TO: Mayor Collins and Town Council
FROM: Eva Cutro, Community Development Director
Paul Michaud, Senior Planner
DATE: November 17, 2016
CONTACT:
Staff Contact Paul Michaud, 480-348-3574
End
AGENDA TITLE:
Title
Update on Town’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan
Background
BACKGROUND
The Town is in the planning process of preparing its first Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan. The impetus of this plan comes from the resident-initiated 2012 General Plan and Town Council’s Quality of Life Initiatives. The Town Council approved the consultant contract for this plan in June 2016.
The Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan is long-range like the Town’s General Plan, meaning that it will evaluate present and known needs to establish a desired future condition for the Town’s bicycle and pedestrian facilities that makes sense for Paradise Valley and its residents. This Plan will build off the existing goals and polices residents already adopted in the General Plan. It will take the General Plan a few steps further by refining and/or providing any additional goals or polices related to biking and walking, defining the type and location of such facilities, developing design standards, identifying potential projects with associated prioritization criteria and typical costs, and coming up with design guidelines to best address wayfinding and signage.
The planning process has five phases that will run from June 2016 to approximately April 2017. The project is nearing the end of the second phase. The first two phases, Initiate and Analyze, are focused on collecting existing information and understanding issues and opportunities from the perspective of those persons who have an interest in the Town’s bicycle and pedestrian facilities. This existing information covers items such as a site inventory that includes dimensional characteristics of the roadways such facilities are to be located, understanding of what projects are already in planned, local and regional plans related to non-vehicular mobility that may affect this plan, best practices that may better guide this plan, and an analysis of the public engagement that will shape this plan. The Analyze phase is expected to wrap up the middle of November 2016. The update to be given to the Town Council on November 17th will summarize what has been learned to date on existing information and public engagement. An Existing Conditions Report will be available in final form during the Refine Phase.
The third and fourth phases, Define and Refine, will be when the consultant prepares a draft plan based on the information learned from the input given and collected. This phase will include opportunity for feedback on the components in the draft plan via a stakeholder meeting on December 7, 2016 and an open house on December 14, 2016. This input will allow for any necessary edits to ensure the Plan is aligned with the guidance given through the prior public engagement opportunities such as the online opinion survey done in August 2016, the stakeholder meetings held between August 2016 and November 2016, and the two prior Open House events held in September 2016 and October 2016. Interested persons are always welcome to provide input on the project website at <https://planpv.mysidewalk.com> or by contacting Paul Michaud, Senior Planner.
The final Phase, Approve, will provide the Planning Commission and Town Council the opportunity to make any necessary further refinements on the draft Plan or give any necessary direction about the Plan. The tentative schedule is for a recommendation of the Plan by the Planning Commission in February 2017. The schedule includes two possible study sessions by Town Council in March 2017, with tentative action on the Plan in April 2017.
Available documents, including summaries on completed public engagement events, are available at <https://planpv.mysidewalk.com> and <http://www.paradisevalleyaz.gov/555/Bicycle-Pedestrian-Master-Plan>
Attachment: Presentation