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City Council Minutes 06-9-2008 SpecialSpecial Council Minutes: 6/9/08 MINUTES SPECIAL MEETING - MONTICELLO CITY COUNCIL TRANSPORTATION PLAN WORKSHOP Monday June 9, 2008 - 5 p.m. Members Present: Clint Herbst, Wayne Mayer, Tom Perrault, Brian Stumpf and Susie Woj chouski Members Absent: None Others Present: Planning Commission 1. Call to Order. The special meeting was called to order at 5 p.m. The purpose of the workshop meeting was to review the City's Transportation Plan. 2. Presentation on Transportation Plan. Chuck Rickart from WSB & Associates, Inc. headed the presentation on the Transportation Plan. One area of focus was the TH 25 corridor and how to get local traffic off the roadway. Commuters are the primary users of TH 25. The study would look at the impact of a river crossing and identify possible locations. Brian Stumpf asked if MnDOT was involved in the planning at this stage or is holding the workshop the first step in getting MnDOT involved. Bret Weiss said MnDOT will not look at putting up any funding for river crossings. Bret Weiss felt the cities of Monticello and Big Lake and Wright and Sherburne counties will have to get together to obtain a crossing and work together on pursuing federal monies to fund the crossing. Chuck Rickart said the Transportation Plan looks at TH 25 from Chelsea Road to the river crossing with the focus being on the portion from the I-94 ramp to River Street. The engineers want to see CSAH 18 finished and those traffic patterns established so its full impact on TH 25 will be better known. Chuck Rickart reviewed existing conditions on the TH 25 corridor with an A rating for level of service being the best and F the worse. Under existing conditions it would take 8 minutes for a vehicle to get from I-94 to River Street and the travel speed would be 12 mph. Chuck Rickart noted this information was for the pm peak period. Traffic projections for the year 2030 were considered. In their projections the engineers looked at Big Lake's land use plan and the impact it has as well as the impact of the City of Monticello's newly adopted Comprehensive Plan. The 2030 traffic projections do not assume any new interchange or other improvements except for Fallon Avenue which was included in the calculation. In 2030 it is anticipated 40,000 cars will be crossing the river. Chuck Rickart indicated there are improvements that can be done in the short term and there are also long term improvements that should be considered. He reviewed these Special Council Minutes: 6/9/08 improvements and how the improvements would affect the level of service. Some of the short term improvements include: 1) Signal Timing possible modifications: Chuck Rickart stated that signals along TH 25 had not been looked at for some time. It is possible that some modifications could be made to the timing of the signals that may ease some traffic congestion. Brian Stumpf asked if the level of service could be improved by removing the River Street signal. Chuck Rickart indicated that issue would be addressed later in the presentation; 2) Addition of turn lanes. Turn lanes would be proposed for the I-94 ramp, 7th Street and CSAH 75. Chuck Rickart said that the improvements they are discussing will not be profound but will just make the traffic movement on TH 25 a little better. Adding capacity to the roadway would be an example of a profound change; 3) Access modifications. This is a little more radical than the other short term proposals. This option is where they looked at River Street and whether to have aright-in and right out at this intersection. The River Street intersection is complicated because of the presence of a building being very close to the corner of the intersection of River Street and TH 25. They did not recommend aright-in at this intersection without a signal light. Other improvements to consider are additional medians; right-in and right-out and a signal at 4th Street. Chuck Rickart added that these improvements did not eliminate the signal at River Street which was kept because of safety issues. Tom Moores, Street Superintendent asked how much of an impact it would be to close off the intersection at River Street. Chuck Rickart responded that the impact of eliminating the signal at River Street would make the level of service on Broadway an F. Clint Herbst asked if the program takes into account people changing driving patterns because of traffic conditions. Brian Stumpf asked if adding more signals such as the one at 4th Street wouldn't back up traffic more. Tom Moores questioned why a signal at 4th Street was recommended. Chuck Rickart responded that not all of the traffic could be directed to 7th Street or CSAH 75. Brian Stumpf questioned why they would want traffic directed onto 4th Street. 4) Roundabouts -Possible locations to be considered for roundabouts would be 7th Street, 4th Street and CSAH 75. Chuck Rickart stated that MnDOT requires consideration of roundabouts when looking at intersection control and added that roundabouts increase pedestrian safety. 5) Other Improvements -Long-term improvements would include additional through lanes and a river crossing. Brian Stumpf asked how bad the traffic situation has to be before MnDOT commits funds towards the project. Bret Weiss said it is not because MnDOT is not willing to fund projects but there are a lot of projects and with limited funds MnDOT is not investing in local projects. Susie Wojchouski asked what classifies the bridge as local instead of regional. Chuck Rickart indicated the current bridge is regional but if another bridge was added to divert traffic that would be a local bridge. Bret Weiss felt MnDOT would be involved in the short term improvements but would not support a bridge. Tom Moores asked about 2 Special Council Minutes: 6/9/08 MnDOT`s view of roundabouts and also about moving pedestrians through a roundabout. MnDOT requires the City to look at roundabouts as part of the City's study. Chuck Rickart said with roundabouts pedestrians cross half the approach and then reach the median. From there pedestrians cross the remaining approach. In addition the speed of vehicles on a roundabout is generally slower. Jeff O'Neill asked about the impact