January 9, 2007

The Board of Commissioners of the City of Lawrence met in regular session at 6:35 p.m., in the City Commission Chambers in City Hall with Mayor Amyx presiding and members Highberger, Rundle, and Schauner present.  Commissioner Hack was absent.     

RECOGNITION/PROCLAMATION/PRESENTATION:

With Commission approval Mayor Amyx proclaimed the week of January 8 – 13, 2007 as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Week.

CONSENT AGENDA

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Highberger to approve City Commission meeting minutes from December 19^th and December 26^th, 2006.  Motion carried unanimously.

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Highberger to receive the Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority Board meeting minutes of November 27, 2006; and, the Traffic Safety Commission meeting minutes of November 6, 2006 and December 4, 2006.  Motion carried unanimously.

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Highberger to approve claims to 292 vendors in the amount of $1,509,976.29 and payroll from December 24, 2006, to January 6, 2007, in the amount of $1,661,941.74.  Motion carried unanimously.

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Highberger to approve the Drinking Establishment License to West Coast Saloon, 2222 Iowa; Quinton’s Bar and Deli, 615 Massachusetts; and the Cereal Malt Beverage Licenses to Alvamar Orchards, Inc., 1900 Haskell Ave.; and The Bull, 1344 Tennessee.  Motion carried unanimously.  

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Highberger to concur with the recommendation of the Mayor and appoint to the Contractor Licensing Board, Joe Caldwell to term which will expire December 31, 2010; Dennis Odgers to a term which will expire December 31, 2011; Michael Bowman to a term which will expire December 31, 2009; Kevin Hoppe and Ernie Oschel to terms which will expire December 31, 2009.  Motion carried unanimously.

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Highberger to authorize the City Manager to negotiate a contract for a professional services agreement with Dynatron Elevator, Inc. to design and construct modifications to the Kaw Water Treatment Plant freight elevator.  Motion carried unanimously.                                                                        (1)

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Highberger to authorize the City Manager to negotiate a contract for an engineering services agreement with BG Consultants, Inc. to design the 14^th and Tennessee Street Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation Project.  Motion carried unanimously.                                                                     (2)

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Highberger to set bid date of February 6, 2007 for the 24^th Crossgate/Harvard and Wakarusa Sanitary Sewer Replacement Project.  Motion carried unanimously.                                                         (3)

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Highberger to authorize the City Manager to enter into an agreement with Actual Size Artworks to complete the Percent for Art project for Fire and Medical Station No. 4, for approximately $38,000.  Motion carried unanimously.                                                                                                                             (4)

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Highberger to place on first reading Ordinance No. 8070/Resolution No. 07-06, a joint ordinance/resolution of the City of Lawrence, Kansas, and the Board of County Commissioners of Douglas County, Kansas amending the Comprehensive Land Use Plan “Horizon 2020” pursuant to K.S.A. 12-747, by adopting text amendments revising Chapter Four-Growth Management contained in Horizon 2020.  Motion carried unanimously.                                                                                      (5)

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Highberger to place on first reading Ordinance No. 8071/Resolution No. 07-07, a joint ordinance/resolution of the City of Lawrence, Kansas, and the Board of County Commissioners of Douglas County, Kansas, amending the Comprehensive Land Use Plan “Horizon 2020” pursuant to K.S.A. 12-747, by adopting text amendments revising Chapter Five-Residential Land Use contained in Horizon 2020.  Motion carried unanimously.                                                                                        (6)

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Highberger to concur with the Traffic Safety Commission’s recommendation to deny the request for a “multi-way stop” at the intersection of 25^th Terrace, Hampton Street and Kensington Road.  Motion carried unanimously.                                                                                                                           (7)

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Highberger to concur with the Traffic Safety Commission’s recommendation to deny the request to establish “no parking” along the south side of Ash Street between 7^th Street and 8^th Street.  Motion carried unanimously.                                                                                                                                (8)

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Highberger to authorize the Mayor to sign corrected agreements with KDOT for City connecting links – maintenance on state highways within the city limits.  Motion carried unanimously.        (9)

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Highberger to approve Comprehensive Plan amendment for CPA-2006-04, an amendment to Horizon 2020, Chapter 5 – Residential Land Use, to replace Figure 5-1, Planning Unit Concept with Neighborhood Concept developed by the Comprehensive Planning Committee.  Motion carried unanimously.                                                                                                                                (10)

            As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Highberger to concur with the Planning Commission’s recommendation to approve a preliminary development plan, (PDP-11-10-06) for Lawrence Human Society, located at 1805 E. 19^th Street, subject to the following condition:

1. Execution of an agreement not to protest the formation of a benefit district for street and sidewalk improvements to East19^th Street.

Motion carried unanimously.                                                                                                       (11)

As part of the consent agenda, it was moved by Schauner, seconded by Highberger to receive request from Lawrence Freenet for additional placement of wireless equipment on City owned facilities.  Motion carried unanimously.                                                                    (12)

Mayor Amyx pulled from the consent agenda for separate discussion the Traffic Safety Commission’s recommendation to approve construction of “traffic calming devices” along 9^th Street between Lawrence Avenue and Kasold Drive.  He said in the agenda review they had yesterday, their list had become lengthy on unfunded projects and he noted that these items would be about #8 on their list of projects.  He said he thought there were a lot of people that were putting a lot of faith in some of the projects they have on the list and now they were bringing in new projects that were bumping some of the projects, and thought they really needed to have some discussion about what was fair for all of these.  He said if they could not do them, he thought they needed to answer that themselves, or at least on a timely basis they needed to understand how they were going to get them done because he could see that other projects were going to knock some of them out because they were a higher priority because of the ranking system they have placed on them.

Corliss said as a reminder, they did have in this year’s budget $250,000 for sidewalk gap projects and traffic calming projects.  He said that would allow them to do a small portion of one traffic calming project.  He said it was the Commission’s decision on how to allocate those funds.  He said he would anticipate that the allocation in their annual debt service would be something that would continue.  He said they were responding to a heightened standard in the community for expectations for traffic calming.  He said they have implemented that in new subdivisions that had been built since they have established that standard, but they are likely to not only have a backlog of requests, but would see those requests grow as community members become more favorable to certain traffic calming devices.  He said Amyx’s words were well spoken as far as trying to look at their capital needs comprehensively and realistically.  He said that was how they were attacking that issue this time.

Commissioner Schauner said they began a conversation about 2½ years ago about tracking the amount of money they spent on outside engineering services.  He said he knew Chuck Soules was putting together a list and had not seen that list in a fair amount of time.  He said one of the things he remembered about their earlier conversations concerning traffic calming was that there was some engineering associated with almost all of these projects and he assumed that the cost analysis for each of these included the outside engineering service component.  He said what he would really like them to look at that did not directly address the Mayor’s point, to the extent that they could do more engineering in house with projects that may come up and thought they could save a substantial amount per project cost with the additional in house engineering.  He said he would like to have more discussion about that to be more efficient and get more bang for their dollars. 

Corliss said as to the updating of the memorandum that Commissioner Schauner mentioned, they would provide them with that analysis.  He said they have done some additional in house work.  He said if they take a look at what had happened on New Hampshire Street this year with the crosswalk that was engineered internally and took some time.  He said a lot of people look at that and think it could not be much design, but when they have to deal with stormwater issues and a number of other concerns, there was a need for an engineer and others to look at that in some detail.  He said he thought those were appropriate words and they were following through on their direction to provide a report on in house engineering and its benefit not only in this but in other areas as well.

Mayor Amyx said one of the reasons why he brought it up was one of the concerns he had was he knew a lot of projects they have on the list people had come to the City Commission and asked them to consider some type of reengineering or traffic calming at a particular intersection or roadway and the thing that happened was he thought the ranking system they had and the criteria used to rank these projects, he could see where these items might lower some on the list they have because they were maybe more important based on the criteria they use.  He said his concern was that the people who have come to them and talked to them about different projects they have, all of a sudden their project may appear to be not as important and that was one of the things that really concerned him.

Commissioner Schauner said they could put a date component on there.  He said #11 was the second oldest one on the list, yet it was the 13^th on the list of projects.  He said maybe there could be a waiving component with the length of time. 

Commissioner Rundle said he appreciated Commissioner Schauner bringing that up because he had a long standing opinion that they could be saving money and the argument against it was what do they do with the engineers when there was down time, which meant when the City was not growing, he did not believe they were going to reach that day.  He said he also thought as a policy matter, if something met a traffic warrant, they should have a policy that it would get integrated into a capital program within two more budget cycles at the most.  He said they have created a backlog that was going to make it hard to get rid of, but if they ever get the backlog down, he thought it should be a standard policy. 

Mayor Amyx called for public comment.

Carol Harmsen, Lawrence, said the reason it was important to her and her neighbors was because of safety.  She said on Chalk Hill Court they have to exit onto 9^th Street on the blind side of the hill, on the east side.  She said they did a traffic study and because she thought drivers did see the pads there, they came out at around 33 mph was the average.  She said it was more like 40 mph and they could not get out on the streets safely.  She said there were people on 8^th Street that could not get out of their driveways safely.  She said it was a matter of safety and protection for them so they could live in their community without the fear of having a terrific car crash. She said she would appreciate the Commission’s consideration on the matter.

Sandra Wolf, Lawrence, said she has lived in her home since 1965.  She said she had been able to see over the years all the different catastrophes that have occurred on that street, including a death from a speeding drunk driver and a near death motorcycle driver.  She said she has had two cars totaled that were parked on the street by a drunk, speeding driver.  She said it was not unusual to see signs along the road knocked over, car tracks in the yard, trees run into, mail boxes knocked down.  She said she was really concerned for the safety of everyone; the cars, children, families, homes and anything that the Commission could do to help with that situation; she felt they were in dire need of it.  She said the speed limit, as they may have seen with the survey was ignored by drivers that drove along that street and 85% percent were speeding when they did an assessment of what the speed patterns were like on that street between Lawrence Avenue and Kasold.

Mayor Amyx said he wanted her to understand that with the comments he brought up it was not that he was against it but there was a ranking system and as this project came online, there was a whole list and as Commissioner Schauner said there was one that was several years old and understand there were several ahead yet.

Wolf said she understood that there had not really been funds for some of those, but now that there are funds, she was hoping that some that were old and new would be able to be realized.

Joe Patterson, Lawrence, said he wanted to play devil’s advocate for a minute.  He said he was not against traffic calming devices per se, and the mention of drunk drivers and such, traffic calming devices were not going to take care of that; it was a whole different problem.  He said the problem he had with some of the traffic calming devices, like the roundabouts was the amount of money it cost to put some of those into affect.  He said he was going to use 19^th & Barker as an example.  He said he had no idea what they had in mind for 9^th Street, whether it was the bumps in the road or what, but the 19^th & Barker intersection all they did was replace 4 stop signs.  He said he had been in Lawrence for a long time and was not aware of any major problem as far as car wrecks there.  He said that roundabout cost nearly half a million dollars and thought they could spend their money more wisely on other things.  He said whether it be some road bumps, speed bumps, or configurations of the like, maybe it would help, but thought there were some other things they needed to look at like enforcement if the traffic speed was a problem.  He said any of them were aware in the City of Lawrence because speed was a problem because of the congestion of traffic, they basically only have two east/west streets, 6^th Street and 23^rd Street and it created problems.  He said he did not think just traffic calming devices per se were the answer, but a lot of other things they needed to look at.  He said he was all for safety, but would like to see them get the bang for their buck that they were not getting right now.

