Minutes from the April 6, 2006 Meeting

of the Jefferson Streetscape Task Force

with Property Owners Most Effected By Design Changes

  1. The meeting was called to order at 7 pm by Jim Carpenter, president

  2. Welcome and General announcements
    The web site for the Jefferson Streetscape project is found at http://JeffersonMd.net/Streetscape. It was created and is maintained by Jim Carpenter.

    The purpose of this meeting is to discuss recent engineering design changes in the Conceptual Plan which result is fewer curb side parking spaces.  We have invited those residents who had curb side parking in the original Conceptual Plan but do not in the current engineering design.

  3. General introductions of everyone in attendance

The following people from State Highway Administration (SHA) attended: 
David Phillips (Project Manager), Mark Crampton (Assistant District 7 Engineer), April Stitt (Traffic Engineer)

The following people from the citizens task force were present: 
Jim Carpenter (President), Mike Boyer (Vice President), John Satterfield (Database Administrator), Ben Ahalt, Brick Rembsburg, Adrienne Summers, Tony Poffenberger, Michael Summers, Shirley Hale, Maurice Hoffmaster

The following people attended who are residents, property owners, or represent property owners along Jefferson Pike:
Bernie Wolford, Bill and Dori Brown, Clarence and Barbara Horst, Joan Biser, Joe Horman, John Mainhart, Lisa and Bill Phelps, Lisa and DJ Moore, Ted Zimmerman.

  1. Brief History of the Jefferson Streetscape Project

David Phillips gave a short history of the project.  Maryland Streetscape programs began in 1998, Jefferson Streetscape project began in May, 2000 with the support of the Jefferson Ruritan Club.  It is still the only Streetscape project in an unincorporated community.  The Jefferson Streetscape Task Force is composed of volunteer citizens who coordinate the residents and property owners and help them reach a consensus on plans. 

Phase 1 of the project ended in May 2002 with the unanimous approval of the Conceptual Plan created by SHA with input from the community.  Due to lack of funds, work on Phase 2, the Engineering Design, was not started until November 2005.  The preliminary (30% landmark) engineering design was completed in Febrary 2006.  The design made significant modifications to the original Conceptual Plan to incorporate federal American Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements and meet state policy on bike lanes in new construction.

  1. Impact of Design Changes on Parking Spaces

ADA mandated that sidewalks be 5 feet wide.  Sidewalk width was as low as 3 feet in the original Conceptual Plan.  State policy stipulates 4 foot bike lanes be designated and demarcated by white lines from each traffic lane.  The width of the traffic lanes were reduced from approximately 13 feet to 11 feet.

The new requirements resulted in the loss of about half of more than 70 curb side parking spaces and all of the green spaces in the Conceptual Plan.  Property owners may "dedicate" (transfer ownership of) property for curb side parking. 

  1. Discussion of Options

Questions were raised about the apparent delay in informing the property owners in the change of plans.  John Satterfield and Jim Carpenter explained that the SHA design changes weren't made available until late February (2006) and discussed for the first time in our March 9 meeting.  We met once more in March to plan this meeting.

The question was raised whether the changes were the result of legal requirements or policy recommendations.  David Phillips and Mark Crampton said the ADA are federal requirements and that the bike lanes were state policy requirements. 

There was discussion of whether we could get a waiver to go back to the old plans that everyone had agreed to.  Mark Crampton said that SHA could look into that.  Mark suggested the residents approach their local and state elected officials once the SHA studies are complete to have them petition the SHA Adminsitrator for the waiver on the bike lanes.

A suggestion was made to have SHA provide the property owners a walk-through to show them how their properties would be effected and to discuss the options individually.  David said he would be willing to conduct a walk-through.

  1. Resolution

A motion was made and unanimously approved to have SHA research the possibilities of waiving the bike lane requirements and revert to the original Conceptual Plan as much as possible.

  1. Next Task Force Meeting and Walk-through
    David will coordinate with Jim in selecting a time for the walk-through and the next meeting.  Jim will notify the Task Force members and all people present at this meeting.

  2. Adjourn - the meeting was adjourned at 8:15 pm.