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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1984-02-07 - City Commission Special Meeting MinutesMAIL REPLY TO: P.O. BOX 25010 "TAMARAC. FLORIDA 33320 58'11 NORTHWEST 88TH AVENUE 0 TAMARAC, FLORIDA 33321 TELEPHONE 005) 722-5900 February 1, 1984 NOTICE OF SPECIAL MEETING CITY COUNCIL OF TAMARAC, FLORIDA Please be advised of a Special Meeting of the City Council to be held on Tuesday, February 7, 1984 at 10:00 A.M. in Council Chambers of City Hall, 5811 NW 88 Avenue, Tamarac. The purpose of this meeting is to interview the four (4) engineering firms who were recommended individually by Council and subsequently select and rank the top three firms to negotiate a contract to Prepare a Trafficways Study for the City and the engineering firms are: Darby & Way, Inc. - 10:10 A.M. Walter H. Keller, Jr.,Inc. - 10:30 A.M. Keith & Schnars, P.A. - 10:50 A.M. Kimley-Horn & Assoc.,Inc. - 11:10 A.M. The public is invited to attend. Marilyn Bertholf, CM City Clerk Purtuant toSection 2W01M Rmids Statutes It a PWW deeldes to OPW OW deoisi m made by the ft ObURN with respect tD e11tâ–º matter considered at such meetlog or h""ft hi WN need A 1+sWd Of the proceedings and for such OW>rp 14h hi fW Wd to rneare that ;e verbatim reoArd- indudy th6 bill *v ghd eridllr00 OM~ 00 IMM is to be b CITY OF TAMARAC, FLORIDA SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING February 7, 1984 Tape CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Falck called the meeting to order on Tuesday, 1 February 7, 1984 at 10:00 A.M. in the Council Chambers. ROLL CALL: PRESENT: Mayor Walter W. Falck Vice Mayor Helen Massaro Councilman Philip B. Kravitz ABSENT AND EXCUSED: Councilman David E. Krantz Councilman Jack Stelzer ALSO PRESENT Steve Wood, Acting City Manager Jon M. Henning, City Attorney Carol A. Evans, Assistant City Clerk Patricia Marcurio, Secretary Mayor Falck read the notice of the meeting into the record, stating that the purpose of this,meeting is to interview the four (4) engineering firms who were recommended individually by Council and subsequently select and rank the top three firms and negotiate a contract to prepare a Trafficways Study for the City. He said the engineering firms are: Darby & Way, Inc., Walter H. Keller, Jr., Inc., Keith & Schnars, P.A., and Kimley-Horn & Associates, Inc. He said following the presentations at this meeting, the Council should contact the City Manager as to their first preference. 1. Darby & Way, Inc. - Greg Darby, representing this firm introduced Mr. Bill Gray who is one of the Planners with this firm and will be associated with this project as Project Manager if they are selected. He said this firm was formed in 1978 and they were located in Tamarac and have since moved to Fort Lauderdale to meet the distribution needs of their service and engineering personnel. He said they are very much aware of the transportation issues in Tamarac: the major trafficways that traverse through the City, University Drive, Pine Island Rd., Southgate Blvd. and Commercial Blvd. Also associated with that is the new expressway and parkway that will be constructed on the western City limits. Having been involved with that from an initial planning stage, they are aware of some of the designing strains that it will have on the City's traffic system. It is a non -complicated, grid circulation system which allows various computer models to be interrelated with traffic projections and traffic studies. Mr. Darby said Tamarac has retail commercial and office commercial along the major arterials and the condominium and residential loading throughout the roadway segments in concentrated areas would play an important part on the transportation network. The other issue is the drive through traffic from the abutting communities. He said his firm has 38 people on staff and have the qualified pro- fessionals to handle the work. They are a multi -disciplined firm offering engineering, planning, surveying and development consulting as well as landscape architecture so they have the services that can assist the City throughout the transportation, modeling, planning and implementation sections. He said his staff is exper- ienced in transportation planning having worked on such projects as the Master Thoroughfare Plan for Taylor County and the City of Perry, the thoroughfare plan for the City of Marianna, master thoroughfare plan for the capital central district in Tallahassee, several local street intersection improvements for projects in downtown Fort Lauderdale and I-95 and Andrews Ave. intersection work. They also have expert services in acquisition of condemnation of public rights -of -way for local streets through the interstate highways. The staff has also been involved in the impact assessment of traffic and transportation systems as it relates to transportation planning, capital improvement planning and budgeting for transpor- tation services. 