Fran McNellis, Lawrence, said they understood that there was money constriction here, but this problem would not go away.  She said in the time that they had lived there, which was since the 1960s, they have seen traffic increase tremendously.  She said it was a totally residential area and also was unusual from much of the city in that they have a very steep hill that immediately descends and goes into a wonderful curve for young people or those liking a big kick and then it straightens out and starts to rise again.  She said across the street from her there are three retaining walls and three different properties.  She said cars do not straighten out in time and each of those have been struck more than once with drivers who then back out if they still can and clank away up the street and there was damage.  She said she walked her dog all the time and would see car tracks in people’s yards constantly, mailboxes down and so far the principle was it was a totally residential area with this unusual configuration of the road and thought that safety here was a major issue.  She said all of them along that road have had cars run into their yards, and thankfully for most of the time, most people were not injured but there was property damage.  She said sometime they have to look at this and say they do not need to have people die before they change things.  She said she had lived in Lawrence long enough to know that at 15^th and Kasold, for instance, they did not do anything about that intersection until a number of people died.  She said at 8^th and Kasold they needed a stop sign for years and did not put one there for years until a little boy was killed.  She said they did not need to wait for that on 9^th Street, particularly in this stretch between Lawrence Avenue and Kasold.  She said whatever it took they should calm the traffic because it was no question because traffic had increased because people bypass 6^th Street to come down 9^th.  She said as a residential area, they would like more safety. 

Jeannie Pees, President of Sunset Hills Neighborhood Association said she was present to represent the association in support of the neighbors along 9^th Street and 8^th Street who found that there was a problem on their street and thought that along with the unanimous recommendation from the Traffic Safety Commission that something be done along that street.  She said no one seemed to know what yet, but thought it was a consideration that it be considered a serious problem and be looked at this coming year.

Kris Matthews, Lawrence, said she was a resident who has had a fatality, a close fatality, and another serious accident.  She said she wanted to clarify that it was really not just 6^th and 23^rd Street that in fact people use west 9^th Street to get across town, even though that portion of where they live was meant to be residential and she kind of knew this because everyone who she worked with up at KU mentioned they knew exactly where her house was because they use that route to go home.  She said they do not live there but use it as a through street and if they did make that drive, they would notice that it was not designed to be a through street.  She said she thought it really was a matter of time there would be a fatality that would not be due to a drunk driver but a kid walking to Sunset Hill because the sidewalk ran right along there and there was so little visibility.  She said she echoed the concerns that she thought was only a matter of time before that was bound to happen.

Commissioner Schauner said it seemed that traffic calming was really just one of the tools they have in their toolbox and it seemed that it would be really helpful, especially while they were waiting for the traffic calming devices to be installed, if that list of 12 or 13 places become a list of special attention by the police department, whether it was a stationary sign that showed how fast they were going or just increased patrolling or running radar in those streets, or doing other things which would let people know they were not getting a free pass by speeding or whatever in those locations.  He said that list of 13 places could be one set of places that the police could give some additional attention to because they were, in many ways, the first line of defense in speeding and traffic calming devices were somewhat helpful but would like to see them find a way to redouble their efforts on law enforcement in those areas in addition to spending money on traffic calming efforts.

Corliss said that was a good idea and he would forward that list to the Police Department.  He said one of the things that they have recently done was they had enhanced their communications to patrol officers about locations where there were frequent accidents and have done it more recently and noted that it was a favorable development that they were using some of the information they got on intersection collisions and areas where there were additional accidents.  He said some of the time where that was prone to happen they were communicating that to the patrol officer so that all the officers could be made aware of that.  He said he thought it was a good idea that they saw this list of approved request for traffic calming devices but also thought it was indicative in areas where there was concern about traveling and safety.

Moved by Highberger, seconded by Schauner, to concur with the Traffic Safety Commission’s recommendation to approve construction of “traffic calming devices” along 9^th Street between Lawrence Avenue and Kasold Drive.  Motion carried unanimously.               (8)

CITY MANAGER’S REPORT:

During the City Manager’s Report, City Manager Corliss said one of the items he wanted to bring their attention to was the professional development training for first time supervisors that would have implemented at the beginning of this year.  He said it was all part of their comprehensive look at professional development for employees.  He said their training specialist Myra Greenberg and Frank Reeb in the Administrative Services Department and others in Frank’s department take credit for this initiative and this response to one of the comments that came out of the employee survey and also out of an observation they have had in the management team about the importance of training supervisors, just like many organizations.  He said a lot of people in their organization become supervisors because they had good technical skills, done a great job, and then they get promoted to a supervisor position and may not by background, education, or training been exposed to training principles so it would reinforce that and it was going to be a requirement for new positions to go through this program or something similar.  He said they were also going to see implementation of supervisor training for existing supervisors that were essentially grandfathered in and had been there and been a supervisor.  He said he was not going to require them to go through the KU STEP Program, but require as part of their ability to get future merit increases, some type of continuing education in regards to supervisory training so they could bring home a number of those important elements and was excited about that program.                                                  (14)

REGULAR AGENDA ITEMS: 

Conduct public hearing to consider the adoption of a Neighborhood Revitalization Plan Program for the 8^th and Pennsylvania District.

David Corliss, City Manager, presented the staff report.  He said back in December, they provided a briefing to the Commission on the status of that project, which was when they adopted the rezoning ordinances and also received a draft of the Neighborhood Revitalization Plan, the Developer Agreement, and they adopted a resolution setting this evening as the date for the public hearing on the Neighborhood Revitalization Plan.  He said they had been in discussions with the developer, property owner on that project and have some additional questions before they want the Commission to adopt that plan and got that request on Friday and since have indicated that they now want the Commission to continue the hearing to Tuesday, January 23^rd.  He said because they had to publish for this hearing, their request was that they not cancel the hearing, but they go ahead and open the hearing and if there were any public comments this evening, they would take those comments and then continue the hearing on January 23^rd.

Mayor Amyx called a public hearing to consider the adoption of a Neighborhood Revitalization Plan Program for the 8^th and Pennsylvania District.

K.T. Walsh, East Lawrence Neighborhood Association, said they understood there would be a full tutorial on the Neighborhood Revitalization Act deeper into the month.  She asked if that was accurate.

Corliss said they could provide that.

Walsh said at their meeting last night of the Neighborhood Association, they talked about it but were pretty naïve about the full benefits that this act could provide to Lawrence, so they were waiting for that and they hoped that it had a broader scope and would be used for individual homeowners and not just business owners.

Corliss said they would provide that briefing on the 23^rd but they were not going to have on the 23^rd a different plan for a different neighborhood, which he thought was what she was asking about was whether or not they could use this statutory tool, the Neighborhood Revitalization Act in other areas other than the 800 block of Pennsylvania and the future extended block of Delaware between 8^th and 9^th Street.  He said the Commission indicated they would like to have goals a little bit more of a policy piece so they could understand the value of proceeding with that in addition to other NRA requests.  He said when they talk again on the 23^rd they would walk through.

Moved by Rundle, seconded by Highberger, to continue the public hearing until the January 23^rd City Commission meeting.  Motion carried unanimously.                            (15)

Receive staff report on domestic partner registry.

Toni Ramirez Wheeler, Staff Attorney, presented the staff report.  She said this request came from Commissioner Rundle and he asked staff to review the issue of domestic partner registry.  She said he also forwarded some draft ordinances and a resolution that she reviewed and summarized in the memo they had before them.  She said the draft resolution that she reviewed authorized the City Manager to register domestic partners, leaving to the City Manager the ability to establish the procedures for that registration.  She also reviewed an ordinance that established and defined the term “domestic partner” in Chapter 10 of the City Code, the chapter that dealt with Human Relations.  She said it also amended the definition of family that was contained in the zoning code to include the definition of immediate family a registered domestic partner.  She said as part of their review of this topic, they also looked at what other cities have adopted and looked at other ordinances.  She said there were no other Kansas communities that have an ordinance that establishes the registration of domestic partners, however there were many communities in the United States that do have them such as Kansas City, Missouri, St. Louis, Missouri, and Boulder, Colorado, to name a few.  She said of the ordinances from the other communities that they looked at, they did have common features so if they were given direction to proceed, some of the issues that would have to be resolved or features they would want information on was provisions setting on who can register.  She said many of the ordinances set out criteria of who was eligible to be added to the registry and many of them require the people to be 18 years or older, unmarried, not related by blood in a manner that would prohibit them from marrying in the state in which they were registering.  She said some ordinances also required the applicants to meet certain conditions showing joint ownership of property or a motor vehicle, sharing a lease for residence or showing joint bank accounts.  She said some communities allow the registration to be available to both same sex and opposite sex couples, other ordinances restrict it to just same sex couples.  She said there were provisions establishing how the registration occurs, whether there was a particular form that was required and if there was any sort of declaration that the applicants had to make.  She said some of the ordinances provide for fees to be assessed in order to be registered on the City’s domestic partner registration. 

She said she also outlined in the memorandum that there have been legal challenges to a number of the ordinances that have been passed in other communities.  She said some of them have survived the legal challenges; others had not.  She said they had been challenged on a number of theories, including a theory that they were exceeding the City’s home rule powers or violated state statutes and state constitutions.  She said as there was no ordinance in the State of Kansas establishing this type of registration, they did not know how the Kansas Courts would rule or interpret one of these ordinances.  She said if it was drafted carefully, she believed it could withstand a court challenge because cities have broad home rule authority under the constitution to determine their local affairs, but it really depended on how an ordinance was structured.

Mayor Amyx asked if the Attorney General’s Office would be of any assistance in crafting the ordinance on what they could and could not do. 

Wheeler said she thought that would be a good resource for them since this was un-charted territory in the State of Kansas.

Commissioner Highberger asked if there would be any legal challenge for limiting the registration to same sex domestic partnerships. 

Wheeler said there have been some challenges that if it was restricted, there would be an equal protection argument.  She said one of the cases that she read, the equal protection argument did not prevail in the court where it was challenged because there was a rational basis since same sex couples do not have the ability under the state in which this was challenged to marry.  She said it withstood the challenge in that one case.

Commissioner Highberger said he had not done any research himself, but he did not see where a domestic partner registry would necessarily conflict with the marriage amendment that was passed last year.  He asked if that was Wheeler’s reading.

Wheeler said she had looked at that amendment and there was the section b where it said no relationship other than marriage shall be recognized by the state as entitling the parties to the rights or incidence of marriage.  She said if an ordinance was drafted narrowly and did not try to provide certain rights that were normally associated with marriage, then she thought they could defend it.

Commissioner Schauner asked what the person who registered would gain if the ordinance would be passed and they register.

Wheeler said that would depend on how the Commission would want it to convey for them.  She said there was an ordinance from Ohio where they have the ability to become registered and were added to a list, and have recognition for the membership on that list.  She said other communities draft the ordinance so that employers were required to then extend employment benefits to people on that list.  She said other communities leave that as a voluntary decision for those employers.  She said it depended on how the Commission wanted that structured. 

Commissioner Schauner said it seemed to him one of the benefits that came to mind first was insurance that might be available to married couples but not available to two people living together as committed domestic partners.  He asked if the decision of whether to offer family insurance to that couple rested with the insurance company and not the employer.  He said he did not expect them to have an answer this evening, but it seemed to him that was one of the questions that was bound to come out as this was flushed out and discussed more.

