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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTSMinutes_2011_10_13BROOKINGS TRAFFIC SAFETY COMMITTEE City Hall meeting room Thursday, October 13, 2011 12:10 p.m. The Brookings Traffic Safety Committee held its monthly meeting on Thursday, October 13, 2011, at 12:10pm in the City Hall meeting room. Members Present: Carol Rettkowski, Louis Skubic, Jackie Lanning, Keith Bruinsma, Tony Sonnenburg, Daryl Englund, and Skip Webster. Members Absent: Pete Kirchheuel, Jeff Miller, Brian Lueders, Tim Heaton, and Mike Fossum. Others Present: Troy Anderson, Stephanie Ellwein, Angie & Scott Hegdahl, John Storsteen, Adam Vaux, Aaron Entringer, and Tammy Herold. Call to Order: Englund called the meeting called to order. Webster / Skubic moved to approve the minutes from the September meeting. All present voted aye. Addition to Agenda: None Old Business: Discussion of bikes on Main Avenue: Tabled until next month’s meeting. Request to remove parking on the north side of 17th Street South between 7th Avenue South and 9th Avenue South. Lanning passed out a map of this location and stated she was contacted by a homeowner in this area and they are concerned about the vehicle parking for the new condominiums that were built on the north side of 17th Street South. During SDSU’s move-in weekend, there were a lot of vehicles parking on both sides of the street as well as blocking driveways and sidewalks. Lanning sent a letter to all the residents in this area to invite them to the Traffic Safety Committee’s public hearing about this issue. Stephanie Ellwein lives at 703 17th Street South and owns her house. She passed out pictures of the vehicles parked in the neighborhood and stated removing parking on the north side will eliminate only two parking spots and would not solve the problem. She talked with Mr. McClemans and he mentioned there are five residents in each side unit. She stated she has small children and won’t let them play outside because of all the vehicles parked in the street and she wants someone to be held accountable. She said there is talk there will be additional condominiums going up and there will be more vehicles. This is a very narrow street and the parking is very discouraging as a homeowner. There is a huge traffic and safety concern when you come around the corner at 7th Avenue South and there are 25 cars parked which makes visibility hard to see pedestrians. Lanning asked if vehicles park on 17th Street South all the way up to the stop sign on 7th Avenue South. Ellwein stated yes they even park around the corner on 7th Avenue South. Tammy Herold stated she has a daycare in her home and her business has changed overnight. The daycare parents cannot load and unload their children because there are vehicles blocking her driveway and they cannot back out safely. Herold stated she talked to Mr. McClemans and has gotten nowhere. She said this has affected her business and doesn’t feel safe taking the kids out for a walk or outdoor s to play. She said the people that are parking along 7th Avenue South walk through the back yards at all times of the day. Herold lives alone and has a small dog that barks when the college kids cut across the yard. She stated she has called the police several times in regards to these issues. She stated she heard Mr. McClemans talking to his residents telling them they have just as much right to park anywhere. Herold stated there may only be five people living on each side of the units, but they have boy/girl friends that stay over and also need a place to park. She stated they have called the police who come and chalk the cars and if they see their car has been chalked they move it two feet. There has been a couple days she has not received her mail because of vehicles blocking mailboxes. Her request would be to see off street parking lot for the residents. Ellwein stated someone has to be h eld accountable. She said she has contacted the departments within the city, law enforcement, and the property owner and no one has done anything. Troy Anderson owns property on the south side of 17th Street and is in the center of the block and the street is approximately 456 feet long. His recommendation would be to allow the household owners permit parking for guest and family members or no parking on 17th Street South at all. Anderson also passed around pictures he had taken. He said he has a trailer parked in the street and the college students parked right up to it and left no room for him to back up to his trailer that he uses for work. He also said the mail man will not stop if the mailbox is blocked and he felt that a parking ban on the north side doesn’t help the issue and he said they need something done on the south side of the street. He stated cars are parking right up to the driveways making visibility impossible to see when backing out. He has lived there four years and this is a young neighborhood and they are used to have young families walking around and families haven’t walked as much since school started. There is an elderly couple that lives on the corner that use d to go on walks and he hasn’t seen him since school has started. His concern is safety and visibility, the street is full of vehicles, mail boxes are blocked, parking within 5 feet of driveways, blocking equipment, and vomit on the street. One of the residents has an extra vehicle parked on the street . His solution would be to have permit parking for each house hold, limit parking hours, or as a last resort, no parking on 17th Street South. Adam Vaux would like the committee to recommend Mr. McClemans to put in a parking lot. England stated removing parking on 17th Street South will not solve the problem. Ellwein stated Mr. McClemans has been very adamant about coming to their doors telling the residents that he hasn’t done anything outside the boundaries. Has said they need to back off and stop calling the police. Herold stated Mr. McClemans threw business cards at her and told her to do not call law enforcement and to call him directly. Vaux stated he has lost $20,000 on his home and can’t move. He stated he has called Mr. McClemans at 1am and 2am and told him his residents are having parties and are in his back yard. Mr. McClemans said he drove by there and replied nothing was going on when people were still outside. Ellwein stated she doesn’t like being threatened saying she can’t call the police if they are violating parking rules and that she needs call Mr. McClemans. Ellwein told McClemans she would call the police whenever she chooses to. Herold was told directly word for word that McClemans has done everything within his right