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MEETING MINUTES PALMDALE HSR SAP I 1 MEETING MINUTES TECHNICAL WORKING GROUP (TWG) MEETING #1 Phone and WebEx I 03-31-2016 – 1:00 to 2:00 PM 1 Overview of the Project Roland Genick presented a brief overview over the project, highlighted it’s location within the City of Palmdale and illustrated the overlap of the current study area with the areas covered by two adjacent studies which are currently being completed (Avenue Q and TOD3) Roland also introduced a prelimary Vision Statement for the plan and highlighted the main project goals which are: - Enhance local and regional multi-modal transportation options - Create short- and long tem economic development opportunities - Generate opportunities for transit oriented development (TOD) - Promote smart growth development opportunities Lastly Roland shared a series of case studies to illustrate how other jurisdictions have approached similar challenges in the past. 2 TWG Purpose, Roles &Responsibilities Roland Genick highlighted the importance of the TWG in order to enable a balanced development of the Palmdale HSR Station Area Plan. The TWG delivers on three critical aspects for the project: - Serves as a collaborative discussion forum to evaluate key concepts at a draft stage - Provides input and feedback on concepts developed for the HSR Station Area Plan - Communicates progress made and agreements reached to TWG member constituents Roland shared a charter for the TWG and a hard copy of the charter was provided to each of the TWG members 3 Scope of Work Roland Genick shared a brief overview over the project’s scope of work and the organizational structure of the consultant team. In broad terms the scope of work includes: - Project Management - Public Outreach - Development of a HSR Station Area Vision - A multi-modal access connectivity analysis - Economic and Financial Planning - Update to the regulatory framework 4 Layers of Public Involvement Roland Genick explained that the TWG plays an important role in the overall public involvement strategy for the project. As a whole the public outreach strategy contains 4 layers - The Technical Working Group (TWG) which represents a diverse set of stakeholders that is closest to the project and will meet on a basis - A broader set of Stakeholder that each represent a specific set of community, business, and institutional interests. These stakeholder will be engaged at critical steps along the study - Youth Engagement is an important part for any long-term project. The project team will engage local middle and high school students over the course of the project - Public Meetings will be the broadest form of community engagement for the project and be conducted over a series of three public meetings at major milestones of the project Roland also pointed out that in addition to the formal engagement across the four layers the project is being communicated via a dedicated project WebSite, common forms of Social Media, Events and Pop-ip ATTENDEES Mike Behen Michael Dieden Sindre Fredsvik Megan Taggert Mark Oyler City of Palmdale Roland Genick Chester Britt Aida Banihashemi * Bob Scales * Parsons Team Rick Simon David Van Dyken Melissa Dumond * CAHSR Mark Perry Dietter Aragon Len Engel Erika Monroe AVTA Steve Fox SCAG Ron Matthieu SCRRA Max Thelander Los Angeles County Don Sepulveda Metro Vicki Medina AV Board of Trade * participation by phone ---PAGE BREAK--- MEETING MINUTES PALMDALE HSR - AREA PLAN I 2 Meetings at community events, and through conventional engagement with mailings, newspaper and radio. 5 Discussion of Project Goals / Measures of Success Roland Genick introduced 6 measurements of success for the study that will be utilized to evaluated and measure decisions made over the course of the project these measures are: - Enhancements achieved to local and regional multi-modal transportation systems - Definition of short and long-term economic goals - Achievement of broad public support - Succesful mitigation of potential project impacts - Adherence to CAHSR’s station area development policies - Degree to which it identifies TOD development opportunities 6 Open Discussion After the formal presentation an open discussion was conducted, covering the following topics - The project team received a comment to consider potential connection to Xpress West via the High Desert Corridor (HDC) as an important component - Mike Behen highlighted the fact that Lille has often been mentioned in the past as a meaningful case study for Palmdale. - Each of the TWG members were encouraged to name an alternate for times when they might not be available themselves - For each of the cases studies we should make sure that the size of the jurisdiction is comparable - A question was asked what exactly the role of the HSR Authority is for the project. Roland answered that they are both, a financing partner, an important stakeholder, and a collaborator. The study can not be successful without a true collaboration between the City and the CAHSR Authority - The question was raised whether the recent revision in the Authority’s business plan which focuses initially on the central valley portion and delays the opening of the Palmdale station to 2029 affects the study. The consultant team responded that the project requires a long term vision and is not dependant on a specific year for the station to be openend. In order to encourage and support development prior to the HSR station opening the study will identified additional catalyst projects and focus strongly on a phased implementation plan. CAHSR pointed out that despite this 4 year delay, early projects such as grade seperations will still be going on - A question was asked what is being done to keep stakeholders engaged in very long-term projects. The answer highlighted the importance of developing a strong sustainable vision that the community can embrace and make their own - Several comments were made that highlighted the importance of youth engagement and the fact that younger generations will need to embrace the project in order to assure it’s long-term success - Members of the TWG encouraged a site visit to the ARTIC project in Anaheim since it includes some positive and negative lessons learned - Consultant team needs to consider the effects of autonomous vehicles and how that will impact transit planning and use