HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/20/2001, LIAISON #1 - SLOCOG/SLORTA MEETING NOVEMBER 7, 2001 '"SMNG r AGENDA �a isvn
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LIAISON REPORT
C CIL CDD DIR
❑ FIN DIR
To: City Council Colleagues A P F CHIEF
From: Ken Schwartz ORNEY UrPW DIR
CLERIVORIG ❑ POLICE CHF
Copies: Ken Hampian, Wendy George, Tim Bochum, Jeff Hook ❑ p PT HEAD C] REC DIR
U' C7 UTIL.DIR
Re: SLOCOG/SLORTA meeting November 7, 2001 ❑ ❑ HR DIR
1. The SLORTA portion of this monthly meeting was pretty routine. David Lilly the
new transit manager seems to have gotten a handle on things very rapidly and the
Board,without exception, is very pleased with his performance to date. Things
are looking up for the County component of the transit system.
2. The COG portion of the agenda(always the largest component)consisted of three
items:
(a) A review of staff recommendations on the 2001 Regional Transportation
Plan. Much of staff discussion centered around how to improve
transportation systems—roadways, rad, airports,harbors—to enhance
their attractiveness and to reduce numbers of single occupancy vehicles.
This included how to make communities`Swore livable"albeit,when
questioned, staff could not describe what livable means much less show a
diagram of a livable community. Board members made a number of
comments which staff will attempt to integrate before the Board gives
_.! final approval in December.
U (b) 2002 State Transportation Improvement Program(STIP). These staff
Wg � recommendations were very project specific and were accompanied by
] O good graphic diagrams. 12 projects were identified for various levels of
W '" U work ranging from Project Study to actual construction. Interestingly,not
Uone project is in our immediate area. Projects of interest range from
ir o U widening the bridge over the Santa Maria bridge(solely within our
WCounty)to a truck-passing lane on Highway 41 at the very edge of SLO
County. Also of interest is a"roundabout"project slated for Highway 41
and Main Street in Morro Bay.
Tim Bochum gave me a heads up about huge cost overruns for the
interchange at Highways 41 and 101 as well as 41 as it rims easterly
through Atascadero. The concern ofboth Tim and COG staffwas the
amount of fiords that Atascadero could contribute to the project—the only
fiords that seemed to be available were those that they would receive for
discretionary use on their internal road system(meaning the fiord we and
other cities receive to use at our own discretion). In the end, everyone
agreed that while this project has turned out to be much more expensive,it
was important and should be completed. In voting with the majority, I
made it clear that SLO had no major project in this cycle and we think we
have some entitlements coming in the next cycle—notably, LOVR/ 101 /
creek problem and perhaps a resolution to our Marsh Street/ 101 /creek
concerns. We'll have to wait and see.
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c. The third item was regional housing. I presented our Resolution
based on the good staff work that Jeff Hook had done in working
on SLOCOG's housing subcommittee. But alas, SLO was the
only no vote to SLOCOG's staff recommendation. The fear, as
anticipated,was that if we or any other city received a lesser
allocation then our sister cities would have to assume that extra
burden. The debate did produce some interesting viewpoints
about job—housing balance problems with virtually all fingers
pointing to SLO and why didn't we produce more housing or
stop generating jobs.
Lastly, Jay Walker, our new City Engineer who has represented CalTrans at the Board for
several years was recognized for his outstanding service in improving relations between
CalTrans and SLOCOG. Jay should be of great help to us not only because of his
engineering skills,but also because of his knowledge of the interworkings of both
CalTrans and SLOCOG