Wheeler said in other communities, employers have voluntarily agreed to extend benefits to employees based upon the persons’ registration on the list.  She said it was voluntary on their part, which was one benefit that there may be an employer in this community that would see that registration and decide on its own to extend health insurance benefits to the partners.

Schauner asked, as he understood it, if Blue Cross was their insurance company, for example, the decision about whether to offer family coverage might not rest with the employer and might rest solely with the insurance company.  He said he did not want to hold out some false promise and did not know if this was the time for that expanding conversation but would be happy to hear what Frank had to say.

Frank Reeb, Director of Administrative Services/City Clerk said he would add to Toni’s comments that he thought in some ways it depended on what type of insurance product they have.  He said there were a couple of different kinds under health insurance; there was a fully insured product and if that was the case, he would tend to agree with Commissioner Schauner that it would rest in the hands of the insurance company or what the insurance contract said.  He said there was also a self insured option, like the City of Lawrence had, in which case it would be easier for the employer to offer those benefits at that time.  He said the timing of them may be more of the issue as opposed to whether or not they could offer them.  He said if it was a self insured project, it would be more in the hands of the employer as opposed to the insurance carrier.

Commissioner Rundle said the various colleges and universities levels of government and private employers that offer domestic partner benefits may do so on a very limited basis or they may extend the full benefits that many of them enjoy.  He said it was his understanding that there was very little legal weight for domestic partner registry.  He said it was required by many private employers that there be some documentation of the partnership and this was one way to provide that in the mobile society where one would change jobs many times at the convenience of avoiding that complex documentation process would be relieved somewhat if they were able to rely on a registry such as this.  He said it was not just for gay couples and was broader than that.

Mayor Amyx said they were one Commissioner short this evening and thought that this was an item that was going to take the discussion of the entire Commission to proceed.  He said he thought they could take public comment this evening and then give a list of questions they may have for staff for follow up information, but wanted everyone to understand that they should not plan on a decision this evening. 

Mayor Amyx called for public comment.

Maggie Childs, representing the Lawrence-Douglas County Chapter of the Kansas Unitary Fellowship Coalition, said she wanted to answer a couple of questions.  She said Blue Cross Blue Shield at this point in Kansas did not offer benefits for domestic partners, but there were employers in this town thinking of asking them to do so and if they continued to refuse to do so, there were other insurance companies that did offer health insurance to partners of employees.  She said she wanted to say there were a great many of gay, lesbian and heterosexual committed couples and that their economic and emotional lives were deeply intertwined in this community.  She said the last census suggested there were 1,600 people living as gay and lesbian couples in Douglas County.  She said there were a lot of private companies, AT&T, Utopia, and American Airlines that she knew that were people who live in Lawrence and go over to Kansas City for their jobs, but those companies provide health insurance and other benefits to their employees if they document their domestic partnership.  She said it would be a lot easier for those people if they could just signup with a registry in Lawrence.  She said it would be a service of the City to those people and also be used for couples where it would provide no practical gain but for whom it would signify that Lawrence welcomes their family as part of their community and the cost of the registry would be born of those who would use it because they fully support a fee for the use of the registry.  She said the 150 dues paying members of the Kansas Unitary Fellowship strongly urge them to continue to discuss and get their questions answered, and then decide to establish the domestic partner registry.  

Commissioner Schauner asked if her organization had a preference when it came to what sort of ordinance they would look at and what things they believed should be included in that ordinance.

Childs said the research they did showed that there was a lot of similarity so they were thinking to keep it open to same sex and opposite sex couples.  She said they knew of some employers who wanted to provide health insurance for the partners of the heterosexually unmarried couples, and it would make it easier for that.  She said there were a lot of reasons why people do not get married, like social security benefits when a couple was older.  She said for the gay and lesbian community, they do not get married because it was prohibited by law, but they do not feel especially that they only wanted this for the same sex community and it was a good idea for a lot of people and wanted it to be open as possible.  She said they were not asking now for any benefits except this be a registry that allowed them to declare their lives were economically and emotionally intertwined, that would be useful for employers who wanted to extend benefits, like sick leave for partners.  She said they have an ordinance that said they could not have more than three unrelated people living together in certain neighborhoods and if they were a gay couple and one was taking care of a kid and one wanted to have an elderly parent move in with them, all of the sudden they have too many unrelated people in their house, which would allow those kind of families to live together without worrying if they were violating that ordinance.  She said there were other places where this might get useful, like if the hospital, she thought in Lawrence they could assume that a couple had one hurt, they would be allowed it, but it would be nice to know for a fact so they would like to go to the hospital association and say if someone was a domestic partner, would they be willing to let them in with the case of an illness where only usually family members were allowed in.  She said mundane things like that in an ordinary day to day life; it did not occur to someone that they needed it.  She said protections were important if bad things happened that are not predictable.  She said the other thing was there were people for whom it would be a very meaningful event to be able to go and register as a way to signify that they were a couple.  She said it would not provide for any legal benefits, but would provide some administrative recognition and signify that Lawrence welcomes and embraces its alternative families. 

Forrest Swall, Lawrence, representing his family and Parents and Families of People Who Are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender.  He said this organization was one with a long history of supporting equal rights for all people.  He said he was also present as Chair of the Social Action Committee of the Unitarian Fellowship.  He said it was a congregation in the community, one of about four or five that have specifically adopted a position of being open, affirming and welcoming, to members who were gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender.  He said he wanted to say to them there was a broad level of support in this community.  He said he was reminded in talking with Maggie of listening to the candidate two years ago when the issue when the constitutional amendment was being considered and during the campaign presentations, he thought every candidate for the City Commission, to his delight and the delight of others expressed strong support for people who were gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered and expressed their opposition to the constitutional amendment.  He said he was there to express their support to this effort and to their consideration for this and wanted to say to them how much it would mean to not just people who were lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered, as well as other people who might be affected by this.  He said the affect it would have on families, friends and colleagues of people who happen to be gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered.   

Kim Kreicker, Lawrence, said she wanted to say that her and her partner were a couple that had been together for 18 years and have lived the latter part of 10 years in this community and were planning to spend the remainder of their lives in this community.  She said they were an example of a couple who would like to use this registry.  She said if they had some benefits that was attached to it, it would be much appreciated because they were at the time in their lives when elderly parents were beginning to be a concern and they might like to be able to be on one another’s health insurance so perhaps one of them could take some time off of work to help a parent if need be.  She said regardless of that, they would like to be registered so that they knew their community recognized their relationship. 

Bill Sims, Lawrence, said he recently met an elderly couple that had been committed for over 40 years and only recently have “come out” because they did not feel it was safe here in Lawrence to do so.  He said this affected their quality of life in where they could go, where they could eat.  He said they were elderly and were impoverished.  He said a law like this, if they decided to go ahead and register, it would give some legitimacy to something that had been going on.  He said personally, he could not imagine of being in the situation to wait a lifetime for it.  He said it was one thing to have a commitment ceremony and there were a number of the religious communities in Lawrence that would support this and also found in communities in Kansas and throughout the Midwest.  He said it was one thing to be committed in a ceremony where as long they were on church ground, their commitment was recognized, but they go out the front door they could get beaten up and taken to the hospital, and the loved one has no rights.  He said he did not trust the hospitals, the agencies, the University, or the streets of this City to recognize anything unless this City would take the step to provide a registry, however that may be done, he realized there were only four tonight and they would like five, he would like to see Vice Mayor Hack present, also.  He said how it was done could be argued or discussed, but thought it was something that had been done effectively in other cities to help people.

Bruce Nye, Lawrence, said he had the pleasure of getting to know many of them in the last several years and part of his reason of being present tonight was he wanted to talk about one aspect and would try not to repeat something someone else had said.  He said one of his reasons of being present tonight was he was a lawyer and part of what he did everyday was his job was he was an attorney for AT&T, Inc. in Topeka.  He said as a gay man, AT&T was one of those Fortune 50 company that did offer domestic partner benefits to both straight and gay domestic partners, but one of the requirements they had in order for someone like himself to avail themselves of the insurance benefits AT&T offers, was their employees were required to go before a state or municipal body and be able to register that partnership.  He said there was no where in the State of Kansas he could go to register his partnership and the fact that the City of Lawrence was a place he could go to register that partnership and avail himself of his company’s health insurance benefits, was a very important development for him.  He said for that reason alone, he would ask the Commission to approve the ordinance.  He said if they would attach a user fee to it, he was not opposed to something that would pay for itself and act as what a straight couple would want in Kansas to come in and pay for a marriage license.

He said in part of his prior life he was the former chairman of Kansans for Fairness, which was the organization that opposed the ban of gay marriage in the State of Kansas.  He said in looking at the ordinance, he saw no reason in staff’s memorandum, from the legal perspective.  He said as to why this Commission should not feel comfortable with the ordinance proposed; he saw no conflict with the amendment, as passed.  He said they might recall the former Attorney General Kline said he would willingly defend any city that wanted to offer domestic partner benefits to employees.   He said he thought that ought to signal to the Commission that a domestic partner registry that applied equally to both heterosexual and homosexual couples would not offend the constitution of the State of Kansas as amended in April of 2005. 

He said he wanted to make it clear he was appearing on behalf of himself tonight, not his company.  He said it was a fact that he had domestic partner benefits available to him if he could register domestic partnership in this state and would appreciate the opportunity to do so.

Commissioner Highberger asked how many fellow AT&T employees reside here in Lawrence.

Nye said he did not know but he could get that information.  He said they have the relay center here and there was a work center, and they do have a number of employees.

Lori Messinger, Lawrence, said she wanted to follow up on what Bruce was saying.  She said she went through the Human Right Campaign website and have a listing of all the Fortune 500 companies and it was over half of them that provided partner benefits.  She said she went looking and started on where she shopped.  She said Borders, Blockbuster, Home Depot, J.C. Penney, Office Depot, Target, U.S. Bank and Walgreen’s all were for domestic partner benefits and had locations in Lawrence.  She said there were people who could benefit from this who were employed in any of those places or may in the future be employed.  She said she wanted to say as a person in a long term relationship with her partner for 15 years who she picked up and moved from North Carolina to Alabama to Kansas, it would be really nice to affirm their relationship and provide benefits with someone who trots around with her from place to place as she pursued her academic career.  She said she thought it was very important and would provide a basis about approaching employers for providing benefits and approaching the University.  She encouraged them to pass the ordinance.

Mayor Amyx said he thought Commissioner Schauner asked a good question of Maggie about an existing ordinance they may be aware of and any information like that they could provide to the City Manager’s office, feel free to. 

Commissioner Schauner asked if KU offered partner benefits.

Mayor Amyx said they did not.

Commissioner Highberger thanked Commissioner Rundle for bringing this forward.  He said he was generally in support of the concept and thought it was an idea that would not hurt anyone but would provide some real concrete affirmation and possibly some benefits to a lot of members in the community.  He said he was proud of Lawrence when it stood up during the vote of the marriage amendment a couple of years ago.  He said he did not think there was a single precinct in town where it carried and there was one precinct where a lot of members were present tonight to talk about some traffic calming, but believed the marriage ordinance went down 93 – 7.  He said clearly, there was support for this in the community.  He said he would like to see a program that would pay for itself and paid for the program.  He said he would be for same sex and opposite sex couples and would be willing to talk about any other details. 

