Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-08-23 Work Session Meridian City Council Work Session August 23, 2022. A Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 4:32 p.m., Tuesday, August 23, 2022, by Mayor Robert Simison. Members Present: Robert Simison, Joe Borton, Luke Cavener, Jessica Perreault, Brad Hoaglun and Liz Strader. Members Absent: Treg Bernt. Also present: Chris Johnson, Bill Nary, Dave Miles, Laurelei McVey, Tracy Basterrechea, Kenny Bowers and Dean Willis. ROLL-CALL ATTENDANCE Liz Strader X Joe Borton _X_ Brad Hoaglun Treg Bernt X Jessica Perreault _X_ Luke Cavener X_ Mayor Robert E. Simison Simison: Council, we will call the meeting to order. For the record it is August 23rd, 2022, at 4:33 p.m. We will begin this afternoon's work session with roll call attendance. ADOPTION OF AGENDA Simison: Next item up is the adoption of the agenda. Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Hoaglun. Hoaglun: I move adoption of the agenda as published. Cavener: Second. Simison: I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as published. Is there any discussion? If not, all in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it and the agenda is adopted. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. CONSENT AGENDA [Action Item] 1. Approve Minutes of the August 9, 2022 City Council Work Session 2. Approve Minutes of the August 9, 2022 City Council Regular Meeting Meridian City Council Work Session August 23,2022 Page 2 of 26 3. Calvary Chapel Treasure Valley Water Main Easement 4. Victory Commons No. 2 Sanitary Sewer Easement No. 1 5. Final Order for Outer Banks Subdivision (FP-2022-0014) by JUB Engineers, Generally Located at the Southwest Corner of W. Franklin Rd. and S. Ten Mile Rd. 6. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Brightstar Overland (H-2022- 0044) by Hatch Design Architecture, Located at 2940 E. Overland Rd. 7. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Denial of East Ridge Subdivision (H-2022- 0037) by Laren Bailey, Located North of E. Lake Hazel Rd., Between S. Locust Grove Rd. and S. Eagle Rd. 8. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Julie Rivers Office Condominiums (SHP2022-0009) by Julie Rivers Development, Located at NE Corner of W. Ustick Rd. and N. Linder Rd. 9. Animal Welfare and Enforcement Agreement by and Between the City of Meridian and The Idaho Humane Society 10. Recipient Agreement Between City of Meridian and Meridian Co-Op of Gardeners for Fiscal Year 2022 Neighborhood Grant Funds 11. Recipient Agreement Between City of Meridian and American Legion Post 113 for Fiscal Year 2022 Neighborhood Grant Funds 12. Recipient Agreement Between City of Meridian and Anita Burgess for Fiscal Year 2022 Neighborhood Grant Funds 13. Resolution No. 22-2340: Reappointing Rob McCarvel to Seat 2 of the Meridian Development Corporation, reappointing Kit Fitzgerald to Seat 7 of the Meridian Development Corporation, and appointing Brad Hoaglun to Seat 1 of the Meridian Development Corporation 14. Finance Department: Citywide Fee Updates 15. City of Meridian Financial Report - July 2022 Simison: First item up is the Consent Agenda. Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Hoaglun. Meridian City Council Work Session August 23,2022 Page 3 of 26 Hoaglun: I move approval of the Consent Agenda and for the Mayor to sign and Clerk to attest. Cavener: Second. Simison: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. Is there any discussion? If not, all in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it and the Consent Agenda is agreed to. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. ITEMS MOVED FROM THE CONSENT AGENDA [Action Item] Simison: There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda. DEPARTMENT / COMMISSION REPORTS [Action Item] 16. Public Works: Public Works Week Sponsor Proceeds Donation Simison: So, we will move on to Item 16, which is our Public Works -- the Public Works Week sponsor proceeds donation and we will turn this over to Director McVey. McVey: Okay. Mayor and Council, thank you. So, I get to come in front of you today and not ask for money, which is rare, but actually give away money, which is really exciting. So, we were able to bring back Public Works Week after a two year hiatus due to COVID and that was a really really exciting thing. We really embraced Public Works Week because it allows us to highlight our Public Works staff and highlight the work that we do, which is often unseen, right, because water and wastewater services are underground, out of sight, out of mind. So, we really appreciate that opportunity to bring what we do to the community. So, this year we just brought back the Expo, because we weren't quite sure what would be going on with the world, but we had really good attendance and in Public Works, you know, we have a lot of scientists and engineers, so we have a very scientific method for determining attendance. It is based on the number of hot dogs that are eaten. So, we anticipate we had around 750 people attend, which was a really great turn out. As part of Public Works Week we collect donations from our sponsors to help us offset some of the costs to the city. So, I would like to really quick acknowledge those sponsors on the record. We were able to collect 4,600 dollars in total from the following list of sponsors. Advanced Control Systems. Bowen Collins and Associated. Brown and Caldwell Civil Survey. HDR. Idaho Water Engineering. Jacobs. JC Constructors. JUB Engineers. Mountain Waterworks. Treasure Valley Drilling and Republic Services. It should also be noted that Republic Services generously donated the T-shirts that all the staff got to wear, which was over a thousand dollars in donated T-shirts. So, at the end of the event, after we cover all of our expenses, each year we are able to donate those extra donations to some organizations that are important to Public Works and so that's what we are here to do today to give some funds back to these important groups. So, the first one that I would like to give is to our Parks Department. So, if Director Siddoway Meridian City Council Work Session August 23,2022 Page 4 of 26 could come up. We were --we have a donation of$507.50 for the Care Enough To Share scholarship program. Siddoway: Thank you. McVey: All right. And our second organization, also important to Public Works, is with our SWAC. So, if Commissioner Cory could join me up here. So, we are -- the expo donation of $761.25 to the Solid Waste Advisory community recycling fund. And our last donation is to an organization that's really important to Meridian and Public Works Expo donates to this each year is the Meridian Food Bank. So, if Dan Clark can join me up here. We are donating $2,537.49 to the Meridian Food Bank. So, that's our presentation, quick, fun thing and we appreciate your guys' continued support of Public Works and Public Works Week. Simison: Thank you, Laurelei, and I know I speak on behalf of everybody, thank you to your team in putting that on and bringing it back to the community, as well as being able to reinvest in some of our partnership with needs here in the community and that's just being part of what Public Works does. So, thank you. And, Council, anyone have any comments or comments they would like to make? Perreault: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Perreault. Perreault: As the Public Works liaison it's been fantastic to see how this department does what they do and to get to know Laurelei and being elected right before COVID happened I haven't had the opportunity to go to so many of these events, because they haven't existed for the last two years. So, I did get a chance to go to the Expo. It was much more awesome than I thought it was going to be and I just want to say when I saw this on the agenda I was really excited that -- that Public Works was able to share this with the other commissions and important members of our community. So, thank you for doing that. Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: Similar to Council Member Perreault. I mean when these events go away we kind of realize we take them for granted and there is one thing I quickly learned after returning to the Expo is what a -- what a service that provides to our community, to our kids. My six year old was like on fire for Public Works and was talking to his grandparents and his friends about what happens when you flush the water and clean water and all that. So, you have got a great brand ambassador. But I just also think it's such in line with the Median Way to do a great event for our community and, then, also continue to pay it forward by providing donations to three worthy causes. I just appreciate you and your team. A significant amount of work that you put into this and appreciate the -- the impact you are making on community. Meridian City Council Work Session August 23,2022 Page 5 of 26 17. Idaho Transportation Department District #3 Eagle Road Corridor Update Simison: Thank you. I'm moving on, Item 17 is the Idaho Transportation Department District 3 Eagle Road corridor update. It looks like we won't do an introduction from staff, so it looks like Dan is going to come forward and introduce himself. Dan, first of all, thank you to you and the team, for Caleb and everyone else, for being here. We really appreciate it. We know there has been talk about in the city, in the media, and we appreciate you being here for the dialogue today. So, with that I will turn it over to you. McElhinney: Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Members. I'm Dan McElhinney. I'm the chief operations officer for Idaho Transportation Department and we are very glad to be here. We have had a long time partnership with the City of Meridian and the city of Eagle, of course, on Highway 55, Eagle Road, and we -- we really do appreciate all the teamwork to date and we are here to help kick off a corridor traffic safety review and so with our partners from ISP and, of course, our partners at ACHD for our traffic signals, City of Meridian, city of Eagle, IT and our Office of Highway Safety, we will be working over the -- the next few months on a corridor traffic safety review. So, we are going to talk a little bit about that and I do -- I do appreciate the -- the chief and the police department overall for their teamwork with Office of Highway Safety. They--they recently received a grant for 43,000 dollars. It's a long term grant for -- it's the one year