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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-02-27 Minutes1 SPECIAL MEETING MINUTES OF CITY OF EDINA, MINNESOTA TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION COMMUNITY ROOM FEBRUARY 27, 2014 6:30 P.M. ROLL CALL Answering roll call was member Bass, Boettge, Nelson, Van Dyke and Whited. A quorum was not reached for this meeting as such members had discussions but did not take action. APPROVAL OF MEETING AGENDA Not approved. APPROVAL OF MEETING MINUTES - Jan. 16, 2014 Not approved. COMMUNITY COMMENT – See comment under Chair and Commission Member Comments. REPORTS/RECOMMENDATIONS Active Transportation Bike/Pedestrian Education and Bicycle Parking Action Plan Transportation planner Nolan said on Oct. 23, Bicycle Alliance of MN (BikeMN), the MN Department of Health and MNDOT hosted a workshop that included discussion about the 5Es (evaluation, engineering, education, enforcement and encouragement), bike culture in Edina and how to improve biking, plus a bike tour. They said it was the best workshop they’ve hosted. The draft action plan is the outcome of the workshop and Nick Mason of BikeMN is looking for feedback. Member Bass liked that the plan’s transportation education piece aligned with Active Routes to School (ARTS) transportation education and strongly recommended that Parks & Recreation and/or Engineering take a field trip to other open streets events to understand strategically why they would do this type of event and to understand the budget, etc. Transportation planner Nolan said BikeMN had this discussion with Parks & Recreation. For bike parking she suggested cross-checking with ARTS because they heard from high school students that a rack is not sufficient bike parking. Chair Nelson asked what the purpose of the action plan was and transportation planner Nolan said to serve as a guideline for stakeholders. He said staff has already started working on some things like bike rack inventory at public places but still need to inventory private businesses. Member Bass asked if there were opportunities to influence adding covered bike parking with redevelopments. Chair Nelson said when CVS was redeveloped the Planning Commission required a bike rack and it was added. He asked how they would determine where covered bike parking is needed. Member Bass asked how do you create signals in the community that bicycling is welcome. She said the employees at 50th & France, for example, are not allowed to park in the ramps so they park in nearby neighborhoods which create conflicts and asked how do you make it possible for them to bike to work? Transportation planner Nolan said some parking are available for employees in the ramps and they’ve talked about adding parking corrals and changing codes to make it possible. Member Whited asked about about incentives or reimbursement plans for other modes of transportation for places like 50th & France. 2 Member Boettge asked if outreach would be done by parents or teachers and said it probably would be more effective if done by the school district. Member Bass said there is a bike/walk curriculum that is available for anyone to use but it is mostly physical education teachers that are involved and receives ongoing training. She said one limitation MNDOT is aware of that not children have bikes or know how to ride a bike. MNDOT is exploring a fleet of bikes that could be available to schools as they implement the curriculum. Some communities have used their SHIP funds for this purpose. Member Boettge said she likes that drivers are also included for education outreach. Members Janovy and LaForce commented via email. The final plan will be distributed when it is completed. City Council Joint Work Session Planning Transportation planner Nolan said the ETC and Bike Edina will each have a 45 minute session with the City Council to make it a transportation-related work session on Mar. 18. He asked what the ETC would like discuss and suggestions were Living Streets Policy implementation, ARTS Plan, Bike and Sidewalk Map from the perspective of their importance to the City Council considering that the Council tends not to approve sidewalks in street reconstruction projects. An email will be sent out next week to gather feedback from the entire group. Ordinance Discussion: Bicycling on Sidewalks Member Bass asked staff to distribute the page from the ARTS plan where the consultant recommends making changes to the bike ordinance because it would be helpful during discussion. She said she admires and respects the Police and their ability to enforce bad behavior; however, there are many communities that allow biking on sidewalk and it works. She said Edina is law abiding and students from high school Student Council reported that their parents only want them riding on sidewalks for safety reasons but students were aware of the law against riding on sidewalks. This dissonance certainly leads to decisions against biking. She asked how they can work with the Police to develop a shared understanding. Transportation planner Nolan will talk with city manager Neal to see how this can be done. Chair Nelson noted that one of the ETC’s 2014 initiatives is to meet with the Police annually to discuss shared interests. He said the current code does not allow for motorized vehicles but maintenance vehicles are motorized. In business districts riders would probably walk their bikes similar to the recommendation in the ARTS plan and make it clear they are to yield to pedestrians. Member Bass said the idea that biking on sidewalk was unsafe came from a study that was done around bike commuters that determine it was unsafe to ride on sidewalks. She said it may not accurate to extrapolate from this. Members Janovy and LaForce submitted comments via email. The discussion will continue at the Mar. 20 meeting. Traffic Safety Committee Report of February 5, 2014 Section A1. Chair Nelson said it seemed odd that they are putting a directional sign in a church’s right-of-way for another church. Section B1. Transportation planner Nolan said even though this was denied, staff is recommending that they study the area in the spring. Section B2. Member Whited said they are generally provided with the crash data and transportation planner Nolan said the crashes were below the requirement for a stop sign. Section B3. Member Whited asked why the request was denied and transportation planner Nolan said they would be opening the door for placing more directional signs. 