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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/13/2018 COW MinutesNVAUlo PO WN" :re COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MINUTES - November 13, 2018 — 3rd Floor, Village Board Room Village Hall, 50 S. Emerson Street 1. ROLL CALL— CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. in the Village Board Room of the Village Hall, 50 South Emerson Street, by Mayor Arlene Juracek. Trustees present included William Grossi, Eleni Hatzis, Paul Hoefert, Richard Rogers, Colleen Saccotelli and Michael Zadel. Staff present included Village Manager Michael Cassady, Assistant Village Manager Nellie Beckner, Village Clerk Karen Agoranos, Director of Communications Howard Kleinstein, Director of Building & Inspection Services William Schroeder, Director of Community Development William Cooney, Fire Deputy Chief John Dolan, Public Education Officer Cory Pikora, Emergency Management Coordinator Jim Miller, Fire Inspector William Eckert, Police Chief John Koziol, Director of Public Works Sean Dorsey, Village Engineer Jeff Wulbecker, Assistant Village Engineer Matt Lawrie and Management Analyst Alexander Bertolucci. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Ti Approval of Committee of the Whole Minutes of October 23, 2018. Motion made by Trustee Hoefert seconded by Trustee Saccotelli. Minutes were approved. 3. MAYOR'S REPORT 3.1 2018 Fire Prevention Poster Contest Winners Deputy Fire Chief John Dolan and members of the Fire Department presented medals to the first, second and third place winners of the 2018 Fire Prevention Poster Contest. 4. CITIZENS TO BE HEARD Stan Kaniecki - He stated that an advertisement in Journal and Topics the prior week showed Maple Street Lofts as a nine story building. - The Village Board is the only stop gap citizens have from the Maple Street Lofts project going forward. - He asked how is School District 57, Lions Park School, and Mount Prospect Park District's Lions Park qualified to be in the TIF District? - Requested the Village Board consider a special meeting on the Maple Street Loft development. Gladys Kozlin - She stated Maple Street Lofts would be an eye sore and an obstruction to the beauty and comfort of our neighborhood. - Points of contention are the added amounts of people that will increase traffic congestion on the streets and the inconvenience it will pose on commuters and the neighborhood in general. The traffic jams are already a problem because of the train station and timing of the traffic lights. - She asked for the project to be reconsidered to diminish the size of the build out to an aesthetically pleasant view for our community and to have a reasonable amount of vehicles that will not hinder traffic flow or parking for everyone in the area. Committee of the Whole Page 1 of 6 11/13/18 - There are many residents that have already signed online and paper petitions objecting to the idea of such an enormous build because it will impact the neighborhood in a negative way. 5. DISCUSSION ITEMS 5.1 PRESENTATION OF DOWNTOWN PARKING AND TRANSPORTATION STUDIES Downtown Parkina Stud Director of Public Works Sean Dorsey introduced the Downtown Parking and Downtown Transportation Studies. Michael Werthmann, Principle, Kenig, Lindgren, O'Hara, Aboona, Inc. (KLOA) presented the Downtown Mount Prospect Parking Study. The study's objectives were inventory downtown parking supply, document parking demand, evaluate data to identify parking surpluses and deficits, estimate the impact of proposed/planned developments on downtown parking demand and develop recommendations to address areas of parking deficit. Mr. Werthmann reviewed public on and off street parking supply and maximum parking utilization. He further reviewed parking utilization for specific facilities or areas downtown. He stated that maximum parking utilization is less than 50 percent, village deck is underutilized and commuter parking lots are underutilized on evenings and weekends. He identified several spot locations with capacity constraints and noted that parking is available in one to two blocks of these spot locations. The study finds that planned/proposed developments would have a limited impact on parking conditions since developments are anticipated to provide sufficient parking to meet majority of their parking demand and there are shared parking opportunities with downtown parking facilities. Mr. Werthmann presented several recommendations for better utilization of the village hall parking deck and commuter lots along with enhanced marketing and wayfinding. He also recommended modifying on -street parking time regulations to increase turnover of convenient/desirable spaces in spot locations with capacity constraints and Pine St. modifications to create additional spaces. Director of Public Works Sean Dorsey made a presentation on commuter parking and introduced the option of permitting commuter parking at the village hall parking deck. He reviewed the existing commuter parking layout with number of available spaces. He stated there is a proposed development which would utilize a portion of the existing surface Maple St. commuter lot and staff reviewed options on how to maintain the existing commuter parking. One initial concept is to construct a multilevel parking deck adjacent to the proposed development for commuter