Planning and Development Committee - Regular Meeting

Here.

Thank you. Tonight, we do have a presentation for the Pedestrian Safety Action Plan. So I'll turn it over to Mr. Carter.

Good evening. I'm Jeremy Carter. I'm a traffic and development engineer in Public Works.

Can't hear you. Can you? Yep.

Good evening. I'm Jeremy Carter. I'm the Traffic and Development Engineer in Public Works.

Collin Bell, Community Economic Development. I'm the Comprehensive Planning and Design Coordinator.

So we're going to take a few minutes of your time tonight to talk about the Pedestrian Safety Action Plan. The Action Plan came out of a pedestrian safety task force that was formed in July of 2025. Before we get into the history here, I want to note this picture. It's on the cover of the action plan. Kind of shows some of the struggles that we deal with here in the city of Rockford. We have a pedestrian walking on a goat path and a car driving on the wrong side of the road. This is actually North Pierpont. We do have a project that we'll be putting sidewalk in the stretch that is scheduled to begin next year. So in April of 2025, the mayor announced the creation of the Pedestrian Safety Task Force at a Chamber of Commerce event. During his keynote address, he rightfully mentioned that every fatality is preventable. On average, in the city of Rockford, we have 22 traffic fatalities a year, with about six of those being pedestrian fatalities. This is not a problem that is unique to Rockford nationwide. We have seen it an uptick in traffic accidents since 2010 with the peak being hit in 2021 after everyone started driving. After the after COVID. So ultimately, the pedestrian task force was made up of concerned citizens, representatives of local employers, representatives from the school district, the mass tangent district, our metropolitan planning organization, an older person, and city staff, including public works, community and economic development, and police department. The group met nine times between July and December of 2025. We had a very regimented meeting where we initially started looking at the accident data, then went through and determined priorities for locations, then discussed possible solutions, and then ultimately started talking about coming up with SMART goals that are measurable, obtainable.

and then Prioritizing the locations and then moving on to the actual action plan Sure so now we're going to talk about some of the data The information you're looking at on the map here represents all of the crash data that involved a bicycle and or pedestrian from 2015 until 2025

The biggest finding is that crashes are not spread evenly throughout the city.

Serious crashes are concentrated on a relatively small number of major corridors and intersections. We also repeatedly saw wide roadways, long crossings, turning conflicts, driveways, and gaps in the pedestrian network as major contributing factors. This pattern supports a targeted corridor-based approach rather than evenly distributed citywide investments. Taking that a step further, this map shows only those incidents that were either fatal or severe injuries. These are the primary locations where the serious and fatal crashes were most concentrated. These include the 11th Street Corridor, Harrison Ave and South Alpine intersection North Central and Auburn Street corridor and then three locations along East State Street one being at the North Alpine intersection the other Perryville between Perryville and Bell School Road and the last looked at the most of the entirety of downtown Rockford specifically on the east side where there were a concentration of accidents like I said The plan recommends using these areas as the basis for the formal high injury network and prioritizing them in future capital planning. For each of the primary focus areas, the plan includes a corridor risk profile that outlines the crash data, the reoccurring conditions, and the top contributing factors at those locations. So some of the key findings. When we looked at these locations in more detail, the same issues kept showing up. For instance, roadway design influences crash severity, intersections create major conflicts, infrastructure gaps increase exposure, and commercial corridors require more context-sensitive solutions. The plan also makes it clear that engineering alone will not solve these problems. So these key findings provide the foundation for the recommendations, priorities, and our implementation strategies moving forward in the Pedestrian Safety Action Plan. Now looking at some of the goals and objectives frameworks that was developed through the committee, the primary goal of this plan is to reduce pedestrian and bicycle fatalities and serious injuries to zero. The plan supports that through safer priority corridors, safer speeds and crossings, and more connected pedestrian network, improved visibility, better coordination, and ongoing monitoring. Achieving this goal requires a coordinated set of objectives focused on the roadway conditions infrastructure operations and organizational practices that are identified throughout the corridor analysis and The plan recommends addressing physical improvements like crossings, lighting, sidewalks, and speed management, but also focuses on education, enforcement, policy, equity, and monitoring. One of the important recommendations in the plan is to use the crash severity and other factors to consistently prioritize future projects rather than responding to locations one at a time. Each of the 11 recommendations has a page dedicated to providing an overview of that strategy, specific priority locations, and recommended implementation actions. On the right, you can see recommended category number one in more detail. So for each of these 11 categories, there's a specific page dedicated to it.

So ultimately, the pedestrian task force came up with 18 action items that have been spread across the three E's of traffic safety, including engineering, enforcement, and education, and were broken down into short, medium, and long-term goals. Before we turn it over to any questions, I just want to personally kind of talk about this group. I've been part of a lot of citizen groups. And this was an absolute pleasure to be a part of. A lot of times, I have to be the wet blanket. I have to be the person who says no. And that did not happen here. This group came with a lot of innovative ideas. It was a little bit kind of self-regulating. If something was a little too out there, the group kind of pushed back. I didn't have to be the person always saying no or you can't do that. And so it was an absolute pleasure to be part of this group. And I think we've already started. Sorry. We've already started implementing one of the recommendations on Central where we're striping crosswalks this summer. So with that, we'll open it up to questions.

