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Item 7A - Chautauqua Access Managment PlanC I T Y O F B O U L D E R LANDMARKS BOARD STAFF BRIEFING MEETING DATE: June 1, 2016 AGENDA TITLE: Staff Briefing and Landmarks Board input regarding the Chautauqua Access Management Plan (CAMP) 2016 work program PRESENTER/S: Molly Winter, Executive Director, Community Vitality Susan Connelly, Deputy Director, Community Vitality Bill Cowern, Transportation Operations Engineer Deryn Wagner, Environmental Planner, Open Space and Mountain Parks Jeff Haley, Parks Planning Manager, Parks and Recreation Lisa Smith, Communications Specialist, Community Vitality Amanda Nagl, Neighborhood Liaison, City Manager’s Office EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The purpose of this briefing is to provide to the Landmarks Board materials associated with the 2016 work program for the development of the Chautauqua Access Management Plan (CAMP). The development of the CAMP is a process involving city staff from multiple departments, including the Transportation Division of Public Works, Community Vitality, Open Space and Mountain Parks, Parks and Recreation and the City Manager’s Office. The CAMP will explore ways to manage existing demand for transportation access (including parking) to and from the Chautauqua area in ways that minimize vehicular and parking impacts to surrounding neighbors, visitors and the area’s natural and cultural resources. The CAMP will not be exploring resource management or visitor use of OSMP land in the Chautauqua area. At this early stage in the CAMP development project, city staff are interested in gathering feedback from the public, city boards, and city council on the proposed planning process, including the scope of work, schedule, and community engagement. City Council will be receiving an information item concerning this topic in its June 7th packet. Input from the boards and commissions listed below will be provided in that memorandum. Landmarks Board input will be communicated separately due to the date of the Landmarks Board meeting and the date the IP will be finalized and sent to council. Background The City of Boulder enjoys a now-118-year-old public-private partnership with the nonprofit Colorado Chautauqua Association (“CCA”) for shared stewardship of the Colorado Chautauqua. The city owns the 40-underlying acres, three historic buildings and a new building, and leases approximately 26 acres and those four buildings to CCA. The city’s Parks and Recreation Department operates a city park on the north lawn known as the Chautauqua Green. In addition to leasing the land and four buildings from the city, CCA also owns 67 historic buildings, including 60 cottages. Year-round, CCA offers lodging, programming, rental of historic venues and a full-service restaurant. Private individuals own 39 historic cottages, most of which are used seasonally (typically summer) but some of which are year-round owner-occupied residences. Chautauqua was designated a Boulder Landmark District in 1979 and a National Historic Landmark in 2006. Physically, Chautauqua is surrounded on two sides by city open space that is not part of the historic district. The Chautauqua Trailhead is one of the most popular trailheads in the region. The Chautauqua Ranger Cottage, located within the historic district adjacent to that trailhead, is staffed by Open Space and Mountain Parks and provides information services to local and visiting hikers. The historic district abuts single-family residential neighborhoods to its north across Baseline and to the east. This brief description illustrates the number and variety of interests and uses/users associated with “greater Chautauqua.” The previous lease between the city and CCA (dated 1998, amended 2002) recognized the negative impacts of parking demand exceeding supply and the unique conditions within the historic Chautauqua. The 1998 lease authorized CCA to take a variety of actions to limit access and parking under certain circumstances and anticipated that the city would designate a residential permit parking or similar program within the historic district to address the negative impacts on the Chautauqua operations and environment. Many of these approaches were deemed infeasible to implement. Actions that were taken over the years included:  CCA and the city, in collaboration with the Colorado Music Festival, in 2003 initiated free off-site parking and free shuttle service on event nights at the Chautauqua Auditorium to mitigate traffic impacts within the historic district and in the surrounding residential neighborhoods to the north and east. This free service has continued yearly since inception and will continue in summer 2016. The city issues a special event permit annually to permit temporary street closures and limited access on these event evenings.  RTD discontinued the 210 bus route that stopped just east of 9th Street on Baseline, leaving the closest transit stops at 9th and College and Broadway south of Baseline.  The city funded a pilot Hop 2 Chautauqua daytime bus during the summer 2008 but ridership was low and the service was discontinued.  