The Falmouth Transportation Management Committee argued at the committee's meeting on Thursday last week that additional funding is necessary to make Complete Streets a success.
"We don't get to Complete Streets without additional tools and resources," chairman Edward J. DeWitt said.
Mr. DeWitt asked Town Manager Julian M. Suso how the principles of the Complete Streets program have been implemented into the town's planning process. Mr. Suso said he meets with Director of Public Works Peter M. McConarty and Town Planner Thomas Bott routinely.
"We make every effort to support the important initiatives they have underway within the available resources," Mr. Suso said.
Citing fiscal policy and the realities of Proposition 2½, he said town administration engages in a balancing act of maintaining town services while adding new projects.
"It is our hope, always, to secure additional resources to facilitate coordination and development, and enhance projects, even those that are just routine maintenance projects," Mr. Suso said.
In Fiscal Year 2020, the DPW repaved Sandwich and Brick Kiln roads. Mr. McConarty described both projects as maintenance projects, rather than transportation improvement projects.
The DPW is developing a number of intersection improvements, including proposed work on Route 151 at its intersections with Sandwich Road, with Currier Road and near Boxberry Hill Road and Sam Turner Road, as well as improvements at the Jones Road and Gifford Street intersection.
"I know there is a lot of talk about Complete Streets, everyone talks about Complete Streets, but I look at it as transportation," Mr. McConarty said. "Transportation on a roadway, as the Complete Streets plan says, it is all-encompassing. It's bikes, it's pedestrians, it's walkers."
He said these intersection improvements would have focused specifically on vehicular traffic if developed a decade ago. Today, the designs accommodate all users of the road.
Noting town policy states Complete Street principals will be integrated into all road projects, including maintenance projects, Mr. DeWitt asked if it was considered when repaving roads this year. Citing funding, Mr. McConarty described the DPW as "doing what we can with patches."
He said it costs approximately $1 million to repave a mile of road. The town budgeted approximately $890,000 for repaving in 2020 and $400,000 in 2021. The proposed repaving of Elm Road, a narrow road with drainage issues, between Woods Hole Road and Surf Drive will use the majority of Falmouth's Chapter 90 funding this year.
"In summary, it sounds like one of the problems that remains to be addressed is how we go about funding some of these," committee member Chris McGuire said, asking how town administration decides to allocate funds toward transportation projects.
"It seems like community development funds are occasionally allocated, there are regular budget funds, and there are grant funds," Mr. McGuire said. "There are a lot of funds out there, and it is not clear to me who is going to be the champion for looking for the funds required to move all these things forward."
In addition to a list of potential projects within its bike plan, committee member Alison Leschen said a new priority list is being developed for the town's Complete Streets Prioritization Plan. Most projects ranked within the prioritization plan will be eligible for grant funding from the state through the Complete Streets program.
"I'm just wondering if it is possible to start making some of these shovel ready, basically, so as opportunities like this come up, we are ready to apply, ready to go and ready to take advantage of that free money, basically," Ms. Leschen said.
Mr. McConarty said the town has done this in the past, and it has assisted the town in getting construction grants in the past. However, the DPW would need funds to get the design done. Depending on the scope of the project, such a design could cost between $20,000 and $200,000, he said.
"When the grants come in, they come in and have a short fuse," he said. "They give you a short timeframe, so to have something ready to go would be helpful."
Complete Streets is also being implemented at the Falmouth Public Schools, said R. Patrick Murphy, director of finance and facilities for the schools.
"One of the policies that they spent significant time on was a policy that, as a school committee and as a school district, we should look for ways to encourage children to walk to school, to bike to school, and find alternative ways to get to school other than drive to school," Mr. Murphy said.
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted the schools to stagger student arrival and departure times; there was concern it would cause traffic gridlock.
"Thanks to Mr. McConarty and an enormous amount of communication and education with our school communities, we've really been able to limit that," Mr. Murphy said. "At the beginning of the year, yes, there was gridlock, but over time, we've been able to calm that down."
Mr. Murphy also highlighted the installation of a new sidewalk on Maravista Avenue and the installation of new school zone signs throughout town.
The town's Complete Streets policy requires coordination between departments. Mr. Murphy highlighted the Shivericks Pond Pathway, which will connect the Lawrence School to Katharine Lee Bates Road, as an example of such coordination. Mr. McConarty said there are also plans to connect that pathway with sidewalks on Katharine Lee Bates Road.
Mr. Bott said the principals of Complete Streets are also considered when a project is brought before the planning board. He looks to see if improvements can be made to a project before the board for site plan review.
"An example of that is when The Dome project was being looked at and being reviewed by the planning board, I suggested The Dome folks work with WHOI to expand or improve the sidewalk from their site into the Woods Hole Village, at least to the library," Mr. Bott said. "That is an opportunity available under site plan review, and it is a negotiated sort of thing."
The planning department will propose a change to the site plan review.
"It is a fairly modest change, but one of the things it does is give the planning board the opportunity to look at more projects as they come along," he said.
Currently, any project that involves changes of more than 1,000 square feet triggers site plan review, but makes no reference to demolition. This distinction can be see at 435 Palmer Avenue.
"The planning board had no role in reviewing that, where they totally tore down the gas station and built a new one, because the net effect of the change wasn't 1,000 square feet," Mr. Bott said.
The Davis Straits Reset Study will also reflect Complete Streets.
"There is some opportunity, obviously, in Davis Straits to create essentially a new village there, to have some pedestrian connectivity and walkability," Mr. Bott said.
The select board adopted a Complete Streets policy in January last year.
"They did it without adding any resources for [the Department of Public Works] or anyone else, and that appears to be one of the stumbling blocks," Mr. DeWitt said. "We have an expansive policy but no sort of meat to feed it. That is one of the reasons we thought it was important to look at how the first year went, and go from there."
The transportation management committee will make recommendations to the board based on its one-year review of the policy's implementation.
"There are some things happening, and as most of you have described tonight, we were following principals of Complete Streets before it was the policy in the town," Mr. Dewitt said. "The policy widened it to the full horizon of town operations, though I'm not sure we've embraced that as of yet. Certainly, we are going to have to look at how we make that transition to standard operating procedure in all things transportation."
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Committee Looks At One Year Of Complete Streets In Falmouth - CapeNews.net
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