HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-01-22-HATS-min Hanscom Area Towns Committee (HATS)
DRAFT MEETING MINUTES
January 22, 2015
HATS Members. Peter Braun, HATS Chair and Lincoln Selectman; Carmin
Reiss, Concord Selectman, Michael Rosenberg, Bedford Selectman
Other HATS Representatives. Bob Domnitz, Lincoln Planning Board; Lisa
Mustapich, Bedford Planning Board; Timothy Dunn, Lexington Planning Board;
Christopher Reilly, Lincoln Land-Use and Planning Director.
Others in attendance. Senator Kenneth Donnelly; Representative Tom
Stanley; Waltham Mayor Jeannette McCarthy; Cindy Frene, Transaction
Associates and Middlesex 3 TMA; Melisa Tintocalis, Lexington Director of
Economic Development, Alyssa Sandoval, Bedford Coordinator of Economic
Development; Stephanie Cronin, Middlesex 3 TMA; Kevin Byrne and Catherine
Paquette, Mass Dept Of Transportation MassRIDES Program; Alison Felix,
Transportation Planner, MAPC; Scott Sheehan, Civil Engineer, HAFB VanPools
Program, Anne Coyle, Resident, Andy Friedlich, Lexington Town Meeting
Member; Nancy Nelson, Superintendent, Minute Man National Historical
Park; Tom Ennis and Amber Goodspeed, Massport
Mr. Braun opened the meeting at 7:30 p.m. with welcome and introductions at
the Lincoln Town Offices. Mr. Braun mentioned that Lexington Selectman and
HATS Board member Joe Pato was unable to attend because of an urgent
capital planning meeting. He thanked the many guest participants for agreeing to
attend on relatively short notice, and he specifically recognized and thanked
Senator Donnelly, Representative Stanley and Mayor McCarthy. He also noted
that the HATS meeting on February 26 will feature a presentation of the
MassPort Strategic Plan.
128 Development/Transportation — Moderated by Selectman M. Rosenberg:
There was a Roundtable Discussion regarding 128 traffic and development,
including alternatives to single-occupant commuting, community coordination,
and legislative efforts. Mr. Rosenberg introduced everyone in attendance and
asked each of the invited guests to describe their organizations and activities.
Cindy Frene, Transaction Associates and Middlesex 3 Transportation
Management Association (TMA). She started working with elnk when they were
in the moving process to assist with a shuttle service and help resolve issues
with the employees new commute They assist in running the 128 Business
Council services as well. The TMA is a great way to help put services on the
road through economies of cost (sharing).
Melisa Tintocalis, Town of Lexington Economic Development Director:
Introduced herself.
Alyssa Sandoval, Bedford Economic Development Coordinator: Introduced
herself.
Stephanie Cronin, Executive Director of Middlesex 3 Transportation Coalition.
The Middlesex 3 Coalition has been established for about 2 1/2 years and now
represents 9 communities, to include the original founders of Bedford, Burlington,
Chelmsford, Billerica and Lowell, who got together and wanted to do more to
promote the Route 3 corridor. The Coalition is primarily private sector
addressing needs that are hard for businesses to address on their own. They
deal with workforce development and permitting as well, but transportation is
their primary focus They received $100k from the State Community Innovation
Challenge Grant and have looked at 5 communities to see redundancies and
need. They found that more services that assist the single occupancy vehicle
are needed. They partner with the TMA's as they have been doing this for 25
years and have vehicles, technology and infrastructure Brochures were handed
out The main interest for participating companies is to retain or recruit
accessible employees. Entrepreneurs in the area want their employees to be
able to access their jobs, and developers want to be able to bring businesses
in. The have reached out to larger area companies to further determine need.
Kevin Byrne, Mass Rides and Mass DOT: Introduced himself.
Catherine Paquette, MassDot/Mass Rides: She described the Emergency Ride
home program The State has a reimbursement program to take an alternative
way to work that is considered "carpool insurance."