Commissioner Rundle said he was just being a liaison for the Kansas Equality Coalition.  He said he, too, was in support of everything said.  He said they should move forward with simply a registry and not something they were going to require employers to provide benefits.  He said in some years earlier they finally added sexual orientation to their discrimination ordinance.  He said he thought that this was an extension to that sense of welcome and anti-discrimination and was certainly all behind it.

Commissioner Schauner said it was a logical and reasonable follow up to the sexual orientation ordinance that was passed several years ago and he looked forward to seeing an ordinance.  He said to the extent that legal staff believed that working with the Attorney General might be helpful, that would be fine.  He said he did not know if the Attorney General had any better ability to do the research than their own staff and his own experience with AG opinions was that they tend to be thrown about as well as just another large opinion anyway.  He said he would second what Commissioner Highberger suggested that ought to be included as a reference to same sex and opposite sex couples ought to be part of it and a pay as you go sort of program would seem to make sense.  He said he would very much like for them to use a model that has found successful in other places.  He said he would be looking forward to seeing something for them to consider.

Mayor Amyx said he could not argue with what has been said this evening.  He said he asked staff to look at the Attorney General’s opinion before he committed to anything.  He said they needed to find out what they have the authority, how broad authority they did have in considering this.  He said he thought they needed to have discussion with the 5^th member of the Commission who was absent.  He said he thought if Toni and Dave Corliss could ask for that opinion to see what kind of broad powers cities in Kansas actually have in putting together a registry, he thought it would be helpful information for him.

Commissioner Rundle said he was sure what people were asking for was as an opinion from the Attorney General of Kansas.  If it was just an Attorney General opinion, the State of Wisconsin Attorney General did offer an answer to a lot of the same questions and probably by now that opinion had been e-mailed to staff that may illuminate the issues if not be definitive. 

Corliss said they could do that.  He said in his experience in working with previous Attorney General offices, it was usually helpful for them to give as much as their research to them as possible and to narrow the question as much as possible so they were not necessarily doing all of the research.  He said they would do their own independent research, but would have the benefit of the research the City had and a narrow question as to whether or not such an ordinance would be permitted under Kansas law.  He said that was their issue; it was not whether it was good policy or whether the one in Tucson or Toledo was appropriate, it was whether or not an ordinance they would set out along the lines they talked about this evening and they have received information from others would be allowed under Kansas Law.

He said one of the other things they would do was when they contacted them, they would ask for a time frame on that.  He said they were now just finding the pencils and legal pads there, so they wanted to make sure they understood how long it was going to be because that was an important thing for the Commission.

Commissioner Schauner asked if he could give a report or e-mail about what Corliss would find when he talked with the Attorney General’s office and how long they thought it might be before they thought they could reasonably expect it.

Corliss said they would communicate that.  He said they would probably put it on a City Manager’s Report so everyone interested would know about it more.

Moved by Schauner, seconded by            Rundle, to direct staff to ask for an Attorney General’s opinion on the issue of whether a specific ordinance establishing a domestic partner registry would be allowed under Kansas law.   Motion carried unanimously.   (16)

Consider recommendation from the Traffic Safety Commission to establish NO-LEFT TURN 7-9 AM and 4:30-6 PM MON-FRI on Iowa Street and Orchard Lane, Oxford Road, Stratford Road and University Drive for a 90- day trial period.

Chuck Soules, Public Works Director, presented the staff report.  He said the Traffic Safety Commission heard this item after much comment from the public.  He said the Traffic Safety Commission was presenting the City Commission a recommendation to go ahead and approve a temporary trial period for 90 days to prohibit left turns on Iowa Street at Orchard Lane, Oxford, Stratford, and University between the hours of 7-9 a.m. and 4:30 – 6 p.m.  He said this area did have a history.  He said he had two full sets of plans in his office to construct a left turn lane on Iowa Street from Terrace Road to Orchard Lane and then ’79 a left turn lane from 7^th Street to Terrace Lane.  He said Corliss also had a study that was prepared by another in ’92 that indicated a left turn lane was recommended and necessarily and in ’92 preliminary plans from another firm had begun to install a median on this section of Iowa.  He said this came to the City Commission back in October and the Commission went ahead and asked staff to take it back to the TSC because there was some public opposition and were not sure if the public got notified as well as it should have been.  He said a lot of people came to the TSC and gave the City Commission the minutes with their comments. 

Commissioner Schauner asked what would be the cost of constructing a left turn lane as recommended.

Soules said he looked at the plans a little bit, but the widening, it was not a full 12 feet, it was 3 feet on each side, so he was assuming some reduction in lane widths to try to minimize that.  He said there was storm sewer, he would have to get back with them on that.  He said it was going to be substantial.

Commissioner Schauner asked if they had enough right-of-way currently there to do a project like that.

Soules said along the section of Iowa they did not have sidewalks on the east side in a lot of the area so if they wanted to put sidewalks, the right-of-way, at least the plans he looked at, was only 3 feet on each side and if they did the widening on both sides, they have two curbs and gutters and relocating inlets in that intersection.  He said there was sidewalk more on the west side, so if they wanted to do sidewalks and stuff.  He said it appeared sufficient but could see them needing some right-of-way. 

Commissioner Schauner asked if this was the kind of project that since it was on a state highway they could partner with the state.

Soules said this was very similar to what they were requesting from the state on 6^th Street by Folks Road and the widening so they could get the left turn lane in. 

Commissioner Rundle said as he recalled the topography of the area as being a concern and then drainage was going to be impacted or cause competitions in the design.  He said he thought some people on Terrace Road would weigh in on that.

Mayor Amyx said this would add a turn lane from where it stops now at Harvard Road all the way to 15^th Street.

Soules said that would probably be their recommendation because it seemed logical.

Commissioner Schauner asked if part of that turning lane would be a suicide lane where they could have both east and west turning traffic.

Soules said yes.

Mayor Amyx asked if staff could recall why the 5^th lane was not constructed. 

Soules said it was his understanding that there was strong neighborhood opposition.

Corliss said there were people from the neighborhood concerned that a 5^th lane would encourage cut through traffic and be a short cut from going to 15^th Street to get into the University by taking Stratford or University Drive.  He said that was some of the basis for the opposition.  He said some of the basis of being in favor of that was from individuals and others in the neighborhood that it would provide a safe means for a left turn.  He said there was a divided opinion and thought that would come through the discussion this evening when they would hear from the neighborhood about that and those concerns.  He said that was his recollection of the discussion 14 years ago.

Mayor Amyx asked Soules if he had information on accidents along these four points.

Soules said they did have several accidents.  He said on Orchard Lane from 2003 – 2005 they have had 7 accidents at this intersection.

Commissioner Highberger asked if they were all rear end accidents.

Soules said yes.  He said at Oxford Road there were 3, Stratford had 9 and University had 14 all in a three year period. 

Commissioner Schauner said that was about 10 a year.

Commissioner Highberger asked if he recalled what the total pavement width was at that stretch.

Soules said they have four lanes at 12 feet each would be 48 feet plus the curb and gutter.  He said it was about 50 face to face. 

Commissioner Highberger said he had seen recent research indicating that traffic safety increases dramatically as you go below 11 feet for lanes and a conversation they may want to have some other time, but usually 11 feet, he did not think they could squeeze five in there. 

Soules said it would be tough and they would need a little bit of widening.  He said Iowa was a main truck route north/south in town.

Mayor Amyx asked about the information put together for the TSC and did it include the amount of information included on the left turns onto these four streets.

Soules said Woosley had the information at Harvard and 15^th.

David Woosley, Traffic Engineer, said they only had that information …

Mayor Amyx asked if that would have been an important part of the consideration.

Woosley said when they were looking at it from a safety standpoint, they were ….

Commissioner Schauner asked with that frequency of accidents at those four points be enough to create a warrant for some improvement at those intersections.

Woosley said it would be very close.  He said one of the traffic signal warrants was five accidents at an intersection at a 12 month period that would be susceptible to correction by a traffic signal.  He said if they had five at any one of those locations during a 12 month period that could actually warrant a traffic signal at that intersection.  He said there were some other various minor warrants, but it would be very close to warranting substantial improvements along there.

Commissioner Schauner said it might exceed a 5^th lane even in terms of what it could warrant.

Woosley said yes, however by putting in the fifth lane, they might reduce the crashes so then the warrant for a signal was not met.

Commissioner Schauner asked if it was a stretch of Iowa that they used to increase the speed limit a couple of years ago.

Woosley said not in that area.  He said in that area it was 35 mph.  He said just south of Terrace Road, it was raised to 40 mph. 

Mayor Amyx said the reason for the adjustment in time in the afternoon slot was obviously to accommodate the school.

Woosley said that was what the TSC was trying to do because the principal addressed that their concern was when school let out and he believed they got out at 3:45 or 3:50 and by waiting until 4:30, most of the after school traffic would then be gone. 

Mayor Amyx asked if they denied turns at Stratford, University and Oxford, was it safe to say a lot of that traffic was then going to go on Harvard.

Woosley said a certain percent of that would go on Harvard and a certain percentage would go down to 15^th.  He would say a majority of them would go to Harvard because there was a lot of congestion at 15^th Street already.

Mayor Amyx asked if the turn on Harvard was going to snake through the whole area and they did not know where it was going to go.

Woosley said once they get on Harvard, there was no direct route through the neighborhood.  They would have to wind their way through there to get over to University or Stratford or any of the other streets. 

Mayor Amyx asked if they were creating more of a problem directing traffic down one street.  He said they were looking at a comprehensive plan and they should make an application for that 5^th lane.

Woosley said that was certainly something that should be considered.

Mayor Amyx said it seemed to him the warrants were probably in place because of having 5 accidents within a 12 month period.  He said it clearly showed them that it was more than the case along the stretch of the road and that some improvement needed to happen.  He said it seemed to him that blocking off one or two of those roads was not an answer.  He said he thought they needed to put in real safety along there at the 5^th lane and really ought to be considered.  He said he thought that was the only way they could really accomplish this.

Woosley said that was something that should be considered and one of the things they had to weigh.  He said the speeds on Iowa were substantially greater than they were going through the neighborhoods, so when they do have crashes, they were likely to be more severe. By putting more traffic on the local streets, they might increase the number of crashes within the neighborhood.  He said they would probably less severe but could be critical, too, when they get around an elementary school and have small children trying to cross the street.  He said there were safety concerns both ways.

Commissioner Schauner said none of them were traffic experts and people who live in the area have concerns about increased traffic through their neighborhoods based on no left turns or whatever.  He asked Woosley his professional recommendation with respect to dealing with the four conflict points on that street with the speed given, the traffic given, the neighborhood concerns with the traffic through there, and so forth. 

Woosley said he thought the 5^th lane on Iowa was really something that should be pursued in whichever manner they want to pursue that. 

Mayor Amyx asked if this item was brought to the TSC by one of the members.

Woosley said it was brought forward by one member of the TSC.

Mayor Amyx said he had a real hard time looking at this item knowing that the school was sitting there on Harvard and have people that have to back out into that traffic.  He said he understood the kids should be long gone by then, but there were still going to be people who worked at the school that were going to be there past the 4:30 time slot and that he could see them moving the 5 accidents a year from location to another.

Woosley said staff did have concerns about directing additional traffic past the elementary school, which was pointed out to the TSC. 

