Citizens Transportation Advisory Committee (2013-2026) Meeting   7/15/2020

How's it going?

How are you?

Do you feel ready to present today?

Can I quickly test out sharing my screen just so I can?

Let me see if I can.

So let me.

It looks like you're allowed to?

Oh, yeah.

There.

Let me get out of here.

Cool.

Yeah, I just want to show the sort of the design, the updated design.

Good to see you.

Good to see you guys.

Hey Lucinda.

Good evening.

I don't know if you have it, if you need it on the screen when I talk about it or not.

Are you able to do that?

Yeah, I think so.

OK. Lucinda, do you know where that statement would be that says the thing that I'm supposed to read at the beginning of a meeting like this?

It's, yeah.

Hey, Lucinda, can you go ahead and send that to Nick too while you're at it?

Let's see.

It came in just in time.

It got moved.

I know it used to be on the policy board website somewhere.

So if you can't find it anywhere else, it should be in one of the packets.

I got it.

Not, you can still hear you, but just quieter than usual.

Is that better?

I think you should awkwardly hold it up to your mouth while you talk the whole time.

I just can't go very far because it's tethered to my computer, so I just can't get up without

So the preamble has like some things that are like like it says the policy board and stuff so you'll have to like change the words.

Thank you for sending that.

And I learned how to do the links in the PDF and make them look nice.

But joke's on you, Lucinda, because now I'm going to ask you to do it.

That's OK. You know, someday, Jessica, maybe we'll get you set up so you can do it yourself.

Oh, no rush, Sandy.

Tristan's here.

Hi, Tristan.

How are you guys doing?

How about yourself?

That's how we operate, at least in my company.

What do you do again, Tristan?

IT project management for S&P Global in the big gray building down by Market Street Garage.

Oh, this might not be the right thing.

Yeah, I'm not sure.

OK.

But Sandy, otherwise you said it's on.

So not the minutes, but the packet.

I got it again, let me.

We're good.

Try that one.

Oh, Ian's Wi-Fi went out, so he's working on fixing that.

Yep, that looks like the right one.

We also need one more person to have quorum, so we'll hope someone joins us soon.

I'll just note my camera isn't working today for some reason, so I'm going to have to be audio only.

Are you sure it's not just that you don't want to get out of your pajamas?

That is a plus side of it.

I love how seriously you said that.

I just admitted our seventh committee member, so we do have a quorum.

Great.

So we'll give him another minute and then we'll get started.

Does he know that he's fired if he doesn't, Jessica?

I'm worried he takes things even more seriously than I do, so we can't tell him that.

I'm Joe.

Do I read the meeting preamble before we call the meeting to order or vice versa?

The first paragraph and then also the second paragraph, that's it.

I'll just read the whole thing.

Oh, and then five paragraphs down, we will begin by calling attendance of the CTAC committee change.

Alright, so that was the whole preamble.

Ian said he's in the waiting room.

Really quick, Sandy, since you're at the top, I'm going to go ahead and make you a co-host as well, just in case other people come in and I miss them.

Yes.

All right, are we ready to order?

And your first order of business is to call attendance of the CTAC members first, followed by staff.

I guess we can go, Joe, could you introduce yourself?

I did college here and then started living in Albemarle County the year after now in the city.

Welcome.

Lucas?

And I got interested in transport just like anybody else would around Charlottesville.

Thank you, Charles.

I'm a VDOT district planning manager, and I work with the PDC on administering some of the programs through the federal to meet the federal obligations.

Martin?

I got interested in joining this committee as well.

I know you're the intern.

I'm muted.

Hey, Ian.

I'm having a bunch of Wi-Fi problems, but can you guys hear me?

Yes, sir.

Oh, sorry, I missed a question, I guess.

Just asking for quick introductions.

So, yeah.

Witness Protection Program with the background light.

I'm at my parents house and they just have I guess the wi-fi is really bad so I'm in their room just trying to get close to the router.

I see names here so Travis could you introduce yourself please?

I've been on CTAC for a few years now, and I work in the land and community program for the Southern Environmental Law Center, where I work mainly on land use and transportation issues, both around the state of Virginia and also in the Charlottesville, Albemarle community.

I guess, Tim?

and I am the commission's representative on this body.

If you're still having- Donna, you're still on mute.

Understood, thank you.

All right, Ray.

My interest in transportation mostly stems from almost 20 years on Jaunt's board.

Sounds good.