Alison Felix, MAPC Transportation Planner: There was a MASS DEP128
corridor study done 5 years ago that looked at 5 communities. She displayed
several slides of the study. The data results serve as a basis for patterns today
indicating 80% of those who work in the corridor live outside the corridor
and 10% who live in the corridor work in the corridor. She displayed an area
map that shows employees are coming in the area from many outside locations
as major employers attract a high skilled workforce that are willing to travel to the
area for highly specialized jobs — this makes the corridor unique. Although the
data is from 5 years ago, those companies are still in the area and a significant
concentration is at HAFB and Lincoln Labs Of the over 3,000 employees who
responded to the survey, 94% stated they drive alone despite long commutes
due to convenience and lack of choices. However, travel time and congestion
are concerns. Slightly over 30% indicated that if public transportation was
available they could be encouraged to use it. Transportation Demand
Management (TDM) can be used to reduce single occupancy travel and provide
a menu of choices.
Scott Sheehan, HAFB Environmental Office of Civil Engineering Commuter
program: He recently moved from Texas and lives in Salem, and thus is
experiencing the commute first hand and participates in a van pool. He was
involved in the transportation fair on HAFB and manages a commuter
transportation office on base that works to create van pooling, carpool matching,
increase participation in the MASS DOT programs, and helps to set up flex time,
compressed work schedules, and telework programs. MassRIDES and DOT
subsidies have helped increase the pools. Ms. Paquette gave a brief overview of
HanscomRIDES and how the state subsidy works (up to $600/mo) along with
requirements to qualify for the van pool program mostly used for commuting to
and from work
There was a discussion regarding commuting and comparisons to other services,
holding table top meetings to revise and improve services to go beyond shuttle
and carpool services, and funding for infrastructure projects. Some projects
discussed were widening highways, connecting Alewife with Burlington,
expanding bus routes, and creating a system where it is less expensive due to
tolls to commute on certain routes.
Mr Rosenberg requested Mayor McCarthy to describe her efforts regarding the
128 central corridor area. She said that Ms. Felix has done a great deal of work
on the data, and that some the office park tenants in Waltham wanted to move
out of their locations due to difficulty of access for their employees as well as
traffic going through the city neighborhoods Selectmen from multiple area towns
and Mayor McCarthy met to discuss experiences in order to determine what
needed to be studied. They brought in MAPC and used their technical expertise
to plan to do a traffic study. An RFP to do a study is being drafted in connection
with the Polaroid redevelopment project, which is subject to MEPA review The
study should include most of the central corridor as well as multi modal
transportation that could connect rail, buses and bike paths, creating a hub to
include more ease for commuting, and to keep areas economically vital but not
detrimentally impact residents
Representative Tom Stanley discussed the challenge to advocate priorities for
area needs as a collective. Mr. Braun suggested the area has a great many
parties that would be impacted by what happens in the future The
Massachusetts Environmental Process Act (MEPA) was discussed in terms of
process and what areas fall under their jurisdiction. The State wants to
determine scope and have the areas cover the costs. RFP data will be shared
and should be completed shortly.
Senator Donnelly said there is a new Legislative initiative to reach out in the
districts to include business owners in roundtable discussions. They will start
with a breakfast in Burlington (from 7:30am to 9:00am) and the discussion will
revolve around transportation and workforce development on 128.
Mr. Rosenberg asked for an explanation of Transportation Demand Management
(TMA) - how it works and how it is progressing. This focus is toward programs
and services and less on infrastructure, to include carpooling and creating
staggered work start times, and depends on market demand and quality of
life. Lexington has a program (e.g. Cubist/Merck) that has their own shuttle,
encourages alternative work schedules, and are at 15% alternative modes of
transportation. Parking and lot requirements and zoning options were discussed
along with addressing the issues at the business, municipal and state
levels. There are expense and time issues that impact options for
consumers. Infrastructure was discussed in terms of preparing for the Olympics
in 2024 along with generating revenue from building permits and property tax as
well as developing proper land use planning around transit.