In 2011 the city and the CCA partnered to evaluate parking and access issues in the leasehold area. As a part of this project, the partnership collected parking utilization and parking duration data on all available parking within the leasehold area and in the neighborhood to the north of Chautauqua on three separate days. The results of that data collection showed some areas of high parking utilization within the leasehold area, but very few areas of high parking utilization in the neighborhood north of Chautauqua. Using the data and analyses from this study, a series of pilot programs for the CCA leasehold area was advanced by staff for city council’s consideration but none of these pilots were adopted for implementation. Council members’ concerns at that time included the concept of restricting parking on streets near open space and park property. Following the Council meeting in spring 2012 it was jointly determined that access and parking management at Chautauqua should be addressed through the upcoming lease renegotiation rather than through a pilot program. In late 2012, the city and CCA adopted Collaborative Stewardship of the Colorado Chautauqua: Guiding Principles for Place Management and Fiscal Sustainability (hereinafter “the Guiding Principles”) as a shared statement about the nature of the Colorado Chautauqua and the manner in which its primary stewards, the city and CCA, intend to collaborate in the planning and management of Chautauqua’s future. The Collaborative Stewardship Guiding Principles are summarized as follows: 1. A Public Place 2. A Historic Landmark 3. A Historic Mission 4. A Balanced Approach 5. Collaborative Place Management 6. A Cautious Approach to Change 7. Shared Financial Responsibility The city and CCA entered into a new lease effective Jan. 1, 2016 (“the Lease”). The “Access and Parking Management” section of the Lease acknowledges the need for a tailored access management strategy to balance the access of the variety of users and modes while also maintaining the natural, built and historic environments. The Lease reiterates the recognition that during peak periods, parking demand for all uses within and around Chautauqua far exceeds supply, and acknowledges that the movement of vehicles looking for parking presents safety issues and degrades the visitor experience. The lease contains the commitment of the city and CCA to develop a Chautauqua Access management Plan (“CAMP”) within the first year of the new lease according to the CAMP Governing Principles:  Chautauqua is a unique shared resource requiring unique solutions.  Chautauqua is a National Historic Landmark.  The needs of all stakeholders, including the Association, cottage owners, park users, open space users and neighbors should be considered.  A mix of uses must be accommodated.  Pedestrians must be given priority on the narrow streets without sidewalks.  Traffic circulation should be minimized in the interests of pedestrian safety and user experience.  Parking demand is seasonal and solutions need not address time periods during which access is readily available.  During peak periods, the parking needs of users in the historic core should be prioritized, but not exclusive.  A seasonal transportation demand management (TDM) plan for employees should be implemented.  The right of public access should not be restricted except for good cause, with such restrictions minimized as appropriate.  The interests of the surrounding neighbors should be addressed.  Any plan should be flexible to address changing circumstances.  Access management should be consistent with the Guiding Principles for Place Management and Fiscal Sustainability.  Consistent with the city’s climate commitment and sustainability and resilience goals, any plan should support public transit, alternative modes of transportation, a reduction in vehicle miles traveled and a reduction in visits in single-occupant vehicles. In 2015 resident-owners in the neighborhood north of Baseline adjacent to the Chautauqua historic district and Chautauqua Meadow open space (“Sustainable Chautauqua”) approached the city with parking-related issues including: parking too close to or in front of driveways, stop signs, and hydrants; litter and dog waste; speeding and u-turns; general disrespect and noise; overuse of resource/environmental impacts; and lack of parking enforcement. Some improvements have been implemented already, including placement of trash receptacles and enhanced parking enforcement in the area. Temporary pavement markings have been installed to help delineate where parking is legal. It is anticipated that the Chautauqua-area activity-related issues will be addressed during the CAMP process. At a study session on Feb. 9, 2016, staff sought council feedback on the process for development of the CAMP. One option identified was to move forward with developing a CAMP for implementation in the summer of 2016 utilizing parking utilization and duration data from 2011 that may be different today because of increased visitation to Chautauqua. This approach would have the advantage of providing mitigation this summer but would have the disadvantage of being based on data that may be out of date1 and may be questionable to use as baseline data for future comparison. Another option would be to collect new data in summer 2016 to use to develop the CAMP for implementation and monitoring in summer 2017, thus delaying mitigation until 2017. Council members supported staff’s recommendation to pursue the second option – to collect new data this summer, followed by the development of a CAMP for implementation in 2017. After discussions with the City Council at the February 9, 2016 study session, city staff identified the following actions to incorporate into the 2016 work plan for development of the CAMP:  Develop a data collection/evaluation plan and a public process plan for Council’s review prior to this summer  Gather data including parking utilization and duration and an updated user intercept survey this summer  Work with OSMP to coordinate data collection and outreach and to understand data and system-wide options  Explore transit options and other ideas for Baseline as part of CAMP development. 