parking. He stated there would be 268 spaces in the proposed parking deck, 180 commuter spaces would be restricted to Mount Prospect residents and there would be 88 spaces "open" public spaces for visitors, customers and employees. Staff would also suggest converting the 63 commuter spaces along Prospect Ave to be restricted to Mount Prospect residents. Plus, 100 village hall parking deck space would be open to commuters (50 spaces restricted to Mount Prospect residents & 50 spaces open to any commuter). Staff conducted an origination/destination study for Maple Street lot and there are about 50 residents that live northside of the tracks which may have interest in parking in the village hall parking deck. He provided a parking comparison between existing and proposed commuter parking. The following responses from staff and KLOA were provided to questions from the Village Board: Committee of the Whole Page 2 of 6 11/13/18 • Pine St. parking hours limit recommendation is to change a portion of spaces to a shorter limit and leave some longer for residents of the adjacent condominium. • Cross section of the study's quadrants is Northwest Hwy and Rte 83/Main St. • Improvements to crossing Rte 83 at Busse Ave are currently in IDOT's permit process. • If a person can see their destination they are willing to park further away and walk more like at a shopping center or mall. While in a downtown, a destination may not be in direct line of sight and parking is closer than what it would be at a shopping center or mall; however, the distance seems greater. • The Chase Bank lot was considered a private lot during the day and a public lot in the evenings and on weekends. The lot did not have great utilization at night or weekends. • The Downtown Plan was used for the Chase lot evaluation. • If commuter parking is made available in the village hall parking deck participants would receive an identifying sticker or tag. The existing four hour parking time limit in the parking deck is to discourage commuters and encourage shoppers. • A benefit of utilizing the village hall parking deck for commuter parking is that it keeps traffic out of downtown intersection circulation. • Village hall parking deck snow plow operations would change to be like other commuter lots if commuter parking was implemented. • Staff can setup monthly passes and pay machines for daily fee users. In order to verify addresses the parking passes would need to be registered through Finance. • The 4th and 5th level of the parking deck has 105 spaces. Mayor Arlene Juracek summarized short term actions: open 100 commuter spaces in the village hall parking deck, Busse Ave/Main St pedestrian parking improvements, and improve village hall parking deck wayfinding. Public Comment • Asked why parking counts were not collected on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday night. • The time to walk from the village hall parking deck to the train platform/Metra station is greater than Maple St Lot to the train platform/Metra station. • Commuter parking has been 100% occupied more frequently in the past couple years. • Concerned about safety in a parking deck with drivers rushing in and up ramps. • Asked about long term commuter parking expansion. • Drop neighborhoods off at Fridays on the Green concerts because they do not want to park in the parking deck. • The amount of parking assigned to developments is usually not enough for what people want. People have two cars but code requires development to have one and a half parking spaces per unit. • During summer people leave for vacation, conduct recounts when people are not away on vacation. • Asked why the Village would give up a large portion of the Maple Street Lot when that is not the land Nicholas and Associates purchased. • Prefer parking in a surface lot over a garage. Committee of the Whole Page 3 of 6 11/13/18 • When people heard that Maple Street Lot was going away and being replaced with a deck with 250 spaces of commuter parking, but now the spaces will be shared guests of residents in the development and shoppers. • Most people who park in Maple Street Lot live south of tracks. • Commented on developing Maple Street to support the additional vehicle and pedestrian traffic. • Suggested opening parking spaces in the village hall parking deck as soon as possible to evaluate if there are improvements. • The Downtown Plan talked about adding another 175 parking spots and at this there is no increase in commuter parking. • Metra's current pricing zones benefit Mount Prospect because Arlington Heights and neighboring communities' commuters park here. ii) Downtown Transportation Study Peter Wojtkiewicz, Vice President, and Kelly Conolly, Project Manager, with Sam Schwartz Engineering presented the Downtown Transportation Study. Mr. Wojtkiewicz reviewed previous transportation studies conducted for the study area by either Mount Prospect or Illinois Department of Transportation. The Downtown Transportation Study started in 2017 and an addendum was added in 2018 to include Maple Street Lofts. Ms. Conolly presented existing traffic counts at downtown intersections during morning and evening peak hours and their corresponding capacity analysis grade. She stated the grade is for overall service at an intersection and individual movements could be operating more poorly. She explained existing traffic signal