1 2/7/84 /nm Mr. Darby said they feel they have some of the most sophisticated equipment, not only in computer capabilities and graphics, but also being able to handle the job from a word processing system through the graphics program to make plans implemental and functional. Mayor Falck asked Mr. Darby if his firm has done similar work for the County or other municipalities and Mr. Darby said no. His staff has worked on several transportation plans, and Tamarac is unique in that it has several arterials running through it. Mayor Falck asked if they would review what the County has already done and Mr. Darby said they will take a concentrated analysis of the system taking the County's data and verifying it by pooling all the data available. Mayor Falck said the City has had problems in trying to relate their observations of traffic trips as they are given by the County since they interpret them to be very low in areas that are already overloaded. Mr. Darby said part of this study would be to recommend some existing traffic counts so that data can be refuted. The trips on the computer model are far less than the actual usage since the model does not adapt and must be constantly updated. V/M Massaro said this study is supposed to determine how any project coming into Tamarac would affect the City in any direction. It should tell not only how many trips are going to be made on a road, but what other far-reaching affect it might have. She said although the project may be in Tamarac, it seems the monies always go to a remote area outside of the City. Mr. Darby said it is intended under the transportation plan that certain standards for improvements will have been determined for intersections. These standards can have a dollar value in the form of a schedule which can be adopted and changed yearly. He said they are expecting to approach that so that as projects come in, they will be evaluated on a local level and not a regional level. V/M Massaro asked if this study will simply tell what needs to be done in another implementation program or will it encompass an implementation program? Mr. Darby said the exact scope of services before negotiations can take place needs to be identified with the City Manager's office. The implementation section is the bulk of the work and once the plan has been addressed, it should be imple- mented by Ordinance. He said they would have to look at the undeveloped areas because they will be the ones that will be creating additional impact into the City; however, another area is the drive through traffic. V/M Massaro asked Mr. Darby if his firm was involved in services with the Saw Grass Expressway and Mr. Darby said no. He said this would be a "Needs Specific" Study. Mr. Henning asked Mr. Darby if they plan to advise the City on a method of assessing the impact on new developments. Mr. Darby said in the implementation program, they must be able to identify the issues as well as the dollar value with improvements. He said in preparing the criteria for these intersections to handle additional trips, there are certain funds available in the Transportation Plans and they will be prepared to research these areas. V/M Massaro said these additional trips will affect how soon roads have to be resurfaced. Steve Wood asked how difficult it would be to get the funds from the County on the impact fees that have been collected and Mr. Darby said presently it is very difficult. He said with a trips run they analyze certain roads within a 5 mile radius of a project and they assess a certain amount of additional daily trips through a computer model to those intersections. Each one has a certain value based upon the projected roadway costs of that roadway segment depending upon the construction that is required. All those fees are in one check and go into one account. Hopefully, the computer model addresses the accummulation of these trips so that once that has been completed, those funds and the impact are removed from the trips program. V/M Massaro asked if the City has the right at platting stage to approve their plat subject to the City being involved in having the money allocated for Tamarac improvements as a written agreement. - 2 - 2/7/84 /pm Mr. Henning said the first step would be an amendment to the City's Ordinance and if there were an Ordinance like that it would involve 3-Party Agreements and the cooperation of the County. Steve Wood asked if the City had an impact fee, would the developer then pay the difference to the County of what his fee would have been to the County less the City's portion or would he pay the County the same portion? Mr. Darby said he does not know; however, if the City has a Transportation Plan implementation that meets applicable traffic generation standards, then it would. This would be another step in the implementation of the local Land Use Plan. Mr. Wood asked who would then approve the plan once it has been developed and Mr. Darby said the County would have to adopt it and then the local plan would take precedence. Mayor Falck thanked Mr. Darby for his presentation to Council. 