Minutes 02-27-2014 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Michael Talbert said the County does not maintain sidewalks on private property; however the County does maintain the sidewalks in and around County buildings such as the library, the parking deck and West Campus. Commissioner Rich asked if this is contract work. Michael Talbert said this is generally specified work that is contracted out, and the County pays for it. Abigaile Pittman said many of the sidewalks in this project are not close to County buildings, but many are a path from schools to and from residential areas. Brian Lowen asked about sidewalks around schools that are not in the city limits. He asked how this is handled. Staff said that is what they are trying to figure out. Brian Lowen asked if the state would be willing to take over maintenance. Abigaile Pittman said the DOT will not maintain these. Craig Benedict said there was a similar situation on Homestead Road. He said this was Orange County's jurisdiction, and it was not within Chapel Hill and Carrboro's ETJ. He said this required a 4 party agreement. He said it is okay, within an agreement, for municipalities to maintain lands outside of their jurisdiction. Chair Jacobs said Orange County is considering doing a bond issue in 2016. He said, given that the state is not going to provide any funding for sidewalks, he would like Orange County to have a discussion about asking voters to help promote walkability and alternative modes of transportations with our own money. He said this should be part of the conversation moving forward if the state is no longer supportive of alternative transportation. He suggested the Town and County staff should work together to approach the contractors used by the Town of Hillsborough to do the maintenance for these proposed sidewalks. Eric Hallman said the current agreement can be used as a boilerplate for this. The Boards agreed by consensus. b) Implementation of Downtown Hillsborough Access Study Improvements Margaret Hauth said staff is still moving forward with DOT and Orange County's support on the sidewalk in front of the courthouse. She said the project is closer to the start of construction. She said the Town Commissioners will be providing feedback this weekend, and some portions of the plan may be flip flopped in order to address the Bank of America Parking lot, which is leased by the town. She said this is to be reconfigured to function more normally and to provide a place for off street loading. She said there are still questionable issues with the DOT, but staff still feels this is a viable project. Commissioner Rich asked if the local money has changed. Margaret Hauth said the method DOT used to distribute funding to them is no longer available. She said DOT has committed to working within existing funds to find a way to qualify this project for those funds. She said this is considered a committed project and the DOT is very supportive. She said she is very sure they will get the funding from DOT. Chair Jacobs asked about a reference to parking on the eastside of Churton Street. Margaret Hauth said this is not about parking. She said the re-surfacing of Churton Street qualifies for assurance of handicap accessibility and ADA compliance with each and every crosswalk. She said the west side was being addressed, but the east side was not being touched; however the new rule is that everything must be ADA compliant. She said this triggers work on the east side of the street. Chair Jacobs asked if staff can re-visit the idea of having a crosswalk by Radius Restaurant.