system operations and noted that trains and emergency vehicles causes the system to be offline or "in transition" half of 90 -minute peak period. Ms. Conolly also presented future traffic projections that considered general growth plus specific site generated trips including the proposed Maple Street Lofts traffic. Overall, downtown intersections capacity analysis grade remained the same. Ms. Conolly reviewed possible improvements for downtown intersections. It included relocating 100 commuter parking spaces to the village hall parking deck, install additional pedestrian posts and pushbuttons to facilitate signing one approach, reducing emergency vehicle interruptions (relocation of PD/FD station), train platform extension and Maple Street Lofts site plan traffic coordination. She also presented other findings that relate to Mount Prospect Road/Prospect Ave capacity improvements, additional rail crossings and train station relocation. The following responses from staff and Sam Schwartz Engineering were provided to questions from the Village Board: • Prospect Ave/Main St pedestrian phase requires 10-15 more seconds that a typical vehicle phase. Pedestrian phases are less of a problem on Emerson St because it has a shorter cycle. • Cost and Union Pacific policy would be very restrictive for moving the train station or adding crossings. However, staff is pursuing the conservation with Union Pacific. There are detector loops at signals with sensors in each direction and also pedestrian push buttons but during the peak hours every phase is maxing out. When the system is over capacity it transitions to a split which implements a maximum split time in each direction. Committee of the Whole Page 4 of 6 11/13/18 • Traffic counts after Parenti & Raffaelli relocated from downtown showed a five to seven percent reduction on Prospect Ave during the morning and evening peak hours. • Staff has an upcoming meeting with Union Pacific and Metra to discuss train operations and where they stop with respect to platforms. • Separate analyses were completed to quantify traffic improvements for specific recommendations. • Data reflects normal operations and does not account for train arrivals, departures and emergency vehicle interruptions because of the randomness of those interruptions. • Proposed downtown development will not impact intersections service level grades. May experience an increase in delay; however, it would still be within range of the service level grade. • Pedestrian push buttons would be the quickest improvement to implement. • Mondays and Fridays generally experience less traffic and most agencies do not allow counts on Mondays and Fridays. • Many municipalities face the same challenge regarding signal timing and clearing vehicles from railroad crossings. Public Comment • The traffic congestion on Prospect Ave is greater than the 90 minute study window. It is spread out between 4:30 to 7:30p • Incremental improvements: it's a traffic volume issue and there is not a lot of room. • People will start looking for short cuts, then those street will see more traffic. • If commuters park in the village hall parking deck, it could reduce traffic crossing the tracks. • Measured from back to front of que on Emerson north bound to Prospect Ave and it took 3 minutes. The study said delay is equal to or less than 10 seconds. iii) Maple Street Lofts Traffic Impact Study Chris Coleman, Vice President of Development, Wingspan Development, introduced the Maple Street Lots Traffic Impact Study by reviewing the proposed Maple Street Lofts development. He explained Wingspan Development retained KLOA to conduct the traffic impact study which also included Sam Schwartz Engineering Downtown Traffic Study data. He reviewed the Maple Street Lofts concept plans density and height. Additionally, he explained that the study looked at 1-1 permitted uses under the zoning code to review traffic impact from existing allowed uses. Michael Werthmann, Principle, KLOA presented a trip generation comparison between the concept mixed use residential, medical office, light industrial & medical office and a grocery store. Overall the Maple Street Lots has similar trip generation to a medical office building. Public Comment: • Noted speed of traffic in neighborhood and motorists not complying with stop signs. • Concerned about pedestrian safety with the development bringing in more people to the area. Maple St townhomes residents park additional cars in the Busse Car Wash Lot because the townhomes only have one parking space per unit. Committee of the Whole Page 5 of 6 11/13/18 The following responses from Wingspan Development were provided to questions from the Village Board: • Projected trip generation includes the full Maple Street Lots concept (apartment buildings and rowhomes). • The alternative analysis only looked at the Parenti & Raffaelli site and trips generated from possible development currently allowed under the 1-1 zoning district. • Medical office in the morning has 90 trips during peak hours and Maple Street Lofts has 105 trips. In the evening peak hour, the medical office has 124 trips and Maple Street Lofts has 135 trips. 6. MANAGER'S REPORT None. 7. ANY OTHER BUSINESS None. 8. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 11:24 p.m. Alexander Bertolucci Management Analyst Committee of the Whole Page 6 of 6 11/13/18