[MissoulaGov] committee update 3-4-09

[Bob Jaffe]

Greetings,

In Public Safety this morning we had a discussion about maintenance and obstructions of bike lanes. Some highlights are that the streets department cleans and plows the bike lanes just the same as the roads. But as the cars drive down the road they splash and push the snow and debris out to the sides in the bike lane again.  So after a day or so the road appears as if it has been maintained but not the bike lane.  The bottom line is that we simply do not have the resources to keep the bike lanes clear all the time.  

There were two other main issues. One is the design deficiencies in some of the bike lane installations. Bob Giordono had some photos showing things like sidewalk bulbouts that cut right across the bike lane. We can make sure these kinds of things don't happen anymore. We also talked about people putting their leaves or snow into the bike lane. This is also an area we can improve. Plow operators need to know they can not push the snow out into the right of way. People shoveling their sidewalks need to know they can't throw the snow into the road. Leaves can be spread out in a long row instead of in a big pile.  Cars need to be aware of not parking in the bike lane.  All these things need a higher level of awareness in the community.

 

Next was the park dedication regs in PAZ.  Last time we decided that park dedication would apply to minor subdivisions of 3,4, and 5 lots if the zoning allowed for multifamily. Today we decided that for multifamily on all subdivisions the calculation would be .02 acres per unit with a cap of ten units per acre. Single family and duplex units will still calculate the old way at 11% on lots of ½ acre or less graduating to lower percentages as the lot gets bigger up to five acres.  The reason for the change is that the percentage formula assumes the home on the bigger lot will have less need for parks. But when a whole bunch of units get put on one large lot it is the opposite. Our current regulation did not address this situation. As a break to the building industry this season we made these changes effective 1/1/2010.   

 

Still to be discussed are changes to the zoning ordinance. Some of the issues are capturing a park dedication on multifamily units being built on land that is not being subdivided; and figuring how landscaping requirements can work with park requirements. We moved to have staff pursue these issues in the context of the larger zoning rewrite that is taking place.

 

After lunch we took up the issue of redistricting the wards for the upcoming city council elections.  State law requires that the districts all be 3%+- of each other. The population estimates are based on census numbers and building permits. All the wards are about 10,500 people except ward two has about 12,000 and ward five is a little short. For fear of being accused of gerrymandering we were all a little shy about making specific suggestions on how to fix it.  But Dick summed it up when he said the excess population in ward two will either go to the east to ward one pushing everything clockwise around the map or it will go south to ward six pushing everything counterclockwise. We decided to leave it up to Dave Dewing, the map guy at OPG, to figure the numbers and give us options. 

 

We ended the day with public works where we bought a bunch of stuff including the "odor characterization" study I spoke of last week. We learned that even though the price of oil has come down the price of asphalt has not. Prices were disappointingly high. Paving activities will be limited this year.

 

Thanks for your interest,

 

Bob Jaffe

Missoula City Council, Ward 3

bjaffe at ci.missoula.mt.us <mailto:bjaffe at ci.missoula.mt.us> 

406-728-1052



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