PASCO COUNTY METROPOLITAN PLANNING ORGANIZATION MINUTES THURSDAY, JUNE 21, :00 A.M.

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1 PASCO COUNTY METROPOLITAN PLANNING ORGANIZATION MINUTES THURSDAY, JUNE 21, :00 A.M. HISTORIC PASCO COUNTY COURTHOUSE MERIDIAN AVENUE DADE CITY, FL THE MINUTES WERE PREPARED IN AGENDA ORDER AS PUBLISHED AND NOT IN THE ORDER THE ITEMS WERE HEARD MPO BOARD MEMBERS Jack Mariano, Chairman Michael Cox, CFP Scott Black, Vice-Chairman Richard Rober Ted Schrader Marilynn dechant Absent Pat Mulieri, Ed.D. Absent W. Cliff McDuffie Ann Hildebrand Donald J. Skelton, FDOT (nonvoting) 1. INVOCATION AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Ms. Elaine Hicks, Deputy Clerk, gave the invocation and led the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. 2. CALL TO ORDER - ROLL CALL Chairman Mariano called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m. Ms. Elaine Hicks, Deputy Clerk, called the roll. Alternate Councilmember Rob Marlowe was present for New Port Richey Councilmember Marilynn dechant. Chairman Mariano noted Commissioner Pat Mulieri s absence was excused. Representing FDOT were Mr. Bob Clifford and Ms. Carin Watkins. 3. MINUTES MAY 10, 2007 Chairman Mariano requested a motion for approval of the May 10, 2007 minutes. Page 1 of 8

2 COMMISSIONER HILDEBRAND MOVED approval of the May 10, 2007 minutes; DADE CITY COMMISSIONER BLACK SECONDED. Mayor McDuffie asked for a correction to be made to the third paragraph in the next to the last sentence of page 6 of the minutes to indicate there was a rail line east of 301 COMMISSIONER HILDEBRAND amended her motion to include the correction; DADE CITY COMMISSIONER BLACK SECONDED. Chairman Mariano called on the motion; the vote was unanimous and the motion carried. 4. CAC REPORT Mr. John Walsh, Chairman of the CAC, said since this was the second month in a row that there was no quorum for the CAC meeting they would try to address the issue between now and the next CAC meeting to see what could be done to bring more people to the meetings. The meeting was held and the members present went through the agenda. There were some consensus decisions from those who were at the meeting; there was a presentation on the SAFETEA-LU Compliance Amendments and the revised Transportation Improvement Plan. There were a couple of discrepancies identified by the CAC in the map that was in the TIP and some of the projects. Mr. Mike Carroll had some changes on some of his projects regarding transit. The CACrecommendation to the MPO was to approve the SAFETEA-LU Compliance and TIP that would be presented at today s MPO meeting. He spoke further regarding the CAC discussion on Mobility Management and the continuing issue of speed limits on Trinity Boulevard. Commissioner Hildebrand said she and Mr. Bipin Parikh, Development Services, had been working with the residents in the area on the speed issue. Chairman Mariano said he would address the attendance issue with his two representatives who did not attend the CAC meeting. No action taken. 5. ACTION ITEMS a. DOCUMENTS OF THE SAFETEA-LU COMPLIANCE AND AMENDMENTS TO THE LONG-RANGE TRANSPORTATION PLAN Mr. Doug Uden, Transportation Planning Coordinator, said that as of July 1, 2007, the MPO s planning process must be in compliance with the recently implemented Page 2 of 8