Robert Lewis, Lawrence, said this was one of the unbelieveable events and did not know why they were back here tonight.  He said the traffic committee issued and Dave discussed doing a traffic study in the number of turns at the various intersections.  He said obviously it had not been done.  He said also it was brought out in this meeting when no one knew the date it came out in 1992 that there were only two people that were against the widening of the street and the other night when there was a 6 – 2 vote to go ahead with this, there was no one in support of no left turns, it was the traffic committee.  He said even more shocking was the fact that of the 8 members there, one was aware of the problems because they worked and traveled in the area.  He said one was there on Sunday to inspect it before the meeting on Monday night and the other 6 members never even took time to go look at any the problems, the school or the dangerous intersection which was considered the most dangerous intersection in the city which was 15^th and Engel by the dorms.  He said he thought this came about from 23^rd Street where no left hand turns was initiated about a year ago.  He said it was a different situation because they come from the west and if they want to make a turn, they have a stop light and only have to travel an additional one block.  He said in this distance, there were four driveways, one of which was a U – Turn, so there were actually only three driveways for residences in this distance on 23^rd Street on both the north and south side.  He said speed was a big issue on Iowa.  He said the tailgating was unbelievable.  He said he had seen a lot of accidents on the north side of Harvard.  He said on 15^th from Harvard, 9 household driveways.  He said there were 7 driveways on the west side and 12 houses.  He said there was no parking on the street and 17 busses come around the corner.  He said 80% of the students were brought in by busses for special education purposes.  He said for parents who bring these students in, they park along the street and walk across the street if there was no parking.  He said having lived in the fraternity area, it was not uncommon for stop lights, stop signs, no parking signs, yield signs to disappear.  He said that night he noticed a post of a stop sign had fell down.  He said the intersection of 15^th and Engel was also a very dangerous intersection and if they send more traffic through there, it would be an even more dangerous intersection for drivers and University students.  He said many of the streets have no parking on both sides because they are narrow and some have it only on one side. 

James Sherman, Lawrence, said he had two points he wanted to make.  He said the traffic around Hillcrest School, even though the students may be gone by 4:30, they certainly will not be gone from the period of 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. as a period where traffic would be coming by that and increasing the danger to the children and with the number of school busses.  He said what it was going to do fundamentally was put traffic on 15^th and Harvard and increase the congestion on 15^th Street.  He said the intersection of Engel and 15^th Street was really crowded.  He said he was strongly in favor of a 5^th lane on this stretch of Iowa Street.  He said he thought that was really the only reasonable solution at this point and preventing turns on the other road was not really going to help.  He said he was not sure why he understood the 90 day trial period and what would happen after that period, but it did not seem to him there would be any way of collecting empirical data that would either support or not support that data because it was not a long enough time to determine if it did or did not reduce accidents so he did not see the value of a 90 day trial period.  He said there may be a better logic than he understood.  He said as far as the neighbors were concerned, there was a recent meeting of the University Heights Neighborhood Association and the majority of people were in favor of the 5^th lane and not in favor of the prohibition of left turns during those times.  He said he did not find as much merit in the proposal as he saw going forward and trying to permit a 5^th lane.

Dave Hiebert, Lawrence, said his initial reaction to the proposal was great because it would decrease the amount of cars going past his house, and it may.  He said he thought the members of their community had the responsibility to the nearby grade school and traffic on 15^th Street.  He said for that reason alone, he would welcome the same amount of traffic down University Drive.  He said about half of the accidents at University Drive and Iowa Street may be caused by people turning left onto Iowa from University and maybe just changing the angle of that left turn sign 90 degrees and putting it on University Drive may relieve part of the problem.

Faye Watson, Lawrence, said on her street they were in a dilemma because they could not go down Naismith and if they go to Engel Road, they could not get out on 15^th and if they go down University, they could not go down Iowa, so they go through the back hills and drive through the back streets and try to come out on Harvard, then they were into the school, so they bypass that and go to 9^th and then back up to Iowa and turn.  She said they felt that the Neighborhood Association there had all felt very strongly that this just must not happen.  She said she looked at the lack of continuity on the streets and thought that was part of their problem.  She said they have the California protected lane for this block and then all of the sudden they have no protected lane, then it comes in again and they need that protected lane all the way from Harvard, where it stopped, to go all the way down to 15^th Street.  She said the left turn on 15^th needed to be expanded.  She said the lights allow only about 5 people to make a left turn from 15^th left on Iowa.  She said she did not know how many had been caught in the traffic, but she came in from DeSoto quite often and could not come from 4:00 on K-10 all the way up to 23^rd.  She said if she tried to cut through the neighborhoods, she could not get around the University.  She said 23^rd was full all the way from the eastern city limits all the way up 23^rd, hits Iowa and a dead still all the way up Iowa.  She said she did not know where the people were saying people were driving 45 – 50 mph because it was bumper to bumper all the way up Iowa.  She said she did not think they needed a portion of that to be funneled back through the school system.  She said the principal was not present, but at Hillcrest School there were 17 busses every morning and every afternoon.  She said there were 460 kids that get on the busses and out of that there were 300 that were there as English as a second language.  She said many of them have their parents taking them because they were not quite into the bus situation.  She said it did not matter if it was 4:30, they could not dump more traffic in through there, and then there was no place to go.  She said on Sunset there was a dead end and wandering through the neighborhood and it was not an answer.  She said when they appeared before the TSC, as was pointed out, very few of them knew what they were talking about or what would happen to the cars once they were funneled onto Harvard.  She said at the time when they made the vote to go ahead with reduced hour, they also gave the recommendation that they pursue the study of making the 5^th lane down Iowa.  She said she did not know what happened to it and did not think they had that in their papers.  She said she thought it was dropped.  She said tonight she did not think anyone was notified that this was coming up, except herself, but she did not know who called her, but it was someone from City Hall.  She said no one contacted Tammy Baker, the principal at Hillcrest.  She said she, herself, sent out a bunch of notices so they have very few people present.  She said someway they were breaking down and thought it was time they fix it.  She said they had to someway divert the traffic where it belonged and give them all a great way to get in and out.  She asked if they needed to sign a petition with their names on it to get a 5^th lane and how could they help to get this going.

Mayor Amyx said they have the plans on the shelf somewhere. 

Corliss said yes they did and they notified the school about this evening’s meeting.

Watson said the principal had no notice as of yesterday.

Soules said they contacted the school and contacted the school district administrative office, too.

Watson said she had not heard or gotten the message at all and knew in their situation, she was the only one that was called.

Soules said he had a list of everyone they contacted.

Mayor Amyx said just so everyone understood, those plans actually did already exist and thought depending on what they decided on this particular item this evening, he was sure they were going to receive direction to proceed talking with the state about improvements that could be made and what kind of process they have to go through to have reconsideration of this item.  He said one of the things he would suggest, because he did know that he doubted he would get anyone to talk in favor of this thing tonight, he did believe this was a bad precedent and did not believe they had a recommendation from their own traffic engineers that really supported this particular change.  He asked if this was not their recommendation from staff.

Corliss said it was Mr. Woosley recommendation not to. 

Soules said he believed the ultimate solution to the situation was to put the protected lane in.

Joe Patterson, Lawrence, said the only thing he would mention was he drove that road everyday and it was bad.  He asked if the traffic situation was because of people making left turns, because he thought there was rear ending because of other reasons.  He said someone in the City needed to look at the traffic lights and the traffic lights at 15^th and Iowa do not work for the traffic.  He said there were a lot of times they would be heading south on Iowa and they were sitting at a red light forever and no one turning left.  He said those lights needed to be looked at because it backed traffic up to the north bad.  He said right now they have a problem with Kasold being closed. 

Mayor Amyx said they did have signalization that ran all the way along Iowa from north to south.

Corliss said they had signalization from 9^th Street to 23^rd Street. 

Patterson said he did not know who was in charge of making the adjustments and additions of the countdown lights for the signalization of Lawrence, but most of them do absolutely nothing to control traffic.  He said he had seen lights turn red when at the countdown of 5.  He said there were a lot of lights that worked against traffic.

Corliss asked what he meant by countdown lights.

Patterson said the ones that countdown from 28 or 30.

Corliss said they were pedestrian lights so that for people who walk they will know when the pedestrian lights were available.

Patterson said some do not work and some will say not to walk and the light will be green forever. 

Corliss said they would be happy to get information about them.

Patterson said they should just fix them.

Corliss said they should talk about that later because they had about 90 lights in town.

Commissioner Rundle said he liked Commissioner Schauner’s comments that we are not traffic engineers and did not think they were.  He said there were no easy answers.  He said he was very hopeful in the idea of trying to make this only occur when kids were gone from school, but hearing that it had no impact whatsoever in the morning took the wind out of the sails.  He said he did think that there were through streets there, while they do not want to have a lot of traffic around children, they have a lot of natural traffic calming features.  He said it was a very short street when they got off of Iowa and there was a 90 degree curve in the road and lots of trees; all things that slow traffic down.  He said they were really talking about trade offs here.  He said it might be an inconvenience for residents if they could get the high volume of traffic down Iowa safely with fewer accidents, he thought there was an impact there.  He said he did not remember the original proposal for five lanes on Iowa and did not know if he was a Commissioner or not, but was not quite so quick to jump on that bandwagon.  He said with the five lanes on Iowa, the sooner they increase the lanes on the street, in comes the volume to fill it.  He said the more lanes a street has, the faster people go.  He said at that time he remembered looking at resources that showed in certain situations a three lane road with left turn lanes and safety lanes at the intersection could move traffic quickly and safely as a five or four lane street.  He said before he jumped on the bandwagon, he would like to do what someone suggested was prohibit left turns onto Iowa for a time period or if they have the data that shows the accident and where, he thought that would be interesting to know.  He said traffic signals were certainly something he had hoped would go to the extreme in terms of trying to coordinate those.  He said they had a lot of problems they were never going to be able to solve ideally unless people wanted to put a tunnel under KU, which was something he thought of a long time ago but did not think they were ready for the big dig.  He said coordinating the signals on the central computer that could in time change conditions and change the lights to accommodate things as they change throughout the day.  He said he thought they were pursuing some smart ITS.  He said the thing that made the most sense was to have a goal to completely coordinate all the traffic signals particularly because they did not have spare ground where they could build extra cross streets, north/south or east/west.  He said that would afford them the biggest impact in safely moving as much traffic as quickly as they could with the most safety they could.  He said that was one of his goals as a Commissioner and only got baby step towards it but if they could have that discussion some time and have that commitment; it would be the biggest impact.

Commissioner Highberger said he could not support the proposal as it exists.  He said he thought when the problem here and the 8^th and 9^th Street problem was the way they were going on their streets.  He said it may have passed with not much notice, but on the consent agenda they adopted a new model on how they would build their streets now and encouraging more of a grid system to disperse traffic which would make a big difference when they were continuing to grow.  He said in the mean time they have problems with the streets they have now.  He said this model had worked well on 23^rd Street, but thought it was a pretty different situation and more analogous to what they had done on 6^th Street when they added the 5^th lane.  He said he thought it was proven successful when they narrowed the lanes to 11 feet.  He said he would like to explore going to 5 lanes with a turning lane.  He said he had seen some research and would forward it to commissioners and staff that indicated at below 11 feet accident rates go down because people have to pay more attention and tends to slow traffic.  He said he would be interested in moving forward with exploring more lanes and a 5^th turn lane rather than the existing proposal.