of a roundabout on a commercial area. Chuck Rickart cited an example of Edina where there was a roundabout in a commercial area. It was found not to have a negative impact on the commercial activity. Bret Weiss said getting traffic moving on TH 25 is the most important impact for commercial properties. There was general discussion on roundabouts that are either established or in the process of being established in other communities such as Forest Lake and Edina. Tom Moores said he had reservations about the statement that there is better pedestrian safety crossing a roundabout. Chuck Rickart stressed that the severity of accidents is less with a roundabout because the vehicles moving through the roundabout are going at a slower speed. If the City was proposing just one roundabout Broadway would be the logical choice. The study listed 7th Street, 4th Street and Broadway as possible intersections for roundabouts. Wayne Mayer said he was concerned about the criteria used for the River Street crossing. Chuck Rickart noted that MnDOT would like to close that intersection Wayne Mayer felt the signal at River Street should be shut down only and not include any of the other changes proposed. He questioned why that was not one of the scenarios presented. Chuck Rickart said closing the River Street intersection will have a huge impact on Broadway. Wayne Mayer asked about right turn only. Chuck Rickart said they looked at that and noted that on the east side there was a safety concern. Chuck Rickart said they looked at all alternatives and brought back what they thought were the best alternatives but if the Council wanted all the alternatives considered could be brought back. Clint Herbst felt that something should be done so that they could get an idea of the impact closing the intersection would have. Chuck Rickart said they had talked with MnDOT about temporarily closing the intersection. The City would have to get MnDOT's okay to close the intersection and MnDOT would have to turn off the signal lights but City staff could do the majority of the work to close off the intersection. Chuck Rickart said they have traffic counts and after the intersection was closed for 4-6 months they would take counts again to analyze the impact the closing would have. Clint Herbst and Wayne Mayer felt roundabouts should be considered as a last resort. Chuck Rickart said the improvements they looked at were for the whole TH 25 corridor not just the River Street intersection. Brian Stumpf said even with the improvements suggested there is still the same amount of traffic coming through. The City has to do something to divert the traffic off the road. Bret Weiss said if the City wants to get any kind of funding from the federal government or MnDOT the City would have to plan long term even though nothing may be planned for construction right away. Bret Weiss felt the City needs the short term solutions to provide some relief and then have the long term plan for funding purposes. The City has to do something now to get the City in position for funding. Bret Weiss said MnDOT wants the City to do the leg work on these projects. Bret Weiss said the City should look at Fallon Avenue, roundabouts, and the bridge crossing. Wayne Mayer said it is important to bring Becker and Becker Township into this the discussion as well because they too are feeling the pain of increased traffic volumes. Susie Wojchouski said the City of Monticello could do everything to get traffic moving over the bridge but the other side of the bridge has to 3 Special Council Minutes: 6/9/08 complement what the City does for it to be effective. Chuck Rickart acknowledged that is the case but indicated they have not received much information from Big Lake. Susie Wojchouski asked if modifications could be made to the existing bridge. Chuck Rickart responded that they had not look at any structural changes to the bridge. Jeff O'Neill suggested the City have some kind of limit to development so that when current capacity is maximized another bridge crossing would be required before further development. Chuck Rickart said it could be tied to traffic generation. Susie Wojchouski asked if it was known how much of Big Lake traffic is local and how much goes to Highway 10. The framework of the current transportation plan was done in 2005 and will be meshed with the recently adopted Comprehensive plan. The City needs to identify improvements and how to finance them. Traffic projections will also need to be refined. After these things are done an updated plan will be prepared. Chuck Rickart briefly went over the objectives of the Transportation Plan which include a collector street system; options for interchange or overpass; river crossing options; pedestrian/bike plan; transit plan and a financing plan. Jeff O'Neill asked about the interchange being located at County Road 39 rather than Orchard Road. Chuck Rickart said they will work with MnDOT on the interchange location. 'The proposed County Road 39 interchange location would impact the golf course and there is not much continuity on how the interchange would hook up with County Road 75. The County Road 391ocation would pull a little more traffic off of TH 25 than the Orchard Road location. MnDOT favors the Orchard Road location. Bret Weiss stated that there are other issues besides engineering to consider particularly financing. Chuck Rickart said the updated Transportation Plan would identify needs, how to address the needs, approximate cost of improvements and when the improvements need to be completed. Tom Moores asked if the new interchange would also be the site of the river crossing. Three possible crossing locations were noted: 1) Straight across from Washington Street; 2) CSAH 18 and 3) Connecting County Road 11 and Orchard Road. Chuck Rickart clarified that there would not be a river crossing study but the Transportation Plan would include the impact a river crossing would have. Clint Herbst suggested they come back with solutions on River Street for the next meeting. Brian Stumpf said whatever the City does on River Street they need to look at Broadway and look at making the right turn lane a through lane. The workshop closed at 6:45 p.m. CAJ,.t~y1 ~J~.--2~-(~5 ~~~1 $~-- Recording Secretary 4