City of Santa Fe Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee met Sept. 14
Here are the minutes provided by the committee:
1. CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order at 5:33pm by Chair Garcia.
2. ROLL CALL
Members Present:
Chair Michael Garcia
Member Judith Gabriele
Member Tony Gerlicz
Member Khal Spencer
Member Erik Aaboe
Member Angela Bordegaray
Member Steve Pilcher
Member Dan Painter
Members Excused:
Member Yolanda Eisenstein
Member Ben Pingilley
Others Attending:
Romella Glorioso-Moss, Staff Liaison
Lucrecia Diaz, Clerk
3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA
a. Motion: Member Aaboe moved, seconded by Member Spencer to approve the Agenda as amended.
Amendments: Moved to remove Agenda Items 7.b and 8.a
VOTE: The motion was approved on the following:
For: Chair Garcia, all those in favor say “Aye” [everyone said “Aye”], all those opposed say “No” [no one said “No”].
Against: None
Abstain: None
4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
a. Motion: Member Painter moved, seconded by Member Gerlicz to approve the September 14, 2023 minutes.
Vote: The motion was approved on the following:
For: Chair Garcia, all those in favor say “Aye” [everyone said “Aye”], all those opposed say “No” [no one said “No”].
Against: None
Abstain: None
5. COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE PUBLIC
a. Email from Bill Adrian 1324 Declovina St. Santa Fe, NM
Greetings,
I would like to submit a public comment for the September 14 meeting.
Unfortunately, I am unable to attend the BPAC meeting due to conflict with other commitments. On that same date, an ENN is scheduled for a development of 141 apartments on the south end of town, see attached. The full packet would not need to be shared with BPAC at this time, other than section E of the ENN application criteria where I feel the developer has failed to address access to public transportation, pedestrian and bicycle traffic. It focuses on vehicle traffic and nothing else. Would it be appropriate for BPAC to invite the developer to attend a future BPAC meeting and ask how they intend to help address the Cityś goals of reducing dependency on motor vehicles? Not sure how BPAC interacts with Land Use for developments like this.
NOTE: See Attachment A
6. COMMUNICATIONS FROM OTHER AGENCIES
a. Santa Fe Metropolitan Planning Organization (Erick Aune, AICP, Director)
What I have in front of me is a really commanding photo overlooking the Midtown Campus in 1955, approximately two or three years prior NMDOT designed and developed St. Michael’s, the photo is really an exhibit of there was not really not that much out there at the time. Now fast forward today St. Michael’s has been expanded over decades to the creature it is today. So a couple of nights ago, NMDOT had a second public meeting regarding the interchange of St. Mike’s and St. Francis. I know one Member was available, Member Painter to make comments. A little context, the planning for the interchanges has been 8 years give or take, it started with preliminary conception, now we are getting into thee recommended altenatives. Member Painter made some great comments and what I would like to offer is that if you would like to take your comments to this committee formally. We work together with BPAC, SFMPO & PW’s and send a powerful message in a good way. I’m hoping with this current presentation to you that we have equal consideration for pedestrians in that space.
Deadline to submit comments for this projects to NMDOT is October 13, 2023.
NOTE: See Attachment B
b. Santa Fe Conservation Trust (Tim Rogers, Trails Program Manager)
Update on what we are doing:
Trail Work on behalf of City Parks (La Tierra), Fall Community Cruise October 21, 2023, Vamonos Santa Fe walks & hikes, the schedule of 30 walks is available on website. Passport to trails taking school kids out to City trails. Weekly walks with schools and we have almost doubled our participation. If you want to learn more about Safe Routes to School we will are having a coalition call on Monday @ 3:30pm if you would like to join.
NOTE: See Attachment C
c. Public Safety Committee (Khalil Spencer, BPAC Vice-Chair)
7. DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION ITEMS
a. Call for Projects to Update SFMPO’s a.) Metropolitan Transportation Plan; and b.) Bike Master Plan (Leah Yngve, MPH, Senior Transportation Planner)
We are in the middle of a Call for Projects for the Metropolitan Transportation Plan and the Bicycle Master Plan. Primarily we are working with our local agencies, the City, the County and NMDOT to update our project lists but as a City entity, we would welcome your input. The first one is the Metropolitan Transportation Plan, the project list for that includes that are targeted for Federal funding. Resource (SFMPO.org)
Second, is our Bicycle Master Plan, this one is more comprehensive in nature, of any trail projects or on road improvements that the City or County within our SFMPO planning area could make to improve the biking environment through long term future. The way we use these lists as City or private projects develop we go through this list and use the location to determine what bicycle or trail improvements are planned for that area. We have an interactive map and it’s posted to our website (SFMPO.org)
I would like to add one more thing the process to have submissions from all agencies is due September 18, 2023, the following week we will have Technical Coordinating Committee review all those. Then we will have a public comment period in October along with a Safe Routes to School
Action Plan. We will do all three at the same time, approval and adoption by our Transportation Policy Board.
