Getting around town
City council poised to OK transportation plan
BY PHIL REYNOLDS SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

Careful bikers STAFF PHOTO BY PHIL REYNOLDS The Streiber family of Austin - from left, Amelia, Hannah (8), Bill and William (5) - thread their way along the shoulder of Ross Avenue on their way to the swimming pool at Port Aransas Community Park. The street, the only access to the park, has no bicycle or pedestrian lanes, things that would be added all over town as part of the city's proposed transportation plan.

City council members are due to launch what may be their most ambitious undertaking since the city's land use plan when they meet tonight, Thursday, July 17.

At hand on the agenda is the third and final reading of the city's transportation section of the comprehensive plan, the document that outlines where residents want and expect Port Aransas to go in the next 10-15 years.

While a transportation plan is nothing new for Port Aransas - one was adopted in 2005 - this plan is more far-reaching than the earlier plan. It's also the first time Port Aransas will have incorporated pedestrians and bicyclists into its street planning.

Pointed out in the document city council members got in May, when they were asked to pass the ordinance on first reading, is that Port Aransas' streets aren't getting any better. The city will have to both expand and repair existing streets and will have to build some new streets merely to keep up with the city's expansion.

"Like many destination tourist cities of similar size (that also are experiencing sprawl away from the core business centers), Port Aransas' present transportation system is dominated by the automobile," the proposed plan points out. "While the city has a relatively well-developed interior roadway network, we are limited in the number of routes that provide access into the city and traffic congestion, at certain times of the year, can be a quality of life isenvironmental sue for some residents. With current development trends, coupled with the fact that the majority of our streets are aged and failing, the city is moving be funded by the tax payer."

Although a recently-approved roadway impact fee on developers and builders will help carry some of the load, that fee by law must be used for designated thoroughfares. In this case, those thoroughfares are State Hwy. 361 between Avenue G and Beach Access Road 1A, South 11th Street and a proposed new beach access road south of Beach Access Road 1.

The proposal blames poor maintenance over the past few years as a major reason for the number of streets that need repair, and it calls for a maintenance program ranging from fixing simple potholes to reconstructing complete road failures.

While it's identifying the streets that need repair, the city staff wants to start an inventory of streets to keep the overall system from getting into the same shape in the future. This will allow the city to choose funding sources for each year's street projects that will have to be done to meet the schedule of maintenance and repair.

The plan calls for a network of multi-purpose concrete pedestrian and bicycle paths but stops short of pinpointing where those paths should go. It does, however, point to park dedication fees, transportation grants, capital improvement programs (inclusion in bond projects) and safe routes to schools grants as possible funding sources for the pathways.

"A lot of people who come here ride bicycles, and it's not just in the summer any more," said Charles Ray, who owns an RV park on South 11th Street. "Some of our main arteries aren't conducive to bicycles."

Ray says there are ways the city could encourage bicycling, even to the point of hosting bicycle rallies.

"A lot of us are (World War II) babies, getting up there in years, and we still bicycle," he said.

Calling parking a "major concern" in Port Aransas, the plan asks the city council to take a look at parking standards to be sure they're consistent with smart growth concepts and to specify minimum parking requirements based on land use (the city's parking regulations don't currently take land use into consideration).

The city should also investigate shared parking - two or more businesses using the same parking lot, perhaps at different times of day - and off-site parking to minimize the amount of land needed for parking. Perhaps vacant properties could be leased to provide temporary parking lots, the proposal suggests.

At Mustang Beach Airport, the city will identify a list of priority projects and work with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Aviation Department to get them included on the state's funding list. One such project is to pave an area for transient aircraft parking; the bid was let on that contract last month.

Though the ferries aren't city facilities, they're a critical component of the transportation network and the city is involved in many of its issues. Though the concept of priority boarding lanes has been dropped by TxDOT, the city wants to pursue the stacking lane area that was outlined as part of that proposal - it would add the grassy area between the current stacking lanes and Port Street. (Even more stacking area could be added if the TxDOT offices and maintenance buildings were moved to the Harbor Island side, and the city is pursuing that.) The city wants to collaborate with Tx- DOT in hiring a third-party specialist to do a long-term, comprehensive study of the ferry operation, including:

• Shrinking TxDOT funds

• Shrinking traffic counts

• Impacts of the rebuilt JFK Causeway

• The possibility of an RMA

• Park and Ride expansion

• Efficiency of stacking and loading/ unloading operations

• Is a new ferry landing needed - and if so, where?