Commissioner Schauner said there appeared to be several competing, unsolvable problems here.  He said the neighborhood that had been described, east of Iowa, was right between their most busy street in town and the University.  He said there were a whole lot of people that wanted to move off of Iowa through that neighborhood to the University, for whatever reason if it were students, faculty, or people going to the university for whatever purpose.  He said they had an imperfect grid system at that location and an increasing traffic load on Iowa Street that was going to get worse, not better.  He said they were going to see more traffic on that street as time went by, not less.  He said in the context, it seemed like everyone was in a bigger hurry than they needed to be.  He said it amazed him that 35 became 40 became 45 became 50 and it was sort of accepted as they way they do business now.  He said those speeds add a lot of difficulty to their ability to move traffic safely through the city.  He said he did not have an idea what the right answer to this was.  He said a 5^th lane, he suspected, would meet opposition from the neighbors because there will be people in the neighborhood who will believe this would increase left turns off Iowa into the neighborhood.  He said if they put traffic light at one of those intersections, that street would become the official route through the neighborhood and there would be opposition to that.  He said if they put up no left turns for four hours a day, they had already seen the opposition to that.  He said he would be happy with a 60% approval.  He said he did support this issue and believed Commissioner Rundle was right on target and they did need an ITS system where they do a better job of integrating the flow of traffic.  He said they all knew that was going to be expensive and clear they did not have the budget to do that.  He said that would not solve this problem, even if they had it.  He said in his mind, the course of least resistance and the course that made the most sense out of the options he heard was to both dust off the existing plans from 1992, look at how those plans could be adjusted with narrower lanes that would reduce their need for acquisition of right-of-way, follow David Woosley’s suggestion and see if a fifth lane made a material difference.  He said in the mean time, to create additional traffic burden on that neighborhood did not seem like the right thing to do.  He said he thought they needed to be thinking in a more long term solution before they jump off and do something short term for 90 days.  He said what he would say to the neighborhood was no matter what they do, his sense was that traffic in their neighborhood will get worse and that was the reality.  He said unless they see gas get at $10.00 a gallon, people were going to be driving where they want to drive, as fast as they want to drive, and through whosever neighborhood they want to drive through.      

Commissioner Rundle said he may not have been clear earlier but he did not support this recommendation either. 

Commissioner Schauner said he also did not support this recommendation.  He said he thought in addition to dusting off these plans; they need to look as hard as they could at making this a high priority project with their relationship with KDOT.  He said this was their highway as much as it was a City street and especially since they are going to pour a lot more traffic on that street as 59 was improved south of town.  He said he did not support the recommendation of the TSC and ask that they move with all deliberate speed to find a fifth lane alternative or a California protective lane.

Mayor Amyx said his main concern was the school.  He said he did respect the opinion of the neighbors who have to put up with traffic on a regular basis, but when he looked at the effect, especially in the morning, the 7 -9 period, the effect on people bringing their kids to school and dropping them off.  He said he went up and counted driveways, also, and did not know how they dealt because it was a different situation than 23^rd Street because the driveways there were non existent.  He said in this particular case, they have the extra feature of driveways going in and out of people’s homes.  He said he did not believe this was the recommendation from professional engineering staff being able to do it this way.  He said he did appreciate the work done by the TSC trying to come up with a temporary fix to a problem as they saw it and thought it had to be said; they did try to fix a problem as they saw it existed which was their job.  He said with this particular case, if he understood right, any application with KDOT happened in the August time frame.  He asked Soules if that was correct.

Soules said yes.  He said there were several different programs and would do some more talking with KDOT.  He said they had their 5 year plan that was coming up and the way they were going to have the most control and set the schedule and have made commitments like 2^nd Street and the Kasold Project that was in progress.  He said they could bring that to the Commission and reprioritize.  He said 2007 and 2008 were fixed but in 2009 they could potentially get into it with that and the possibility of geometric improvement.  He said David informed him that the safety program would not receive applications until 2009, so they were a couple years out and any KDOT project, just by default, was 27 months.  He said they could try to speed that up and were trying to do that on North 2^nd Street as well but it would probably be a couple of years.  He said if they wanted to do something, they needed to know sooner rather than later, and they would start talking.  He said the August time frame was when the geometric improvement program applications were selected and submitted and they would hear back from the ones they submitted last August in April.

Mayor Amyx said his suggestion to staff and the Commission was that as they dust off those plans to place an item back on the agenda for discussion about the application process and what they felt was the best course to follow, again look at alternatives in the turning lanes and anything they would make recommendation in, what would be the best course of study to follow that application process.

Commissioner Rundle said they were proceeding with deliberate haste on that, but sounded like it would not be that hasty.  He asked if staff could look at the idea of no left turns onto Iowa Street for any of those streets if they needed some data and try to find some way to get some feedback from the school and neighbors.  He said they should not send it to the TSC until they get some sort of a sense of whether or not it had some sort of support.  He said if it had some positive impact on crashes and cut them in half, it would seem worth it.

Commissioner Highberger said maybe he was not reading the documents right, but it seemed like all but one of those crashes were rear end crashes. 

Commissioner Schauner said when they, as a Commission, a couple of years ago increased the speed from Terrace South to 15^th.  He asked if that was right.

Woosley said it went further than 15^th.

Commissioner Schauner said it started at Terrace and went south for some distance.  He said that whole notion of the speed gets to determine the speed limit struck him as counter intuitive and what he was wondering if one would come out of a 40 mph zone as they go north and hit Terrace, people do get velocitated and do get in a hurry and do not realize they were going as much over the speed limit as they really were.  He asked if it made sense to go back while they were going through a period of a couple years project to work with KDOT or put in their own capital improvement project to lower that speed.

Woosley said that was a state highway and KDOT did review the speed limits on all the state highways within the city every three years to see whether they were appropriate or not.  He said the reason for the 85% and studying the speeds that way was a lot of research was done across the country and found that was the safest speed and if they had their speed limit above that or below that, the number of crashes increased so that was the speed where they had the least number of crashes.  He said KDOT did review all of those speed limits every three years and did their road safety audits throughout the City.

Commissioner Schauner asked if they looked at the history of those crashes north of there to see whether they had increased or decreased since the speed limit had risen.

Woosley said if they requested KDOT to do that, he was sure that they would.

Commissioner Schauner said it seemed like that would be information that would be helpful.

Commissioner Rundle asked if speeding did change the Terrace Road to 35.

Woosley said that was correct.

Commissioner Rundle said he did not recall a sign being anywhere until up closer to Harvard.

Woosley said there were speed limit signs there. 

Mayor Amyx said he thought the direction was pretty much clear and this item was not going forward.  He said his suggestion was that they deny this item and ask staff to bring back to the Commission a lot of the information that was looked at tonight. 

Corliss said they also had no left turns onto Iowa.

Moved by Highberger, seconded by Schauner to deny the recommendation of the Traffic Safety Commission to establish a “no-left turn 7-9 a.m. and 4:30 – 6:00 p.m., Monday – Friday, on Iowa Street and Orchard Lane, Oxford Road, Stratford Road and University Drive for a 90-day trial period” and directed staff to research no left turns onto Iowa Street, at the intersections discussed and to research the timing of a 5^th lane project with KDOT.  Motion carried unanimously.                                                                                                                    (17)

Consider recommendation from the Traffic Safety Commission to establish a 30-MINUTE PARKING on the north side of 9^th Street adjacent to 616 and 620 W. 9^th and 846 Indiana.

Soules presented the staff report.  He said during sporting events or special events there was an issue with parking in front of the businesses so that customers could not access the businesses and the request was made to restrict parking in front of 616 and 620 W. 9^th Street and 846 Indiana Street to allow patrons of the businesses to be able to get in and out and do their business.  He said the TSC approved this on a 7 – 1 vote.

Commissioner Highberger said someone already marked it that way. 

Mayor Amyx called for public comment.  There was none.

Commissioner Highberger said he would think that it was very beneficial for the businesses there especially on game days when there was a high amount of parking.

Commissioner Rundle said in Old West Lawrence they value their established businesses as much as they do the fine old homes and do what they could to help them out.

Moved by Schauner, seconded by Highberger, to concur with the Traffic Safety Commission’s recommendation to establish “30-minute parking” on the north side of 9^th Street adjacent to 616 and 620 West 9^th Street and 846 Indiana.  Motion carried unanimously.                                         (18)

Consider recommendation from the Traffic Safety Commission to install a MID-BLOCK PEDESTRIAN-ACTIVATED TRAFFIC SIGNAL on 11^th Street between New Jersey Street and New York Street.

Chuck Soules presented the staff report.  He said this had been a long time in the works and this was brought to the TSC and reviewed by the Pedestrian Advisory Committee as well and both were recommending this signal be installed.  He said East Lawrence Neighborhood Association, New York Elementary School PTA After School Program, and the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence were all recommending this.  He said they have met with Janet Good and others of the Neighborhood Association on several occasions and David Woosley had worked with them trying to figure out some way to get kids around in the area.  He said it was not only an issue with the kids, but also the neighbors trying to get across 11^th Street.  He said they still had to pinpoint the exact location of where they wanted to place a pedestrian activated signal.  He said it was not a budgeted item and were estimating around a $30,000 cost.

Commissioner Schauner said he and Janet Good had the opportunity to be out there three or four months ago and one of the things he noticed was that there were cars parked too close to the intersection, essentially making it difficult for anyone who wanted to cross the street to have a clear view of traffic coming from the direction of the street they were standing on.  He said he supported this, but was wondering if there was not a concurrent activity and that would be to look at the on street parking that existed along 11^th Street.  He said he understood there were some real issues on where people had to park, but when people were parking so close to an intersection to where they could not see the oncoming traffic, it seemed to violate the ordinance that they have to be 20 feet back from the curb.  He said it seemed they had two things at work; one being the mid block pedestrian active crossing signal as well as looking at the on street parking and whether it was crowding the corner and making it harder to see oncoming traffic.

Soules said they could look at that.

Mayor Amyx said yesterday morning, along with what David was saying, he happened to go that way after he left an agenda meeting just to see and there happened to be a kid between two of the cars and he could not see him.  He said the safety for the pedestrian to see a car coming either way was bad, but as a driver that kid got lost from his line of site just because of vehicles that were parked there.  He said he did not know what distance would be necessary to make that a real safety deal, but there had to be some room.

Soules said they would make sure as they get closer to the installation, if they needed to bring back a no parking ordinance, they would do that.  He said they would want to talk to the neighbors to make sure they had adequate parking and see what their thoughts were.

