Loading...
03-26-12 Joint Richfield-Bloomington Worksession CITY COUNCIL MINUTES Bloomington, Minnesota gecAit'eed Special Joint Richfield - Bloomington City Council Worksession March 26, 2012 See attached minutes prepared by the City of Bloomington. Date Approved: May 8, 2012 1110. ..1 _ FL, t Cheryl KrGmholt eve . De `ch Executive Coordinator City Manager CITY OF City Council Meeting BLOOMINGTON APPROVED MINUTES MINNESOTA Joint Bloomington-Richfield City Council Meeting#19 Monday, March 26,2012, 6:27 p.m. Bloomington Civic Plaza 1800 West Old Shakopee Road Bloomington, Minnesota 55431-3027 Call to Order Mayor Gene Winstead called the Bloomington City Council to order at 6:27 p.m. Mayor Debbie Goettel called the Richfield City Council to order at 6:27 p.m. Roll Call Bloomington Council Present: Mayor Winstead,Councilmembers J.Baloga,T.Busse, T.Hulling,S.Peterson,and V.Wilcox. Bloomington Council Absent: Councilmember K.Nordstrom. Richfield Council Present: Mayor Debbie Goettel,Councilmembers P.Elliott,T.Fitzhenry, and S.Sandahl Richfield Council Absent: F.Wroge. l-35W/494 Interchange Karl Keel,City of Bloomington,Public Works Director: I 35W/494 Interchange Project is gaining a little momentum. How should we be involved and how might we organize ourselves to advocate with this project. • Traffic Volumes: 2020 projection twice the volumes compared to initial construction. • Heavy congestion. • High crash rates • Peak hour congestion map: One of the most congested in metro area • Regional transit plan map: Key intersection • Significant employment corridor: Area serves a great deal of jobs. • Penn American District: Higher density area and transit area • Most promising alternate and the most promising is the turbine design. Drive around the outside of the interchange to reduce the necessary bridges. $237 million cost and could be built in phases. • Phase 1—Roadway: $26 million BRT Station in vicinity of American Boulevard: $52 million Phase 1—total: $78 million. • Next steps: Where do we find the money. Not programmed in Mn/DOT yet. There is a proposal could hire a consultant to do the environmental work. • Project Development/Programming • Funding: looking at gas tax to do the heavy lifting. We need to influence a number of people • Advocates: Major players would be City of Richfield and City of Bloomington. City of Edina and Eden Prairie it's important to them. Major choke point in the south metro. Winstead: Should Dakota County be included as a partner also? Counties are a major player. Do we need to add them? Mike Eastling,Public Works Director,City of Richfield: Counties would be a major player and should be added. Eastling: Questions/discussion: How involved should we be? Keel: 169/494 was a rather informal group of staff and elected officials;met regularly to pressure Mn/DOT to find out what progress was being made. Winstead: We stayed in their face. Mn/DOT staff came on board due to the relentless pressure. Keel: It wasn't an extremely organized effort but it turned out to be very effective. Page 1 of 4 March 26,2012 CITY OF BLOOMINGTON,MINNESOTA APPROVED MINUTES Easting: In addition to staff and City Council help,we could get some professional help in the way of a lobbyist,engineering advocacy. How should we organize ourselves? How strident do the City Council's want to be on this issue. Keel: We all feel this is an important project to spend staff time and resources. Does City Council agree? Winstead: Are we all on board with this? Bloomington, yes it's important. Goettel:Agreed. Sandahl: This is top-rated issue for I35W Solutions and 494 Corridor Commission. Winstead: Let's dissect what worked and what didn't on 169/494. He remembers meeting with Congressional Delegations in Washington,D.C. Finally things started to go. It helped when the Mn/DOT came on board and there was a new commissioner who listened. Bernhardson: Where are we at with I35/494 and Mn/DOT compared to 169/494 Project? Keel: We're not as far with the project development as we were with 169/494. Development is not as far along with this one. Bernhardson: Where are we at with Mn/DOT on this one compared to 169/494? Keel: They see the need just as much or more but reality is that they have to be told it's a priority to fund. Steve Elkins,Metropolitan Council Member,District 5: Mn/Dot does not see it in their 10 or 20 year plan. He doesn't think this will get financed within the next decade. Make sure we're positioning ourselves to compete well in the Federal Grants(TIGER for interchange itself)or Small Starts Program. Keel: When 169/494 worked through staff levels,it couldn't find funding through political side until it was demanded. Elkins: Mn/DOT's been chipping away at 169/494 and the 62 Crosstown funding. This is very important to the region. Winstead: How up to speed are they that there is an alternative that is under$100 million reasonable cost? Keel: They're very much aware of this. They finished the contract on that redesign. From an engineering standpoint,there is buy-in. Bernhardson: How much assistance do you see in getting