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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-04-19 Minutes MINUTES OF THE Edina Transportation Commission Thursday, April 19, 2007 Edina City Hall 4801 West 50th Street Council Chambers MEMBERS PRESENT: Les Wanninger, Warren Plante, Marie Thorpe, Jean White, Marc Usem, Geof Workinger, Hilah Almog, Steve Brown MEMBERS ABSENT: STAFF PRESENT: Wayne Houle, Jack Sullivan, Sharon Allison I. Call to Order The meeting was called to order by Wanninger. II. Public Comment None III. Old Business a. Transportation Impact Analysis The following recommendations were made during discussion: o Making font color combination and size of traffic reports readable o Allowing sufficient time for the ETC to review traffic reports o Requiring the developer to submit the traffic study before the development application; A motion was made by Usem to accept the Transportation Impact Analysis and Review Policy with the following change to page 4 of 5, 4th paragraph from the bottom: “The Transportation Impact Analysis must be submitted before the development application.” The motion was seconded by White. All ayes. Motion carried. IV. New Business a. Metro Transit Bus Route Update – John Dillery Mr. Dillery said a study of the Sector 5 (Edina) area was done to determine why people use transit. He said the 494/France area has high density employment which is different from residential density. He said in the suburbs park and rides are important so the people will have a place to gather. b. 7311 France Avenue – Edina Retail, formally “The District” Sullivan said a revised plan and traffic study were submitted for the above location. He said unlike the old plan that included residential and retail development, the new plan includes restaurant and retail space and the new traffic study is similar to the one that was approved in 2005. The traffic study was reviewed by the City’s traffic consultant, Chuck Rickart of WSB and his comments and responses from the Cypress Equities traffic consultant are summarized as follows: 2 1. Parking spaces – clarification is needed on the number of spaces because two different figures were given (448 and 518), both of which exceeds the City’s requirement. 2. Do a general comparison of the previous study to the current study. 3. What data was used in determining the one percent growth rate and did they consider other developments in the area? The developers’ traffic consultant said historical data on France Avenue was used and redevelopment of Super Target and the Westin were taken into consideration. 4. Traffic Forecast – AM/PM peak hour traffic generation will be higher in this new plan even though the previous plan included more development. A comparison of the previous and current daily traffic generation should be done. 5. Traffic Forecast – what is the trip distribution for the two intersections beyond the two intersections that were studied and where does the traffic go? The developers’ traffic consultant said those trips are based on current traffic patterns. Is the AM/PM peak distribution the same? Yes, but Rickart said he is not completely convinced that they will not see some shifting, however, their response is reasonable. 6. Requested that they summarize the queue lengths in a table for easier reading and this was done. 7. There are no significant queue length issues, except for the westbound approach to France Avenue and Gallagher Drive. 8. How are they going to address the above issue? They planned on restriping, however, the plans did not have enough details to show if they had enough room for restriping. 9. Two trucks turning at the same time would result in one of them going up onto the median. The developers’ traffic consultant said that they could delineate turning lanes but this would still result in one going up onto the median. This still needs to be addressed further. Rickart does not believe that the development will have a significant impact on the adjacent streets. Ed Terhaar, traffic consultant with Wenck Associates for Cypress Equities, said he has a draft drawing showing how the lanes could work on Gallagher that he will be forwarding to staff and the Planning Commission. In reference to the trucks turning and going up onto the median, he said they are talking about semi-trucks and it is highly unlikely that two of them will be turning at the same time from the opposite direction; however, the remedy would be to move the median back and this would need to be coordinated with Hennepin County. 3 Sullivan said both staff and WSB have recommended approval of the traffic study with the stipulation that approval is received from Hennepin County for the changes needed. The following are conditions and further requirements of the developer that staff have recommended for the development approval: 1. A plan layout for geometric and lane configuration revision as mentioned in the Traffic Impact Study for the France Avenue Gallagher Drive intersection shall be provided for review. 