The meeting was called to order at 6:13 p.m. on January 20, 2004, by Mike Yourkowski in the Council Chambers of City Hall, 491 E Pioneer Avenue, Homer, Alaska.

 

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:            Present:            Mike Yourkowski, Steve Smith, Lane Chesley

Absent: Kurt Marquardt

 

STAFF PRESENT:                   Deena Benson, Deputy City Clerk

                                                Beth McKibben, City Planner

                                                Carey Meyer, Public Works Director

AGENDA APPROVAL

 

The agenda was approved by consensus.

 

SYNOPSIS APPROVAL

 

A.                Synopsis of December 16, 2003

 

The synopsis was approved by consensus.

 

NEW BUSINESS

 

            A.            Soundview/Fairview Area Transportation -

Includes Discussion with Tony Neal, Land Owner/Developer

 

Mr. Neal was unable to attend.  Public Works Director Meyer explained that Mr. Neal is interested in meeting with the committee and knows the importance of understanding what the City expects as far as transportation in that area and trying to get a development that can be supported by as many people as possible.  He advised that Mr. Neal would be willing to meet later in the week or at the next meeting.  The committee felt that meeting with Mr. Neal was critical and discussed meeting with Mr. Neal as soon as possible - Tuesday, January 27th.  Mr. Meyer advised the committee that Mr. Neal has recently made contact with a surveyor to start developing his plans.

 

The committee discussed several points regarding Mr. Neal’s property including -

Ø      Mr. Neal had previously met with the Planning Commission and presented development concepts of a gated community and a condominium-type residential area

Ø      Upper portion of development would included 38 to 45 units and the lower portion would contain residential homes at a greater density than what code would permit.

Ø      Residential area described as a cluster type development with individual access to each cluster. 

Ø      Transportation access to the development near Shellfish probably would be okay- the gully could be dealt with

Ø      Issues with gravity sewer coming from the bottom and development starting at the top

Ø      Road access to East Hill and coming up from the CBD would be an issue and was discussed briefly.  The problem with the gully and lack of site distance is an issue at the East Hill intersection.

Ø      Discussed recommending access via Shellfish and curl down below Heimbuch’s property and somehow tie-in to Heath Street

 

The issue of right-of-way through Johnny Hansen’s property was discussed briefly.  The committee supported a transportation corridor that would-

Ø      extend Fairview over to West Hill

Ø      Fairview would connect down to Soundview

Ø      Fairview would connect over to the High School

Ø      Heath Street would connect to Fairview

Ø      Fairview would connect through Neal’s to Shellfish and over to East Hill.

 

Public Works Director Meyer advised the committee that he recently acquired from Mr. Hansen a 60’ wide easement to install a water line all the way across his property.  There is now a corridor albeit mostly utility easements, however, that would encourage the road to stay within the easements.

 

The committee then discussed transportation issues in the Central Business District and some options.  They felt it was important to connect Heath Street to Lake Street, particularly with the ice skating rink going in.  An issue would be the connection to Town Square from Heath Street because it doesn’t line up. 

Ø      Option 1 extend Grubstake and create a 4-way intersection at Heath/Grubstake/Waddell. 

Ø      Option 2  extend Hazel into the Town Center

Ø      Option 3 extend Waddell to Heath Street and connect it into Grubstake; then extend Grubstake through Main Street, bring it around and tie it into Bartlett

Ø      Option 4 extend Poopdeck into Town Center and the North/South connection thru Town Square would become less of an issue

 

Right now the Transportation Plan presents two scenarios for the East/West corridor which is Option 3 or the extension of Hazel.  Staff noted that the North/South connection wasn’t clear in the plan.

 

City Planner McKibben suggested this committee make a general recommendation and leave the details of the North/South, East/West corridor recommendations to the Town Center Development Committee.  She advised that most of the primary lot owners are amenable to adjusting lot lines or doing exchanges, which allows them a lot of freedom in thinking about where they might put the rights-of-way.  The committee was agreeable to her suggestion.  Ms. McKibben noted that Kurt Marquardt is on the Town Square Committee and could be the liaison for the Road Standards Committee.

