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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - City Council - 08/15/1977CITY COUNCIL August 15, 1977 The South Burlington City Council held a regular meeting on Monday, August 15, 1977 at 8:00 P.M. in the conference room, Municipal Offices, 1175 Williston Road. Members present. Paul Farrar, Chairman, Michael Flaherty, Frank Armstrong, William Burgess, and Martin Paulsen Members Absent None Others Present William Szymanski, City Manager, Richard Nicholls, John Armstrong, John Wood, Clarence Parker, all of the Vermont Highway Dept., Richard Ward, Jamie Grenier, Peggy Picard, Richard Picard, Sidney Poger, Arnold Cohen, Pat Bergmeier, Catherine Neubert and Fran Brock. Additions to the Agenda: 12. Resignation of Paul Graves from the Regional Planning Commission 13. Report on Pyramid Mall - Paul Farrar 14. Rescheduling of Labor Day Meeting The Minutes of August 1, 1977 - Mr. Flaherty made a motion to accept the Minutes of August 1, 1977, seconded by Mr. Burgess, and approved unanimously. Disbursement Orders were signed during the meeting. Discussion of the Burlington Southern Connector with members of the Vermont Highway Dept. Mr. Farrar stated that a meeting had been requested with the Highway Department to find out what the proper procedures would be for planning that the Burlington Southern Connector could continue into South Burlington and also to begin the planning process so that the South Burlington part of the Southern Connector could get started. Richard Nicholls introduced John Armstrong, Urban Highway Planning, Clarence Parker, Asst. Urban Transportation Engineer and John Wood, new District Engineer replacing Mr. Remick. Mr. Nicholls had received a letter from Mr. Szymanski requesting engineering agreements for the South Burlington part of the Connector. The city had previously been granted money for the Industrial Park Road and the upgrading of the Dorset Street-Williston Road intersection as a special project. The Highway Department was presently making up a two year program to be presented to the Legislature for funding. The City of Burlington had formed a citizen's committee for their Southern Connector and the Highway Department had offered assistance to the committee. There is a draft Environmental Impact Statement currently being put together and when it is finished there will be a public hearing and South Burlington can come to that hearing and object to anything in the E.I.P. at that time. Mr. Nicholls continued that if South Burlington submits to a Preliminary Engineering Agreement, the City will agree to pay 15% of the cost. New legislation was enacted to do that since they had done engineering for Montpelier and then the city backed off from the project. There is no money budgeted now for the South Burlington Southern Connector, but the Highway Department would be willing to set up a Task Force of South Burlington citizens. Mrs. Neubert wanted to clarify whether South Burlington should wait until the E.I.P. hearing before they object to the impact of the Burlington proposal on So. Burlington since she had been a member of the Burlington Task Force and had already sent in a written review of the draft E.I.P. She also stated that Bruce Houghton and Rob Stewart feel that the new legislation would not work and have to be amended. Mr. Nicholls had not been aware that So. Burlington had representation on the Burlington Task Force. Mr. Farrar felt that it was very important that we make sure the two roads are planned to fit together and that is not possible the way the Burlington proposal is laid out now. John Armstrong provided a map of the Interchange in the Burlington project and discussion followed on the off bound ramp facing the K-Mart parking lot. Mr. Armstrong felt the ramp could be moved a little bit one way or the other but that the Burlington Task Force had approved this particular proposal during a meeting at which the South Burlington people were not present. Mrs. Neubert claimed she was never notified but that she had objected to this proposal many times at meetings. Moving this off bound ramp to the area of the project where it could connect with an eventual South Burlington Extension was discussed. John Armstrong repeated that Burlington had picked the design they wanted and going to the slip ramps would cost more money to build than the original plan. Mr. Flaherty asked what the traffic increase would be in South Burlington when this is built. Mr. Armstrong replied there would be no traffic increase. Mr. Burgess felt that traffic patterns would change in the area due to the new road and that change would have an impact in South Burlington. Mr. Armstrong said traffic in South Burlington would be the same no matter what route was chosen and quoted Highway Department statistics. Mrs. Neubert said those statistics related to various alternate routes in Burlington and that a study of traffic impact in South Burlington had not really been made. She referred to material from the Highway Department that Mr. Armstrong was not aware of. Mr. Armstrong Armstrong quoted the figure of 28,240 just south of Queen City Park Road for the year 1995. Mrs. Neubert's Highway Department projection for 1995 quoted a figure of 35,800 at the south side of the Interstate bridge for 1995. Mr. Paulsen stressed that there would be no question that southern traffic would increase and Mr. Nicholls agreed that induced traffic would increase. John Armstrong also agreed that normal traffic would increase