period since October and the stats rolling in, chief, are -- are really good. This is not just on 55, but here in this city over 260 different citations -- 200 speeding citations using the Office of Highway safety awarded grant and Meridian PD. Eight DUI arrests and 135 other violations since October and the data is still rolling in and we want to say thank you to the chief and his team for that partnership. Today we are going to present some near-term and some long-term ideas that our safety review working group will look at and as well keep the Council updated on and the potential for additional grants is there, too. So, it's great to do a safety review and give us an opportunity through the office side with safety. With me today, of course, is District Three District Engineer Caleb Lakey. ISP Lieutenant Jussel, who will also present. Sergeant Madenford of ISP. And John Tomlinson, our recently promoted, but still leadership on Office of Highway Safety to help with the presentation and questions. Our presentation gives us an opportunity to first celebrate that interagency teamwork and partnership and we are going to rely on that teamwork which also includes COMPASS and ITD staff here in District 3 on the planning and -- and -- and long-term regional route of State Highway 55. We are going to present traffic conditions currently, a.m., p.m. and weekend traffic data that we have to date and talk about the updates that we have done for traffic safety on the six and a half mile corridor. We will --we will go into the crash data brief-- briefly, the Office of Highway Safety provide us recent crash data and, then, we will summarize near-term possible solutions and long- term proposals as well. So, it will take us about 20 minutes or so and, then, we will open it up for questions. Thank you. Introducing our District Engineer Caleb Lakey. Lakey: Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council. Pleasure being here today. Again, my name is Caleb Lakey, I'm a District 3 engineer for ITD. ITD is a state agency divided into six administrative regions. District 3 is the southwest corner of the state or Meridian City Council Work Session August 23,2022 Page 6 of 26 the ten counties here in the southwest corner of the state. So, Meridian is -- is one of several communities that -- in that region, as well as State Highway 55, one of several U.S. highways -- state highways, interstate, that -- that we manage here locally. So, I would like to provide a little bit of a background to State Highway 55, Eagle Road. I think it provides an important context to our discussion today and leads into what -- what Chief of Operations Officer McElhinney talked about or the things we might consider as we -- we look at Eagle Road and we look at how Eagle Road is -- is operating. It really -- I would invite you to keep in mind that a highway operates as a system, it's part of a greater whole and so as we make changes in one location they are going to have secondary and tertiary effects in other parts of the system and so it's always a give and a take. It's always a balancing effort that's made as we consider making changes, whether that be to lane configuration and striping, median barriers, et cetera. There is -- there is tradeoff to all those things. Here on the screen just to start off with, I want to provide you with some context to the volume of traffic that we carry on Eagle Road. Fifty-seven thousand vehicles as an average daily traffic. That's -- that's a high volume. So, by comparison if you look at Broadway, 24,500. Fairview, 28. Chinden 25.5. State Highway 44, 32.5. You can see the context and -- and the artery, really, that 55 Eagle Road plays. You don't need the numbers to know that, you know that just by driving the road you can see the volume that it plays -- that it -- that it carries. But it really serves as a prime north-south connector in the valley. It was designed that way and many of the features of the highway are for that purpose of -- of moving traffic north -- north and south. So, again, a little bit of a -- of a look back at how we got to where we are today. In 1990s State Highway 55 was added -- or a portion was added from Fairview to 1-84 that really kind of completed 55 as we know it today. Prior to that US 30 went down Fairview and so that transaction happened in the early '90s, but 55 has been around longer than that, obviously. Way back in 1930 and we built two bridges across the Boise River for a total cost of 54,000. 1 wish we could build bridges for 54,000 dollars today. But just to give you kind of some context. The highway has been around for a long time and it has morphed and changed and adapted and re-adapted and re-adapted as things have developed and redeveloped along its corridors. I -- I grew up here. I distinctly remember driving between my home and west Boise and -- and Meridian for events and seeing friends and I can picture the corner of Ustick and Eagle Road and it was a two way stop condition. There was a stop sign with a red flashing light on top and four cornfields and you stopped, you made double sure you cleared, because it was a highway and over the top you would go and when -- after I left for college and came back home I sometimes would get lost. I was looking for the cornfields and the flashing light and I couldn't find them for -- for years and -- and just the development continues to happen and changed the landscape of Eagle Road and traffic continues to increase as we see -- see growth in the area. I thought it instructive as we look back at the aerial imagery, as Google Earth is so cool in this regard, you can go back in time and so this is a 2022 shot -- aerial shot of State Highway 55, Eagle Road, from Eagle on the right-hand side of your screen to 1-84 on the left. We have put a red dot on The Village and, you know, this is kind of an epicenter; right? As everybody knows that--that landmark. You can see the --the development, obviously, the residential areas, as well as the commercial districts. You know, the highway, a six and a half mile corridor. We have got two to three lanes. We are almost done with the third lane all the way from The Village southbound carrying over 50,000 cars a day, with a peak hour of over 4,000 Meridian City Council Work Session August 23,2022 Page 7 of 26 cars and, really, we kind of have these three segments. We kind of have what I -- the hospital region, which is that first half mile or so at the far southern end from the -- the freeway and, then, you add in -- you come into this -- what I would call the business region. It's more -- more commercial district that stretches from Franklin say through about Chinden, roughly, and, then, once you pass Chinden it really drops off -- maybe McMillan it kind of drops into more residential; right? And you can see those transitions happen along the highway and we actually have three speed zones. There is a short 50 mile an hour speed zone on the far southern end. The majority of the highway is signed at 55 miles an hour and there is a short 45 mile an hour zone at the far north end as we transition into Eagle and correspond -- or the conjunction there with 44 and the -- the vergence of traffic that takes place there at that -- at that major -- major intersection. So, as we step back -- let's step back ten years. I, again, kept that red dot on the screen, just for illustrative purposes. Ten years actually makes quite a big difference. 2012 you can see a large part of the commercial district is not as dense. Still quite a bit of commercial -- or, excuse me, residential, but there has been a pretty good change there. Go back another ten years, 2002, significant change. I mean the growth is really-- it's breathtaking in many regards and it's -- it's -- you can see in this case going back 20 years, not only the commercial, but also a lot of residential is peeled back. If we go back even further, '92, you started getting out of the range of Google Earth really good, but you can see '92, ten more years, it's -- there is nothing out there. This is -- this is much more like the highway I described growing up here. It was cornfields and -- and stop controlled all the major crossroads. So, it's changed a lot and -- and my purpose in pointing that out to you as Council Members and as the Mayor is that the highway has been here and it has -- has been developed upon and -- and built around and -- and used as it should be and the highway has adapted and changed to -- to meet that and it will continue to do that. But that does create some scenarios where we have to come together and think about what that looks like going forward. As we talk about what we have done in the past to be responsive to change, there are 15 signals on that highway. If-- if the highway was strictly built and maintained to move traffic we wouldn't have any signals; right. It would -- it would be a struck corridor. Exclusive access. There was a time when it was planned to be that way. It's not developed that way and so we have 15 signals. Those signals are not all at major crossroads. The majority obviously are at mile crossroads and you have half miles and we even have some quarter mile signals. Those -- those signals serve several functions. Primarily, obviously, is access. Protected turning movements. They also meter traffic though. It's -- it's very difficult to get from one end to the other without hitting a red light, if not several red lights, and so as we think about the operations of the highway, we consider speeds, et cetera, those signals help us in that regard, because they are breaking up and platooning to some degree how traffic flows and functions on the highway. Signals come with a tradeoff as well. I will show you a bit later the majority of our accidents happen at signals; right? Intersections. Because that's where you have traffic making diverging movements and conflicting points. As I mentioned we do have these 15 signals. They are managed by ACHD through a cooperative agreement. They have the traffic management center. So, they have operational control. We still own them, but they do have operational control and they incorporate them in their larger signal management center, which is a major benefit. If there is an incident or a change to be made, they can adjust timing, et cetera. We have driven this corridor -- I mean I have Meridian City Council Work Session August 23,2022 Page 8 of 26 driven it many times. It's not my daily commute per se, but I have -- I have commuted on it, I have -- I have driven on it for recreation, et cetera. You know, 13 and a half to 16 and a half minutes is a good average if you are not hitting it during a peak congestion period. So, it usually flows pretty good. It can get congested. It carries a lot of traffic and if something happens certainly that will change it as well. But we did some of those field checks back in August. Also I wanted to mention to you that we have -- you know, we have adjusted -- and I'm going to talk about it more in the next slide here, about -- about medians, but we have changed access at locations. So, for example, at The Village southbound there was a left-in that was restricted years ago there. That was done in coordination with the city, with -- with the police department. Of course, there is a lot of interest in reopening that and the developer of The Village has come to us with the plan of how they could do that and coordinate that -- a signal there for protected left in with the Fairview signal, such that you wouldn't hit -- if you could imagine heading northbound on Eagle Road, if you hit a red light at Fairview, you would never hit a red light at the next one; right? So, it would be coordinated. So, if you are stopped already at Fairview, it would stop a little bit of traffic there at the intersection and let them cross, because that's essentially three to four lanes there and that's why we closed it, but, otherwise, it's not going to add delays on northbound traffic. So, that's an innovative way that we can adjust -- we certainly can't put signals everywhere for every access point along 55, but that's an example of one where we have made an adjustment and we think will work pretty well. Again, they coordinate mobility and safety at the same time. Something else we have done to be responsive to the changes is we have coordinated with ACHD for an automated signal performance measure system. What that means is there is some observation technology that goes with the signal that -- that can see how that signal is operating and it can make recommendations. It doesn't automatically change. It's not artificial intelligence type thing. But it can make recommendations to the operators of, hey, we are -- you know, peak hour there was more vehicles at the signal than what are getting through. We could be -- change a little bit of green time here and modify that there and so we have invested in that with ACHD. That -- that is in operation and is trying to collect data and as it starts to create kind of a baseline it will start producing some recommendations on how we can optimize, I guess is the best word, the flow of traffic, because as you all well know there is a -- there is a peak hour. There is a pulse. There is other times when the -- when the -- the highway, excuse me, is -- is wide open and -- and doesn't function the same. There is times when ACHD will give what we -- we call equal preference to all four legs of an intersection. Other times when they give priority to Eagle Road; right? We have got traffic gaining in the morning or the afternoon. It's going to give priority to the prime north-south mover. And, then, we have --we have also added turn lanes -- you have seen these. I mean there has been turn lanes, turn pockets added over time, adjustments made for dual lefts, additional right turn lanes. There has been small modifications over and over again to adjust for what the -- what the traffic is -- is warranting or needing to have to operate safely. Something else we did -- and -- and this one -- I wouldn't say it was really super popular when we did it, but the access control medians back in 2013, 2015. Prior to that Eagle Road looked a lot like Meridian Road south on 69 looks like. There was a five lane cross-section with an open median and what that created was a scenario where there -- you could -- you could enter that middle lane at any point for making turning movements and so that was a safety concern and so Meridian City Council Work Session August 23,2022 Page 9 of 26 those medians -- the raised medians were -- were installed and we have actually seen a lot of great benefit from that, especially on the -- on the safety side. It does create in some instances what we call out-of-direction travel where you have to go past maybe the place you want to go and U-turn and come back. That was a newer movement when you first did it. I think traffic has become pretty accustomed to that now. You are seeing it in more places. It actually functions pretty well. The biggest thing these medians do is they eliminate the left out movement, which is the most dangerous. When traffic is coming out and having a driver, as you can think about this, clearing two to three lanes to your left and trying to coordinate that with two to three lanes from your right, there is -- there is way too many variables there for the human mind to correlate that super effectively and we see poor decisions made and so when you eliminate the left-outs you can improve the safety there. But, again, as I mentioned before, there is a balance and I keep going back to this -- between access to businesses, safety, and the operation of the highway in this instance. But we have gotten positive feedback and those who knew -- knew 55, Eagle Road, prior to the medians and those who know it now can tell the difference. Those who maybe weren't -- weren't around when the highway operated previously don't quite see the change. But there definitely was a change when we installed those. So, we recently did some speed checks on the highway. Now, these speed checks were staffed from -- from my office using radar to collect speed on -- on vehicles and those vehicles are representative of what we consider unimpeded flow. So, you know, if there is a platoon of cars coming we try and capture the first vehicles, the ones that aren't following the vehicle in front of them and, you know, we are not -- we are not law enforcement, so we don't influence the way cars behave around us, just simply data collection and so what you have here on your screen is several collection locations we took just here recently this month in preparation for this meeting. What I want to highlight to you as you look at these speeds, both northbound and southbound, you know, northbound 56 mile an hour, 53, 57, 59 along the corridor. Southbound 46. It's a little slower than that construction zone and these are 85th percentile speeds. Average speed would have been a little lower than this. Fifty-seven. Fifty-eight. Fifty-seven. So, as you are looking at a posted speed currently, at 55 miles an hour, these speeds are where we kind of would expect to see them and law enforcement can certainly speak more to that. I know anecdotally drivers say, oh, well, if you are, you know, only ten over law enforcement is not going to do anything. You know, that's -- that's debatable. But what we expect to see and -- and what we are seeing -- I think those -- those marry in this case. So, we did those. That was at 7:00 to 9:30 p.m. across the top there. You would say that's after the p.m. peak and more of a free flow condition. We also went back out 7:00 to 8:00 a.m. in the morning commute and we saw very similar, 54 northbound, 58 southbound. Now, again, keep in mind this isn't -- this isn't your ends of the spectrum, this is your 85th percentile. The rationale behind that is that if you use 85th percentile those -- those data points captured, that represents a reasonable and rational -- rational driver in the 85th percent of -- of all the data collected. So, I -- you know, as we talk about speed and we talk about traffic and highway management, there is -- there is education, there is, obviously, the engineering behind the highway and there is enforcement. The three E's of that and our partners at ISP are a big part of that. Captain Sly, the district commander, and his team have been great partners with us and very responsive to -- to needs we have, focuses we have, concerns we have and, vice-versa, we try and be very responsive to them in any aspects Meridian City Council Work Session August 23,2022 Page 10 of 26 they have, especially during winter maintenance and focus areas they are seeing in their patrols, but I might ask Lieutenant Jussel if he would like to add anything here about the enforcement or anything else on there you would like to add? Good? Okay. I will point out that in coordination with Lieutenant Jussel we are planning a focus patrol on State Highway 55, Eagle Road specifically, in September -- first part of September. So, that is upcoming and when the -- when the state police do those for us, just like the statistics that Chief of Operations Officer McElhinney shared earlier, we will get a report from them of, you know, here is how many contacts we had, here is speeding violations. If there is any sort of other citations given. Following too close, failure to yield, et cetera. And we can certainly share those with you. So, as a review of the crash data, this information was pulled from the Office of Highway Safety and what I did here was pull the last five years of-- of information. So, 2017 through 2021. The first thing I would like to point your attention to is the -- the picture there at the top, the -- the heat map if you will, is relatively uniform. What that points to us is there is not a certain hotspot along Eagle Road or one specific intersection that's saying this -- this is a problem. We are seeing uniform distribution. Crashes are independent and random actions. You can't predict where a crashes are going to be. When you start having crashes at a certain place you can start seeing correlations. So, that's the first thing. You will see there has been 2,000 total crashes over the last five years with four fatalities. Every fatality is certainly a tragedy and our goal is to eliminate all fatalities and -- and that is a -- a challenging goal. We do everything we can at the highway department to design, maintain, and operate highways in a manner that's safe. There are independent operators in every one of our vehicles in the highway that make independent decisions about how they going to operate their vehicle and those decisions sometimes result in tragic consequences. So, we are going to see these. There is over 200 fatalities statewide every year and, of course, we are always targeting how to reduce that even further. The -- the biggest causes of crashes on this map -- I would like to highlight to you