Well good to have you back Ray.

Cool and so I guess the staff, Jessica to introduce yourself.

So I care about all transportation modes, but my heart is definitely in those active transportation modes like biking and walking.

Thanks, Lucinda.

I'm a transportation planner, and I work mostly on the MPO and other transportation projects.

Can you introduce yourself?

So yeah, this is a great group and I look forward to meeting all the new members and continue to work with all the existing members.

And Sandy.

Just kind of try to fit in whatever gaps we have that need to get done.

Sorry.

Thanks, Tristan.

With public matters, or at least representing it, does anyone see anyone that might not be a member or part of the county or planning commission?

There are no members of the public in attendance today.

Does anyone have questions on the last meeting's notes from, actually not last, it was January, January's?

I think we already reviewed these before the last meeting and didn't have a quorum.

If not, do I hear a motion?

I'll move to approve the January 18th meeting minutes.

I'll second it.

Sounds good.

OK.

I approve along with him.

So Tristan, what we'll do is you just say all those in favor and everyone.

Anyone say nay?

And then you'll also want to ask if anyone's going to abstain, because people who were not in attendance at the January 18th meeting should technically abstain from this vote.

Yes, I will abstain.

That makes sense.

I'll opossumously abstain, take back my vote.

Cool.

Ian, do you have something?

Otherwise, we can just move on.

Does anyone have any questions about the May 20th meeting we had?

as we put up these minutes in the meeting summary.

I know there's some of us who aren't here, but if none, I think we're ready to move on to our first presentation by Ian.

I'd be happy to talk to any of you about it.

My first year on the committee, my entire first year was trying to figure out these acronyms that the planners used all the time.

Thank you.

Sandy, I was wondering if you might pop in and also talk a little bit about how this fits in with our public outreach and public participation plan, if you wanted to speak to the overall goals of the TJPDC and asking Ian to create these.

frame of reference when we start talking about some of these programs to get sort of a really high level view, know sort of what the big picture goals are, and be able to enter into the discussion, but also to help the public understand why these documents are important, how our funding works, what the goals of them are, and again, just start making the information and the process more accessible to a wider diversity

like on our website, et cetera.

If you all have other suggestions on ways we should share this or who should have access to it I think that's certainly part of this discussion.

But she's also online.

Thank you for that.

Is now the time?

I mean, I only had a few, but... Yeah, I think if you have really specific stuff or don't feel ready to say all of your thoughts at this meeting, you are welcome to email me.

OK.

Don't include the rest of the CTAC committee, just so we stay within the rules of open meeting law.

So I get the bottom of the first page, the paragraph on how it's staffed.

Wait for you to get up there.

Again, just getting at the idea that anybody can apply for CTAC.

Yeah obviously the point is to encourage as much public participation as possible so I'd be happy to yeah I'll definitely make those edits but a broader note it's important to me as well that you know for example like my neighbors could I can be able to talk to them about what these organizations do because it does affect you know traffic safety in our neighborhood you know that's something that a lot of people care about and this is one of the ways to combat you know combat speeding and or all sorts of local problems so that's a great point.

So I think you're doing a good job and on the right track.

I don't know how everybody else feels about that.

If I was to give a guess, I would ask, is the first page the idea here, the boilerplate

This could be the bluff, if you will, the basic upfront.

Yeah, that's a great, I think, thank you for those points guys.

Did you do the research to see what was out there before you started, in other words?

I looked, I mean, I didn't look specifically for one-page primers, but I haven't seen any in the work that I've done.

on the website.

So it also just creates some cohesion as far as the accessibility to information across our organization as a whole.

And that may be enough for someone who's just being introduced to this stuff for the first time without having to read all of the details.

No, I think that's a really great suggestion.

I'm gonna piggyback off of that a little bit and say that I think it's like yeah it is concision because I think earlier someone had worded it more like we're breaking it down a little bit more but I feel like that that it feels like we're like thinking looking down on the public a little bit but really we're just trying to empower people to feel like they have an opinion on these things it's like they can participate in these discussions

So yeah.

I don't have to read to them all the words on these things.

And I would also say that as beautiful as the graphics are, I'm hoping that these are just placeholders because there are great graphics out there that could stand for these different ones as opposed to these beautiful rural images.

Could you write me a teaching evaluation?

Moving to the next one for the MPO documents, Lucinda and Sandy.

Is this the TIP document?

public participation plan memo.

