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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012-11-15 Minutes1 MINUTES OF CITY OF EDINA, MINNESOTA TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION COMMUNITY ROOM NOVEMBER 15, 2012 6:00 P.M. ROLL CALL Answering roll call was members Bass, Braden, Franzen, Janovy, LaForce, Nelson, Schweiger, Sierks and Whited. APPROVAL OF MEETING AGENDA Motion was made by member Franzen and seconded by member Whited to approve the meeting agenda. APPROVAL OF MEETING MINUTES REGULAR MEETING OF OCT. 25, 2012 The following corrections were made: Page 1, in the motion for Approval of Meeting Minutes, change ‘Surya’ to ‘Iyer;’ page 2, Pedestrian and Cyclist Safety Fund Policy, paragraph 2, delete ‘…the ETC suggested the following’ and replace with ‘…the ETC discussed the following options.’ Motion was made by member LaForce and seconded by member Whited to approve the amended minutes of Oct. 25, 2012. All voted aye. Motion carried. COMMUNITY COMMENT Chair Nelson introduced Peter Bruce whom he invited to attend the meeting. He said Mr. Bruce owns Pedestrian Studies and his expertise may be helpful if a pedestrian sub-committee is formed later on. Mr. Bruce said he specializes in retail foot traffic working with owners who are trying to attract foot traffic to their business - in particular the skyway system in downtown Minneapolis. He has done work for director Houle at York Avenue between 66th Street and 70th Street and is a new Edina resident. REPORTS/RECOMMENDATIONS Traffic Safety Committee Report of November 7, 2012 Section A. I. Director Houle said this will be an additional sign. Section A. 3. Member Whited asked what the speed limit was and when the sidewalk would be installed. Director Houle said the speed limit is 30 mph and 15 or 20 when school is in session. He said he did not know when the sidewalk would be built. He said it is one of four missing segments of sidewalk that draft feasibility studies were prepared for and shared with City Council. The cost is approximately $300,000 and up until recently, it would be assessed but with the new franchise fee they will have to identify criteria and prioritize which sidewalks will be built. Director Houle said he could bring the sidewalk feasibility studies to the December meeting if the ETC would like to see them. Section C. 4. Director Houle said most of the cars belong to staff and the police department is writing warning tickets at this time. He said there is enough parking in the parking lot and that they are parking there for convenience. 2 Section B. 2. Member Janovy said Kellogg Avenue between Valley View Road and 58th Street is a basket weave (a stop sign every other block) and suggested instead of a stop sign on Kellogg Avenue, to put it at 61st Street. Director Houle said staff goes by warrants but the ETC can recommend this to City Council. Chair Nelson said this was requested twice before and each time it was denied. Director Houle said the minor street is 61st Street and the major street is Kellogg Avenue and based on traffic counts, the yield signs are on the wrong street. Motion was made by member Janovy and seconded by member Bass for staff to evaluate moving the yield sign to 61st Street and to also evaluate installing stop signs since the basket weave is already in place and the stop sign would complete the weave. All voted aye. Motion carried. Based on the motion, director Houle said the request would be moved to Section C for further study. Regarding traffic at Chowen Avenue, member Janovy asked how the City deals with this when traffic is going the speed limit but there are complaints. Director Houle said it is expectation and he was hoping the communications committee would be able to offer suggestions. Director Houle said the map showing all traffic requests should be ready next week. Motion was made by member Franzen and seconded by member Bass to forward the Nov. 7 Traffic Safety Committee Report to the City Council. All voted aye. Motion carried. Updates Student Members Member Schwieger asked about the process for getting streetlights. Director Houle explained that residents can contact the engineering department for a petition form to get support from neighbors for the streetlight. When the petition is returned to engineering, staff contacts Xcel to determine feasibility of installation and cost; however, since residents are no longer assessed for streetlights, staff will need to review and rewrite the process. Member Braden asked about the process for removing a streetlight and director Houle said he’s never actually had this request but since the issue was the light shining into the house, he could look at replacing the standard cobra head light with a cut off cobra head light to prevent this. Member Franzen asked about streetlights in his neighborhood, which is part of the 2013 neighborhood reconstruction. Director Houle said Member Franzen could talk with his neighbors to see if they are in favor of streetlights and if so, director Houle could recommend this to City Council as part of the project. Member Sierks asked why there were three entrances into the high school and only one exit. Director Houle said the decision was made by the school as a private property owner and it works well for traffic on the street because staff prefers that traffic queues onsite when getting out instead of queuing on the street to get in. He said in the afternoons an entrance is turned into an exit, giving them two exits. He said he did not think this would work but staff has observed it and it is working well. Bike Edina Task Force – Oct. 11, 2012 Minutes Director Houle said the Biking on Sidewalk Ordinance would likely be presented to the City Council on Dec. 4 and the police department will have a counter argument. 