Jennifer Distlehorst, Lawrence, said she was a professional engineer and a member of the East Lawrence Neighborhood Association.  She said she worked as a transportation researcher for the State of Kansas, not actually in traffic, but she did see the latest research that came out from their national research programs and one that came across her desk recently was improving pedestrian safety at unsignalized crossings, which was a highly timely publication.  She said this was a nationally sponsored study that was performed in Texas and they looked at crossing treatments for unsignalized intersections in mid block locations, which was what they were looking at here.  She said it looked at a number of different treatments and evaluated them based on motorist compliance, i.e. how many of the cars that came through did what the traffic sign or signal was directing them to do.  She said they also looked at the appropriateness of the pedestrian signal in the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices, the MUTCD, which they have probably heard about.  She said they said two things; the first one being the basis for the proposed pedestrian warrant revisions was that the number of pedestrians waiting to cross the street should be no greater than the number of vehicles waiting to cross or enter a street.  She said she was not able to find pedestrian counts for this intersection, but she knew at one point there was an insufficient warrant and seemed to overcome that, which was good.  She said study found that the crossing treatment that was most effective was the crossing treatment did affect compliance and treatments that show a red signal indication to the motorist have a statistically significant compliance rate from devices that do not show red indication.  She said red signal or beacon devices had compliance rates greater than 95% and included midblock signals, half signals, some different types of the red, pedestrian activated signals they were talking about.  She said nearly all the red signal or beacon treatments evaluated were used on busy, high speed arterial streets, which 11^th Street was a minor arterial but considered an arteriole street.  She said also, timely enough, if at a crossing, the signal should be pedestrian actuated, parking and other obstructions should be prohibited for at least 100 feet in advance of and at least 20 feet beyond the crosswalk and the intersection should include standard signs and proper markings.  She said they had a very clear recommendation here for the set up, which she was sure Woosley had already seen.  She said she believed she e-mailed the reference of this to all of them back in November when this came up in front of the TSC.  She said she wanted to say that she was strongly in favor of this motion and that she was quite pleased to see that they were considering one of the safest and most likely to be obeyed traffic solutions for the situation. 

Janet Good, Lawrence, said this had been coming for awhile, as they already noted.  She said it was a concern for pedestrian and bicyclists.  She said since all these discussions began, several streets in the neighborhood had been closed off due to the big ditch.  She said Delaware Commons, which was a very dense, new neighborhood would be having families and school age children by the beginning of the next school year and their new pedestrian friendly development at 8^th and Pennsylvania she believed strongly that pedestrians should have a safe way to get to it if it were to be pedestrian friendly.  She said those were factors that had come into place since all the discussions started.  She said there had been discussions about the right way to get people across the street, but she had not had anyone say that what was there was working.  She said her main concern and what she had seen several times that had really scared her was one lane would stop, the child goes, and the next lane treats the cross walk like it was a suggestion they could blow off and the child or the adult was in the middle of the street with traffic continuing on.  She said a lot of this was City traffic and large vehicles.  She said they had been working with Woosley and his original plan brought to them involved traffic islands in the streets at New York and Delaware.  She said they had a lot of bicyclists and were hoping Rails to Trails intersects with 11^th Street.  She said bicyclists really do not like traffic cones very much because it forced a car into a narrow lane of traffic so they rejected that pretty quickly off the bat.  She said they went to the Pedestrian Advisory Committee a couple of times and talked about all the options, including the one that was brought up in correspondence to the Commission which would be a four way stop at 11^th and New York and they strongly discouraged that from the get go feeling that it was too close to the major 4 way stop at Connecticut Street and really would not get very far with the City and would not necessarily solve the problem without creating more problems.  She said they were discouraged from following up on that pretty early in this discussion.  She said they realized that there were some issues there and heard David Woosley say many times that a red light never physically stopped a car, which was a very important life lesson.  She said they had a lot of discussions with the site council, the Boys and Girls Club, the PTO about how they would reinforce this.  She said in being a small school it was a disadvantage when it came to pedestrian counts but an advantage in working with the community to encourage that.  She said she knew the names of every kid that walked down her block to walk to New York School and a lot of them were walking before the traffic beacons came on.  She said one of the concerns that she had heard was the flashing beacons would go away because it was counterproductive to have those and this crosswalk.  She said the school did not start until 8:45 but before school programs start at 7.  She said when she walked her daughter to school at 7:45, the majority of kids were there because their parents have to be at work at 8:00 and the before school program was very well attended.  She said they have addressed a lot of those concerns and really thought that it was not a perfect solution because it was mid block and will take people a while to get used to it, but it did not impede the flow of traffic when no one was there.  She said the way the traffic system worked was they get pedestrian warrants and get more done so people were willing to let their child walk to school safely and maybe when Rails to Trails comes, maybe other things could be done to make that safer as part of a Master Plan for the traffic.  She said she would strongly encourage them to approve it.

KT Walsh, a member of the East Lawrence Neighborhood Association Board, said while they were asking for things, on 11^th Street, should this signal go in, there was a wonderful cavernous hole in the alley right where the alley met 11^th Street between New York and New Jersey so pedestrians would be walking down the sidewalk into the pond of water and then back up to the sidewalk to cross over.  She said they thought the City might want to repair that part of the alley since that was where people would be crossing.

Shawn Hastie, President of the New York School PTO, said she wanted to reiterate her letter of support and the PTO did support this option.  She said they did realize that it was not necessarily ideal, but in the parameters they have, they feel like this was the best solution they had to getting kids safely across the street.  She said one thing they addressed with education with the children was during P.E. the gym teacher will walk down and show the kids how to use the crosswalk.  She said there was not a safe way to get across 11^th Street because cars do not stop from 13^th and Haskell all the way to 11^th and Connecticut.  She said she found herself picking up speed down the hill from Haskell and coming down 11^th Street.  She said this was what they decided was their best option with what they had to work with.

Dawn Hawkins, Lawrence, spoke in opposition to the proposed recommendation.  She said she wanted to outline her letter she sent to the Commission.  She said to outline the reasons why she thought this was not a good idea and very unwise, as she understood it the placement of the light on 11^th Street would require the removal of the current school zone and flashing beacon system there.  She said she understood before that it would also require removing the pedestrian cross walk that currently existed at 11^th and New York, but someone in the neighborhood association told her that it may not be the case, which she would like clarification on at some point.  She said they may be gaining some safety device, they would be losing others.  She said she had a big concern about lack of use of the crosswalk between New York and New Jersey at the alley.  She said she thought it did not serve the New York School students equitably because most of the students who live west of New Jersey would be having to walk half a block out of their way and half a block back twice a day.  She said although she enforced using the crosswalk with her children and if this did take place, they would ask them to use the pedestrian activated light as well.  She said as it was now, there were children everyday that for some reason do not want to bother walking from the west side of the street to the east side of the street in order to cross at the safe crossing.  She said she had a hard time seeing those things children walking two blocks out of their way to affect the same travel route.  She said it was her perception that they had a lot of pedestrian traffic that was north and south bound feeding off of Connecticut Street because they choose not to walk on Connecticut Street.  She said she thought it was a bit of a pedestrian thoroughfare and those people may also be less likely to cross over to the alley.

She said more importantly were her concerns about the dangers of having a crosswalk at an alley.  She said the main reason why they could not have the crosswalk, the pedestrian activated light, at New York and 11^th, which was their original request, was because it had to be fully signalized in order to do that and it was too close to a four way stop at an arterial road at Connecticut and 11^th, which made sense to her.  She said for that reasoning, it would be a bad idea to place it at the alley because the traffic on the north and south bound of the alley getting trash trucks or residents or whatnot would not be able to see the light and may not be aware that there was other traffic stopped there and could pull out to exit and strike a pedestrian.  She said another concern she had was this was going to encourage children to walk down the alley to school.  She said it was a beautiful view of the school and a clean shot from there to the school and was pretty certain that was going to encourage children to walk in the alley which was not as safe as walking in the street side sidewalk.  She said she thought the placement was very unconventional and unusual and could confuse the traffic, whether they were familiar with the area or not and also the traffic stopping here might be less likely to stop at this cross walk where they were going to continue to have people crossing the street, in particular children because they have students coming from both directions and continued to be used and would like to have clarification if the current pedestrian crossing was going to be moved or not because that would make a difference.  She said regarding the study that Jennifer cited, it sounded like a great study but she had to wonder that the mid block crossing it was referring to were a similar situation where it was a mid block where an alley existed.  She said on the parking issue, she agreed that parking along the intersection there did impede site for vehicles traveling east/west bound on 11^th Street as well as for pedestrians.  She said there had been discussion before with City Commission about making 11^th Street entirely no parking but the discussion ended with if they do that, it was going to increase speeds on the roads because having cars parked on the side of the road tended to slow people down.  She said it would be a good idea to remove parking and have better site clearings at the intersections.

She said the cost associated with the proposed placement she thought would be hefty and more than what they were thinking right now.  She said as KT pointed out, there was a mud hole there at the alley and did not think both sides of the alley were asphalt and it was going to be a problem.  She said it was a mud problem right now, especially on the south side of that alley intersection.  She said someone in the TSC mentioned that stormwater drainage, if they had a four way stop at New York and 11^th, that it could become costly to make a raised grade crossing which was part of her proposal although the stormwater drain was on the west side of the street right now and the current crossing was on the east, so she was not sure that would be the case and would be curious to know about that.  She said she thought that stormwater issues would be associated with the mid block crossing.  She said she did not know if the mid block crossing proposed now was inclusive of a raised grade crossing like they had on New Hampshire Street or not, but if it did pass she would hope to see that and they would have to consider stormwater drainage issues.  She said there were neighbors right there where the X was on both sides of the street and houses facing north and south and did not know if it would be an issue there and did not know if the people were contacted regarding this but with the light they were going to have electricity maintenance cost that they would not have with the four way stop and the raised grade crossing at 11^th and New York. 

She said she wanted to say if they did choose to approve this alley placement of the pedestrian activated light, that she would like to see these things included which would be the raised grade crossing, similar to what was on New Hampshire Street, the light be an overhanging light and not a street side light, that the current school zone beacon system that was in place now remain and not be removed as they were informed that it would be, that the current pedestrian crossing at New York and 11^th also remain.  She said she did not know if it would be necessary to make friendly amendments to the motion that was on the floor, but in any case if it did go through she would hoped there would be more crossing guards than in the wording of the proposal as it stood.

Mayor Amyx asked Woosley if the crosswalk to the west on New York was going to be there or be eliminated.

Woosley said it would not be recommended to have a crossing there because they want to try to get pedestrians to use one crossing if possible.  He said it would cause confusion and not be safe for people crossing the street.

Commissioner Schauner asked if they raised the crossing at the location of the proposed mid block actuated signal, could those work consistently together.

Woolsey said they could.  He said the only problem was that they would have to look and see where there was storm sewer because anytime they raise the street, unless at a high point, they were either going to pond water on one side or the other of if they happen to be at a low point, at both sides.  He said they would have to look to see where the storm sewer was and might have to run storm sewer quite a ways.  He said when they did the mid block crossing on New Hampshire between 8^th and 9^th, they did not raise it because there was no storm sewer in the area and would have to run a storm sewer all the way to 9^th Street, which would be expensive and which was why it was not raised.  He said they could look at to see where the storm sewer was in this area.

Dayna Carleton, speaking on behalf of the East Lawrence Neighborhood Association, said they have been talking about this and she was not one of the experts that were involved, but she respected the work they had done over the years in working with Chuck and Dave.  She said they have had this before and tried to think about the best way to protect the children.  She said they have been educated with all the complications.  She said she was going to quote their new neighborhood association president who quoted Howard Dean who said, paraphrasing, do not throw out the good to get to the perfect.  She said thinking of that was very appropriate last night.  She said this was not perfect, but a lot of people have worked and compromised to try to come for what would be better for the kids, neighborhood and pedestrians.  She said she respected all the work so many people had done and take the step as a step toward making things better in knowledge that it was not perfect, but would encourage them to do that.