yearly in the area. Mr. Farrar said that we don't share your assumption that traffic won't increase in South Burlington immediately upon completion of the project. John Armstrong said that only Interstate traffic would increase. Mr. Farrar said traffic patterns would change and traffic flow and turning movements would be different in the area and would create serious congestion. One way to avoid that congestion was to have the Interchange further south and that a more southerly interchange would require completely different planning for a new road than the present proposal. The Highway Department might want to avoid the interchange where it is now proposed if the southern part is built. Mr. Nicholls said that they needed assurance that projects would be built before they began designing them by placing bond issues before the voters. Mr. Farrar pointed out that we couldn't place bond issues before the voters since we wouldn't know the cost before they were designed. Frank Armstrong wanted to make sure that there were bycycle and pedestrian access to Red Rocks Park and also attention to Swift Street since the present Swift Street spur would be eliminated. Mr. Nicholls said that if we wanted a project agreement action should be taken in 18 months after the agreement is signed and that action should be certified by the community at a town meeting. Mr. Farrar questioned what the word certify meant. Mr. Nicholls replied that the city would certify a project by warning for a bond issue. Again Mr. Farrar said it would not make much sense if we didn't know the cost to begin with. Mrs. Neubert felt that the impact on South Burlington had not really been addressed and did Mr. Armstrong really think that Queen City Park Road was adequate to handle the traffic. Mr. Armstrong said that Queen City Park was adequate, but it could probably be fixed up some. Just because it wasn't on the map at present didn't mean that other things might now be done that hadn't come up yet. He was currently working on answers to questions submitted for the E.I.S. which addressed these issues. Placement of slip ramps and up-grading Queen City Park Road rather than the K-Mart hook were discussed and Mr. Armstrong felt it could be done with an on-grade crossing of Queen City Park Road. He pointed out that with the slip ramps we would not have access to the 189 interchange but only to the connector headed into and out of Burlington. Mr. Armstrong quoted statistics that Queen City Park Road currently had a 3,300 A.D.T. and would have 6,500 in 1995 with the new road. With a "no build" on the connector Queen City Park would have 4,300 A.D.T. in 1995. Mr. Paulsen pointed out that those statistics did not add up with other things. Mr. Farrar thanked the Highway Department for coming. Mr. Farrar suggested that the City sign the application for engineering. Mr. Paulsen made a motion that the City sign the application for a Southern Connector Extension through South Burlington and Mr. Flaherty seconded. The motion passed unanimously. Request of Planning Commission for traffic studies and additional staff Sidney Poger representing the South Burlington Planning Commission said they had great difficulty with project approvals because of high traffic counts in the city and general congestion. They have been reviewing the High Traffic Generator Report by Mr. Morency and the Southern Connector report by Mrs. Neubert. They were requesting three things of the Council: 1. A consultant be hired to make a traffic study of the impact of University Mall on Williston Road - Dorset Street and Kennedy Drive to be completed in four months, 2. Hire a consultant to study the impact of the Southern Connector on South Burlington, and 3. Recommend that Council consider in the next year hiring a permanent full time engineer with traffic knowledge. Frank Armstrong wanted to know what the cost would be and what the Planning Commission planned to do with the $4,000 already allocated to them. Mr. Poger did not know the cost of consultants but felt that they had many other uses for the $4,000 such as diagonal air photos. There was traffic data available at various times but they needed help in interpreting that data. They could not deny the Bonanza and Pizza Hut project because they needed more traffic information. Mrs. Neubert said there was a lot material available on traffic counts, efficiency ratings, and published traffic recommendations. None of it was being coordinated for our use. No one even had time to read it. Mr. Burgess wanted to know how much time a full-time engineer would have to work on traffic and does the City need a lot or a little help. Mr. Poger felt we needed a lot of other engineering help and he could only guess at a 50-50 work load. Arnold Cohen put a question to Mr. Szymanski, "Bill, do we need more help?" Mr. Szymanski replied, "I think we do, but consulting work is always put on the shelf." He pointed out that money is available for preliminary planning for sewers free, but that highway planning costs money. Mr. Cohen referred to a new Chamber of Commerce report that says traffice is 50% ahead of last year. Mr. Flaherty felt the Planning Commission should decide exactly what they wanted from a study. If you ask the right questions, you get the right answers. They should also determine a price tag. He would vote for it if the Planning Commission came up with more exact definitions. Mr. Poger said the Planning Commission would much have preferred hiring a permanent employee tomorrow but realized that Council