The Common Council met 04/03/2024. One of the items that was separated out for an individual vote was the request to approve the Complete Streets Policy documents.
This items was approved by the Municipal Services Committee. During that meeting, the committee discussed the use and meaning of the term “equity” within the documents and how that would be used to prioritize pedestrian crossings within the city. That issue was against discussed at the Common Council meeting before the Council voted 14-0 to approve the police documents.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) agreed overall that the policy was beneficial and should be approved. She did however want to have more information about how “equity” was going to be measured and utilized.
Traffic Engineer Eric Lom explained that the factors that made up “equity” included, “economic opportunity, zero vehicle households, air quality, canopy coverage, heart disease rate, race and ethnicity, poverty level, educational attainment, youth and senior population.” All of these things combined comprised 37.5% of the score generated to determine where to prioritize the installation of new pedestrian crossings.
Alderperson Hartzheim asked how often they would be surveying the city to determine those metrics. Mr. Lom said the policy recommended that the metrics be reviewed every five years.
Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland (District 5) said that Alta (the consulting firm that put together the policy) had information on their website regarding these metrics. “[W]hat made me feel more comfortable is that it’s just combining data from the US Census Center for Disease Control, EPA. It—this is all based on data so it’s not something that is subjective.”
The Council went on to vote 14-0 to approve the policy documents.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1171631&GUID=B24EBD3F-50C1-4017-A9E2-4DA9177FF156
Be the first to reply