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Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Tell City Council your thoughts on Morrow and Lamar
The Comprehensive Planning and Transportation Committee has asked Crestview for suggestions on realistic improvements that could be made to address the neighborhood's concerns over pedestrian and bicycle safety regarding the recommended opening of Morrow to westbound traffic across Lamar. The deadline for those suggestions is February 14th. Click HERE to e-mail the committee with your concerns and suggestions.
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City of Austin
Saturday, January 15, 2011
01.10.11 CNA General Meeting Minutes
Pour House Late Hours Application
Marcos Canchola, owner of the Pour House, has an application before the city to extend the current hours of operation for the Pour House to 2am nightly. Currently, the hours are to midnight on weekdays and to 1am on weekends. All of his other businesses have late hours status, and about 25% of their business is done during the late hours. He has several places around Austin, and has been in business for 10 years (starting with Barfly’s). There will be no live music except for the occasional fund raiser or special event (e.g. SXSW). In order to get the extended hours, they will have to put in sidewalks and update the handicap accessibility to modern standards. They do not have live music at any of their venues, and they have never exceeded their decibel limits. They expect to have a hearing in mid-February. He invites people to call or e-mail him with their concerns (512-796-5561 (cell), mcanchola@yahoo.com).
Morrow and Lamar Intersection
Eddie and Steve Dobie recapped the status on the intersection (see earlier meeting minutes). The Highland Neighborhood Association had requested the intersection be open to westbound traffic about 1.5 years ago. Staff had a recommendation to the Transportation sub-committee (Cole, Riley, Morrison) to open the intersection, after 4 meetings between the Crestview and Highland representatives, mediated by staff. The recommendations in the short term, by staff, are to:
1. Take traffic counts on Morrow with the traffic calming plan fully implemented (NOTE: the existing traffic calming plan relies upon 2008 counts, assuming that the Lamar intersection remains closed to westbound traffic)
2. Move speed limit signs to noticeable locations
3. Place radar speed feedback signs along Morrow
4. Review signal-pedestrian timing of the signal light
5. Discuss Anderson-Lamar intersection (bottleneck committee – City & State dialog)
Long term recommendations are to:
1. Build a sidewalk from Lamar to Grover on the north side of Morrow
2. Once the sidewalk is complete, allow southbound Lamar from westbound Morrow
3. Modify sidewalks and ramps at the intersection
4. After 1 year, look at speed and volume again to see if changes are needed
We are supposed to get back to staff by February 14th with suggestions on what we would want to see realistically implemented before the intersection would be opened. Some suggestions mentioned by the forum:
1. Make Morrow curvy
2. Increase lighting along Morrow
3. Put incremental traffic load triggers into place so that actions will be taken as counts increase, up to a maximum load whereupon the intersection would be closed again
4. Revisit other thoroughfares that might take up the brunt of cut-through traffic if Morrow is made even more restrictive (e.g. Grover, Dartmouth, etc.)
5. Have signal light with sign restricting westbound traffic to non-rush hours to reduce cut-through traffic (green dot and green arrow when open, red dot and green arrow when closed). This could be enforced with a traffic camera at the light.
The priority on the sidewalk is determined by formula, and it would currently be rated as a mid-level priority. It would also take about $85K to remove the obstruction and put in a new signal at the intersection, and there is currently no money in the city budget to do that. Estimates are 5-6 years before anything would actually start being done.
People are encouraged to contact the sub-committee to express their concerns over opening the intersection and suggestions on mitigation strategies. Don will add a sub-committee e-mail link on the CNA web site.
Announcement of Neighborhood Crime
Eddie announced that a woman in the neighborhood had been taken advantage of by a few people posing as roof repair people doing follow up work on her roof (which had recently been repaired). They conned her out of some cash. People are advised to be skeptical of those asking for cash.
Marcos Canchola, owner of the Pour House, has an application before the city to extend the current hours of operation for the Pour House to 2am nightly. Currently, the hours are to midnight on weekdays and to 1am on weekends. All of his other businesses have late hours status, and about 25% of their business is done during the late hours. He has several places around Austin, and has been in business for 10 years (starting with Barfly’s). There will be no live music except for the occasional fund raiser or special event (e.g. SXSW). In order to get the extended hours, they will have to put in sidewalks and update the handicap accessibility to modern standards. They do not have live music at any of their venues, and they have never exceeded their decibel limits. They expect to have a hearing in mid-February. He invites people to call or e-mail him with their concerns (512-796-5561 (cell), mcanchola@yahoo.com).
Morrow and Lamar Intersection
Eddie and Steve Dobie recapped the status on the intersection (see earlier meeting minutes). The Highland Neighborhood Association had requested the intersection be open to westbound traffic about 1.5 years ago. Staff had a recommendation to the Transportation sub-committee (Cole, Riley, Morrison) to open the intersection, after 4 meetings between the Crestview and Highland representatives, mediated by staff. The recommendations in the short term, by staff, are to:
1. Take traffic counts on Morrow with the traffic calming plan fully implemented (NOTE: the existing traffic calming plan relies upon 2008 counts, assuming that the Lamar intersection remains closed to westbound traffic)
2. Move speed limit signs to noticeable locations
3. Place radar speed feedback signs along Morrow
4. Review signal-pedestrian timing of the signal light
5. Discuss Anderson-Lamar intersection (bottleneck committee – City & State dialog)
Long term recommendations are to:
1. Build a sidewalk from Lamar to Grover on the north side of Morrow
2. Once the sidewalk is complete, allow southbound Lamar from westbound Morrow
3. Modify sidewalks and ramps at the intersection
4. After 1 year, look at speed and volume again to see if changes are needed
We are supposed to get back to staff by February 14th with suggestions on what we would want to see realistically implemented before the intersection would be opened. Some suggestions mentioned by the forum:
1. Make Morrow curvy
2. Increase lighting along Morrow
3. Put incremental traffic load triggers into place so that actions will be taken as counts increase, up to a maximum load whereupon the intersection would be closed again
4. Revisit other thoroughfares that might take up the brunt of cut-through traffic if Morrow is made even more restrictive (e.g. Grover, Dartmouth, etc.)
5. Have signal light with sign restricting westbound traffic to non-rush hours to reduce cut-through traffic (green dot and green arrow when open, red dot and green arrow when closed). This could be enforced with a traffic camera at the light.
The priority on the sidewalk is determined by formula, and it would currently be rated as a mid-level priority. It would also take about $85K to remove the obstruction and put in a new signal at the intersection, and there is currently no money in the city budget to do that. Estimates are 5-6 years before anything would actually start being done.
People are encouraged to contact the sub-committee to express their concerns over opening the intersection and suggestions on mitigation strategies. Don will add a sub-committee e-mail link on the CNA web site.
Announcement of Neighborhood Crime
Eddie announced that a woman in the neighborhood had been taken advantage of by a few people posing as roof repair people doing follow up work on her roof (which had recently been repaired). They conned her out of some cash. People are advised to be skeptical of those asking for cash.
Labels:
CNA General Meeting
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