Any questions or comments on that at this time?

Can I read that?

So.

But like Sandy's saying, we'll have the actual plan available soon for you to take a closer look at.

That's a working document?

and then that plan will be what's put on the website for public comment as a working document and so then we'll be able to come back for another round of reviews in September when we do this again before there's, you know, and then there could be a vote in September once we've met that public comment period or if there are more things we have to work out that's always an option as well.

In terms of our input, you'd like us, once it's posted online, to send that as we review it and then it sounds like maybe in September we'll have a chance to see some of the public input received and provide additional comments at that point?

that we are going to comply with the federal regulations while still giving us as much flexibility as possible to customize any sort of outreach to what makes the most sense to, you know, get meaningful engagement from our communities.

Any other questions for Sandy?

Thank you.

Lucinda, I think we have a memorandum on the TIP amendment.

Are there any questions?

Is that new money or money being transferred from one place to another?

Chuck, are you on the line?

revised some of these tables to reflect some of these changes too in the new document.

It doesn't include any of the buses or whatever else comes to mind.

Generally, they get amended or adjusted throughout the year, but sometimes they'll have to do amendments when there's a large shift in funding to these groups to support just ongoing maintenance of the roadway.

Is it maintenance, of course I actually have a question which I'm going to get to you at some other time, but is it maintenance or let's say a roadway is partially paved and needs to be fully paved, would that be included in this or is that a separate type of a project?

If a road is basically starting to break up and they're going to go ahead and patch it and repave it, that would be what this would cover.

OK, fine.

Thank you.

But to just double check Stuart's question, it's coming from a new federal fund, not something existing and being pushed around.

I think this is money that's just they pulled off other programs to obligate it and put it in this program to obligate it this past year.

It's not like new VDOT money, but new to the MPO?

are resurfacing.

Jessica, from whom would be presenting on this, the statewide transportation improvement program?

Yep, so Lucinda, I was hoping that you... Sure.

They're tied together.

So this is just to let you know that it's out there if you guys want to go out and review it and provide comments.

So they would be dealing with multiple districts such as that kind of project and where that might be going in those four years?

So, and I would have to go and look to see how it was

So they might be talking about railways instead of trains.

I found rail showing up a lot, like space, rail, space.

So those will show up as actual line items in the grouping under the TIP group document for rail.

Understood, all right.

I know that was a specific call out, but it seemed like a large one that might be of interest to us.

funding.

Understood.

Or if it involves federal funding.

All right.

For the FOIA resolution is the next topic.

We're asking the policy board to vote on designating him as our officer.

Yes.

Do you require any motion from our group on recommending this?

I don't think it needs a recommendation.

Just to clarify, David is also going to be the FOIA officer for the PDC, so it'll be consistent across all of the organizations.

So Lucinda, show.

So I think what I'm going to do is just ask if there's questions and not try to go through all of the materials.

But Lucinda can also speak directly to the public workshops that were held on the 13th and 14th.

Chuck.

Does that make sense?

And that support is required in order for us to submit our full applications and to be considered by VDOT for funding.

Do we offer support on a project to project basis or on the document as a whole?

You can do it on a project to project basis.

Isn't it something like safety, congestion, and some other things like that, just at a high level?

Economic Development and then Transportation and Land Use is the sixth one.

Thank you.

Is that kind of pre-COVID effects or does the state have a sense that they will have that amount of money or is that likely to come down?

But that's what the money, that's historically been available for the different pots of funding.

So that's all available on the website if you want to review it.

Seems to me it's much more an insider game than a general game, general public game.

We will pay attention to that and do it earlier ahead of time.

But these applications seem important enough that we should maybe schedule like one meeting that's just only to review SMART SCALE applications in the next round.

That would be helpful too as well.

And we know that the supervisors didn't support it, I believe.

That's correct.

And yet it's still on here.

They won't be asked to vote on that.

Okay, so we're not being asked to vote on that either then.

Right.

Okay, because I thought when I skimmed through this earlier, I did see it in this packet.

There is one other Route 20 project, but it's the intersection one with 53.

I saw that too and immediately thought, hey, wait, but different.

Yes, there is another Route 20 project.

I didn't print this out.

At what point does the community help in that idea generation?

It's July 22nd.

At four o'clock, it's an earlier meeting.

I will definitely be listening to that and we can include that on our agenda for next meeting where Lucinda or Sandy or even Chip can come and talk about what was discussed at the policy board and we'll definitely want CTAC's input on how we might move forward.

