2002-08-12 Regular Meeting, Public Hearing and Workshop Meeting

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'- e e La Porte Police Department 915 So 8th Street La Porte, Texas 77571 281-471-3810 Fax: 281-470-1590 Richard E. Reff Chief of Police Robert T. Herrera City Manager To: From: Date: R.T. Herrera, City Manager R.E. Reff, Police Chief 06/03/02 Subject: Lane Use Restriction for Trucks on Portions of SH 225 This is a review of our actions to request lane restrictions for trucks on SH 225 from the City limits to the Sens Road overpass. On April 1, 2001 a meeting of the Chiefs, Chief Corrales attended in my absence, from Houston, Deer Park, Pasadena, and TXDOT was held to discuss this particular issue. At that time Sally Wegmann stated that they would need a letter from the Mayor stating they would like the lane restriction program to expand to SH 225. Every agency would have to request this restriction for TXDOT to consider this. In addition to the letter, they requested a copy of a proposed ordinance from the City that would be presented to the respective City Councils after a Public Hearing had been held. TXDOT provided the wording and proposed format for that ordinance. At this same meeting it was discussed that perhaps a joint Public Hearing could be held to meet the Public Hearing requirements. Pasadena offered to host that meeting when we reached that point. As we discussed earlier a letter was drafted for Mayor Malone to sign and the proposed ordinance drawn up based on their "model" regarding lane restrictions on SH 225 between the City limits of La Porte on the west and the Sens Road overpass on the east. The restriction would have to end at Sens Road to allow trucks to change lanes to take Hwy 146 north. In addition this lane restriction only applies to peak traffic hours, between 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m., and on work days (defmed as Monday through Friday, except City Holidays). A copy is attached. These documents were requested immediately and were forwarded to TXDOT on April 9, 2001. The next step was to await TXDOT to receive all of this information from each of the Cities involved, for them to review them and then have the Public Hearing. I have been waiting to hear from TXDOT as to when we could proceed with the Public Hearing process. Steve Gillet was forwarded a letter to Mayor Riddle regarding this issue dated 04/30/02. Steve contacted me and provided me a copy of the letter. I called Sally Wegmann to determine what the current status was regarding the lane restriction process. Mrs Wegmann advised that Baytown was holding up the process pending their election. She did advise that the TXDOT Attorneys have told her that each City involved must conduct their own Public Hearing then TXDOT would hold a multi-entity Public Hearing. After that joint hearing they would then approve/disapprove the lane restriction request. If approved then the respective City Councils would then pass the proposed ordinance.