Thank you. Alpine and Harrison, that's part of our rebuild area. I'm assuming that these ideas will be incorporated into that plan?

Yes and a little bit of no. I kind of focused the group away from Alpine and Harrison because it is being handled as part of the state's project, and it's already kind of being addressed. So yes, the philosophies that they had will absolutely be done there, but Alpine and Harrison doesn't specifically show up on the action plan because it's already kind of being addressed with the planning and design that's currently happening.

I'm just wondering why Alpine and Newburgh isn't also, That's where we think of that as the most dangerous intersection.

It's one of the top five accident intersections in the city. So it was, once again, also was not talked about because staff is already working with a consultant on improvements there. So we tended to move towards things that weren't currently in staff's planning. Thank you.

Thank you, so I was a part of this task force I think I probably attended five of the nine meetings couldn't make the last four because it conflicted with another board meeting. However, I do agree. First of all, thank you for your leadership of this, Mr. Carter. And I agree that it was great to work with the residents and get their direct feedback about these particular issues in the community. I guess what I was looking for was there was a lot of very specific asks, like signage and things, and that this perhaps would be attached to a dollar figure. Are we going to get that at some point to know what these costs are actually going to be?

Yes. In the actual action plan, there is a dollar amount to the right of it if you're under the priority action plan. I believe the total is around $2.5 million for all 18 items. There's a lot of no-cost items here that include coordination between the police department and the state's attorney's office, some coordination with UW Health. So there are quite a few things that really cost nothing more than staff time.

So if you've got the full plan in front of you, it's page 44.

I was looking at the PowerPoint. I got it.

Yeah, we didn't include page 44 in the full plan. Yeah, there was some information that we just couldn't get into the PowerPoint, number one for time. And if you look at that page, there's a lot going on on that page.

There really is.

Perfect.

Yeah.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, of course.

Thank you. Are there any other questions or comments? Alderman Bronte.

Could you tell me what you meant when you said that ultimately

excuse me scratch that what's in the education plan see here installs one of the suggestions was install safety awareness signage at the top five high crash intersections in the city another one was provide pedestrian and bicycle safety education in schools That's one that we would have to work with RPS 205 on. Engage a marketing or media firm to develop a public education campaign. And then this is actually one of my favorites. There was a recommendation to establish a Rockford pace car pledge. where we would design a bumper sticker and anyone who took the pledge to not speed with would get a sticker magnet for their car. Saying that yeah, they're setting the pace in the city.

Thank you. You also I thought and I'm sorry if this is someplace that I should have seen it. He talked about the equity You talked about equity. Where should I look for that?

Yeah, so for the equity component, it was more related to the data and analyzing the data in an equitable manner, meaning that we didn't look at the east side and the west side. It's probably where you're going with that, I'm assuming. and make sure that the equity looked at the data. And we let the data tell the story. We wanted the information provided to the committee to encompass the whole city. But then it was the committee chose to look at the high risk corridors. So the equity is mostly referring to the data.

What do you I'm sorry, do I still have a form? You do. Okay, thank you. We say the 11th Street Corridor. Are you meaning something more specific than, because we're working on the 11th Street Corridor. I think we're on phase two. I'm sorry.

So, yes, obviously we've got construction going on to the northern part of the 11th Street corridor. Specifically, there have been, I believe, three fatalities on the portion from Sandy Hollow south, and so we were also talking about that area. It's not currently in the plans, but I know we were talking with IDOT about trying to make improvements there. Thank you.

Are there any other questions or comments? Thank you, gentlemen. We'll go ahead and move into tonight's agenda. We have two items under our committee reports. Item one is an approval for the proposed funding agreement with Living Well Center of Northern Illinois in the amount of $100,000 annually for a period of three years, not to exceed a total amount of $300,000 to support the establishment of a senior center located at 1111 South Alpine Road. The funding source is casino funds. Do I have a motion to approve?

So moved.

Are there any questions or comments? Alderman Granath.

So this is a three-year program, and it's a new nonprofit. Is there a stop gap if, say, they get the first year going and something happens? I'm just concerned with it being a new nonprofit, moving in and giving them an automatic $300,000. But it sounds like it's every year they will get the $100,000.

You are correct. We do have conditions of payment within the development agreement, where before they get the first installment, obviously we need to have a proven and executed agreement, but also the legal existence authority to enter into this agreement, documentation of their federal tax exempt status, evidence of a lease license. Certificates of insurance and documentation reasonably acceptable to the city, showing the non-city funding of $110,000. In addition to what would go along with that, which is not mentioned, but required also evidence related to the not-for-profit. not-for-profit status, which has been created. And then in the second and third year, there'll be reporting that's required to demonstrate how they conducted themselves over the previous year, and then additional documentation of the additional $110,000 matching funds.