and knows how to get around these and to be careful that you’re dealing with a city council member. Vaux stated I can’t believe there is no conflict of interest with him being a realtor selling houses and on the city council. Anderson stated we are asking for permit parking to manage this area. England stated we have talked a lot about permit parking and never have gotten very far with it. Sonnenburg stated to be fair, how would we not offer it to the students (permit parking). England stated we are here for safety not to enforce other party issues. Ellwein stated she doesn’t let her kids go outside to ride their bikes because of safety due to the amount of cars coming in and out of the driveways and the other side parked end to end. Lanning stated we can write a recommendation to the developer, planning commition, and the city council asking the developer to look at providing a parking lot for the tenants. By eliminating parking on 9th Avenue, we are just moving the parking problem someplace else. Anderson asked the committee what can be done now. Two more condos are going up with a potential of ten more tenants. Skip asked about snow removal on 17th Street South. John Storsteen stated he has talked with Mr. McClemans and he is planning on pushing the snow out into the street then pushing it into the drainage ditch. Storsteen is not sure how this will impact the flow of the drainage ditch. He is not sure where they are going to park during snow removal. Anderson stated 9th Avenue and 17th Street South will get narrow with the snow piled up and it will be hard for fire trucks or ambulances to get through. Lanning asked if the police department had issued a lot of tickets in this area. Sonnenburg stated the first couple of weeks there were some tickets, but there didn’t appear to be any illegal parking in the pictures that were passed around during the meeting. Ellwein stated vehicles were blocking driveways and parking in front of mailboxes. Sonnenburg agrees there are too many cars in this area and if they call the police department, they would come and ticket them. Herold stated she watched one student come out and move his car three feet. Anderson called Mr. McClemans the other day because he couldn’t get backed up to his trailor and McClemans told Anderson where the owner of the car lived and to go and t alk to him. Anderson told McClemans this was not his responsibility this is your resident. Sonnenburg suggested no parking from 7 am to 8 pm on the whole street. Lanning stated this would help the daycare situation where people could come in and out of the street safely. Vaux asked if the parking restriction could go down 9th Avenue as well because the vehicles that can’t park on 17th Street South will move there to park. Sonnenburg stated to have the parking restriction on 9th Avenue from 17th Street South to Leprechaun Circle. Vaux agreed. Ellwein stated there is plenty of parking in their driveways. They can go two in the garage and two deep in the driveways for a total of six vehicles. Lanning stated we can try this as a first step. Sonnenburg/Skubic made the motion to remove parking on both sides of the street on 17th Street South from 7th Avenue South to 9th Avenue South and on 9th Avenue South from 17th Street South to Leprechaun Circle from 7am to 9pm Monday through Sunday. All present voted aye. Motion passed. Bruinsma /Rettkowski made the motion to write a recommendation letter to the developer, planning commission and the city council suggesting the developer to look at some additional parking such as a parking lot to try and eliviate some of the safety issues. All present voted aye. Motion passed. Request to remove parking from the south side of 9th Street between 6th Avenue and 7th Avenue. Lanning received a call from a resident that lives at 6 th Avenue and indicated 9th Street seems difficult to drive through because vehicles are parked on both sides of the street. Lanning mentioned the rest of 9th Street has parking already removed from the south side except for this block. Scott and Angie Hegdahl commented on the street getting very narrow in the winter time with the snow removal and would highly recommend removing parking form the south side. Webster/Rettkowski made the motion to remove parking on the south side of 9th Street between 6th Avenue and 7th Avenue. All present voted aye. Motion passed. New Business: Request for 4-way stop signs at 17th Avenue South and 20th Street South. Lanning received phone calls from concerned pedestrian safety crossing this intersection. There has not been a traffic count or study done in this area to see if this area would warrant a 4-way stop sign. Sonnenburg can remember two accidents over the several years. Lanning suggested gathering the data for next month’s meeting. She asked if there was traffic back up in this area. Larson said no. Bruinsma travels this area after 5pm and he said there doesn’t appear that there is a back up of vehicles on 17th Ave. South but he does drive slow in this area. Rettkowski stated there is an incline in the road (20th Street South) which can make it hard to see. Lanning stated one option would be to place pedestrian crossing signs to increase visibility in this area. Lanning/Bruinsma made the motion to study this area next month and gather some data for next month’s meeting. All present voted aye. Motion passed. Request for 2-way stop signs at 5th Street and 11th Avenue Lanning stated she received a phone call from a concerned citizen who saw a rollover accident at this intersection. Sonnenburg stated this is a high traffic area because citizens avoid 3rd Street and Medary in the mornings and they use 11th Avenue. He also stated there has been more than one rollover at this intersection. Lanning suggested studying this area and to look at the traffic and accident data. Sonnenburg would recommend stopping the East/West traffic if stop signs were installed. Lanning would recommend doing a warrant study. Sonnenburg will collect the accident data for next month’s meeting. Request for 2-way stop signs at 3rd Street South and 7th Avenue South. Lanning received a call from a concerned resident that lives in this area and stated there are several daycares in this area and the resident is concerned because vehicles are not yielding as they should. Sonnenburg stated yield signs are posted. Lanning stated the citizen feels they are not working. Rettkowski drove this area coming from the south stated branches are covering the sign. Lanning will contact the Parks dept on this issue and we will do a warrant study. Member Reports The next meeting will be November 10, 2011. Meeting adjourned. Submitted by: Chris Larson