said the ladders typically come off in an incident and the doors are open on the other side. The incident will dictate which compartment to go to for the equipment needed. Page 5 also shows that vehicles can't pass on any side of the apparatus. There are trade-offs that go beyond the conceptual. If there is a simultaneous alarm, units that are trapped cannot leave. Considerations are getting one apparatus past another because it's needed down the road or using a longer hose length from a different hydrant. 70-80% of calls are emergency medical services,but the first piece of apparatus will always be a fire engine. The level of risk to the community is going up and it's important for Council to have the awareness to make a conscious decision about what level of service to deliver. It's not uncommon to go into some areas and have difficulty getting the fire engine through because of parking on both sides, even when there was no parking allowed on either side. Council Workshop, 11/16/99 7 Tom Brotherton said something to consider is deciding when some streets,because of configuration or the number of cars on the street, should be made no parking on one side in order to accommodate safe passage. Leona Orr said one of the concerns is that "No Parking"means nothing to a lot of people. People commonly park in front of fire hydrants and in clearly marked No Parking spaces. Chief Angelo said it was important to assess the level of risk and give some alternatives. It may mean different things in resources or different methods of building in protections. The level of service needs to be determined, what the different options are, and the trade-offs to achieving a desirable community and one that is affordable. Rico Yingling said Council is looking at trying to reduce the risk to pedestrians, homeowners, and people who live in the neighborhoods. If fire safety can't have access, that's one kind of risk versus another kind of risk, and a balance has to be chosen between the two. Gary Gill said staff will continue to work together in designing street standards, and is contemplating involving people from the developing community and some citizens to get feedback. Leona Orr said, in regards to planting strips, medians, or a grass strip next to the street, she would like to discourage anything that has to be mowed on a regular basis. Native plants, shrubs, or such things that don't require irrigation or regular mowing would be in the best interest for the future. Even white or red rock wouldn't create additional work. Rico Yingling suggested looking at pedestrian access within and around the neighborhoods, interconnecting cul-de-sacs with pedestrian pathways and trails interconnecting parks and schools so kids and others can have access. He said in his new neighborhood, people who live in cul-de-sacs are 50' from the park but have to walk all the way out of the cul-de-sac, around and up a busy street. Gary Gill said the subdivision code doesn't address that so developers don't do it,but there are policies in the Comp Plan which support that idea and it's possible to incorporate it in. Mr. Yingling said trails need to be made safe because they can be scary when they have big walls or fences next to them. Mr. Gill said sidewalks recently put in some new residential neighborhoods have required the walkway be lighted. Tom Brotherton commented that according to the schedule given, staff would come back with the rough schedule and recommendations around the end of February and in May with final recommendations. He suggested having another workshop after the next phase at the end of February. The meeting was adjourned at 6:45 PM.