3 SAFETEA-LU Federal Legislation. Consequently, the MPO, via its consultant, Tindale- Oliver & Associates, Inc., recently conducted a review of its plans and documents to ensure consistency with SAFETEA-LU and identified the necessary changes to its planning process or existing documents to ensure this compliance. Mr. Bill Ball, representing Tindale-Oliver, spoke briefly regarding the results of the review. Sixteen major compliance issues were identified as having a change that resulted from SAFETEA-LU; nine of those issues needed no action from the MPO; and the remaining seven required additional documentation. The MPO was in compliance with all of the new requirements and the bulk of the changes were additional documentation that was added to the long-range plan and to the public involvement plan that demonstrated what had already been done. He noted Chairman Mariano pointed out a couple of minor errors on the safety charts that would be corrected before the report was submitted to DOT and to the Federal Transit Administration and Federal Highway Administration. Mr. Uden explained the modifications made and stated they could be found in appendix a. and appendix b. of the document. He recommended adoption of the documents. DADE CITY COMMISSIONER BLACK MOVED approval of Staff s recommendation; COMMISSIONER HILDEBRAND SECONDED. Chairman Mariano called on the motion; the vote was unanimous and the motion carried. b. PUBLIC HEARING: ADOPTION OF THE FISCAL YEAR THROUGH TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT PLAN (TIP) Mr. Uden said last September the MPO approved a prioritized list of transportation projects. FDOT and the MPO staff used this priority list to formulate a tentative work program. The tentative work program was shown at the December 2006 MPO meeting, which had not changed. Once the State Legislators approved the tentative work program, it was placed in the Transportation Improvement Program that had to be approved by the MPO. He reviewed with the Board the projects that were in the Five Year Final Tentative Work Program. The projects were a new railroad crossing on Bowman Road; I-75 (adding lanes from south of SR. 56 to CR. 54); I-75 (from Hillsborough County Line to Hernando County Line); I-75 (north of SR. 52 to Hernando County Line); I-75 (from CR. 577 to Hernando County Line); I-75 (from Cabbage Swamp Creek to SR. 52); I-75 (south of SR. 54 to north of SR. 54); Lock Street (sidewalk on north side); Marine Parkway (sidewalk project); SR. 39 (Buchman Highway); SR. 52 (from Moon Lake Road to Suncoast Parkway); SR. 52 (Meridian Avenue); SR. 52 (from CR. 581 to Bellamy Brothers Road to Old Pasco Road); SR. 52 (from Old Pasco Road to I-75); SR. 52 (from US. 41 to CR. 581/Bellamy Brothers Road); SR. 52 Corridor (from Suncoast Parkway to I-75); SR. 54 (from CR. 577 to Morris Bridge Road; SR. 54 (from US. 19 to Gunn Highway); SR. 54 (from SR. 581 to Curley Road); US. 19 (SR. 55), continuous right turn lanes; US 19 (from north of Denton Page 3 of 8

4 Avenue to Pasco/Hernando County Line); US 301 (from US 98 Bypass to Dade City Avenue); US 301 (from CR 54 to Dade City Bypass); US 301 (from SR 54 to SR 39); US 301 (from SR 39 to south of CR 54); US 41 (from Tower Road to Ridge Road); US 41 (from south of SR 52); aviation projects; public transportation funding; and transportation planning. He mentioned that the Federal Highway Administration requested that they include the Long Range Transportation Plan project numbers on the Transportation Improvement Program. He recommended that the MPO approve the TIP and authorized the Chairman s signature. A roll call vote was required for this action. Commissioner Schrader said he wanted the Lock Street project coordinated with the Tommytown Project. Mayor McDuffie said the SR. 39 (Buchman Highway) project was for a bridge replacement. He thought that bridge was replaced approximately five years ago. He explained why he would like to see the SR. 54 project from CR 577 to Morris Bridge Road moved up on the priority list. Mr. Uden did not think that the bridge had been replaced. He stated he would look into the matter. Commissioner Schrader asked if the design had to be finished before a right-of-way acquisition could be taken for the SR. 52 Corridor. Mr. Bob Clifford, FDOT, said they were currently doing a PD&E Study. This Study had to be completed before they could do an advanced right-of-way acquisition; the design did not have to be completed before an advanced right-of-way acquisition was done. He said there were two different alternatives within the corridor which they had the rightof-way to estimate what the cost of right-of-way within that corridor was and what the impacts were. In terms of moving the design forward, that would be an issue of this Board and FDOT to determine where they wanted it to come from because it would have to come from a different project. Commissioner Cox said he was in agreement with Mayor McDuffie about moving the SR. 54 project up the priority list, because it was one of the worst places in the County. Mr. Uden said the Right-of-Way Preservation Ordinance required approximately 250- feet to preserve; however, once they received the PD&E Study or the Route Study, they would use whatever the PD&E Study showed as right-of-way. In September they would bring back the Priority List in order to figure out if they could move the SR. 54 project up on the Priority List. There was general discussion between the Board, Staff and Mr. Clifford regarding the US. 19 (SR. 55) continuous right turn lane and coordinating channelization; where the funding was coming from for the continuous right turn lane; and whether or not the design was completed for the US 301 (from SR 56 to SR 39) project. Chairman Mariano asked if there was anyone present to speak under public comment. Page 4 of 8