again, as I mentioned earlier, intersection related. Okay. So, we are seeing these where people are making turning movements. If traffic was just moving straight north-south we would cut a large part of these out. We also see distracted driving. Unfortunately that's not a surprise as well. Following too close, failure to yield, are further down the list, but still a -- a contributor to -- failure to yield, for example, still seven percent contributor to the overall numbers. I mentioned there has been four fatalities. There was the fatality in 2021 at Bald Cypress. In 2020 there was a driver that changed lanes and hit a motorcycle. Drug and alcohol were involved. In 2018 there was a vehicle turning right that struck a pedestrian. No alcohol involved. And in 2017 there was a pedestrian struck and there was alcohol involved. So, I don't know that I see a commonality in those four fatalities. Again, every one is tragic and -- and we mourn the loss of -- of any one of those individuals, but as we look at how we manage the highway and what we might do differently, that information doesn't necessarily point us to one specific thing to look at. From a temporal distribution year over year, again, pretty consistent distribution. So, we are not seeing that -- we are not seeing a seasonality to it and, as I previously mentioned, we are seeing those intersections be a large contributor. So, how does 55, Eagle Road, compare to other roads as far as crash data goes? Keep in mind Eagle Road is -- is designed as a highway. It has what we call rural drainage from the majority of it. That means we have got large shoulders and swales to capture the drainage on the side of the roadways, compared to Meridian City Council Work Session August 23,2022 Page 11 of 26 an urban drainage where you would have curb and gutter and things we pulled in a lot closer. What we have found over years and years of traffic engineering is that what the driver perceives influences their speed much more than a sign does and we are actually seeing this work pretty well in our construction zone, south of-- south of town here, where we have barrels and large equipment close to the lanes, people react differently than when there is nothing right by the lanes. As a matter of fact, I instruct my operations crews when they are going out to set up temporary traffic control to create a visual feature for the driver that gives them a visual cue beyond just putting up a sign, where we have barrels that -- that give you a visual perception that you are losing some lane width, that there is things along the roadway that give you a sign. There is -- that -- that cues you to shy away a little bit, to create a safer work zone. That's what a driver really responds to. And so as a driver drives an urban street, they see sidewalks, they see pedestrians, they see storefronts much closer than they would on a more rural street. We look at -- at Broadway. I mentioned this earlier. You know, smaller ATD, 24,000, curb and gutter. Fairview 28,000, curb, gutter, sidewalk. So, the highest crash rate --when you talk crash rates, this is the number of crashes per hundred million vehicle miles traveled. Okay. So, you add up all the vehicle miles traveled on the highway and how many crashes are occurring. The worst segment on Eagle Road is an 80.3, which puts it about number 262 on our list of -- of crash locations in the state. The crash rate from -- and that was from westbound 1-84 to about St. Luke's. So, that first piece up there, the first congested area. The crash rate overall, 1-84 down to State Highway 44, is a 40.9 in the last four years. So, to give some context, we actually had to go outside the state. Eagle Road is unique in the state. I don't have in -- in -- in my peer groups across the state, north Idaho, east Idaho, they don't have an Eagle Road. They don't have a -- a two to three or -- we think of that as a four or six lane highway with this volume. As a matter of fact, there is some -- some larger roads that carry the same volume as Eagle Road in other parts of the state, so we -- we looked at Seattle. A member of our staff had worked in that area and knew a comparable road in Seattle that was the same size, just to give you some comparison, and it was a 65.8 over the last five years and 74.2 in 2020. So, if you are just looking at the numbers, again, Eagle Road, tip to tail, 40.9, we are below what we are seeing in a comparable road. It's hard to create an exact comparison, but to give you some sort of context and, then, as we look in the state of Idaho, number 262 on the list. Again, those traffic counts I showed you earlier, but I added to this bullet here a bullet for State Highway 16. We had a great groundbreaking story for State Highway 16 yesterday. That's going to be a reality to connect Chinden all the way to the freeway. Why is that important here? Well, that's going to create another option for drivers that's going to be a north-south connector-- mobility connector. That highway is designed and will be built as a controlled access facility. It will only be accessed at the major crossroads and, eventually, it will be designed with interchange type crossroads there. Excuse me. So, that will give drivers another option. It's not going to take all the traffic off Eagle Road. There is -- there is -- there is way too much of a draw at Eagle Road. There is way too much of a great community here in Meridian to say Eagle Road is going to start seeing a dramatic drop in -- in vehicles. However, it -- you know, there is going to be options for drivers and I suspect that we are going to see some drivers actually travel over to 16 to head north or south, versus come down Eagle Road if they are looking to go tip to tail. If they are going to be frequenting stores or businesses or residential areas, of course, they will be using Meridian City Council Work Session August 23,2022 Page 12 of 26 55. So, as we talk access, this really is -- is teamwork with the city and business and development. It's -- it's case by case; right? Every time a development application comes in and we talk about direct access to the highway, what does that look like? Of course we have the IDAPA policy that guides that. You know, access from a local road is preferred if possible as per safety mobility reasons. You know, that starts talking about the -- the options for backage roads or frontage roads, cross-access type scenarios. IDAPA spells out minimum distance between access points and it spells out that parcels cannot be denied. We can't Iandlock a parcel access. So, those are some of our guide boards and, of course, changing or restricting access has consequences as I said earlier. So, if we restrict, for example, left-ins, left-outs, whatever it may be, we are going to, essentially, force vehicles to choose a different route and most likely that case is going to be a U-turn at a different intersection. U-turns are effective, but U-turns have their own conflict points. They usually are a lower conflict, lower speed, but they do come with their own set of considerations and so that's something to keep in mind. As we zero in on unsignalized left turns, which is of interest for the conversation -- between Franklin and Chinden there are six channelized mid-block accesses. So, those access points at Lanark, Presidential, Florence, Bald Cypress, West Meadowdale and Sedona are those channelized access points where you can make a left-hand turn into a road, but you can't turn left back out of the roadway. As you looked at those and examined the crash data there, there has been four to seven crashes at each. The types vary some, but the commonality is a failure to yield as a contributing factor and most have resulted in property damage and some with injuries. So, again, there is some commonality as we look at specifically those turning movements along the highway and we also have two U-turns in that same area that are strictly U-turns. There is no access point, just a U-turn. So, my intent has been to paint a little bit of a picture, again, of the history of Eagle Road, how we got to where we are today. Highlight some of the considerations in access and speeds and in reviewing crash data that we might consider as we look at how 55, Eagle Road, operates today and into the future. Again ITD has been and will continue to be a partner with the city and with our other transportation agencies to effectively manage the state highway and we realize that those things will continue to change. In summary, the speed checks completed this summer don't suggest a speed change is warranted. Our crash statistics to date are not unreasonable compared to similar roadways in Idaho or in the area and access and the land use planning and forethought is -- is crucial; right? We -- we will continue to respond to access requests, but access from local businesses using frontage or backage roads is best and so we look to -- we look to partner on those things. As Chief Operation Officer McElhinney mentioned, we are proposing a corridor operational study to review the corridor in coordination with state police, Ada County Highway District, City of Meridian's team, to say, okay, you know, we are -- we are adding a third lane southbound. That's changing things. I mentioned the upcoming signal there at Meridian Road -- or, excuse me, at the Meridian Village. Take a look at this. Are there other things we can do? Are there other -- other things -- other tradeoffs we want to entertain as we look forward to what Eagle Road is going to be moving -- moving forward into the next generation. We would like to update you as a Council next spring with that. Things to be considered. Of course speeds. How we might enhance visual messaging, if that's digital boards, striping, signage -- additional signage or additional access control. What are some of the things we have recently done and completed. So, we have done Meridian City Council Work Session August 23,2022 Page 13 of 26 a signage review and made some updates, specifically at Bald Cypress and the other channelized left turns. That bottom left picture there is --we added a placard underneath, left turn yield to through. That's an additional reminder to the driver as they are seeing that sign is directly in front of them. We also identify that as you sit in those left-turn lanes, the way they are currently designed is you are directly opposing traffic coming towards you. So, you have got a left turn opposing you directly and as