So that's how I saw it in here because it's part of the comments.

Yeah.

OK, thank you.

What we did not include was a list of the projects that are only the projects that are moving forward and summaries of those projects, which if I had a chance to redo this, that's what I would also include in your packet.

As you're talking about ways to do modifications for the future, that would be the piece to have up front in future.

Unless you all want to.

to the policy board before they're going to vote next week.

So you could comment as the public if you wanted to.

So that was a very roundabout way of saying, if you have any questions about any of these projects, now is the time to ask them.

Is that right, Chuck?

And then if it proves that it's not of the same benefit as the original submission, then it could be a problem where it may not get funded or funding may be removed from the project.

So, for example, if we had a project, which we do, which has an R cut, I'm sure you know which one, and we want to have a traffic light instead, that would be a new project.

So the one that we're looking at, there is a traffic light there at Frays Mill and Burley Station.

That's not the one I'm talking about.

But yeah, if you wanted to make that kind of change, it would have to be reevaluated to see if it would still have the benefit to get funded.

That's what I'm not clear about.

And the policy board would be voting to give their resolutions of support, which is a necessary component in submitting our final application.

I see.

OK.

They are going to be just restating that at the MPO through their representatives.

Sorry, I didn't catch that.

Could you please repeat it?

So yeah, we're just kind of double stamping it.

If not, are we ready to approve?

or a combination of the two?

They have not decided.

So that's still something that's still supposed to be resolved.

And then when Albemarle County decides which ones to submit, we will amend the resolution.

Or are we planning to submit all three?

So we're pretty confident with those projects that there aren't any outstanding issues that need to be resolved.

And this is Stuart, just to clarify, then the state looks at these and could accept some or none, right?

We'll be ready to

Is anyone ready to have a motion for approval?

We're going to get a briefing next week.

Any resolution that you do make would be to state that as a committee, you guys are in favor of a resolution of support for the projects being put forward.

Anyone want a motion for approval, or do we want to just kick it to the MPO for next week?

I don't know if other people feel that way.

Absolutely.

But when you see it at this particular point, you see that it is, whoever said stamping, rubber stamping, whatever it is, rather rubber stamping something that is fait accompli.

But that's just something to also keep in mind that that's one of the purposes of the resolution.

If no one else will make the motion, I will make the motion.

Jessica, can you tell me if I'm able to second a motion?

I think so, Sandy.

I'll second if that's the case.

Great.

So are we doing another voice of yeses and nos, or are we want to conduct it the same way as before, like the minutes?

So Tristan, what you would do is you would just go through a roll call and people can say yay or nay.

Stuart?

Yes.

Lucas?

Abstain.

All right.

Thank you.

Rush that.

I'll vote yes, but again, just putting in a plug to have a little more in-depth review during the process going forward.

Cool.

Good catch.

but you can double check me 10 times over.

Yes, I think the motion carries.

Great, so COVID-19 impacts, I think that's the next one here for us to get through.

What would you be most interested in learning more about in relation to COVID-19's impact on transportation?

So I don't know if I can pick one because I think I'd like to see updates and presentations on all three of them.

I'm wondering if that's a topic we could somehow delve into about what the future might hold, if whether or not COVID, for instance, is kicking that more in the butt, if you will, how it's impacting revenue sources and how we're gonna fund projects in the future, if it's spurring it.

We need to take that into consideration.

And what are some inspiration we could get from cities around the world that have kind of taken COVID to be an opportunity to transform their cities?

I'd like to think about transportation from places in the county that are maybe not as close to grocery stores in areas where car ownership might be down or people have to share cars or have traditionally done like ride or share in their neighborhood.

Does that have to be anything now or next meeting, just something in the future perhaps?

So hopefully we can come back to that for sure.

When it comes to bicycle and pedestrian networks, I'd like to know what, if any, assessment you all have done or can do about how much usage of our sidewalks and trails has increased during COVID and how you see that playing out going forward too.

Those are all great topics.

I can chime in a little bit on that.

Chuck can chime in on this is checking to ensure that the quality of the data is good because it is expensive to purchase but yeah so I think this stuff is available and so we're just kind of working through with what's in the profession we're trying to work through to see what's a good way to assure quality behind the data.

So we do use it and it is available for what we need.

Thank you both.

That's it, Tristan.

And thank you, Tristan, for successfully running your first online meeting.