AGENDA #2
MEMORANDUM
TO: Roger L. Stancil, Town Manager
FROM: J.B. Culpepper, Planning Director
David Bonk, Long Range and Transportation Coordinator
SUBJECT: Public Forum: Sidewalk Construction Plan for 2006-2007
DATE: October 9, 2006
PURPOSE
This Public Forum has been scheduled to receive public input on the development of a proposed Sidewalk Construction Plan for 2006-2007.
Our preliminary recommendation for a 2006-2007 Construction Plan is that the Town complete work on the sidewalk projects for North Street and Hillsborough Street which remain to be constructed from the 2005-2006 Construction Plan, supplemented by the following list of projects:
The attached resolution would refer comments received at tonight’s forum to the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board, the Transportation Board, the Active Living by Design Committee and to the staff for a follow-up report with action by the Council possible as early as November 20, 2006.
It has been the Council’s practice to select sidewalk projects for construction through an annual process that includes considering advisory board recommendations and citizen requests. To prepare the Sidewalk Construction Plan, Town staff prepares a draft program of projects. The Council invites citizen input through a public forum and seeks input from the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board and the Transportation Board. For 2006-2007, we recommend that the Council also refer the report to the Active Living by Design Committee.
On February 16, 2006, the Council adopted a Sidewalk Construction Plan for 2005-06. The resolution approved the following list of seven sidewalk projects located on Town-maintained streets for construction as funds allowed. The table below lists the projects and their current status.
|
Project |
Status |
|
McCauley Street (south side), Brookside Drive to Pittsboro Street |
Completed |
|
Bolinwood Drive, (east side), missing piece from Greenway to apartments |
Completed |
|
Longleaf Drive (north side) Willow Drive to Churchill Drive |
In construction |
|
Cameron Avenue (north side), north east corner at Merritt Mill Road |
Construction fall 06 |
|
Cameron Avenue (south side), southeast corner at Merritt Mill Road |
Construction fall 06 |
|
Hillsborough Street (south side) Bolinwood Drive to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard |
In Design |
|
North Street (one side) from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to Henderson Street |
In Design |
Five of the seven sidewalk projects on the 2005-06 Construction Plan have either been completed or will be constructed this fall. The projects at Hillsborough Street and North Street have been designed but have not gone to construction. The Hillsborough Street project is ready to be put out to contract for construction. Designs have been prepared to construct a sidewalk on either side of North Street. There are constraints on each side with substantial cost differences. We are seeking additional input on the options for North Street at this public forum.
On September 27, 2006, the Council scheduled a Public Forum requesting comments on a Sidewalk Construction Plan for 2006-2007. The Council is scheduled to consider action on the Sidewalk Construction Plan for 2006-2007 on November 20, 2006.
FUNDING STATUS
During 2006, we have used a combination of residual sidewalk funds from the Capital Improvements Program, Financial Year 1996 Streets and Sidewalks bond funds and Financial Year 2003 Streets and Sidewalks bond funds for sidewalk construction. Attachment 1 provides a detailed description of the sources of funds for sidewalk construction.
Funds have been set aside from the Financial Year 2003 Streets and Sidewalks bond to meet the 20 percent local match requirements for two projects that will receive 80 percent federal funding from the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Surface Transportation Direct Allocation program. We anticipate these projects will begin construction in the next two years:
With completion of the two projects described above, the Town would have approximately $120,000 remaining in uncommitted funds from the Financial Year 2003 Streets and Sidewalks bond.
On June 26, 2006, the Town Council adopted a projected Capital Improvements Program for 2007-2008 through 2020-2021; this identified the following projected schedule for future bond issues for sidewalks:
|
FY 2006 |
FY 2008 |
FY 2009 |
|
$600,000 |
$600,000 |
$800,000 |
On September 27, 2006, the Council approved the sale of Financial Year 2006 bonds including $600,000 for sidewalk construction. For the 2006-2007 Construction Plan, approximately $120,000 in Financial Year 2003 bond funds will be available for allocation plus $600,000 in Financial Year 2006 bonds, for a total of $720,000.
NEW REQUESTS FOR SIDEWALKS IN 2005
Tonight’s Council meeting includes a separate agenda item which provides a follow-up plan on the Northside Mobility Study. The draft Northside Pedestrian Plan includes preliminary recommendations for sidewalks to be constructed in the Northside neighborhood. A public forum on the draft plan is scheduled for November 6, 2006. We anticipate that key projects identified in the recommendations may be included in the 2006-2007 Construction Plan. In anticipation we have included six of the projects in our preliminary recommendations for a 2006-2007 Construction Plan, subject to their inclusion in the final Northside Pedestrian Plan.
On June 27, 2005, the Council received a follow-up report on ways to improve pedestrian travel around Town Hall and at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and North Columbia Street. The original report was requested by the Town Council, in 2004, following citizen comments received at a budget work session. The report included a proposal to construct curb gutter and sidewalk on the north side of Stephens Street. Please see Attachment 2.
Since the adoption of the 2005-2006 Sidewalks Construction Plan the Town received a request from the Gimghoul neighborhood for brick sidewalks along both sides of Gimghoul Road. Please see Attachment 3.
We have applied the Town’s sidewalk ranking system to the sidewalks identified in the Northside Study, to the Stephens Street project, to the Gimghoul Road request and prepared a revised Sidewalks Request List. Please see Attachment 4.