 

There was a brief discussion acknowledging other large projects being considered in the center of Homer i.e. animal shelter, library, hockey rink, University extension, etc.  The committee briefly went over the decisions they had made at the last meeting concerning the CBD.  The goal for the Sterling Highway was to come up with some way to use modeled extensions to alleviate congestion problems as a recommendation to the Council as opposed to not doing anything and leaving it up to the State to put traffic lights in and figure out what’s going on.

 

All members were on board recommending Lake to Heath and Grubstake to Main.  There were some concerns with the logistics.  HEA is completely on board with dedicating the additional 30’ width on Waddell.  The City Manager offered to talk with Mr. Waddell about the need for right-of-way in that area.  Alignment of Grubstake and Waddell at Heath was discussed to make it a 4-way. The committee speculated that if a large retailer builds in that area, that could end up being the primary access route.  The committee discussed this as being a recommended modeled extension of the highest priority.  The use of the term “modeled extension” was questioned.  It was explained that a modeled extension means it is one of the roads that was put into the model when projecting traffic flows in the future - something that was designed to alleviate congestion on the arterials. 

 

The committee asked that Mr. Meyer create a map showing the political boundaries of all of their recommendations and approved modeled extensions that make sense so far in the CBD.  They would then review it and either okay it or amend it and move on to the next area.  Mr. Meyer reminded the committee that there is a lot of text to review of a lot of assumptions and goals.  Once adopted the goals would be the “Bible” for transportation issues, in addition to what’s in the Comprehensive Plan.  The committee asked that a comparison of the Comp Plan Transportation Section and the Transportation Plan goals be completed at a future meeting.  Ms. McKibben added that making changes on the maps is good and easy, however, the changes must be supported in the text.

 

Regarding Sterling Highway changes, Ms. McKibben reported that the DOT Planner, Rex Young, was here last week assisting with reviewing the RFP’s for the Sterling Highway Scenic Byway Corridor.  She advised that in the evaluation DOT had promised to look at crosswalks, however, in the City proposal they are going to evaluate more than that.  She offered to locate it and make copies for the committee (she handed out copies during the meeting).  She added that Yorba, Jensen, Lott from Juneau had been recommended to the council as the recipient of the RFP.

 

A suggestion was made to make a frontage road on the Sterling by not having a turn lane and making one of the outside lanes a frontage road.  The vision was make the center lane a thru-lane all the way through town; make the westbound lane a frontage road for all right hand turns; traffic going north would be very limited where they could turn and cross.  The Transportation Plan right now doesn’t address the Sterling Highway and the committee looked at adding improved traffic flow and access to properties along the Sterling Highway as a goal. 

 

The committee discussed looking at the 10 goals presented in the Transportation Plan section of the Comprehensive Plan.  City Planner McKibben handed out copies of that section for review at home.  She suggested that there may be items to add or existing items that are no longer wanted.

 

The committee decided that Public Works would create a map that would continually change as the committee worked through each section - solid lines for the model changes the committee recommends and dotted lines for the models the committee would refer to the Town Center Development Committee for specifics.  This map would be available for the meeting after next.

Specifically, the committee made plans to have Public Works create a map of the Soundview/Fairview section up to Heath Street and stop at the top of the High School property for the next meeting. Then, after meeting with Mr. Neal, come to a consensus on a recommendation for a route across his property, add that and come up with the CBD modeled extension plan.  Next, the committee would tackle chapter three of the Transportation Plan.  This could be done in the next two meetings. 

 

PUBLIC COMMENTS

 

There were no comments.

 

ADJOURNMENT

 

There being no further business to come before the committee the meeting adjourned at 7:12 p.m. The next meeting is Tuesday, January 27, 2004, 6 PM at 491 E Pioneer Avenue in the City Council Chambers.

 

 

____________________________________

DEENA BENSON, DEPUTY CITY CLERK

 

Approved: ___________________________