2. Turn movements of tractor trailer trucks making left turns onto France Avenue from Gallagher Drive impact the raised concrete medians on France Avenue. Further study should be giving to eliminating this occurrence. The Traffic Impact Study suggested paint stripes to direct the large trucks. Any work on France Avenue must be coordinated and approved by Hennepin County. 3. All costs for required roadway and traffic signal improvements to the France Avenue and Gallagher Drive intersection shall be borne by the developer. Plante motioned to approve the traffic study as recommended by staff and the City’s traffic consultant. Motion was seconded by Thorpe. 7 ayes, 1 nay (Brown). Motion carried. V. Approval of Minutes a. Regular Meeting of March 15, 2007 Thorpe motioned to approve the minutes of March 15, 2007 and it was seconded by Usem. All voted ayes. b. Special Meeting of March 19, 2007 Thorpe motioned to approve the minutes of March 19, 2007 and it was seconded by Plante. All voted ayes. VI. Planning Commission Update (Commissioner Brown) Brown asked what type of information the ETC would like him to share with them. He said their major focus has been the Comp. Plan. He said they’re making every effort to get feedback from the community and several listening sessions were held. Overall, the process is going well, he said. VII. Open Discussion None. VIII. Staff Liaison Comments (Sullivan) a. Safe Routes to School application was approved (one of 23 out of 111 applicants). b. City Extra – Email Notifications Service is a new service that residents can sign up for to receive information on roadway reconstruction, W. 70th St. traffic study, etc. c. Mass Transit article?? d. Valley View turn lanes (restriping and crosswalk at Chapel Lane) will be brought to the ETC again in one month. 4 e. Transportation Comprehensive Plan Update – process is moving forward; currently waiting on the landuse portion to begin generating a model. Timeframe is one to two months. f. I-494 / 169 Improvements – the last city, City of Bloomington, has signed the Municipal Consent. g. W. 70th Study Update – the first SAC meeting was held on April 12 and residents are always welcomed in a listening capacity. Wanninger said the next meeting will be May; however, some data will not be ready for the May meeting. He asked if they should meet anyway and focus on educational things such policies relating to crosswalks, stop signs, etc. He said CPC and Southdale were offered as meeting places. Sullivan said he met with SRF today to finalize the information that will be posted to the web. h. Comprehensive Bike Plan – in the process of selecting a consulting firm to develop the Bike Plan. i. Handouts from March 15, Edina Transportation History Overview – a series of maps and other historical information were distributed, including an 1848 plat map, a 1949 landuse map, future growth map, etc. Other discussion: Wanninger said the ETC should adopt a walking/pedestrian plan as part of the Comp Plan. Brown said he believes Park & Rec is taking this into consideration as they update their bike trails. Houle explained that the trails and sidewalks portion of the Comp Plan will be updated as part of the Transportation Plan. Wanninger said about one year ago, there wasn’t sufficient funding for the Sidewalk Plan and he suggested that they recommend a way to fund the Sidewalk Plan. This will be discussed further in June or July. Usem asked about the origination/destination study for W. 70th and Sullivan explained that it is being done as a result of comments regarding whether or not the traffic were local or cut-thru. He said they decided to do the study because it will help to better define some of the issues that were raised. The scope of the study has not been finalized; however, some of the options are a stop survey of a sample of drivers, a workplace study, etc. Workinger asked if they are on schedule with the Syncho Model and what are they likely to see as a by-product of the system. Rickart said the two components being worked on are the forecasting model and the southeast area traffic model. He said forecasting model will be forecasted trips based on the Met Council’s model of the twincities area and this portion is land use based. He said they cannot move forward until the consultant has completed the land use study. The next component, the southeast area traffic model is completed, except that they are still collecting traffic counts from 80 intersections with approximately 75% completion so far. The balance of the traffic count should be completed by the middle of May to early June. Rickart said they’ll be able to use the model as different areas redevelop to see how the redevelopment will affect traffic. Meeting adjourned.