1 The 2011 parking utilization and duration data and corresponding analyses could form the foundation of the development of the 2016 CAMP, but recent data from an Open Space and Mountain Parks Chautauqua Study Area Visitation Monitoring Report (2015) suggest that visitation to Chautauqua has increased substantially since 2005. Whether this increase occurred since the 2011 data collection is unclear. The substantial increase in visitation over time suggests that parking utilization within the leasehold and in the surrounding neighborhood potentially could be higher than previously studied, thus suggesting the necessity of data collection and evaluation of current conditions.  Operating Assumptions for the Development of the CAMP As discussed at the Feb. 9, 2016 City Council study session, options for the development of the CAMP may include consideration of:  Some degree of managed parking within the Chautauqua leasehold area and possibly in the surrounding neighborhood as well. This could include parking restrictions similar to those provided by the Neighborhood Parking Permit Program.  Some degree of paid parking, possibly in the Ranger Cottage lot, on the loop surrounding the park and/or on Baseline Road.  Enhancements to other modes of transportation including but not limited to restoration of transit service to the Chautauqua area. Relevant guidance for this plan includes the city’s Access Management and Parking Strategy (AMPS) guiding principles:  Provide for all transportation modes  Support a diversity of people  Customize tools by area  Seek solutions with co-benefits  Plan for the present and the future  Cultivate partnerships RECOMMENDATIONS: Proposed CAMP Process - Subject to modification based on feedback received from the community, CCA and the city boards and commissions, and city council, the project team anticipates the following project steps: 1. Initial Community Engagement including Check-ins with boards and commissions, CCA and council – late April to early June 2016 (see detailed schedule below) 2. Data Collection – Summer 2016 3. Evaluation of Data, Initial Formulation of Menu of Possible Approaches/Pilots for summer 2017 and Consultation with Potential Community Working Group – Fall 2016 4. Formulation of Recommended Approaches/Pilots – Winter 2016-2017 5. Consultation with Boards and Commissions, presentation to City Council – Q2 2017 6. Preparation for implementation of pilot project – Q2 2017 7. Implementation of pilot project – Summer 2017 8. Finalization of plan – Fall/Winter 2017 Data collection efforts in summer 2016 may include:  User intercept survey to understand more about the people arriving at Chautauqua, why they are there and where they are coming from (funds being requested)  New parking utilization and duration data to be collected within the CCA leasehold and in the neighborhood to the north and east of the leasehold  Speed and volume data to be collected on key roadways within the leasehold and in the surrounding neighborhood  Coordination with OSMP on a system-wide visitor survey to understand current visitor use and demographics at Chautauqua A map showing the proposed boundary of the parking utilization and duration data collection and speed and volume data collection is provided as Attachment A. The CAMP Community Engagement Process - To gain feedback on the many perspectives on Chautauqua from the variety of users and stakeholders, the project team will pursue some combination of the following communication tools to foster ongoing outreach and engagement throughout the project:  Email newsletters through the city and the Colorado Chautauqua Association  Press releases  Direct mail postcards  Social media, including Facebook, Twitter and Nextdoor  Flyers around town  Signs around Chautauqua (e.g., at trailheads)  Online and/or intercept surveys  A community working group to offer periodic feedback  Presentations to city boards and city council To date, the project team has received input from approximately 50 community members who attended the CAMP Community Open House on April 28th as well as from the Colorado Chautauqua Association (CCA) board of directors, the Open Space Board of Trustees (OSBT) and the Transportation Advisory Board (TAB).  Community Open House input centered on limited parking availability, parking limits and/or permits, pedestrian safety, interest in pedestrian and cycling data collection, support for transit and also concerns about neighborhood impacts and best practices; and interest in a community working group.  CCA board input included interest in the community working group and in the scope of the data collection.  OSBT input included recommendations to proactively reach out to occasional users and not just those with ownership interests, to use the CCA and Colorado Music Festival e-mail lists and the Camera for outreach, and to have meetings both in and outside Chautauqua to try and attract a range of attendees (e.g., meetings for the North Trail Study Area Plan were held at various locations around the city). Questions raised were whether the project schedule is too ambitious and what impact the new sidewalk on Baseline might have.  TAB input included concerns re: safety at the main Chautauqua entrance, whether a Park’n’Ride would be considered, whether the study area could be extended to include Gregory Canyon, and comments that paid parking can help make parking more accessible and that the proposed communications plan looks good. Upcoming Meetings The project team will continue to seek feedback on the project schedule and work plan during the following meetings: May 23 Parks and Recreation Advisory Board June 1 Landmarks Board June 7 Information Packet [memo] to City Council Questions for the Board: 1. Do you have any questions about or feedback on the project schedule or scope of work? 2. What feedback do you have on the possible community outreach and engagement approaches? 3. Is there anything else you would like to share at this point in the process? ATTACHMENTS A. Map of proposed 2016 Summer data collection area