I35W and 494 to come together. Do we need to establish another formal I35/494 group? Keel: Both groups are able to muster some political support but they're not able to set up a Public Relations campaign. Easting: Should have separate commission for this purpose? Sandahl: I35W and 494 commissions don't have the same membership,so there is need for a separate group for this project. Bernhardson: We establish a formal steering committee,City of Bloomington,City of Richfield and others and coordinate with I35W and 494 Commissions and those who participate put forth some staff resources,including Edina,Hennepin County,Dakota County,Eden Prairie,MAC,and City of Burnsville,let's say$10,000 per entity. Winstead: Everyone wants to join for$100,but less will want to join for$10,000. Bernhardson: Maybe less of a fee for those cities further away. Or should we continue with a coordinated staff effort? S.Peterson: It will cost some money to put together,for materials. The$10,000 is not a big number. Winstead: He sees some proportionality. Bloomington as the biggest player and then Richfield. Goettel: At what point did we bring in the other help with the 169/494 and to what extent? We Page 2 of 4 March 26,2012 CITY OF BLOOMINGTON,MINNESOTA APPROVED MINUTES need to use our dollars wisely. Keel: There was no professional help hired. It was all done by staff. Sometimes a little disjointed. It was accomplished. There was not a coordinated professionally led group. Winstead: We could advance quicker if,we had professional assistance Busse: There isn't a large constituency that would oppose this. We would get a lot of people to support this. A lot of this is orchestration in getting everyone on the same page and heading in the same direction. It's a matter of moving forward. Elkins: We've got two of the best lobbyists locked up on this working hard. We've been lacking in resources to put together promotional materials. Bernhardson: We could get some help in putting together the promotional materials. Focus whatever money we get on those efforts. Keel: These are people hired by consulting engineers. They do a good job of helping. Eastling: Take the information Keel presented and put it in a one-page document that would catch Mn/DOT's eye. Winstead: How much is that kind of effort going to cost? What do we need to raise as a group? Keel: We could have some significant help in the range of$50,000 one-time for a 2-year effort. Eatling: Agrees Wilcox: MAC should be a heavy player in this also. Keel: Staff has not had any conversation with MAC. Sandahl: Have your first organizational meeting to see what is the needed. We need to pull in all these players to sell it to them and then to the Legislature. Winstead: He remembers when this was important to Eagan years ago. Goettel: Burnsville should be involved. Bernhardson: Staff will get the groups together to see who wants to be on board. Winstead:On another issue,roundabouts? What do people think? Eastling: No serious accident until a motorcycle went through the middle. It was the first accident. It's been a wild success. There are no backups yet. Capacity and safety it's doing very well. Pedestrian traffic issue is real. Key is to get the traffic down to a slow enough speed to get the pedestrians eyeball with the drivers. They had cameras that watched the roundabout. There is still some work to do with pedestrians. It's manageable. From a technical basis,it's working great. Goettel: The roundabout on Cedar is more manageable,it is single lane. Sometimes people go left on the Portland roundabout. Sandahl: She doesn't hear any more complaints. Residents have accepted it. It didn't take that long to garner their support. Fitzhenry: Both are in his district. At first people really hated them,especially the seniors. The City did training with the seniors using golfcarts. They operate very efficiently. Sandahl: Municipal Liquor Store on 66th&Cedar roundabout made it easy for access. Winstead: If we ever go forward,look at Richfield. Sandahl: She was on the committee that studied it. There was a citizen group that initiated it. It was cheaper. Cost wise less land and not paying for lights. Eastling: Had it been a staff initiative only,it wouldn't have happened. Elkins: What is accident ratio 90th&Nicollet? Shelly P: They've gone down significantly. The improvements at that intersection have improved the accidents. Winstead: Nicollet intersection will need to be looked at when 494 closes off that exit. Page 3 of 4 March 26,2012 CITY OF BLOOMINGTON,MINNESOTA APPROVED MINUTES Elkins: He's on the Hennepin County Complete Streets task force group. As County roads come up for resurfacing,the County might convert some of their roads to a"road diet"appropriately. It might make sense to revisit the Alternate Transportation Plan to include some county roads now. Adjournment Mayor Winstead adjourned the joint meeting at 7:10 p.m. Mayor Goettel adjourned the joint meeting at 7:10 p.m. Barbara Clawson Council Secretary Minutes completed by: Debbie Smith City Manager's Office Page 4 of 4 March 26,2012