2. Walter H. Keller, Jr., Inc. - Walter H. Keller, Jr. President of the firm said he prepared a presentation booklet which he referred to during his presentation. He said he is a registered Professional Engineer and a Certified Planner and has been doing transportation planning and traffic work within Broward County for more than 12 years. He is currently President of his own firm located in Coral Springs and he has 6 people on staff. The firm was established with a predicate of providing custom services in very specialized areas. He was a member of Mid -South Engineering Co. and prepared 13 traffic circulation elements for cities around the County. He said other major projects performed are the Broward County Regional Review Program for which he won an award of excellence for transportation planning from the American Planning Association. He was the lead consultant for the Public Works Department of the Cayman Islands. He worked as one of the prime consultants to Broward County in developing its Traffic Impact Fee System, which was the new development of the TRIPS model. Tape He said prior to working in private business, he served 6 years as 2 the Assistant Drafter of the Transportation Planning and Technical Study for the Broward County Planning Council. He said his firm has been in business for 7 months and the major emphasis is on computer production of data. He said they are fairly knowledgeable about the traffic circulation conditions within the City and they see 4 major concerns in the Study's approach: I. to develop a mechanism for a defensible Traffic Impact Fee procedure whereby the City can assess local developers for traffic improvements. This would be at the major intersections and possibly other locations that might be identified in the future. In order to protect the City, that process must be defensible. He said, from 4 years experience working on the Broward County system and on the Palm Beach County Impact Fee System, you must have a sound process for determining what the traffic impact improvement costs are going to be. Once this has been developed, a mechanism must be established so that the process can work on a daily basis. 2. to accelerate the improvement of University Dr., it is necessary to work with the political area of the various agencies, the State Legislature and the County Commission. He said as con- sultant to the City, he would coordinate with the lobbyists and provide technical documentation. 3. 64th Ave. and NW 44 St. evaluation - Broward County Trafficways Plan has both those roadways as 106-foot trafficways which means, under the current plans, those roadways are on there to secure rights of way and this evaluation would look at the long range plan and devise a mechanism to present to Broward County. He said he would provide the technical analysis and documentation to assist the City in that endeavor. 4. another major goal is to update the 1980 Traffic Circulation Plan. This would show where the roadway improvements need to go within the City, what the phasing of those improvements should be and what costs of those improvements will be to the year 2000. - 3 - 2/7/84 /pm Mr. Keller referred to his booklet map which showed that the inter- section of Commercial Blvd. and University Dr. traffic volume for 1983 is almost 35,000 vehicles per day. The roadway at that location is 4 lanes and the maximum vehicles that should be on a 4 lane roadway are about 27,500 vehicles per day, therefore, there are already 5,000 vehicles over that amount. He said all the projections on the maps are low figures from DOT material. He said he would be the Project Manager on this and he has a strong staff of technical people most of whom have been with him for the past 2 years. He said they can offer an innovative "State of the Art" approach to combine the new computer techniques to present the study in the most cost effective manner. Mayor Falck thanked Mr. Keller for his presentation to Council. 3. Keith & Schnars, P.A. - Bill Keith, President of Keith & Schnars, introduced members of his staff: Kris Hayes, Assistant Director of Planning, Tanzer Kalayci, Director of Operations for the Engineering Division, Fred Schwartz, Traffic Engineer and Arnold Ramos, Senior member of the firm. Mr. Ramos made the presentation on behalf of Keith & Schnars and said they have built into the firm those key individuals that would be involved with this project. He said Bill Keith and Tanzer Kalayci would be on an advisory basis. He said Tanzer Kalayci, while with the DOT, was responsible for the design of University Dr. north and south of the City and also with the County. Mr. Ramos said he would act as Project Manager and work directly with Fred Schwartz concerning Traffic Engineering and Mike Covelli and Kris Hayes concerning Transpor- tation Planning. He said they have worked with the Economic Development Council and they currently did the Alternative Studies for the City of Coconut Creek. They are doing work for the City of Fort Pierce as an on -going Traffic Consultant, they have done the comprehensive work on Pompano Industrial Park, the parking analysis for Broward General Hospital, are currently working for Broward County and they have 6one work on Pine Island Rd. and Woodmont. Mr. Ramos said in reviewing the job, they see 3 elements, one is working with the City and the Planning Council on the problem with 61st Ave. He said looking at traffic numbers is not sufficient but the adjoining land uses must be reviewed and then altered to the current communities. Second, on University Dr. and Pine Island Rd., they feel they can develop the technical expertise that can assist the City in its effort with both the County Commission and others in beginning to use impact fees or other methods to get this section completed. Third, one of the things