5 Ms. Nancy Hazelwood requested the Board to explain the two projects that might have intersected with Pasadena Hills. Mr. Uden said the project Ms. Hazelwood was speaking of was a County project. What they had done was include the County projects in the TIP, which came from this year s County Capital Improvement Program for transportation. On Clinton Avenue, what they were looking to do was extend the new road to the Clinton Road Extension through the Cannon Ranch DRI and then to Prospect Road. They originally planned to take the new road south of the existing Clinton Avenue to Pasadena Road and then eastward to SR 301. The Roadway Work Program had Clinton Avenue listed from Pasadena to Fort King Highway, but they were going to change it to Pasadena to Prospect Road to Fort King Highway. This was a resurfacing project for that stretch of Clinton Avenue. Commissioner Schrader said they had Clinton Avenue (from Fort King Highway to US 301) with two to nine lanes. He said he would be happy with two additional lanes instead of seven additional lanes. Mr. Uden said that was an error, it should be four lanes instead of nine lanes. Ms. Ann Johnson asked why there was no allowance for bike lanes in any of those projects. Mr. Uden said a lot of the projects had bike lanes on the highway. He said at this time they did not have a bike path/trail in the Enhancement Funds. The Dade City bike trail was paid for through the Federal Enhancement Funds. COMMISSIONER SCHRADER MOVED approval of Staff s recommendation with the noted changes, as discussed by Mayor McDuffie, to move the SR 54 project from CR 577 to Morris Bridge Road up on the priority list and the corrections that were noted by Staff; COMMISSIONER HILDEBRAND SECONDED. Ms. Hicks called the roll. The motion carried unanimous on a roll call vote. 6. OTHER BUSINESS a. MAJOR UPDATE OF THE TRANSIT DEVELOPMENT PLAN ( ) Mr. Uden said in June 2008, the MPO had to update the Transit Development Plan (TDP). Their Planning Consultant, Tindale-Oliver & Associates, Inc. would be updating that plan. The Central Pasco area had requested a fixed transit or fixed route in their area. Mr. William Ball gave an overview of the major update of the Transit Development Plan. He listed the things that Pasco County had accomplished over the last seven years in Public Transportation. The overview consisted of there being nine existing bus routes, Page 5 of 8

6 six on the west side and three on the eastside of the County; the hour of services; major components of projects; purpose of the TDP; public involvement opportunities; updating the goals and objective; Hartline implemented express service from the SR 56 area to downtown Tampa; extended hours in east Pasco; Saturday services; and the things that had not been implemented. Mayor McDuffie asked why there was a time differential between the east and west side of the County. Mr. Ball said the reason was that the ridership potential in west Pasco was greater. Mayor McDuffie said with the upcoming Malls between Zephyrhills and Wesley Chapel, a plan should be made for that connection. Mr. Ball said they met with the Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce to get their input on what they envisioned their transit role would be for their area. Mayor McDuffie requested that Zephyrhills Chamber of Commerce be invited to any future meetings with the Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce and the Central Pasco Chamber of Commerce. Commissioner Schrader asked if they had made any improvements or if they had explored the possibility of expanding services to the Community College and St. Leo University campus. Mr. Ball said they did not look very close at the last major update, but now would be the time to suggest areas that they would like for them to look at. Commissioner Cox said they needed to start focusing on a Rail System. Mr. Ball said the MPO had been involved in the regional activities that were occurring now. He stated they would coordinate with FDOT their regional transit planning activities as well to make sure they were well integrated. No action was required. b. TAMPA BAY AREA REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY Mr. Uden indicated the Representative from Tampa Bay Partnership was not present to give an overview of the bill and their vision of how this Authority could assist in improving an operating transportation within their region. He said during the February MPO meeting, a draft State Legislative Bill was provided to the MPO. The draft bill proposed to create that a Regional Transportation Authority could construct, operate, and bond multimodal transportation systems. Since that time, a slightly modified bill had passed both the House and Senate, and now awaits the Governor s signature. Page 6 of 8

7 Mr. Black asked what the time line was for the Governor s signature. Mr. Uden thought it was the end of this month. Mr. Clifford thought it was fourteen days after it was submitted. No action was required. Chairman Mariano said they did not see a need for a MPO meeting in July. He indicated there was a workshop for a Reality Check scheduled for July 16, 2007, from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., at the SWFWMD Board in Brooksville. MAYOR MCDUFFIE MOVED to appoint Mr. Gary Hatcher to the CAC Board; COMMISSIONER HILDEBRAND SECONDED. Chairman Mariano called on the motion; the vote was unanimous and the motion carried. 7. PUBLIC COMMENT Chairman Mariano asked for public comment. No one spoke. 8. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 11:02 a.m. METROPOLITAN PLANNING ORGANIZATION JUNE 21, 2007 (SEAL) Page 7 of 8

8 Prepared by: Elaine H. Hicks, Deputy Clerk Page 8 of 8