Andy Friedlich brought up the meeting Senator Donnelly will be having and the
need for the legislature to plan for innovation in terms of housing as well as
transportation. The longer term hope is that this will be addressed as part of the
bigger picture when businesses and developers are bringing this to the table to
see how to make it work. Ms. Paquette said that MassRIDES has been charged
with contacting companies to participate in the TMA to put together a TDM plan
but the community should be part of the process as well. There was a discussion
of how to include the community
Anne Coyle, resident of Minuteman Commons, was in attendance regarding an
issue with MASSPort and the National Park. Mr. Braun suggested talking
afterwards to direct her who to talk to. Ms. Nelson, MNP Superintendent, started
to address the issue and said there was a permit to remove a number of trees in
the park that were obstructing the runway. The discussion will continue later.
Mr Braun asked if this was a useful forum and if HATS can assist in promoting
dialogue It was agreed it was worthwhile and other forums to promote
networking have worked well. Feedback will be requested on how to improve the
dialogue and guests were thanked for attending.
Mayor McCarthy expressed there is support for the corridor and a proposal to link
current lines from Burlington to Alewife and Waltham. An invitation will be
extended for a future meeting.
Air Force Base:
Task Force/MassDevelopment: Mr. Braun said he is waiting to hear what the
Governor would like to do with the Task Force.
ADC — Membership/Individual Access To Newsletter: Membership is paid up for
the first year, providing direct newsletter access for the four HATS Board
members. HATS can designate a reasonable number of others to receive
access, of which Mr Braun needs to notify ADC Mr. Braun noted that he had
designated the Lincoln Schools Chair and Superintendent and that the other
HATS Board members should notify him if there are others who would like
access.
Community Partnership (P-4) Initiatives. Next meeting is in May and current
documents were uploaded to the website. They are hopeful that linkage to the
paramedic consortium will happen and there is a lot of support for this from the
base staff
MassPort/Air Field.
MassPort Community Advisory Committee: There is a first meeting scheduled
for early February, even though Boston has not yet appointed their six
participants.
HFAC Update: There was no one present to provide an update.
HATS Web Site.
Past Minutes: It was noted that Mr. Rosenberg had submitted additional minutes
from the prior year. Ms Mauger was recontacted to seek minutes from her last
year as Chair.
Recent Revisions: The HATS community links page has been created to include
links to MMNHP, National Guard, and Scenic Byway.
Regional Transportation and Other Concerns:
Rt. 2 Updates (Crosby Corner and 1-95 Bndge Projects). There were no major
updates
Future Meetings:
February 26: The focus will be on the MassPort Strategic Plan. Mr. Braun will
work with others on PR.
March 26: Mr. Braun proposed to skip March due to Town Meeting season. It
was agreed to skip the March meeting.
April 23: The Chair will need to be appointed. Mr. Braun suggested that he
continue for the next year, since Mr. Rosenberg had kindly agreed to be Chair
out of order last year in light of Mr. Braun's chairing of the Lincoln BOS. He
suggested that after the coming year, the Selectman from Concord or Lexington
would be in line for being HATS Chair. Ms. Reiss said that in general there
should be an orderly rotation and noted that Concord would ordinarily be next in
line However, she indicated that she is in favor of Mr Braun's plan Next year is
her last year on the Board of Selectmen due to term limits, but Steve Ng, who
has attended HATS meetings in the past, will likely be the HATS representative
and could serve as Chair. Mr Braun said he will defer to whatever the Board
feels is best. A vote for the Chair appointment can occur at the April meeting,
along with establishing a rotation schedule.
Potential Future Agenda Items. Task Force; US Congress Representative
Moulton, to be coordinated with Bedford Mr Braun will check in with Katherine
Clark's office and Task Force, other ideas are welcome.
Minutes — November 20, 2014:
Ms. Reiss moved to approve the November 20, 2014 minutes as drafted.
Mr. Braun seconded the motion.
No further discussion.
Vote. Approved 3-0-0
Mr. Braun will post the minutes from 11/20 on the website.
Adjourn Ms Reiss moved to adjourn the meeting. Mr. Rosenberg seconded
the motion Vote. Approved 3-0-0. The meeting adjourned at 9:05 p.m