they found in studying the City was that they need to make an effort for the pedestrians. This is an area they think they can handle, put a price tag on it, build an inflation factor, determine what can reasonably be expected from the State and County in impact fees and other sources and then identify the shortfall that the City will have. They can then build that shortfall in a meaningful way to get a fair share contribution for both residential and commercial developers in the City. Mr. Henning asked. Mr. Ramos if they would expect to give the City some type of formula for assessing the impact to the new developments and he said yes, not only a formula but some rationale in making sure it is legally defendable. He said most developers are not opposed to this. He said the impact fees in Broward County have almost doubled and there is no way to anticipate the inflationary spiral but the fees when originally set, need to consider some growth and inflation for fairness. Steve Wood asked what the time frame involved is from the start of the study to its completion and is there a need for annual updates. Mr. Ramos said if the study is done properly, the update can be done by City staff and the reason for this is when roads are improved there should be no real need for an update. He said they anticipate a 3 month effort Of basically taking the data, allowing input from staff and Council and beginning the processing. He said the impact fees could be in place then and acted upon. He said they would study turning lanes, the resurfacing needs, researching, drainage improvements and the pedestrian situation. Mayor Falck thanked Mr. Ramos and his staff for their presentation to Council. - 4 - 2/7/84 /pm 4. Kimley-Horn & Associates - Richard Mercer, prepared a brief presentation summary and on the resources of the firm which can be City in conducting this study. There are 1. brief overview of staff qualifications 2. review of the services and abilities of 3. touch briefly on their familiarity with Broward County and local areas 4. to talk about their approach to project method by which they would handle this Fort Lauderdale office Project Manager said he will concentrate mainly made available to the 4 areas to cover: Kimley-Horn itself the City of Tamarac, administration and the Project out of their Mr. Mercer said they can offer a depth of staff unequaled in the State and they have been in business in Florida for almost 20 years. He said there are 4 senior personnel listed on Page 10 of the booklet he distributed to Council. Jim Zook, Principal in Charge, founded the Florida operation in 1968. He said Mr. Zook would be in charge of this project to insure overall quality control of the project and timely completion of all phases of the work. Mr. Mercer said he would serve as Project Manager from the Fort Lauderdale office. He said he is a West Broward resident living in Coral Springs and is familiar with the area. Another engineer on the project would be Bruce Friedman, Traffic Operations Specialist with the firm. Steven Godfrey, Transportation Engineer, is another very qualified professional on staff. There are a total of 96 members of staff among several offices of the U.S. and of those 34 are professionals. Mr. Mercer said Kimley-Horn ranks within the top half of Engineering News Records top 500 engineering firms. He said in addition to the 34 professionals that are at their disposal, they have 19 professionals with a minimum of Master Degrees. They have a large number of professionals that have municipal backgrounds. He said that 75% of their business comes from previous clients which indicates that there is a high level of client satisfaction. He said in the area of local knowledge, he has had the fortune of working with several in a County capacity. He said they have done work for other cities such as Margate, they are currently the traffic engineering consultants for the City of Coral Springs, and in the past they have done work for Oakland Park and Davie. He said they have done work in the Plantation area for Gulfstream Land and Development Corp. and one of the major projects was a corridor study of University Dr. through Plantation only. Mr. Mercer said their experience has enabled them to establish working relationships with both the County and State DOT and those relationships will be helpful. He said they have a computer- ized project administration and management system which enables them to keep constant tabs on project costs, etc. Mayor Falck asked Mr. Mercer if his firm was working on the Saw Grass Express- way and Mr. Mercer said no. Mr. Henning asked if they get the analysis of the City's needs would they be able to give the City some type of formula to assess the impact on the developers and Mr. Mercer answered yes. He said they have been involved in writing a "Fair Share" Ordinance for other municipalities. Mayor Falck thanked Mr. Mercer for his presentation. The meeting adjourned at 12:00 P.M. ATTEST: ASSISTANT CITY CLERK This public document was promulgated at a cost of $ /33, 4-y or $ 2. 7 per copy to inform the general public and public officers and employees about recent opinions and considerations by the City Council of the City of Tamarac. - 5 - 2/7/84 /pm CIYI Y OF TAMAR C APPROVED Al MEETING OF City Clerk