3 Member Bass said the TSC deals primarily with requests for stop signs, no parking signs, etc. and traffic calming and when a request for a stop sign to deal with speeding is denied there are no other options that residents can pursue. She said they need to provide a more satisfying answer and noted Sunnyside Road and Grimes Avenue plus other areas that keep coming up without resolution. She suggested engaging with residents in the neighborhood for a ‘walk and talk’ dialogue. Transportation planner Nolan said the Living Streets Policy includes traffic calming measures. Member Whited said they discussed giving speed radar guns to residents because sometimes vehicles appear to be going faster than they actually are. Transportation Options Workshop – No discussion; tabled until Mar. 20. Updates Student Members - None Bike Edina A Bike Friendly application was submitted and Nick with BikeMN said it was one of the strongest applications he’s seen in years. In 2010 Edina received a Bike Friendly honorable mention which simply means an application was submitted. In May they’ll find out if this application receives a higher recognition. Ten other cities in Minnesota have received recognitions. Member Bass said there is also a walk friendly designation and asked transportation planner Nolan to gather information on this for a future meeting. Living Streets Working Group Transportation planner Nolan said they continue revise the guidelines and he is working with environmental engineer Bintner on the rain garden and storm water management section of the plan. He said Arden Park D is scheduled for reconstruction in 2015 and staff is considering adding rain gardens (using City of Maplewood as the model). He said they submitted a partnership grant to the watershed district and will be making a presentation to them. A work session is planned with the City Council to inform them sooner rather than later. Member Whited asked if there was training on rain garden maintenance because Dakota County is offering free training. Communications Committee -None CORRESPONDENCE AND PETITIONS - None CHAIR AND COMMISSION MEMBER COMMENTS Member Whited said she met with Tom Miller from Safety in the Park and she said they are proposing to meet with Mayor Hovland regarding the Southern Arm that is proposed as part of the Southwest LRT because they believe it is going in and they would like the Mayor to make a formal statement. She said this would need to happen quickly because a final decision is expected in about three weeks. Member Whited asked what the reaction was to Mr. Christiansen’s presentation last month regarding the Southern Arm and chair Nelson said they did not get the sense that it was going to happen because of improvement cost to the bridge in Savage; however, within the last week there has been new information. Member Bass said they could send an advisory communication to the City Council asking them to make a statement. During Member Whited’s comment, Edina residents Mr. Andy Brown, 5512 Park Place; and Mr. David Davison, 6716 Galway Drive, joined the meeting and stated that they were in attendance at the Grandview CAT meeting downstairs where they talked about the potential for light rail and the importance of having a Grandview transit station included with the redevelopment of the Grandview area and this ties with the Southern Arm discussion. He said they attended the Grandview CAT meeting to ask the advisory group to ask the City Council to consider a resolution to lift the gag order on the Dan Patch line so that the Met Council can study light rail along these tracks. He said Met Council’s Steve Elkins was also in attendance because the CAT will be going out for a Request for Information for 4 redevelopment and they are including space for a Grandview transit station but the gag order must be lifted. Mr. Davison said in the interest of the community, the City Council should put in a resolution asking the legislators to reverse the gag order like it did last year. This would allow the Met Council to study light rail on the Dan Patch line. Mr. Brown said the gag order was put in place by Edina’s Rep. Ron Erhardt more than ten years ago and his argument then was that they would need to take out rows of houses but this would have been to install a Northstar-type train. Mr. Brown said with improved technology, it is possible to have light rail without changing the configuration of the line because the new technology can handle the curves unlike freight trains. They said a similar request was made last year and Rep. Erhardt removed it and they have no reason to believe that he would not do the same again this year. Member Bass said this is a service to the community and it should be worrisome that Edina is being left out of this new service but she said they do not have a quorum to support this tonight so it will be forwarded to the Mar. 20 meeting. Chair Nelson reported that Federal Aviation Administration will not implement the Area Navigation departure routes at this time which would have impacted Edina. STAFF COMMENTS  France Avenue – chair Nelson said the ETC has not seen the final plans for this project and member Bass asked about the communication plan that they had recommended. Transportation planner Nolan said an article will be in the spring About Town and he will have a discussion with city engineer Millner about the plans and communication. The next Urban Design meeting is scheduled for Mar. 10, 6 p.m. at the Public Works & Park Maintenance Facility, 7450 Metro Blvd.  The ARTS was presented to City Council on Feb. 3 and received positive feedback; the working group is meeting Mar. 5; the policy is online on the transportation webpage.  W. 54th Street – the variance was approved by City Council and there is no reason to believe that it will not be approved by MNDOT. The Federal Highway Administration said they will continue to allow advisory bike lanes but not the green lanes like we have on Valley View Road. They will allow the green lanes to stay in place until the end of its useful life. ADJOURNMENT Meeting adjourned. 5 ATTENDANCE TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION ATTENDANCE - 2014 NAME TERM J F* M A M J J A S O N D SM 2/27 SM 3/10 WS 3/18 # of Mtgs Attendance % Meetings/Work Sessions 1 1 0 0 2 Bass, Katherine 2/1/2014 1 1 1 2 100% Boettge, Emily 2/1/2014 1 1 1 2 100% Iyer, Surya 2/1/2015 1 1 2 100% Janovy, Jennifer 2/1/2014 1 1 2 100% LaForce, Tom 2/1/2015 1 1 2 100% Nelson, Paul 2/1/2016 1 1 1 2 100% Whited, Courtney 2/1/2015 1 1 1 50% Sierks, Caroline student 1 1 50% Spanhake, Dawn Van Dyke, Jackson student 1 1 1 50% *Cancelled due to weather Respectfully submitted, Sharon Allison, Secretary