Rich Minder, Lawrence, said he was going to move to the 1200 block of Delaware and in October they had International Walk to School Day and he had been waiting a long time to get to the point where he could get excited about his children being able to walk to school.  He said they went over and parked near where they were going to live and walked over there and as they got to the particular point, it was clear to them that there were many pedestrian ways they could get to school, and that was gratifying because as they know from the some of the work the City Commission had done on Traditional Town Planning, they ought to have as many different ways they could to encourage pedestrian access.  He said in all cases when they got to 11^th Street, that was when his anxiety started to go up with his kids because if he let them do this alone, would they be able to get across the street.  He said he really did see that they could go down the alley to get to the school and the kids were excited about it so it was the route they took.  He said he would try to deal with things that seemed like impossible solutions.  He said from his standpoint, coming from that direction, this seemed like it would be a workable solution and if he had his way, he would have a pedestrian activated signal at every intersection, but they obviously could not have that solution.  He said he was speaking in favor of this solution because his experience was that it would work in his circumstances.

Carleton said she and her husband walked frequently and 90% of the time walk in the alley and 5% walk on Rhode Island and 5% on Connecticut.  She said they almost never walk on the sidewalks and almost always walk down the alley.  She said it was very convenient and normal.

Hawkins said everyone was in favor of this because there was no other solution.  She said there were not warrants for crossing here that were not vehicular or pedestrian warrants at the stop at New York and 11^th.  She said something had to be done, which was clear.  She said each discussion they had recently she kept hearing that the City was never going to approve of a four way stop at 11^th and New York but would like to know if that was the case, why not.  She said it seemed to her that a four way stop at 11^th and Connecticut and 11^th and New York was going to continually feed traffic and was not like a traffic signal that was going to stop traffic.  She said traffic would always flow.  She said she walked and drove on the intersection every day and really could not perceive there being traffic backed up from one of the corners to the other with four way stops existing at both points.

Commissioner Rundle said he supported this recommendation and they were not traffic experts but on the last point about a four way stop, the competition continued to move traffic as quickly and efficiently as possible while gaining safety for the pedestrians.  He said he thought if everyone had to stop, it slowed traffic down and since it was pedestrian activated with no one moving across, the traffic continued to move. He said for him it was one reason why he was in favor of a pedestrian activated signal over a four way stop.  He said they were faced with making a better solution and not being able to find the perfect, but there were some ideas that came out of this.  He said he wondered if staff ever considered installing this in other neighborhoods. 

Commissioner Highberger said he agreed and thought it was important that there was no perfect solution here.  He said he thought the staff had produced the best they could do here.  He said his shared concern about the 4 way stop as research showed that most stop at a flashing red light than a stop sign, so it sounded like an increasing safety factor to him.  He said this was long overdue and was sorry it took so long to get here.  He said he wanted to move forward as fast as they could and if they could fill the hole that would be good.

Mayor Amyx said he did not have a problem supporting this recommendation if they could come to grips with the parking along the streets so they made sure they had adequate site distance.  He said that was his main concern.  As to the four way stop at 11^th and New York, he did not know how much traffic would back up between the signs and did not have an idea.  He said he wanted to make a safe situation for pedestrians to get across the street.  He said he thought the big thing for him was the signal did allow for safety for the pedestrian to get across 11^th Street, but it was only going to work if there was enough site distance that everyone felt comfortable they could see.

Commissioner Schauner said he supported this recommendation and agreed with the site distance issue.  He said it was pretty difficult from one of those corners to see the traffic coming from either direction.  He said he supported this, but he kept thinking the comment made about kids coming from all directions to cross 11^th.  He said this school served a fairly wide geographic area to the south of the school and it seemed to him what would make that street safer was a physical narrowing of that street to two 11 foot lanes with the use of a chicane for a couple of blocks on either side so they would bring the street width in for a couple of blocks with no parking so they give all pedestrians for about three blocks a very safe place to cross and would not have to go half a block one way or the other and would have good places to cross the street.  He said he had no idea how much that would cost or if it would work.  He said he did not want to delay the conversation of this for a couple of years while they figure out what might be better.  He said he suspected this was not the only place where they had this situation and would like to think if street narrowing, using physical barriers, brought the street to a narrower point to accomplish crossing purposes might be worth some consideration.  He said there may be traffic studies out there that had done this.  He said he supported the approach recognizing they should not throw out the good in search of the perfect. 

Commissioner Rundle said we have a pedestrian activated light on Massachusetts Street at South Park and it was successful.  He said that was another thing that made him confident in trying this. 

Moved by Schauner, seconded by Rundle, to concur with the Traffic Safety Commission’s recommendation to install a “mid-block pedestrian-activated traffic signal” on 11^th Street between New Jersey Street and New York Street and directed staff to look at parking on that section of 11^th Street.  Motion carried unanimously.                                                                 (19)

PUBLIC COMMENT:                       

Steve Ozark, Director Organizer for the Interfaith Initiative to help meet needs in the community and Vice Chair on the Coalition on Homeless Concerns said he wanted to invite everyone to the 3^rd Annual Town Meeting on Homelessness next Tuesday from 3 – 5 p.m. at Plymouth Congregational Church at 925 Vermont.  He said he saw their schedule and saw they had an important 5:00 meeting they would have to attend but what would be heard from 3:15 – 4:15 were updates of successes and reports from the community leaders on their programs for the working poor, the mentally ill, and the people who are homeless.  He said one of the greatest successes they were going to hear about was the outreach workers they all approved the funding for through the Bert Nash Mental Health Unit.  He said they have more workers out on the streets with the people and there had been a resounding approval from the people getting the services from them from the service providers from the community that by hiring these four people, it had made a great impact.  He said what he would like to bring forward to the City Commission was the task force on the homelessness recommendations that were made around a year ago, he thought what they needed to look at as a community was those recommendations would be best served and approached as a whole functioning unit. 

Ozark said his hope was as the City Commission and the City to lead the charge of responsibility and financially for addressing the gaps.  He said until they have a system that served a larger portion of people to get a hand up rather than a hand out, they were going to continue to gush money at the rate of $127 a night where people go to homes because they are mentally ill and need shelter or people go to the hospital or emergency room for services where it was not serving anything rehabilitative.   He said he believed they were spending the money anyway and until the gaps were addressed, as a large picture and whole picture of what was recommended, it was not going to serve an individual.  He said they want to get housing pilot done because they learned a very successful model that would cost less than $30 a night where people have a home and rehabilitate where they get a caring support of services and they were sorely lacking that here in Lawrence.  He said what he saw from his chair was that the way Lawrence was set up, if someone did not work in a program; there were very few opportunities of what else you could do for that individual.  He said you could not build a relationship with people with needs because they were living in crisis and living on the street.  He said it was an impossible position to try to rehabilitate.  He said until they address housing and the larger issues of employment in a complete system that he knew they could not help everyone.  He said the problems would not go away unless the City leadership saw the value of investing in the task force program.

He said the third item that he would ask was that the task force recommendation on homelessness be put to referendum in the upcoming election.  He said he had heard Mayor Amyx talk about wanting to know what the City voters want to prioritize for the next year and coming years in Lawrence and he very much wanted to know that, too.  He said he thought he was sure that people saw what he was saying as important and that one of the most important resources they have in their town was the people and when the people were suffering and working poor, there was report by Nancy Degarmo at New York School that 73 children in 12 of the 15 schools that were currently known to be homeless.  He said they have a city wide problem and all the other things that come up of streets and parks and all that the Commission does, he thought this had been pushed aside and their greatest resources were people and thought that for this town they have a workable number to address these gaps and fix the holes so that the roof keeps leaking and move forward and be a better community for it.

He said his question tonight was he would like to know of how to make it part of the referendum they were discussing for the upcoming vote.

Mayor Amyx said so that everyone had the opportunity to comment, he would make it an item on the agenda for the next couple of weeks.

Commissioner Rundle said when they were building a task force, they discovered other communities that did studies on reallocating monies that were being spent anyway by eliminating medical costs and incarceration costs and believed that there were good examples that showed a net savings by coming up with an effective solution now.  He said getting to that was a very complex process and at the time they tried to do an assessment of what was being spent now and there was some information and it was not impossible to do that thoroughly, accurately, and comprehensively and part of the information was not there.  He said sometimes it seemed like agencies or organizations drag their feet but to him that would be something if staff could give any feedback on whether or not it was possible to do that kind of analysis here and that would be easier to pitch to the community and Commission that they could actually save money by spending money in the right way.                                                                            (20)

FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS:

1/16/07	 5 p.m. study session with Douglas County Commission and Lawrence Chamber of Commerce on Economic Development  Ordinance creating City Auditor position (revised per Commission direction)
TBD	 Salvation Army Site Plan and Rezoning;  Retail Marketing Analysis Code provisions  Implementation Report for Matrix Report Recommendations on Development Process  Staff Recommendation on the Reuse of Old Fire Station No. 2 (Mass. Street) and Old Fire Station No. 4 (Grover Barn / Lawrence Avenue).   Staff is recommending that both facilities be kept in public use.

(21)

COMMISSION ITEMS:

Moved by Schauner, seconded by Highberger, to adjourn at 10:00 p.m.  Motion carried unanimously.             

APPROVED                                                                _____________________________

Mike Amyx, Mayor

ATTEST:

___________________________________

Frank S. Reeb, City Clerk

CITY COMMISSION MEETING OF JANUARY 9, 2007

1. Design Contract - Kaw Water Treatment Plant freight elevator to Dynatron Elevator Inc.

2. Engineering Contract - 14^th & Tenn. Sanitary Sewer Replacement Project to BG Consultants.

3. Bid date- Feb. 6, 2007 for 24^th & Crossgate/Harvard & Wakarusa Sanitary Sewer Replacement Project.

4. Agreement - Fire/Med. Station No. 4 to Actual Size Artworks.

5. Ordinance No. 8070/Resoultion No. ______-1^st Read, joint City/Cnty revising Ch. 4 Growth Management in Horizon 2020.

6. Ordinance No. 8071/Resolution No. ______- 1^st Read, joint City/Cnty revising Ch. 5 Residential Land Use in Horizon 2020.

7. TSC - Deny “multi-way stop” at 25^th Terr., Hampton St, and Kensington Rd.

8. TSC - Construct “traffic calming devices” 9^th between Lawrence Ave. & Kasold.

9. TSC - Deny “no parking” S side of Ash between 7^th & 8^th.

10. Corrected agreements - KDOT for City Connecting Links.

11. CPA-2006-04, for Horizon 2020, Ch. 5 – Resid. Land Use, to replace Figure 5-1, Planning Unit Concept with Neighborhood Concept.

12. PDP-11-10-06- Lawrence Humane Society, 1805 E. 19^th.

13. City Facilities – Request from Lawrence Freenet.

14. City Manager’s Report.

15. Public hearing- adoption of Neighborhood Revital. Plan Program, 8^th & Penn. District.

16. Domestic partner registry discussion.

17. TSC – “No Left Turn” 7-9 AM & 4:30-6 PM MON-FRI on Iowa Street at Orchard Ln, Oxford Rd, Stratford Rd, & University Dr.

18. TSC – “30 minute parking”  N side of 9^th adjacent to 616 & 620 W 9^th & 846 Indiana.

19. TSC – “Mid-Block Pedestrian Activated Traffic Signal” 11^th between New Jersey & New York.

20. Public Comment

21. Future Agenda Items.

22. Commission Items.