Member Bordegaray: When you talk about private entities, can you describe an example of a project that would come about that involves private entities?
Member Pilcher: Can you define short and long time frames?
b. Crosswalk Guidelines and New Concepts in Traffic Calming (Jeanne Wolfenbarger, PE, City Traffic Engineer) [REMOVED from the Agenda]
c. Rail Trail Closure Update: Lessons Learned (Melissa McDonald, Park & Open Space Division Director)
Thank you Member Spencer, Tim Rogers and Chair Garcia for calling our attention to this. I really think this particular incident was a one off. There were a number of human errors here. It took 30 hours for us to resolve this but it was a busy weekend during Zozobra. This is not a recurring problem.
d. On Road Bicycle Infrastructure Retrofits (Tim Rogers, SFCT Trails Manager)
Tim Rogers presented “low-hanging fruit” (restriping roads with bike lanes) project list within the Bicycle Master Plan. See Attachment D.
8. SUBCOMMITTEE COMMUNICATIONS
a. Policy, Planning and Law (Yolanda Eisenstein, Chair) [REMOVED from the Agenda]
b. Promotion, Education and Programming (Judith Gabriele, Chair)
Member Gabriele: I would like to know the Status of the Maintenance Resolution?
Chair Garcia: Great question, I put forth the request and it is my understanding that the legislature office is backed up. Let me check and put extra attention.
Member Gabriele:
Updating Website: we need updated photos and blurbs from all members. Maybe we should make one so we don’t languish and perhaps end of October-Mid November.
c. Technical Review (Erick Aaboe, Member)
Paseo Del Sol redesign of roundabouts that Engineer Ortiz put forth and at the preliminary design there was a suggestion at the roundabout create a ramp onto sidewalk, bring around the corner of the roundabout and re-exit back to the bike lane. The Design Engineer said no, that will create conflicts with pedestrians. What they finally landed up doing was widening the sidewalk around the corner of the roundabout, so each quadrant would have from 6’ to 11’ sidewalk and the bike lane would merge into traffic on the roundabout or alternate going up a cut around the corner and back down the cut as an option. There was a suggestion to do a protected bike lane 5ft between the driving lane and the sidewalk but it was recognized that Public Works didn’t have the maintenance equipment to plow or sweep the 5’ double gutter bike lane. So, I think the alternative is going to be a 11’ shared sidewalk.
Camino Real Academy Trail-No ATV’s on trail looking into putting one bollard.
d. Reflections on Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) Application: Next Steps (Steve Pilcher, BFC Task Force Chair & Romella Glorioso-Moss, Staff Liaison)
Member Pilcher: Thank you to everyone involved; it was a huge undertaking. One thing that stood out for me is the need for tracking the data we provided in the application. There’s so much data needed to complete the application.
Chair Garcia: May be Member Pilcher you can make a list of all the data we need to track to make the next application a little easier.
Staff Liaison Glorioso-Moss:
1) We applied for Gold; not Silver as per BFC Coordinator’s advice. This way, our bicycle infrastructure will be evaluated for Gold and feedback we are going to receive is how to obtain Gold designation.
2) When I reviewed the application before submitting it, there was so much focus on the SFMPO’s Bicycle Master Plan (BMP) and very little emphasis on BPAC’s Strategic Plan. The BMP unlike our Strategic Plan is regional. As the City Advisory Committee working on improving City’s bicycle infrastructure we need to promote more our Strategic Plan.
3) An eye opener for me is when I recalculated the number of City Staff working on bicycle issues. The initial calculation was only 0.5 full-time employees. When I finished the Excel file provided with the application, the number of full-time City Staff increased to 8. This number does not include SFMPO’s staff. The huge increase is due to including City Traffic Engineer, City Traffic Operations Engineer, Project Administrators and more importantly, road and trail maintenance City employees.
Member Gabriele: What struck me as extremely important and we are missing is disability/equity representation. There were a number of questions in the application that we cannot answer. Is there a City Committee that we can work with or have a representation in their Committee like Public Safety Committee?
Chair Garcia: Yes, the Mayors Committee on Disability. But our participation will depend on the Resolution that created their Committee. I will look into it.
9. MATTERS FROM STAFF
1) We passed NMDOT’s final review of the Tierra Contenta Trail (Buffalo Grass to South Meadows) and the Agua Fria-Cottonwood Roundabout Projects. We will be receiving federal funding to construct these projects: $1.2M for Tierra Contenta and $3.2M for Cottonwood.
2) We began the construction of Guadalupe Bridge Deck Rehabilitation Project.
10. MATTERS FROM THE COMMITTEE
Members Aaboe and Pilcher reminded the Committee of the Land Use Code Rewrite Open House on Wednesday, September 20, at the Southside Library from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
https://santafe.primegov.com/public/portal
