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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-03-21 Minutes1 MINUTES OF CITY OF EDINA, MINNESOTA TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION COMMUNITY ROOM MARCH 21, 2013 6:00 P.M. ROLL CALL Answering roll call was members Bass, Iyer, Janovy, LaForce, Nelson, Sierks, Spanhake, and Whited. New member Dawn Spanhake was welcomed to the ETC by chair Nelson. APPROVAL OF MEETING MINUTES REGULAR MEETING OF FEB. 21, 2013 The following corrections were made: page 4, 3rd paragraph, last sentence, delete ‘Park’ and replace with ‘Art;’ 7th paragraph, first sentence, delete ‘Grove’ and replace with ‘Wood;’ page 6, 4th paragraph, first sentence, add ‘….would fit with the street car option that the Transportation Options Working Group reviewed but she would;’ page 6, 5th paragraph, delete ‘… questions posed by residents and the Mayor answered 10’ and replace with ‘…residents who wanted to ask questions and the Mayor was able to get to 10 during the time.’ Motion was made by member Janovy and seconded by member LaForce to approve the revised minutes of Feb. 21, 2013. All voted aye. Motion carried. COMMUNITY COMMENT REPORTS/RECOMMENDATIONS Traffic Safety Committee Report of Mar. 13, 2013 Director Houle showed the new Transportation webpage which include information on the Traffic Safety Committee (TSC), Traffic Management and Traffic Control. He said the Traffic Management section shows the City’s traffic policies and each policy links directly to the Minnesota Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MMUTCD). Traffic signs that are not in the MMUTCD are listed under Traffic Control. He also demonstrated the TSC map that shows all traffic safety requests and response. The map will allow residents to see if a safety request was made for their street and what the outcome was. He said the map is not user friendly and staff is working with LOGIS to make corrections. He said the goal is to have the map corrected and posted to the web by this summer. Discussion included the following: • Combine Traffic Management and Traffic Control. • Add the house research memo that explains the speed limit law. • Edits: reword first paragraph; delete or rephrase 3rd paragraph (be mindful of tone and choice of words – must/need/negative/critical – use neutral tones). • Add the TSC form and link to the map. • Do year-end report of traffic requests. Section D: Director Houle said staff was prompted to consider modifying the intersection at Valley View Road and Antrim Road because the stop sign there is hit almost weekly. In reference to county road issues, 2 Director Houle will check with staff to see if they follow up with Hennepin County to see what action will be taken. Motion was made by member Janovy and seconded by member Iyer to recommend that the City Council eliminate the traffic policies for residential stop signs, multi-way stop signs, speed limit, and yield signs. Bike Standard Update Director Houle said staff created these bike standards, similar to other standard plates that they use for uniformity. They are internal working documents and are not meant for the general public. Comments included the following: Standard Plate #722 – eliminate the optional dotted lines. Standard Plate #725 – remove bike boulevard sign. Standard Plate #730 – eliminate the Bike Route sign. Send standard plates to Minneapolis for review and feedback. Motion was made by member Bass and seconded by member LaForce to approve the modified bike standard plates. Updates Student Members Member Sierks asked about a constant yellow blinking traffic signal light that she saw in Eden Prairie. Director Houle said this is a new feature that is activated certain times of the day that allows drivers to turn if there are no on-coming traffic. He said they are looking at adding this feature here in Edina. Bike Edina Task Force Received minutes of Feb. 14, 2013. Member Janovy said a bike rodeo is taking place the 3rd Saturday of April at Cornelia Elementary School and volunteers are welcomed. She said they are discussing which bike routes to mark next. Chair Nelson mentioned Vernon Avenue and Director Houle said staff is working with Hennepin County to stripe a bike lane on Vernon Avenue when they do a mill and overlay in Sept/Oct. Living Streets Working Group Chair Nelson said he, member Janovy, Director Houle, Asst. City Manager Kurt and Mr. Thompson met today and they discussed two options for moving forward – 1) get approval for the entire plan; or 2) get approval for the policy now and implementation approval later on. He said they agreed on the latter so that they could use the policy to help guide the 2014 neighborhood reconstruction projects. He said the first step will be to circulate the policy between now and July 16 for review and feedback. Director Houle said the new transportation planner should begin working by the end of April and this person will be working on this. He or she will also eventually become the liaison to the ETC. He said a joint session meeting with the City Council is scheduled for April 16, 5 p.m. to discuss the Living Streets Policy. Transportation Options Working Group Member Whited clarified that specific authorization is not needed for Prism to operate in Edina; that she is asking for funds to buy another bus; that Edina’s annual contribution would be for operating costs and it would help to leverage other funding sources. 