you sit there it's hard to see around them, because you are straight on with them. Additionally, at night their lights are basically straight in your eyes and so we are going to -- going to be repaving Eagle Road starting this fall and into next year and as part of that repaving effort we are going to restripe those left turn lanes. All we are going to do is simply shift the line over a foot or two, so that you are offset just slightly enough so that as a driver you are not staring into the car across from you, you are looking down the side of the car. It's a small improvement. We think it will make -- it will make a difference. I mentioned the third way -- the third lane widening in coordination with Meridian Village there. That's looking good and nearing completion. Corridor paving. We are going to mill out and repave the whole corridor. We appreciate your patience and partnership with us -- is that we have worked with that road and crews have worked tirelessly, I promise you, to -- to maintain the roadway. We have had a few areas give us a little bit more of a headache than others. We are still committed to that, but that whole section is getting repaved. Just for a second, think about how much pavement that is. You know, six and a half miles by four or six lanes is -- is a lot. So, that contract is -- is let and is starting. We are going to start on the south end and focus by the hospital, grab the westbound on ramp and, then, push north as much as we can before the weather turns and we will be back in the spring, summer to finish that up and, then, a refresh of the stripes, of course. A small thing. We are doing a little U-turn. We call them loons project at Ustick and McMillan. It was brought to our attention that if you -- we have signed those for U-turns at Ustick, for example. If you are northbound and you want to do a U-turn, that's a legal movement. The problem is you only have two receiving lanes to turn into. So, if your vehicle is much larger than a traditional sedan, you might have problems and you probably will and so you can go out there and you can see some evidence of that. So, we are doing something to address that. We are going to create a loon -- it's a little bit of a bulb out, if you will, of asphalt to accommodate that turning radius. We are looking to accomplish that with our own operational crews yet this fall and, then, when the paving comes back through they will kind of clean that up and make it a bit more permanent. So, a little bit of a minor enhancement there. And I already mentioned with the state police enhanced enforcement this September, a focus solely on State Highway 55 to give an emphasis there. So, what are my recommendations to you as the Mayor and Council? My recommendation is that as a city you dedicate staff time to participating in that operational corridor study. I would recommend to you that you invite us back in the spring to report out on those findings and, finally, I would recommend to you that the -- the city consider co-hosting an open house to communicate that with our other partners and -- and stakeholders. Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council, with that I will conclude my remarks and -- and certainly stand for any questions you may have for me or other members of my team. Simison: Thank you, Caleb. Council, questions? Meridian City Council Work Session August 23,2022 Page 14 of 26 Perreault: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Perreault. Perreault: I have three questions, if I may. Would you like me to share them all now or just go in order? Lakey: Could you go one at a time, please? Perreault: Okay. The first is you mentioned the automated signal performance measure system that was installed earlier this year. Was that installed at every light along Eagle Road or just a couple of the intersections? Lakey: Mr. Mayor, Council Woman, yes, it's -- it's the whole corridor. Perreault: Okay. Lakey: So, it will -- it will collect data on how the whole corridor operates. Perreault: Thank you. Secondly, you mentioned what -- that we are not at a place where we warrant a speed change. What would be the metrics that would, then, cause that consideration to happen? You -- you said there is crash -- you know, crash numbers. Is there a standard at which point, then, the state would look at changing the speeds that's a national standard or is that something that ITD decides on their own or how does that work? Lakey: Mr. Mayor, Council Woman, the -- the majority -- the -- the largest metric is, as mentioned, to the 85th percentile. So, it would be speeds collected on the corridor, what speed the traffic is traveling at 85th percentile representing what we consider a reasonable and rational -- rational driver is operating and so you could do a corridor speed study to see what the corridor -- how the corridor is functioning and what those speeds are showing you and, then, from there consider modifying speed. Now, as part of that modification you have that speed study and -- and the collected data as a -- as a backbone, if you will, and, then, of course, as engineering judgment comes into play of, well, what other factors are there to consider. I mentioned to you if you were in a highly urbanized area with a curb and gutter and sidewalk and, you know, maybe a school and -- and other things happening right there on the highway, how does that influence, how does that play with the drivers and the visual cues they are receiving versus the highway, you know, mistakes at the 1-16 headed out towards Emmett; right? I mean you are in the open area -- no one perceives any reason to not drive a slower speed and they are going to drive what they feel comfortable with for the most part; right? There is -- there is always outliers in that regard. Perreault: Okay. Thank you. And I have noticed that a lot of the -- the slowdown on Eagle, especially between the Interstate and Fairview, our construction trucks and not just because of the -- the road work that's being done, but just because there is a lot of Meridian City Council Work Session August 23,2022 Page 15 of 26 construction going on in that area in general. How does ITD handle those or do they handle them differently than other types of traffic? Is there a way to require them to stay in a particular lane or -- I mean -- I realize you can't change -- don't need to change the speed limit for them, because they are slower, but they -- they cause a lot of the congestion. So, are you having conversations with, you know, developers, construction teams about taking alternative routes? I just -- it's -- it's really bad in that section, such that I think it's at a point of-- of danger. But you would have better statistics than I would. Lakey: Mr. Mayor, Council Woman, we surely take it into consideration. I -- I can't speak specifically to the complete thought process on the current construction, but I might share with you that there was a large discussion about this upcoming paving project. Again, you know, six lanes by six and a half miles, that's a large impact. We have a general operating policy in D-3 that we don't work on Eagle Road during the day. It's night time work. And so as we looked at the upcoming paving project, how do we -- how do we not limit the contractors that are being ineffective with what they are doing? You know, talking about a large mill and paving operation, there is a lot of equipment, a lot of obstructions and so we coordinated with ACHD to do full closures at night time. So, what you will see as a driver and as a citizen here is one day you will drive the road and the next day you are going to come out and there is going to be new black asphalt down. You are not going to see construction work happening -- the paving work happening during the day to address exactly the issue you are talking about. Now, the -- the southbound lane isn't quite the same type of project. There is different type of work in there that maybe parts or partials of it could happen at night or not happening at night -- different type of project. This large scale project I just want to emphasize, that consideration is on our mind. It's something we try and consider as best we can to say how can we coordinate this to reduce impacts, reduce concerns for the drivers and still produce a product that's -- that's quality and -- and desired the way we want it. Perreault: Mr. Mayor, a follow-up, please. Simison: Council Woman Perreault. Perreault: Thank you. I probably didn't ask my question clearly. I didn't mean the construction trucks for the roadway project, I meant just trucks in general from grocery trucks, to semis, to other construction projects -- projects like hotels that are going in along that corridor, cement trucks, gravel trucks, all coming off of the Interstate. That's -- that's where I was going with that. Like a long-term problem, not just the construction piece. Lakey: Mr. Mayor, Council Woman, I apologize. I, obviously, focused on the other. We -- we don't have the ability to dictate who drives on the state highways, but the State Highway 16 coming into play -- I will point you back there. It's going to provide an alternative for a larger vehicle that says I want to get across the valley. It might cost me a couple of miles to the west, but I know once I get on it I'm not going to have stop and go traffic, I'm not going to have the grade coming off the railroad tracks -- not going to have railroad tracks and go across them. I mean so that's the best answer I have as far Meridian City Council Work Session August 23,2022 Page 16 of 26 as how we are addressing that. There is so much happening on Eagle Road, all the way from, you know, childcare facilities, all the way up to heavy construction happening all in the same area as you get this conglomerate of activities. It's -- it's not homogeneous who is the user type and everyone is -- is currently using the same infrastructure, whether or not they want to go from the freeway to Eagle or they just want to go a quarter mile down and get a cheeseburger, they are all in the same infrastructure and so part of that is providing other large infrastructure for relief, but I also will point out that we have a great grid and relief system already planned out. I mean the local road system here is actually great on the one mile square when you have neighboring roads like Cloverdale, Locust Grove, and you got every mile -- McMillan, Ustick, you have got -- you have options to get there. Everybody likes Eagle Road, though, because they know they can start moving the direction they want to go the quickest. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: I got a couple questions. So, you say that you don't see an issue -- a commonality between the four fatalities, but isn't it true that vehicles that are moving faster are inherently more dangerous? Lakey: Mr. Mayor, Council Woman, vehicle speed certainly can be a contributing factor; right? And as -- as vehicle speeds increase that changes the result of the crash. But there are many factors involved in a crash and so to solely point to one and say if that changed, the crash would change, I don't think we can do that. Strader: Yeah. So, I --where I kind of have an issue is your analysis is this road is meant for people to go fast and people are going fast. The 85th percentile is going the speed limit, but the -- the problem is the context of the speed of the road and what's around it has changed. So, if you go to your slide, back when this was constructed, there wasn't a gigantic city surrounding this road and now there is. So, we do have neighborhoods. We do have schools. We do have huge shopping districts. So, I'm struggling with -- I think what I'm hearing from you is people are going the speed limit it's meant to be. We don't see a problem. But my feedback to you is I have heard our community does see a problem, because we now have a huge city with a huge highway going through it at speeds that are dangerous. Do you have any feedback? Because that's my feedback for you. Lakey: Mr. Mayor, Council Woman, I don't know that I have feedback. I would offer a couple of thoughts and maybe Chief Operations Officer McElhinney would like to say a few words, but, again, the development has -- has joined the highway; right? The highway has been there and so we have made -- made conscious decisions over time to develop, grow, live, recreate, whatever it is along this highway and for good reason, because the highway gives us the connectivity that we like to have and so that comes with a tradeoff of what the highway function is with what the context of the land use is. So, there is going to -- there is going to be a tradeoff there. We don't have a -- you know, if -- if we were to Meridian City Council Work Session August 23,2022 Page 17 of 26 -- let's just say adjust the highway, because we want to adjust to what the current land use is, at what point does that -- does that dynamic shift back? I mean there is lots of users on the highway from the opposite perspective, if I may try and represent, there is other users of the highway that are saying I -- I don't recreate here, I'm not shopping here, this is -- this is a mobility corridor for me. So, we have got multiple users that we are trying to balance and find the blend of what is the most appropriate response or all of them, not exclusive one side or the other. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: Yeah. And not to get emotional, but that's where I have a big issue, because I feel like families of Meridian are sacrificing their kids so that people from Eagle can have a fast commute into Boise and I don't think four fatalities is an acceptable level of fatalities for -- I don't think there is an acceptable level, but certainly that is not acceptable. How many crashes are there in the state of Idaho every year? Lakey: Mr. Mayor, Council Woman, I could find out the number of total crashes. I don't know if anybody -- thank you. Thank you, John. Twenty-eight thousand. Strader: Yeah. So, where I'm struggling a little bit -- the major roads that you gave as comps that are not outside of the state, have half of the traffic running through them on a daily basis and just looking at the statistics and how the road is being used -- like the road is not being used as a highway, it's a hybrid. It's like an arterial that's being used to access business districts and it's trying to be a highway at the same time and so I just feel like there is a big disconnect between what you guys are seeing and what maybe some of us are seeing. Maybe not all of us, but maybe some of us. So, I guess the question for you would be, you know, there are other cities in Idaho that have highways running through them that have made land use decisions where their cities have built up around the highway, but the highway slows down when it goes through their city; right? McCall. can think of tons of examples. So, what does it take to show you that the speed limit should be lower as it goes through a city? McElhinney: Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council Member Strader. This is Dan McElhinney again, chief operations officer for ITD across the state. These are great questions we are going to present to that traffic safety working group that I mentioned in the opening, to take a look at the corridor overall and we are open to feedback on the speed limits and, remember, there is -- there are three zones on this corridor 50, 45 and 55 miles per hour, depending on if it's, you know, hospital zone, major intersections or residential. So, this is a great time -- that's why we are here today. This is part of our kickoff for that, so we -- we really do appreciate the question. It's very important to us as your engineers for ITD for the state in supporting the highways, that we take every accident seriously and -- and we get very very concerned when there is serious accidents, of course. So, we have some ideas that we have already presented on the interim. The lieutenant could also fill in on some of the enhanced enforcement. The signing alone isn't always the solution. Meridian City Council Work Session August 23,2022 Page 18 of 26 We have over 50,000 average daily traffic a day. That traffic is -- until we build other, you know, supportive routes, like 16 is -- is not going to slow down for us overall in the volume numbers, but if we can do more on the enforcement end, we can make this a smarter corridor, so drivers have a sense of congestion ahead or maybe we will talk about variable speeds during certain times of the peak hours or off peak hours, that's -- that's going to be great for our working group to really be challenged with, because we know the importance of it for the city, as well as for the region. So, I just wanted to propose that and some of the things to look at will be speed feedback signs, possibility closing some of those mid block left turns and -- and leading everybody to a U-turn at those four major mid block turns and that's a discussion with the Council, as well as local businesses and those are areas of serious concern for accidents as well and I just want to be sure we we let you know we are open to all ideas. Simison: And if I could just pile up on a couple -- because we have talked about the the -- some of these options over time and I appreciate the fact that we are going to work together to look at them. First, I -- you know, our staff will be committed to -- to participate in whatever it is that we are doing from police, to our transportation, to myself, to my office. I also encourage you to include Boise. Boise does have a mile and a half of this road and I know that they are interested in what happens on this corridor as well in the conversations. The thing that I would hope that you would do -- and I don't want to put words in your mouth, but for what I have heard is speed studies are done at night on Eagle Road, because that's when traffic flows. I would ask that you, please, take into consideration all hours of the day traffic as you look at what the --what rate that the speed can flow, because I think without that information of a variable speed is going to be considered -- it can't be considered, you know, to -- to know what is that rate at 2:00 to 5.00 o'clock, you know, the -- the evening hours. So, that would be my ask is that, you know, as you look at the speed, you just don't do it at night and if it's -- if you are going to close down and only do construction at night, you know, there is a reason why you are only doing construction at night, just because that's when -- that's when the road is not used and, of course, people are going to drive at the posted speed limit or a little faster, you know, from that standpoint. That's -- that's the nature of it and we get that and we understand it. So, please, take into consideration all hours of the day usage of this road to see what makes the most sense and we are -- at least from the -- what I can do is I'm committed to having staff -- myself, who ever may be there full time on this project. McElhinney: Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Council, and we do have the capabilities with -- with some time to -- to expand our -- we did an August check -- early August check, focusing on a.m. and p.m. peak and weekend. But as a team we do want to do more and -- and cover the season as well, because sometimes, you know, the summer is different than fall -- is different than the winter. So, we look forward to working with the team on that. Simison: And, Councilman Borton, it looks like you are on -- would you like to ask questions as well? Meridian City Council Work Session August 23,2022 Page 19 of 26 Borton: Yeah. Yeah. Just one question and a comment. I don't think Council Woman Strader's question was answered. Some objective feedback is it's -- it's absolutely too fast. Her comments are spot on. It is too fast. Speed is one hundred percent a factor in crashes. It's just an obvious truth. It's -- it is absolutely too fast for the way it is designed and the way it's built out and I would think the community that this --this highway is ripping through, its perspective on that would be paramount. The question that -- that I heard was what's the objective metric? What's the -- the benchmark past which some decision maker says now we agree it's too fast. What is it? Is there some measurable finite determination that tips -- that makes the decision maker say it's flipped, it's too fast, we are changing it. If it's a matter of subjective perspective, I will give you tons of it. A subjective perspective from our community is it is too fast and I can get a hundred people for every one that says it's not, a hundred people that say it is, including everybody that crashes more than one a day on this stretch. So, I know you guys are the messengers, so I could not be more emphatic that it is too fast and whoever gets killed after August 23rd, will suffer at the hands of the