Transportation Advisory Commission Minutes 01-08-2015MEETING MINUTES
MONTICELLO TRASNPORTATION ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Thursday, January 8, 2015 — 7:30 a.m.
Academy Room, Monticello Community Center
Members Present: Luke Dahlheimer, Lloyd Hilgart, Don Roberts, Bill Tapper
Members Absent: Rich Harris, Brian Stumpf
Other Attendees: Chuck Rickart, WSB & Associates; Shibani, Bison, City Engineer, WSB;
Jeff O'Neill, City Administrator; Tim Hennagir, Monticello Times
1. Call to Order.
The meeting was called to order at 7:35 a.m.
2. Consideration of approving minutes of the November 13, 2014 TAC Meeting.
BILL TAPPER MOVED TO APPROVE THE MINUTES OF THE REGULAR TAC
MEETING ON NOVEMBER 13, 2014. MOTION SECONDED BY LUKE
DAHLHEIMER. MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY, 4 -0.
3. Consideration of adding items to the agenda.
A. I -94 Coalition Update: Jeff O'Neill will give a summary of the coalition status with
the "Other Project Updates"
4. Fallon Avenue Overpass.
A. Alternative Discussion: Jeff O'Neill said he received a call from Merrill Busch in
December about his concern over his inability to get going on development of his
property because of questions relating to how the traffic circulation is going to work
in the vicinity of the intersection of Fallon Avenue and 7a' Street. O'Neill said we
have been taking a relatively slow review of this, pending negotiations with the
church. Bush told O'Neill that the slow process is putting a bind on him as well as the
Malone family as potential developers are looking at their property and they need to
know how things are going to lay out and how things are going to work. O'Neill said
that he lit a fire under him and it makes sense to keep moving forward. It will be
important to invite them to the next meeting to get their input on the process as they
haven't had a chance to provide their input to the TAC.
TAC — January 8, 2015
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O'Neill said he received a call from Dan Dupay, the new administrator from St.
Henry's Church. He said that Dupay was very open and interested in moving on and
creating a clean slate and a fresh start on negotiating and jointly collaborating on
where to go with the process. O'Neill said that Dupay talked about wanting to
maintain transparency and wanted to make sure that their church membership knows
that they are collaborating with the City. O'Neill said that Dupay's main concern is
the cost of moving forward with a second appraisal without having a firm
commitment from the City that we're going to move on it. Lloyd Hilgart asked if
there was any indication from the church on how much property they want to sell or if
they want to sell the entire parcel. Chuck Rickart said his understanding is that they
want to sell the whole parcel. O'Neill said that he needs to meet with the City
Finance Director on financing as it would improve the City's position with the church
if we can buy it and pay for it before we build the bridge. Hilgart agreed that it makes
sense to have control of the property.
Rickart distributed maps of the eight original design options and explained that the
TAC paired it down to three alternatives that made the most sense. The three options
include:
• Option 1: This was the original concept design. Estimated cost is $3.6M +.
• Option 3A: This design includes two roundabouts with one on 7th Street and
one on Washington Street. Rickart said the benefit of this concept is that it
could be put in phases. Estimated cost is $SM +.
Option 5: In this option Fallon Avenue would become more of the main road
and a portion of Washington Street would be vacated but it would create a
larger remnant property to the east which may be more developable.
Estimated cost is $4M +. Rickart said that operationally Option 5 provides
the best operation for 7a' Street and if Washington Street becomes a future
river crossing it would provide access for that.
Rickart said that at the last meeting he was asked to look into designing the bridge
straight across rather than cocked. Rickart explained that in reviewing a straight
bridge design it was determined that it would not work as 7t' Street would have to be
completely redesigned and more right of ways would need to be acquired so it would
be too cost prohibitive.
The consensus of the TAC is to invite the three property owners, Busch, Malone and
the Church to a special meeting to get their input on the design options. At a later
date after the main property owners have reviewed the designs a public informational
meeting could then be called and invite the apartments along 7a' Street to that
meeting. O'Neill said that he will contact the property owners and email the TAC
once he has the special meeting date set.
TAC — January 8, 2015
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5. TH 25 at CSAH 75.
A. Wright County Agreement Update: At the last meeting Chuck Rickart noted that
they would continue to work with Wright County about funding for the project as the
County had indicated withholding funding until two travel lanes are restored in each
direction on CSAH 75.
Shibani Bison said that she has spoken with the County and they will give the City
$17,600 in funding today because they had planned to do a micro- surfacing on the
roadway, not a mill and overlay. Bison said that the City is planning a mill and
overlay on the project and the County should cover that cost. O'Neill said they are
setting up another meeting with the County and will negotiate the funding. The
funding issue doesn't affect the project and the project is moving forward but Rickart
said the agreement does have to be signed before putting a shovel in the ground.
