To all,
Since the bike board is part of the Morgantown Traffic Commission and a city entity I think it would be a conflict of interest to write a letter of recommendation for a private party appearing before another city board. I'm sure Lisa Mardis didn't approach the parking commission to get a letter of recommendation based on the number of parking spaces they propose to provide.
Chip
---- Original Message ----
From: "Frank Gmeindl" <fgmeindl@gmail.com>
Sent: 5/8/2014 8:41:23 PM
To: "Derek Springston" <dspringston@gmail.com>
Cc: "Bike Board - Morgantown" <bikeboard@bikemorgantown.com>
Subject: Re: [Bikeboard] VFW Support Letter - Please review and Comment ASAP.
Derek,
You are correct, Morgantown Ordinance 1349.08 PARKING AND LOADING STANDARDS. C. Bicycle Storage,
http://www.conwaygreene.com/Morgantown/lpext.dll?f=templates&fn=main-hit-h.htm&2.0 requires One (1) indoor, secured, sheltered bicycle storage space per dwelling unit. I don't know what the BB was thinking when we wrote this but I'm guessing we were thinking a dwelling unit had 2 beds rather than 4. Anyway, providing 101 bicycle parking spaces for 368 residents doesn't excite me enough to personally make any effort to support this project.
While your write up is very thorough, I don't think the BB has standing to discuss more than the bicycling-relevant aspects of building projects. I understand that the building is 11 stories and that Morgantown Fire Department is not equipped to reach the top floor(s). There was an article in the Dominion Post recently that stated the number of square feet the building will provide and the number of residents it would house. I did a computation on a napkin and got 70 square feet/resident. I think these are problems.
If we're going to write a letter, I think it should be limited to supporting adequate secure bicycle parking. FYI, after Chip and I spent many hours working with Chris Fletcher to define recommendations for secure bicycle parking at Beechview Plaza that ended up being a key card access cage containing inverted U-racks that Chris told us the developer agreed to install now, all I see is a single wavy rack stuck in the corner of the second car parking level. Nevertheless, I personally think Beechview Plaza is an excellent project, much better thought out than what I see from the pdf you provided but yet, I'm glad my name isn't on a letter of support for Beechview Plaza.
What does the Bicycle Board think?
Frank
On May 8, 2014, at 4:11 PM, Derek Springston wrote:
Frank,
Ok. Thanks for letting me know. Well, the Zoning Code states that there is to be one parking space per unit. There are 92 units, so unless I'm missing something, it looks like they're provided more than they are required. I also heard other concerns about the project, but wanted to provide the BB with the reasons why it would be supported and to gather whether the issues were serious enough to not support it. We'll see what others say. I can see both sides of the coin, and will wait to see if there is enough consensus to support as a Bike Board.
Thanks for the reply.
~Derek