glacial pace of government. Again, that's not maybe your -- your fault in this, but between now and when decisions get made, we are going to watch slow grinding process on what's an obvious problem. So, the one question I have -- and -- and I can't be more emphatic, because, hopefully, that's some input as to what our community is saying with the speed on Eagle Road and one question is if it was determined -- if whatever that metric was, if today was the day that it was determined Eagle Road should go to 45 miles an hour, can you just briefly state what's the process of that? I mean is -- is the process of actually doing it a 12 month process once the decision is made? If you know that would be helpful to know, because our community is going to want to understand the absolute soonest they may see relief on this stretch once the decision is made. So, I appreciate your input on what the answer to that is. McElhinney: Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Borton. Dan McElhinney again. You know, as for state highways, if we had speed -- speed related accidents -- and I know -- I know speed is a factor in all accidents. Definitely. But the -- Borton: Thank you. McElhinney: -- the corridor doesn't -- it's a difficult corridor in that it is serving so many different needs and that first -- that first issue is that over 50,000 vehicles a day. So, to jump to reducing the speed limit, which -- which we have reduced speed limits in certain zones and that's what the traffic safety review team needs to look at and, then, try to balance out how does that combine with other features for a smarter corridor or closing some of those mid block left turns or helping the corridor be smarter, how does that serve the corridor overall and if it -- if it happened to be at 45 is that -- what are the congestion issues related and can all of us say, well, you know, maybe the balance is there, we just haven't had a chance to go into those details as a -- as a partnership. So, I'm not going to predict what the safety review team is. Today we brought what data that we had, so that we are with Caleb and his team's help, just educated on -- on the corridor and the history and -- but we are definitely looking ahead and -- and we will need that help from the cities, Boise and Eagle as well. Meridian City Council Work Session August 23,2022 Page 20 of 26 Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Borton, did you have a follow up? I don't want -- Borton: I'm okay. Thanks. Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: Thanks, Mr. Mayor, and I will -- I guess I will be the third Council Member that's been direct in saying I have heard from a lot of our citizens that are really concerned about speed on Eagle Road. So, recognize it is a unique thoroughfare, it does serve a lot of people. Mr. Lakey, appreciate the history. It was a nice walk down memory lane and I know that there is no simple solution to this, but you did also present some options and I wanted to respond in kind to a couple of them. So, first, I know we didn't talk a whole lot about what is going to entail in the safety review, but you guys are the experts on that. It is often I think an approach to wait until that report is complete and in a pretty pdf with lots of great images and it's a final product you can put in a bow and deliver to us, but I would really encourage you to share that data with all of us in real time as that comes in. This is something we are hearing from a lot of our community about and being able to see what you are seeing sooner rather than later I think helps us communicate to our citizens about what you guys are learning. The second piece about community engagement, I am one that I like the speed on Eagle Road. I -- I use that as a place to get from Point A to Point B and so I may be a minority amongst the Council, but I'm also one that have heard so much from our citizens that this is a big deal to them. So, you had mentioned some listening and I think that many of us on Council -- that's something Meridian does really well is we are proactive in going and talking to our community about the things that are on their mind and I think we would offer to partner with that and if you are hearing one thing and we are hearing one thing, it would be great to put us in a room together, so we can hear from our community and I think the Council would be supportive of that. And -- and, then, the last piece that I would just suggest -- not just for Meridian, but for across the state is you guys -- you know, you represent a certain district. It's much more macro than the local level that we look at it as and I think where some of the frustration comes is that we are used to -- when we hear a problem from our community we can work collaboratively and solve it pretty quickly and I -- and I would encourage you all as a state agency that I think does a great job, to just go from good to great and find opportunities or mechanisms, so if a city -- if a local jurisdiction identifies a problem, that we can work with you proactively to address it sooner rather than later. I just think that's a great way of -- of good governance and that the same constituency you serve and the same constituency we serve and as much as we can all be in that same car together I think our citizens and our taxpayers benefit. Perreault: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Let me -- since time is short, let me see if Councilman Hoaglun -- he hasn't spoken yet. Meridian City Council Work Session August 23,2022 Page 21 of 26 Hoaglun: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just a couple of questions. I need some clarification on one thing. You talked about fall paving kicking off and that -- that's going to be a major project, because that is a well used highway. When is that going to start taking place -- when do construction barrels start coming out and -- and things like that? Lakey: Mayor, Councilman, it's imminent. I -- I should have an exact date for you. I can find it out. But the contract has been let. I expected any day starting up -- starting up here, so -- I don't have the exact date. I can find out and follow up to you, but it will be starting very shortly. Hoaglun: And -- and to follow up on that, Mr. Mayor. One of my things that I -- if -- if you start to say September and, then, we have -- there is -- there is a -- if ISP is going to do enhanced enforcement, I mean if you have construction barrels and all that, as we know, and -- and you mentioned, there is impact to speeds and so it's -- it's a little interesting to not have it fully operational to do enhance enforcement or is enhanced enforcement to -- for safety and construction on that. That's why I'm trying to figure out what the purpose of this enhanced enforcement is. Is it for -- be due to the construction or is it just because to -- to regulate and maintain appropriate speeds on the current -- current highway? Lakey: Mr. Mayor and Councilman, so the coordination I have made with Lieutenant Jussel and his team is specifically to address any concerns your Council is noting. The fact that it may correspond with construction, as you say kicking off on Eagle Road, we may seize the moment and do some additional construction enforcement additionally, but -- Borton: Okay. Lakey: -- they will not be working the whole stretch of Eagle Road. So, if we want to get out away from the construction influence, we can certainly go to the other end of the corridor and work there. We can work -- we can work anywhere on the corridor. So, think we will probably just seize the moment and take advantage of both. But, you know, they are not -- they are going to -- if they write a citation for speed we may -- we may see some of that data, but they are not there to collect speed data per se, it's an enforcement action. Hoaglun: I appreciate it, Mr. Mayor and Caleb. Yeah. I was just curious as to what -- if there was a particular purpose or if -- in this case it can be dual purpose. That's not an issue. I -- I would also like to understand -- and -- and you can send the information to -- to me and I can disseminate it, but I'm interested in learning more about that left turn into The Village that they are proposing and how that works, just from the fact that -- there is -- there is westbound traffic on Fairview that does head north on Eagle and there is quite a bit and if that's going to slow that up some more, we have a lot of people going down Records now, which is on the east side of The Village and the west of Kleiner Park and we have -- in fact, we have worked with Ada County Highway District and recently lowered that speed there, just because of the complaints we were getting from residents and others and safety with the -- with the park and different things. So, all those things have Meridian City Council Work Session August 23,2022 Page 22 of 26 that impact and I know you talk about encouraging, you know, other local access points and whatnot, but just to make sure that that is -- see if there is any concern there. Don't know if there will be, but just need to understand how that's going to work a little -- a little better. But when you get the chance on that. And -- and, then, my last question, Mr. Mayor and Caleb, was -- I was trying to remember when that lower speed limit went into effect on the north end in the -- in the Eagle area. Was that when the -- when the highway moved outside of Eagle and it would -- became the bypass or was that -- when -- when -- when did 45 miles per hour take effect in that northern half -- northern portion of -- of the highway? Lakey: Mr. Mayor, Councilman, I can -- again, I can tell you when it happened. I don't have the date with me today. I believe you are correct. When we -- when we changed the alignment of State Street and made the alternate route, that whole intersection was reconfigured and I believe at that time it was modified. Whether or not it existed prior to that I -- I don't know. I would have to look into it for you. But, again, the point there is it's not slowing down because we are entering Eagle city limits, it's slowing down because we are coming to a major T intersection, essentially. Traffic can continue north, but the majority is diverging east and west. Hoaglun: And Mr. Mayor? Your point to that -- and that's why it's 45 up closer to the Interstate and -- and towards Franklin because of that major intersection and those congestion points that really are -- are serious. It's