Transportation Plan Concerns Get Hearing: City Hall Forum Tonight Will Hear From Residents on Downtown Proposal

By Dennis Yusko, Albany Times Union, N.Y.

May 9–SARATOGA SPRINGS — A city committee will hold a public information meeting tonight to discuss an $8 million Downtown Transportation Plan that was derailed last week by 1,059 people who opposed it in a signed petition.

The 7 p.m. forum at City Hall will address concerns of residents who oppose the plan or are anxious about it, said Planning Board Chairman Lew Benton, who heads the Downtown Transportation Committee.

“Even though the advisory committee appointed to craft this thing has already endorsed a modified plan, that doesn’t mean we could not reconvene and alter or modify that,” Benton said.

The proposal, hatched in 2005, surfaced again recently when BFJ Planning and Vollmer Associates completed recommendations for the city’s 36-block downtown business district in an $80,000 study funded by developer and grant money.

Over 20 years, the plan would improve sidewalks, curb cuts and bicycle lanes and install traffic signals, bike racks, bus shelters, bus stop signs and new pedestrian connections. It would also add 100 parking spaces.

But its more controversial elements include testing medians painted on the road and single-lane traffic on Broadway. And developers would contribute directly to a fund to help mitigate any congestion their future projects would bring downtown.

The 72-sheet petition, presented to the City Council by Shauna M. Sutton of Nelson Avenue and Harriett Finch of Church Street, objects to single-lane traffic and the installation of roundabouts, medians and bicycle lanes along Broadway.

“The community at large does not want this plan,” Sutton told the City Council. One-lane traffic on Broadway and the other measures “are inconsistent with traffic capacity and safety needs of our busy downtown/Broadway commercial area,” the petition stated.

Dawn Oesch, president of the Downtown Business Association, and Kathleen Smith, a member of the Special Assessment District board, also voiced concerns.

The City Council reacted by voting 5-0 to table a resolution that would have begun environmental assessments of the transportation plan.

“I am not wedded to this plan,” Mayor Valerie Keehn said.

Raised medians and roundabouts at Broadway and Congress Street were eliminated from the plan, Benton said. Parts of Broadway are already one lane due to turning lanes, he said.

The Downtown Transportation Committee will make a decision on if to go forward with the plan, or parts of it, after Wednesday. Any changes must be approved by the City Council, whose five members face an election year.

“We’ll see what the real bones of contention are,” Benton said. “If we’re unable to convince the loyal opposition that some of these concepts should go forward, then we’d have to make a value judgment.” Yusko can be reached at 581-8438 or by e-mail at dyusko@timesunion.com.

Parking and traffic plansHere are some highlights of the Saratoga Springs Downtown Transportation Plan: Improvements would cost $8.1 million in 2006 dollars over 20 years. Planners project paying for it with about $2 million in city funds; $2 million from developer impact fees; and $4 million in state and federal transportation funds. The developer fees would be raised through a new “Fair Share” mechanism that assigns transportation upgrade costs to new development in proportion to its size and traffic impact. All plans for new development in the 36 blocks would be required to provide parking on-site, off-site or payments to the fund, which would be used exclusively for additional parking facilities. The plan recommends $481 per 1,000-square-feet of residential development; $962 per $1,000 square-feet of hotel development; and $1,924 per $1,000-square-feet of office/commercial development. Presently, applicants pay the city to do environmental and traffic impacts for individual project. Those costs would be replaced by the new fees because the study would serve as an environmental impact statement for all future projects within the district, and make federal funding more accessible. The plan assumes a 60 percent buildup of vacant and undeveloped properties permitted under present zoning in the central business district, which, over the next 20 years, would result in a 9 percent increase in average peak hour traffic.

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