did not budget for it this year. Mr. Armstrong also requested that they decide how they want to spend the $4,000 and agreed that any further studies be more specific. There was no Zoning Board or Planning Commission Agenda available for this meeting. Phase 5 Sewer Project Mr. Flaherty made a motion that the Council approve a short term note for $25,000 at 3.34% interest rate for the fourth phase of the Phase 5 sewer project. Seconded by Mr. Paulsen and passed Unanimously. Resolution on the death of Sen. John J. O'Brien Mr. Farrar read a resolution of sympathy to the family of Sen. John J. O'Brien on his recent death. Mr. Flaherty moved that the resolution be adopted and forwarded to the family. Seconded by Mr. Armstrong and passed unanimously. Procedure for E.D.A. Applications Mr. Farrar suggested that Agenda Item 9 on E.D.A. be postponed to a future meeting. City Treasurer Mr. Farrar explained that the offices of City Clerk and City Treasurer had always been a combined position. Due to the resignation of Mrs. Paquin an interim appointment had been made. With the recent election of a new City Clerk we now had to determine how to handle the appointment of Treasurer. He had communication with the School Board and they would like to be involved in the process of appointing a Treasurer since that position serves the City as well as the School District. The School Board Chairman had requested a joint meeting with Council to prepare criteria for the job and to work out ways to handle mutual problems. This had been briefly discussed at the last Steering Committee meeting. Mr. Armstrong felt that when the citizens voted at the election they generally expected that this be a dual position and that the Clerk would also be the Treasurer, and that Mrs. Picard was expected to assume both positions if qualified. Mr. Flaherty agreed that it should be a dual position and asked Mrs. Picard if she would be willing to do both jobs. Mrs. Picard replied that she would be honored to do it. Mr. Paulsen then made a motion that the Council call a Special Meeting with the School Board on Monday, August 27. Seconded by Mr. Flaherty and passed unanimously. Dorset Street - Williston Road Intersection Mr. Szymanski explained that the Howard Johnson people wanted a larger parking lot on land along the Interstate. It was found that the Federal Government owned this land as part of the Interstate right-of-way and were reluctant to give it up should they ever want to widen the ramp. An arrangement was finally agreed upon whereby the government would give up half the contended land leaving enough room for parking but also allowing for widening of the Interstate ramp with an additional swap of a small piece of land owned by Howard Johnson along the Interstate that would help straighten out the curve. A second piece of land along Dorset Street was included in the swap and now Dorset Street could be widened and the ramp could also be adjusted in the future. A map of the proposal was viewed by the Council. Mr. Szymanski said work would begin on construction as soon as possible. Resignation from Regional Planning Commission Mr. Szymanski reported that Paul Graves had tendered his resignation as the South Burlington representative to the Regional Planning Commission as of September 1, 1977. Mr. Flaherty moved that we accept the resignation, seconded by Mr. Armstrong and passed unanimously. Mr. Szymanski was instructed to warn for the vacancy at the appropriate time. Pyramid Mall Mr. Farrar reported that both verbally and in writing South Burlington had been accepted as a party to the Pyramid Mall Environmental Hearings, and that it was not only our right but our duty to do so. They would address mainly the impact of sewers, traffic, and economic impact of the proposed Mall on South Burlington. Mr. Flaherty made a motion that the City appoint either Mr. Farrar or the City Attorney to represent South Burlington at the Environmental Hearings on Pyramid Mall. Seconded by Mr. Burgess and passed unanimously. Mr. Farrar explained on traffic there would probably be a regional study and from that we would pay for a study of Williston Road and that part would be submitted by South Burlington. There would be a general regional study of impact on retail business and we would extract the impact to South Burlington from that. Sewers would be handled with the help of the Water Resources Board. At the last Environmental Commission meeting Mr. Farrar had tried to get procedures established but that Burlington had asked for a postponement until the end of the year. The next meeting is on August 25 at which he would like to get those procedures pinned down but expects a further request for postponement. Next City Council Meeting Mr. Flaherty made a motion that the next regular City Council Meeting be held on Tuesday, September 6, because of Labor Day. Seconded by Mr. Burgess and passed unanimously. Mr. Flaherty made a motion that the regular meeting be adjourned and that the Council meet as Liquor Control Board. Seconded by Mr. Paulsen and passed unanimously. Liquor Control Board Mr. Szymanski said the request was for a simple change of ownership of the Court Club. Mr. Flaherty moved that we accept the application of license by the new owner of the Court Club. Seconded by Mr. Paulsen and passed unanimously. Mr. Flaherty moved adjournment of the Liquor Control Board at 10:45. P.M. Seconded by Mr. Paulsen, and passed unanimously. Clerk Published by ClerkBase ©2019 by Clerkbase. No Claim to Original Government Works.