very similar to that. Is that a correct assumption on my part? Lakey: Yes. That goes into my -- Mr. Mayor, I apologize. It goes back to my comment about, you know, there is a speed data collection that's the backbone of a speed study, but there is engineering judgment as far as what other activities are happening, turning movements, roadside features, et cetera, and that would be an example of that. Hoaglun: Okay. Great. Thank you. Simison: Council Woman Perreault. Perreault: Thank you very much. I know we are primarily discussing Highway 55 this evening, but we had brief conversations on the dais when we have had applications along Highway 69 between the Interstate and Kuna that -- that -- that we not repeat history and so I'm hoping that you all are taking that into account and looking how not to go that direction with Eagle Road. We are very cognizant of it as we are having conversations with developers that want to bring projects into that, seeing a lot of commercial growth there on -- on the -- in the Kuna part of it, but really -- really don't want to be having this conversation again in a decade for that stretch. So, I just wanted to put that out there. Thanks. Simison: Thank you. Council, any additional questions or comments at this time? Well, thank you for being here. We look forward to working with you just to -- to solve these issues and as we say, the -- you know where I am on this. We -- we have had many frank Meridian City Council Work Session August 23,2022 Page 23 of 26 conversations from --from that standpoint. You know what we will be advocating for. But I'm also for overall safety in the corridor and I'm open to all conversations, but if it doesn't include speed, then, it's not a conversation that's going to go far in my -- in my area, so that will be my focus, just so you know, but we have -- we have talked about that, so -- thank you both for being here and -- and we will be in touch and having more conversations soon. Lakey: Thank you, Mayor, and on behalf of the our working group, with Meridian Police and ISP, and moving ahead we really appreciate this opportunity to talk about safety on the highways and really this has been a fantastic safety meeting, safety awareness. Hope we get the word out about, you know, driver safety. I think the enhanced enforcement, also those opportunities with our Public Affairs Office also just gets the word out. You know, just drive safely and drive well. Thank you. Thank you, Council. 18. Mayor's Office: Update to City Council on Housing Assistance Program Funded via the American Rescue Plan Act Simison: Okay. Next item on the agenda is Item 18. Hopefully this can be a very very quick item for us. If it's going to go later we can go ahead and pause and come back if we need to, but-- but it's Mayor's office Updates to City Council on the housing assistance program funded via the --ARPA. Miles: Good evening, Mayor and Council. It should be fairly quick. So, I don't have a formal presentation for you. What I'm handing out is just an updated draft of the information that's in your packet. That's also been e-mailed around to you all. With one minor edit, change, update what I will call it -- under the third row down of available funding, we just added a note at the suggestion to clarify that this is one time ARPA funding. So, with that -- what you have got in front of you is the proposal that you all discussed with me about ARPA funding being allocated towards housing assistance, essentially emergency rental housing -- emergency housing assistance, whether it's rental housing assistance, the things that are listed in the ARPA guidance for housing affordability, housing assistance programs. We have worked with our staff in both Legal, Finance and in the CDBG program to put together some of these points. Essentially, it follows the ARPA guidance to the T for housing assistance and so with that I will stop and leave any questions to you all, other than I do want to say a big thank you to Legal, Finance and CDBG for sitting down with me and going through this and putting this together pretty quick. Simison: Dave, one quick question. Do we have to have the application period be open for 30 days? Is that required under the ARPA guidance? Miles: We don't -- Mr. Mayor, we don't have to. That was just based on natural flow of how things generally work, giving applicants enough time to get information put together and put it packaged up and sent in, working through the software system, felt like that was an appropriate time to try and time within -- as close as possible to the fiscal year start. Meridian City Council Work Session August 23,2022 Page 24 of 26 Simison: My -- my -- my suggestion is we reduce that, because I think we know who our applicant -- applicants are and if they are -- they have been following this close enough, I think they should be able to get in an application within a two week period. That would be my suggestion to -- to try to move this faster to get it closer to the day, but that's my two cents. Council, additional questions, comments? Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: I initially kind of had the same kind of thought as let's try and move this quickly. I also think, though, that any applicant that is going to take this seriously is going to need a little bit of time and -- and September 1 is next week. So, I'm -- I'm not opposed to the 30 day -- would rather get good clear applications than quick applications. Unless there is some benefit that we get by shortening it for two weeks, I would just prefer to leave it for the 30 days. Perreault: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Perreault. Perreault: Thank you. Dave, there is a requirement for an -- the eligible applicants that they report to the city on a regular basis. Can you give more thoughts on what that reporting will look like? So, for example, one of the requirements is that they be Meridian residents that they are serving. Do they -- when they come in with their applications do they need to show that they can track Meridian specific services, like residence specific to Meridian -- excuse me -- services specific to Meridian residents and what would that look like as far as the reporting goes? Some of the nonprofits in our area do track things that way and some of them don't. So, can you talk a little bit more about that? Miles: Sure. Mr. Mayor, Council Woman Perreault, so two pieces to that I think I heard. So, on the front end in the application the expectation is that the applicant describes how they can go about tracking per the records and per the ARPA guidance how they can keep track of who they are helping and who they are assisting. On the reporting side of things, it would be similar to the CDBG program where they are allocating funding to a program, whatever -- whoever the agency may be and whatever their programs are, specifically who they are helping, what they are funding, whether it's rental assistance. As an example, we currently see -- when we get reimbursement requests through the CDBG program they provide us the check, who it's made out to, the address of the folks where it's being --where the funds are being sent to. So, I do think it's a fairly standard procedure in this type of program and I also think from the city's perspective it's good assurance and insurance to ensure that gaining and getting that information helps us ensure that they are meeting the requirements of the agreement and the ARPA guidelines. So, it's an insurance policy for us. Borton: Mr. Mayor? Meridian City Council Work Session August 23,2022 Page 25 of 26 Simison: Councilman Borton. Borton: I was comfortable with compressing the schedule, too. I think it's on everyone's radar, if that's -- that's an option. I agree with the Mayor, I think that makes sense and like the fact that you really have a narrow focus in the eligible services on efforts to retain housing, whether it's real or not, and it's trying to -- to empower individuals who already reside in Meridian to retain their ability to continue to do so, which I think is a fantastic, little more narrow scope for this. So, hats off on the team putting it together quick. Miles: Thank you. Perreault: Mr. Mayor, one more question. Simison: Council Woman Perreault. Perreault: Thank you. I don't see on here that there is any kind of minimum -- or it probably wouldn't be minimum, but a maximum request. So, I assume that we will just take the applications one by one and make a decision and kind of weigh their need and weigh their qualifications and make a determination on the amount that we -- that would be awarded? Miles: Mr. Mayor, Council Woman Perreault, I think you are tracking with our thought is we don't know-- number one, we think we know or we have some idea of which agencies, which groups may apply. We don't know who may apply. We don't know what amount they may be asking for beyond what we have heard in the past and I think it's evaluate the applications when they come in based on what they are asking for and the merits of their application. Simison: All right. Seeing nothing else, move -- move forward and let's -- let's -- we know who the possible applicants are. Let's see if we can reach out and see if they can do a -- even a one week, you know, time frame reduction, you know, it's -- Miles: Duly noted. We will work as quickly as possible and work with what we can get. EXECUTIVE SESSION 19. Per Idaho Code 74-206(1)(f) To communicate with legal counsel for the public agency to discuss the legal ramifications of and legal options for pending litigation, or controversies not yet being litigated but imminently likely to be litigated. Simison: Fair enough. Thank you. So, I assume we want to vacate the last item, Mr. Hoaglun: Yeah. Mr. Mayor, yeah, we won't have time to fully go through the Executive Session before the start of our next meeting. So, we will --we do have that on the agenda Meridian City Council Work Session August 23,2022 Page 26 of 26 for our regularly scheduled meeting, so we will take that up at that time. So, we will vacate Item No. 19 and so I would move that we adjourn the work session. Simison: I have a motion to adjourn. All in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay. The ayes have it and we are adjourned. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 5:50 P.M. (AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) 9 / 6 2022 MAYOR ROBERT E. SIMISON DATE APPROVED ATTEST: CHRIS JOHNSON - CITY CLERK