To prepare a preliminary list of sidewalks for inclusion in the 2006-2007 Construction Plan we reviewed the Sidewalks Request List and applied the Town’s adopted Sidewalk Ranking System. We focused on projects with the highest scores, located on Town-maintained streets and we took into account possible complications related to construction. We applied principles from the Town’s adopted Bicycle and Pedestrian Action Plan. Please see Attachment 5.
DISCUSSION
2005-2006 Projects
From the 2005-2006 Approved Construction Plan projects at Hillsborough Street and North Street have been designed but have not gone to construction. We propose to carry the projects over into the 2006-2007 Sidewalk Construction Plan.
The cost estimate for the project at Hillsborough Street from Bolinwood Drive to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard is $ 82,000 and is scheduled to be put out to contract this fall for construction in the spring of 2007.
At North Street we have investigated options for constructing a sidewalk on the south side of the street or alternatively on the north side of the street. We are looking for some feedback as part of this public forum on these options from citizens and the Council.
The project length is approximately 800 feet. Constructing a sidewalk on the south side of the street would result in the removal of one, 8-inch cedar tree. We estimate that the cost of constructing a sidewalk on the south side of the street would be $235,000; approximately half of that cost would be for the construction of new retaining walls and the reconstruction of the dilapidated rock walls, which are not built on a foundation. Constructing a sidewalk on the north side of the street would result in the removal of eight, 12 to 24-inch maple trees from approximately the mid-point of the street, east to Henderson Street. We estimate that the cost of constructing a sidewalk on the north side of the street would be $80,000.
We believe that the associated work to reconstruct the rock walls on the south side of the street exceeds the scope of a sidewalk construction project and becomes an environmental improvement project. We have held on site discussions with a number of the property owners on North Street about these options and have notified them about this public forum. We hope to receive feedback on the options. Our preliminary recommendation would be to construct the sidewalk on the north side of the street. Because a short portion of this proposed sidewalk is in the Franklin-Rosemary Historic District, it would be necessary to obtain a certificate of appropriateness from the Historic District Commission for the works.
New Projects
To supplement the projects at Hillsborough Street and North Street we have prepared a preliminary list of potential projects for inclusion in a 2006-2007 Sidewalk Construction Plan.
Map 1 identifies all the sidewalks proposed in the Bicycle and Pedestrian Action Plan. Map 2 shows the location of the projects on the list of preliminary recommendations. The first six projects are recommended in the Northside Mobility Plan. The preliminary list, in no order of priority is:
Please see Attachment 6 for details and preliminary cost estimates. The estimates are based on a linear cost of $70 per foot. The total estimated cost of the supplementary projects would be approximately $1 million. We estimate that approximately $720,000 will be available for the 2006-2007 Sidewalk Construction Plan. It is our practice to have a list of approved projects which would cost more to construct than the amount of funds available. This is because some projects, for a variety of reasons, such as securing easements or moving utilities, may not move forward in any given year. A longer list of approved projects provides staff with the flexibility to proceed with alternate projects.
Of the requests received in 2005 our preliminary recommendation is to include six of the eight sidewalks identified in the draft Northside Mobility Plan, subject to their inclusion in the final Northside Pedestrian Plan. These sidewalks are located within one quarter to one half mile from the Hargraves Center, the downtown and transit services; several are short missing pieces in the existing network where walking in the street is the only alternative. The sidewalks all score more than 21 points on the Town’s sidewalk ranking system.
We have not included on the list of preliminary recommendations a sidewalk on Stephens Street, which was recommended by the report on ways to improve pedestrian travel around Town Hall, because of its relatively low score (16 points) in relation to other projects on the sidewalk request list.
We also have not included on the list of preliminary recommendations the sidewalks requested on Gimghoul Road. Gimghoul Road is a tree lined street located in a Local and National Historic District. We note that on the south side of the road there is an existing sidewalk. Most sections are constructed of Chapel Hill gravel, some sections are constructed in brick and one section, outside the former church property, is constructed in concrete. On the north side of the road there are also sections of existing sidewalk between Glandon Drive some of which are constructed of Chapel Hill gravel and one is constructed in brick; three properties have no sidewalk fronting the street. The changes in material appear to correspond to the changes in individual properties along the street. The Gimghoul Road sidewalk requests score lower on the Towns sidewalk ranking system (12 points) than the projects included in our preliminary list of recommended projects. Based on the cost of recently constructed brick sidewalks in the Cameron McCauley Historic District we estimate that reconstructing the existing sidewalks would cost approximately $138,000 for the south side of Gimghoul Road and $111,000 for the north side of Gimghoul Road.
We believe that as an alternate to inclusion in the Town’s Construction Plan, the Gimghoul Road neighborhood has two additional options:
After tonight’s public forum, we recommend that the Council refer any public comments received to the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board, the Transportation Board and the Active Living by Design Committee, and staff return to the Council with a final recommendation on November 20, 2006.
Preliminary Recommendation: Our preliminary recommendation for a 2006-2007 Sidewalk Construction Plan is that the Town complete work on the sidewalk projects for North Street and Hillsborough Street which remain to be constructed from the 2005-2006 Construction Plan, supplemented by the following list of projects:
We recommend the Council adopt the attached resolution referring citizen comments from the forum to the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board, the Transportation Board, the Active Living by Design Committee and to the staff for a follow-up report with action by the Council possible on November 20, 2006.
