Title
Discussion of revisions to the City of Roswell Traffic Calming Policy - Guidance
Body
Action Required:
Guidance
Description:
During the 8/24/2011 Community Development and Transportation Committee Meeting there was a discussion regarding the need to revise the current City of Roswell Traffic Calming Policy. Staff has gathered Traffic Calming Policies from neighboring local agencies and has a comparison matrix. The matrix includes information from policies from the Cities of Alpharetta, Sandy Springs, Johns Creek, Marietta and Milton and the counties of Fulton, Cobb, Gwinnett, and Forsyth. Staff is working on a suggested policy changes to fulfill Roswell's needs. The goal of updating the policy is to have a more efficient, simple, and clear process that makes it easier for residents to follow without involving a lot of staff time. Some ideas that are being discussed are listed below:
1. Make the HOA responsible to do the research using privately hired consultants to come up with options and layout concepts. Staff can direct the process and verify the work. Following approval by staff, the HOA, with the assistance of their consultant, can proceed with design of the approved concept and eventually be responsible for the construction cost. Details on cost sharing could be worked on if the Committee likes this approach.
2. Lengthening the time to distribute and collect petitions to 90 days (currently 60 days) with a 30 to 60 day extension upon written request and approval. A tiered approach could be established for the policy giving more days to larger subdivisions.
3. Formulate a tiered approach for cost splits as well as require larger subdivisions to contribute a higher percentage towards the final cost.
4. Allow electronic voting (e-mail vote to be accepted). Staff will need to work through authentication issues.
5. Staff to provide assistance with a public meeting for subdivision residents. Would require additional staff time.
6. Staff to provide assistance with the petition process by reviewing the HOA's petition letter and seeking final approval by the City's legal department.
7. If the City is responsible for researching options and design of proposed alternate measures, Staff recommends that the construction cost split be 75% HOA and 25% City.
8. Increase the petition percentage to 75% of the residents in support of traffic calming measures.
9. Include some approved options into the policy like speed cushions, speed tables, splitter islands, striping, chicanes, bulb outs, roundabouts, and traffic circles. No speed bumps would be allowed under the program as they hinder emergency vehicles and are generally not supported by proponents of livable communities.
10. Eliminate the Traffic Calming Policy altogether and handle the requests on a case by case basis.
Staff is seeking guidance from the Committee and will continue to work on revising the policy. Staff will come back to a future committee meeting with recommended revisions to the policy.