3 The ETC recommended including detailed costs for the City Council. Member Whited will revise the advisory communication and members LaForce and Bass will review it. Director Houle will work on getting this on the April 19 City Council agenda and member Whited will attend to present and answer questions. Motion was made by member Bass and seconded by member Whited to forward the revised advisory communication to the City Council. Communications Committee Member LaForce said the City Council received their communications recommendation and councilmember Sprague asked what was the intent and city manager Neal said they were trying to prioritize their communications issues. Member LaForce asked what does this mean at the staff level. Director Houle said staff met with communications director Bennerotte and WSB to develop a communications plan for the France Avenue Pedestrian Enhancement project. He said WSB is putting together a draft plan which will include some innovative approaches such as variable message boards. And staff will be working more closely with our communications department to develop weekly City Extras. Safe Routes to School – Director Houle said he has not had any updates; member Bass said she’s heard that it is almost completed but is concerned is that no one knows the study is underway and that it is a joint project between the City and the school district. Director Houle suggested adding this to the next meeting agenda to get word out to the public. Wooddale Avenue Bike Blvd – member LaForce said he was not clear on the change that the City Council approved but residents will want to know why changes were made so this should be added to the list. Director Houle said he was interviewed today by KSTP and the reporter was very confused about the City Council’s decision. Member Janovy said the changes are not being made for safety reasons. She said there is a lack of understanding on Wooddale Avenue but not on 54th where there striping is the same. Director Houle showed the ETC his presentation that was given to City Council and said option 4 was the one that the City Council approved. Option 4 is to remove advisory bike lane, place centerline, place dedicated southbound lane from W. 50th St. to W. 56th St., and place sharrows on remaining portion. He said State Aid will not support it by funding the changes and they are checking with the Federal Highway to see how the grant would be affected. Director Houle said they can stop the experiment for safety issues but none exist; he said it is a perception issue. CORRESPONDENCE AND PETITIONS A. Correspondence relating to transportation issues None. CHAIR AND COMMISSION MEMBER COMMENTS Member Janovy said in 2009 a new law was passed for administrative citation for certain violations and one is for driving over the speed limit. She said, according to what she’s read, the police do not give citation until you are 15 mph over the speed limit. She said normally they do not get into police matters but wondered if they are aware of the administrative citation option. She will forward information to Director Houle and he will check with the police department. 4 Member LaForce noted that there was an article in the Sun Current on the Dan Patch legislation. He said the perspective seem to be that it will not get out of committee. Member Iyer said he read an article about the City of London is spending $1.3B on bike related improvements. Member Bass said they are wrapping up the do.town project at the end of March and the Champion Summit this last Saturday was a culmination. She said the summit was well represented by Edina residents. Member Spanhake said she was glad to be a part of the ETC. Member Whited asked if they could add a time limit to each agenda item to keep things on track to prevent what happened at the last meeting and in talking with Director Houle, other committees have similar setup. Member Bass said she would be cautious of setting time limit because some items require more discussion than others and member Iyer said as a past chair of a committee, he enforced the rule of finishing on time and agenda items would be pushed to the next meeting. He did feel that there were times when more discussion were needed than had taken place. Chair Nelson said there will be an article in the Edina Magazine in July on the light rail project and they talked with him about the Living Streets Policy also. STAFF COMMENTS Director Houle said final plans for the France Avenue Pedestrian Enhancement project is being submitted and he has a right-of-way (ROW) audit with the State to show that the ROWs have been acquired. He said the communications plan will include recognition of the owners who donated ROWs. The bike map is being updated to match Minneapolis’. Funding Options – MNDOT had a meeting recently to talk about available funds and Chuck Rickart of WSB attended on behalf of Edina and will be putting together a plan showing what it would take for Edina to apply for funds. The Street Improvement District legislation is making its way through the committees. I-legislate, a free app, can be downloaded to receive meeting packets electronically if you have an I-Pad. Communications department will need to set up and grant access. ADJOURNMENT Meeting adjourned. ATTENDANCE TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION ATTENDANCE - 2013 NAME TERM JF MA MJJ AS ON D Work Session # of Mtgs Attendance % Meetings/Work Sessions 1 1 1 3 Bass, Katherine 2/1/2014 1 1 2 67% Braden, Ann 2/1/2014 1 1 2 67% Franzen, Nathan 2/1/2016 1 1 2 67% Iyer, Surya 2/1/2015 1 1 1 3 100% Janovy, Jennifer 2/1/2014 1 1 1 3 100% LaForce, Tom 2/1/2015 1 1 1 3 100% Nelson, Paul 2/1/2016 1 1 1 3 100% Schweiger, Steven student 1 1 2 67% Sierks, Caroline student 1 1 2 67% Spanhake, Dawn 2/1/2016 1 1 33% Whited, Courtney 2/1/2015 1 1 1 100% 1 Respry submitted A !son, Secretary 5