Discussed having the agreement include the wording that the County will pay the
difference (of the $90,000) once the City expands CSAH 75 to the four lanes.
6. School Boulevard Extension Alignment — 90t'` Street to Dalton Avenue.
Shibani Bison said that Xcel Energy is proposing to build a new substation at the end of
Dalton Avenue this summer. Bison reviewed a map of the area and said that they will be
applying to annex the property into the City. Bison explained that they are revisiting
these alignments to make sure they get the easement from Xcel for a future road.
7. Future Interchange Planning Study.
Chuck Rickart said that he has been researching pricing on preparing interchange designs
with two areas of consideration including CSAH 39 West and Orchard Road. O'Neill
said the City Council elected to not authorize use of money for increasing the Sheriff's
Office contract hours so there is $90,000 available in the budget. Rickart said they have
done quite a bit of preliminary analysis but they need to update the traffic numbers and
see where they are at. O'Neill said he would like to get input from the TAC as leading
the charge on it. Don Roberts said it is really important to be proactive on it as it's
definitely something to be thinking about in the future. Rickart said we'll need to
identify the timelines of when that could happen as these future interchanges are really
critical for the long term success of Monticello. Rickart explained that Mn/DOT allows
for a 1 -mile distance between interchanges within the metro ring (that they have defined)
and a longer distance of a 2 -mile spacing between interchanges outside of the metro ring.
As Monticello is outside of that metro ring, there will be a struggle with getting an
interchange approved at 39 as it is 1.2 miles from the TH 25 interchange. O'Neil said he
would like to do some brainstorming and get some steps laid out and come to this group
at the next meeting with how this planning can get completed within a year.
TAC — January 8, 2015
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S. TH 25 Corridor Coalition Update.
Chuck Rickart said that Regional Transportation System Task Force met at city hall on
November 25th. Jeff O'Neill said they have met four times now and it's hard to say
where it's headed right now as there is a divide between the Wright County folks and the
Sherburne County folks as far as their mentality on planning. O'Neill said that Sherburne
County has their own plans which include corridors for traffic that they have in place and
they have land use plans in place and O'Neill said he thinks they don't even know what's
in their plans while we have been designing our traffic patterns and our circulation
alignments based on their plans. At the next meeting concepts will be presented for the
Mississippi River Crossing based on their plans and show how that fits in with ours and
how the circulation patterns support or don't support it. There will also be discussion on
alignments for the railroad crossing. O'Neill said they will try to lay out the major
improvements that need to be made to enhance the interaction between 10 and 94 and
they are going to see if we can get some unification on the things that we think need to
get done. O'Neill explained that if there's mutual support there then that will give it
momentum to keep it going. O'Neill said there has been really good attendance from
Mn/DOT and they have been at every meeting. The next meeting will be in late January.
9. Other project updates
A. 7th Street & TH 25: Shibani Bisson said they applied for the grant to add a right turn
lane on westbound 7d' Street to TH 25 and it's in the plans to do that with the Street
Reconstruction Project in 2016. The grant included the flashing yellow arrow on 7th
Street but Bisson said they are working with Mn/DOT to have that potentially added
this year. Rickart said they have to do some additional wiring and Mn/DOT is
questioning it a little bit because with a five section head it takes more time and that
may affect the TH 25 movement too much in their opinion. If they are willing to do it
there may be some cost to the City. The grant will be announced in March and
Bisson said the funds will be available in 2015, and could be used towards putting in
the flashing yellow this year. The cost of the flashing yellow is $75,000. Rickart said
they will also need to do new traffic counts at that intersection to update it.
B. 1-94 Coalition: Jeff O'Neill said there is a meeting today at 2:30 in Rogers at the
Twin West Chamber of Commerce. O'Neill said they are committing to having
somebody there at every one of their meetings from the City. O'Neill said it is a good
group and they are productive and getting a lot done.
10. Approve next meeting date and time.
The next Regular TAC Meeting is scheduled for Thursday, March 12, 2015 at 7:30 a.m.
in the Academy Room at Monticello City Hall. O'Neill will email the TAC once the
special meeting is set with the adjoining property owners on the Fallon Avenue Overpass
project.
TAC -- January S, 2015
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11. Adjournment
Meeting adjourned at 9:32 a.m.
Recorder: O" eth &'rm7
Administrative Assistant
Approved:
Attest:
JdWeill, City Administrator
TAC — January 8, 2015 Page 5 of 5