3 Member LaForce asked director Houle about the bike counts that were referenced in the minutes. Director Houle said he did not have the data but he should be requesting them to start a database. Member LaForce said the data is important to counter arguments that the City is spending money on bike lanes when there are no bikers. Member Bass said do.town staff surveyed the cities of Bloomington, Edina and Richfield and 30% of respondents said they ride at least once during the summer in their neighborhood. She said this is not a count but in general, many people are biking. Living Streets Working Group Director Houle said the City Council will receive the ETC’s advisory communication at their Nov 20 meeting regarding Phase 2 Final Steps. He explained that the Council’s feedback regarding approval of $150,000 to finish the policy was that the ETC has expert members that could put the plan together and he asked for their feedback. The consensus was that they are volunteers and finishing the plan requires a lot more time than they can commit. Additionally, it was passed in May 2011 by the City Council as a priority and to date, they have not provided any funding. The ETC recommended that a consultant or staff finishes Phase 2 of the policy. Transportation Options Working Group Co-chair Whited said ITN presented their program at the last meeting. She said they were formed two years ago in Edina and is a volunteer drivers program. Their franchise sells for about $100,000. She is concerned that the group is saying they are the Transportation Options Working Group and that the City has funding. She said also that there might be a conflict with the co-chair being part of ITN and the working group. She said they would like to present their program to the ETC. Director Houle will talk with assistant city manager Kurt regarding the concerns. Motion was made by member Whited and seconded by member Janovy to add the following new members to the Transportation Options Working Group (provided the bylaws do not require the members to be residents of Edina): 1. Susie Johnson (transportation program manager at VEAP) 2. Maria Sanchez (works at CAPSH Community Action partnership of Suburban Hennepin) 3. Peg Gaard (works with seniors through her three separate Augustana Adult Day programs) 4. Fred Arndt (leads a work group at Normandale Lutheran Church that works on senior citizens transportation issues) 5. Robin Rohr (works at Hennepin County in the Human Services Division that assists senior citizens and has served on several working groups on transportation issues) All voted aye. Motion carried. Communications Committee Member LaForce said they are working on a few ideas and they discussed ‘why’ they are doing what they are doing. He said a lot of the ETC’s work plan involves substantial changes in the city – putting in sidewalks and bike lanes where they are not, rules about riding on sidewalks, etc – and these changes will create some resistance. He said there are some things that they can do and things that they should not do because it will hurt their ability to move things forward. He said the role of the committee is to think about the changes that the ETC is making, be proactive and identify what they should be doing to move things forward. He said one focus area that they’ve identified is articulating clearly to residents that the ETC works on projects or issues that are directed by City Council and this should be followed up with an explanation of 4 the background and benefits which should be based upon policy statement. Additionally, he said they should identify core messages and how to get the messages out. Member Bass added that they would be more proactive when they see that a recommendation is going to be problematic and communicate around that particular issue. Regarding the type of communications, member LaForce said they would make recommendations to the communications department staff based on particular issues. He said they should work to get their messages out before the City Council votes on issues. Director Houle and the committee were not sure how the process is going to work with the communications department – will they have a staff liaison working with the committee? Member LaForce feels the communications committee can be used to help the communications department anticipate the issues of our commission and cited the Wooddale Avenue bike lanes as an example. Member Bass asked if a communications plan was developed for the Wooddale Avenue bike lanes. Director Houle said he received permission from City of Minneapolis to use something that he had seen on their website but a formal plan was not developed. He said the engineering department has a communications plan in place now but not a formal plan that anticipates project specific issues to educate the public. Member Bass described the Wooddale Ave bike lanes as an acute issue that they are saddled with and is hoping that moving forward, if they can talk about the vision for a more balanced transportation system and better articulate the benefits that this will help to create a broader understanding and less disruption when they try to implement projects. Member Janovy said engineering’s role in communications should be to provide the technical expertise to the communications department and let them know when projects are coming up so that a communications plan can be developed. She said the communications department staff are the communications professional. They should be developing the relationship with the engineering department to stay ahead of the issues, rather than react. She said in their committee discussion she asked, ‘What is the role of the communications department? How do they work to identify the communication needs of other departments?’ Director Houle said he believes they work on hot issues and residents’ reaction to the bike lanes took everyone by surprise. He said the communications department does not work with other departments to anticipate upcoming issues. Chair Nelson said the next project is the France Avenue Intersection Enhancements that will impact so many and will be a big communications piece. Member Bass said it seems like the City Council has empowered boards and commissions to make recommendations and help execute the vision of the Council and there is a communications needs in each of the boards and commissions so this will be an ongoing challenge. She said there needs to be a cohesive framework since each one is responsible for a piece of the vision. Director Houle noted that the Energy and Environment Commission has a communications committee. Member LaForce said it looks like the communications from the City is run like a news department – telling some things that are happening rather than framing the narrative, providing context and explaining, and identifying the audience and anticipating the needs, etc. 5 CORRESPONDENCE AND PETITIONS Member LaForce asked what they are to do with the correspondences and that he was struck by the range, and strongly worded criticisms. Director Houle said he was asked to give copies of transportation-related communications that are received by engineering to the commission. CHAIR AND COMMISSION MEMBER COMMENTS Member Braden said in lieu of attending the Oct. ETC meeting, she attended the final of three taskforce meetings that was tasked with distributing approximately $83,000 for Human Services. (She volunteered to serve on the taskforce last summer when the City Council requested a member from the ETC). They recommended funding the Senior Community Services, Cornerstone, VEAP, the Bridge, Conflict Resolution Center, Door-to-Door, and Normandale Center Oasis for Youth. Member Bass said related to engaging residents about the City’s vision for Living Streets, the do.town staff took the four missing segments of sidewalks and invited Councilmembers to conduct a walk/talk with nearby residents. CM Bennett, Sprague and Swenson have signed up to participate. CM Swenson will visit W. 60th Street and School Road. The other three missing segments of sidewalks are Xerxes Avenue, Normandale Road, and W. 42th Street. Member Franzen said there is a Solar Works seminar going on downstairs for another half hour. Member Nelson said the Southwest Transitway Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) is available for review and there is a 90 day comment period. A copy is in the community development department. He also reported that a special meeting is scheduled for Dec. 11 for the public hearings for the 2013 neighborhood projects. Member Franzen asked how are streets grouped together to form a neighborhood for street reconstruction. Director Houle said they are grouped based on liked-sized lots most often. He said in the case of Mendelssohn A, member Franzen’s neighborhood, there are two distinct neighborhoods but if they were split into two neighborhoods, one neighborhood would pay more than the other. STAFF COMMENTS Director Houle said two neighborhood informational meetings were held to discuss the ETC’s recommendation of a bike lane in the Normandale neighborhood and a sidewalk in the Lake Edina neighborhood. He said a dedicated facility will not fit on West Shore Drive so staff looked at two other options: 1) off-road; and 2) expand the walking path by bringing it to the bike lane. He said residents in attendance were not opposed. He said residents are opposed to the sidewalk on Hibiscus Avenue to Kellogg Avenue in Lake Edina. The recommendation is going to City Council on Dec. 11. France Avenue Pedestrian Improvements is still in the design phase. Hennepin County will be milling and overlaying Vernon Avenue from Crosstown to Grandview Square and Director Houle said he is going to talk to them about striping bike lanes as Vernon Avenue is listed as a primary bike route and the ETC agreed. The community development department is reviewing plans for a coffee shop at Centennial Lakes with a drive thru; a restaurant at 77th Street & France Avenue; and the medical building at 65th Street & France Avenue received approval. 6 ADJOURNMENT Meeting adjourned. TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION ATTENDANCE NAME TERM J F M A M J J A S O N D Work Session # of Mtgs Attendance % Meetings/Work Sessions 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 12 4/17/2012 Bass, Katherine 2/1/2014 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 10 83% Braden, Ann 2/1/2014 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9 75% Franzen, Nathan 2/1/2013 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 10 83% Iyer, Surya 2/1/2015 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 10 91% Janovy, Jennifer 2/1/2014 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 12 100% LaForce, Tom 2/1/2015 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 100% Nelson, Paul 2/1/2013 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 92% Schweiger, Steven student 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9 75% Sierks, Caroline student 1 1 1 3 100% Thompson, Michael 2/1/2013 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 10 83% Whited, Courtney 2/1/2015 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 10 91%