The Public Works Committee of the City of Winston-Salem met on Tuesday, December 10, 2024, at 2:00 PM. Chair Barbara Hanes Burke presided, with Vice Chair Scott Andree-Bowen and Councilmembers Robert Clark and James Taylor Jr. present. Councilmember Annette Scippio also attended. The committee considered a consent agenda of four items and four general agenda items, including street closures, transit service changes, a railroad crossing project, and a new transit technology platform. All votes were unanimous (4-0) except for the action on the Frampton Street closure, which was held in committee for further study.
Good afternoon. I'd like to call to order the December meeting of the Public Works Committee. I am Public Works Chair, Barbara Burke. And committee members joining me today are Vice Chair Scott Einstreet Bowen, Councilmember Robert Clark, and Councilmember James Taylor. Our agenda is made up of two parts the consent agenda and the general agenda. It is the practice of the committee to act on the consent consent agenda with one motion. So before entertaining a motion on the consent agenda, committee members, are there any agenda items you would like to have pulled? There are no items. Madam Chair, I move for approval of the consent agenda. Second. Thank you. We've had a motion. It's been uh moved by a motion by councilmember Taylor, seconded by councilmember Clark. We're ready for a vote. All in favor, let us know by thumbs up. I'll vote on the thing. I'm the only one doing it. I'll vote. Hey. City Clerk, would you please read agenda item G1? Item G1 request for a public hearing on a petition to close and abandon Frampton Street and notice to all persons interested in the closing thereof. Located in the north northeast ward. Thank you. Mr. King, would you please uh tee this item up for us? Thank you, Madam Chair. Um I'll offer a brief summary on this and a little bit of kind of um process standpoint. So so when we do um street closure, so what is before you today is really the action to set the public hearing date. It's not necessarily to debate the merits of the case itself, but to set the public hearing date. So when you when you vote here in a few minutes, that is the action you'll be taking. Um I do want to point out, usually when we bring a U street closing request, they're fairly straightforward and non-controversial. Um in staff's review of this request, there were some issues identified, and I at least want to get those on the table to make the committee aware of those. Um so to get you oriented, Jamie's pulled up kind of the larger area in question here. Um you can see basically Highway 52 there to the east, Akron Drive to the south, Patterson Avenue to the west, and basically the island of land that it creates with Leo Street, Sheraton Street, Frampton, Mildred, etc. Um, you can see Frampton Street there running east-west where the red marker is located, and that is a section of street that is requested to be closed. Staff wants to make sure that the committee is aware when you look at that larger island of land in there at a holistically east-west connections are limited. There's obviously no east connections, eastern connections across Highway 52, and connections back out to Patterson are basically restricted to Frampton and Sheraton. So while you see Winnipeg Street at the top of the screen, Mildred Street Auto Service in there, those streets do not connect to Patterson. So the request before you to close that section of Frampton Street would force all of the traffic in this greater area back down Leo Street to the intersection of Leo and Sheraton and ultimately back out to that lower intersection with Sheraton and Patterson. Staff has concerns about losing an access point in here and the connectivity issues that creates. So those are concerns that were raised by both planning staff and DOT staff. And at your February 3rd public hearing on there, so there's an opportunity to debate those merits and go into further conversations. But we at least wanted to get those issues on the table with the committee today. Okay. And um, as Ms. Thank you, Mr. King. As Mr. King stated, this is um an item that will go to public hearing. Are there any questions from committee members or others uh regarding this item?