Thank you. Are there any other questions or comments? All those in favor, please indicate by stating aye. Aye. Any opposed, same sign. The item passes. Item two is an approval for the proposed amendment and the funding agreement with the Rockford Area Convention and Visitors Bureau for Rockford, extending the term of the agreement from the expiration of 2028 to an expiration of 2034 and the continued lease of 102 North Main Street. This is an extension of the six years from the existing agreement and lease. Do I have a motion to approve? So moved.

Second.

Are there any questions or comments?

see alderman tunberg thank you chairwoman uh within this agreement i it just mentions the extension from 2028 that's original to now extending its 20 2034. i take it this also includes the funding increase from 70 to 75 percent from the hotel motel tax that's not mentioned in here specifically so it is mentioned in the second paragraph of the staff report and you are correct alderman that is a portion of the request okay and what's the what's the reasoning really for the to not wait for the 2028 which was originally voted on and now going in at this time and doing a six-year extension.

So excellent question, and you are correct. We're a little bit ahead of renewing this agreement. We'd generally be looking at renewing it 12 months in advance versus our current time frame. Two reasons. One, we've had a lot of communication with RAVE, certainly the improvement of the development agreement or funding agreement. with RAVE and how it addresses Davis Park. And recognizing there is a gap in regards to the operations of Davis Park, we wanted to augment, in cooperation with the RAVE, the areas which they won't be programming the park. So the increase in funding is to allow for Go Rockford to augment some of the activities down in Davis Park in cooperation with RAVE. In addition to that, we wanted some stability as they work with Rave and go into programming in multiple years, that there's some consistency. And then lastly, understanding that we have talked about a tourism improvement district and the possibility of that approval and that being a five-year term, we did want to demonstrate to the hotel operators our continued support for marketing for tourism within the region.

Thank you.

Alderman Durkee.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have a couple of concerns about this. I did email Mr. Groh and told him that I would be bringing some things up. The extended contract gives me some concern because we'll be facing some budget challenges in the future, and I know we have some outstanding bonds that can be, if Director Haggerty can correct me, That actually could qualify under hotel and motel tax for assistance should our general budget get tight which it's expected to do the The convention go Rockford Right now I believe part of their mission is already to market the city and help with hotel and Occupancy the additional Funding that will come from the hotel association Will also Pay for that so it's almost like they're getting paid twice for the same thing to a degree. They're already involved in marketing they're they're getting now paid again for the marketing and and There may be some overlap. There may be some room for their budget to actually decrease. I think their budget also needs a ceiling. There needs to be some cap and not a percentage of how we fund this. I'm not opposed to Go Rockford. I think they do a great job. I think John Groh does a great job. I'm viewing this in light of budget constraints. Their income as an organization from 2019 to, I think, 2025 has gone up over that time well over 60%. I think in 2019, their total income was somewhere around $2.6 million. And in 2025, it was $4.3 million. So they have a built-in increase. Whenever the hotel rates go up, they get an automatic raise. So their budget has expanded. And I do understand their willingness and their challenge to market Davis Park, which I think is a critical thing for downtown. But I don't know what that cost looks like. Is that three people with three FTEs, three compensation packages? I don't know if that merits. I don't even know what 5% looks like in their income because we're dealing in percentages. We're not dealing in dollars. So this is very, it's like a very nebulous kind of way of looking at this. So while I think Go Rockford is great, I think Mr. Groh has done some fantastic things in Rockford. Given where we are coming up in the future, I think this needs to be re-explored as far as how we are budgeting this. I think there needs to be a finite dollar amount. There needs to be some kind of ceiling to the budget that we can work with Mr. Groh and his staff and figure this out. And I think the term needs to be a little bit shorter. We need to be a little bit more nimble in our upcoming years for our budget. So those are my comments.

Thank you. Alderman Thunberg.

Thanks, Chairwoman. Just for the clarification for the millions of people that watch streaming around the world, there is that distinction between the TID and the 5% request from 70 to 75 for the hotel-motel tax, two different, just a clarification on that. but also to my knowledge as a representative of council on the rave board it really is more of a distinction of responsibilities for Davis Park between the city and rave and go rockford i didn't see anything of course things could possibly change but i didn't see anything that led me to believe there would be needing there would be a needed additional higher hires to do this so to add them into the mix within the responsibilities of davis park it really was again a distinction of responsibilities between the three parties thank you

Thank you. Are there any other questions or comments? Seeing none, all those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, same sign?

No.

OK. Item passes. One item under resolutions, the designation of Sarah Lise Community and Economic Development Director as Certifying Officer for Environmental Reviews submitted to HUD. Do I have a motion to approve?

So moved. Second.

Are there any questions or comments? Seeing none, all those in favor please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, same sign. Item passes. Do I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. Are there any questions or comments? All those in favor please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, same sign. This meeting is adjourned.