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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006-07-31 MinutesMINUTES OF THE Edina Transportation Commission PUBLIC HEARING for the NE Edina Traffic Study Report Monday, July 31, 2006 Edina City Hall 4801 West 50th Street Council Chambers MEMBERS PRESENT: Les Wanninger, Warren Plante, Marie Thorpe, Jean White, Marc Usem, Geof Workinger, Joni Kelly Bennett MEMBERS ABSENT: Ellen Cerf, Dean Dovolis STAFF PRESENT: Steve Lillehaug, Sharon Allison, Wayne Houle, Laura Fulton The public hearing was called to order by chair Wanninger. Wanninger said the objective of the meeting is for residents to share with the ETC what they like or do not like about the NE Edina Traffic Study proposals. He said they began meeting in October 2005 and a Study Advisory Committee (SAC) was formed to help the ETC formulate the plan. The SAC included representatives from:  44th & France Business District  50th & France Business District,  City of Minneapolis; Fulton Neighborhood Association  City of St. Louis Park; Minikahda Vista Neighborhood Association; Browndale Neighborhood Association  Interlachen/Vernon Grandview Business District  Mn/DOT  Hennepin County During the planning phase there were open houses and business district meetings and the Council was kept informed as the study progressed. The entire report is available online and residents were notified of the public hearing via the Edina Sun and mailing to each resident in the study area. Wanninger said this is the official public hearing for the study as directed by Council. Council will receive a copy of the recorded public hearing and it will also rebroadcast several times on channel 16. A 30-day comment period will end on August 31. The ETC will review and consider all comments and meet September 7 to approve the final report. The Council will receive the final report and is expected to take action in October. The rules of the public hearing were: speaking time is limited to 5 minutes which will be timed; state name and address; keep it neighborly; and the chair will decide if you’ve crossed the line. 2 Marie Cote, from SRF gave an overview of the study‘s purpose, findings, strategy to address problems, recommendations, business area parking, funding strategy, and benefits. Cote’s PowerPoint presentation is available online in its entirety. Comments were as follows: Tim Frederick 4188 W. 44th Street  Would like a mid-block crosswalk to Kojetin park, sidewalk is not necessary; please keep park a “walk-up” one;  Is widening 44th a part of the plan? No; can achieve changes by eliminating some parking; State Aid guidelines require 32 ft. for one-side on-street parking;  44th & France is not a destination spot; neighbors like it as is, including ability to park; do not want parking structure; John Finlayson 5005 Zenith Ave. So, Minneapolis Fulton Neighborhood Association & SAC member  This is of great benefit to Minneapolis;  Encourages traffic to stay where it belongs;  Fulton Neighborhood Association passed a resolution supporting concepts and it was sent to Council member Hodges; Christy Rhodes-Dekko 4703 White Oaks Rd White Oaks Neighborhood Association  Concerned with the timeline and avoiding diversion on Maple and Townes Roads;  Country Club is well represented in the study area and something being done at nearly every intersection except for Bridge Lane;  Cut through area of Townes Road was ignored in the study;  Why not include Townes and Sunnyside which is a blind intersection?  Should document that there is a stop sign at Maple and 49th St. Are there studies that can tell us the effectiveness of the speed bump that is planned for 49th St. which is a cut through area? Ruth Melcher 4624 Bruce Avenue  Regarding the realigned streets, changes will be more dramatic on western streets and will push traffic toward eastern streets which are narrower;  Realignment was done in Country Club and this pushed traffic their way; can this be corrected now?  What will be done when traffic is redistributed elsewhere?  Two streets same size but different traffic control measures are proposed; how can you compare effectiveness? The cost difference is great;  No speed control for Country Club Road considering the accident years ago;  Who is responsible for maintenance and at what expense?  Many people on vacation, should extend the comment period into September; 3 Lisa Hollensteiner 4006 Grimes Avenue  Can you work with St. Louis Park to get a stop sign at 40th & Grimes, this would help to slow traffic as they come over the hill; have written to St. Louis Park and requested a stop sign but have not received a response;  Center island will make street even narrower when vehicles are parked on the street and will interfere with parking for soccer and Golden Years events; Elizabeth Bell 4308 France Avenue  Disheartened that study did not discuss France, north of 44th to Excelsior; vehicles travel at high speeds and both Minneapolis and Edina issue many tickets for speeding and illegal passing; there is nothing to impede vehicles on this stretch of France. Tom Wahlrobe 4308 France Avenue  Need more even-flow of traffic;  Nothing in traffic study that addresses France, north of 50th to Excelsior; this area is a speedway;  Minneapolis and Edina police have better things to do than to ticket; need something other than police for drivers to obey the speed limit;  PR campaign and public education is not going to work Steve Welo 4508 Edina Blvd Traffic levels on Browndale Bridge; each thinking they have right-of-way; what was bridge designed for and what is the code if a bridge was to be built today? Does not meet Mn/DOT’s requirement and there are plans to refurbish it, including a slight widening where each lane will be approximately 10.3 11 ft and a variance was obtained from Mn/DOT. Drivers will still need to slow down crossing the bridge. Jim Welna 5139 W. 44th St  Thanked commissioners and staff for work done;  Object to Center Island narrowing at W. 44th & Brookside; especially if it requires a widened street; the intersection is a T and at nights one could end up on the wrong side of the center island. No need for changes. Bruce Clark 4629 Browndale Avenue  A letter from Mn/DOT said if Edina did not correct problem over the Browndale Bridge that they would and this was to be done in five years, which has come and passed; Numerous accidents due to bridge and more dangerous with pedestrians; create a one- way traffic over the bridge at different times of day; changes can be made that would be affordable and effective; bridge was not designed for traffic originally. 4 Pat Corcoran 4121 Monterey Avenue  Recommended that the sidewalk at 42nd be extended all the way down to accommodate pedestrians attending games at the park. It is a busy street with many children and commuters walking to France. Jim Hickey 4608 Edina Blvd  Thanked the commissioners for doing the work;  Makes sense to increase arterial traffic;  Browndale Bridge is an issue temporary fix?  Waiting 2-3 years to fix the sewer system in the Country Club is not acceptable; families have had raw sewerage in their basement. Arlene Wilson 4707 Townes Road  Reconsider using speed bumps because they are uncomfortable and not good for people with a bad backs cause discomfort even at very low speeds. Bill Foster 4225 W. 44th St.  Sees nothing that affects traffic flow on W. 44th;  Speeding from stop sign at Wooddale to France;  Does not see any measures to slow traffic;  Crosswalk to park is cheaper than sidewalk;  Sees traffic being diverted to 44th and it is already congested;  Recommends slowing traffic instead of building sidewalk on south side; Eric Flash 4212 Lynn Avenue  Arterial traffic needs fixing;  Spending a lot of money to deal with 30% of traffic that is coming from outside the neighborhood; speeds are within the speed limit and based on police reports, accident levels are low; this is a lot of money that could be spent in the neighborhoods to deal with the 70% traffic that is generated there;  Eliminating on-street parking at 50th & France would move traffic through faster;  Narrowing streets at Wooddale Park would make situation worse;  Money will not be available for Highway 100 until 2014;  Browndale Bridge is a non-issue; Heather Wallace 4701 Townes Road  Lack of sidewalks heightens her neighbor’s sensitivity to speed and volumes;  Timing of construction will cause diversion;  No measure to slow traffic at Sunnyside and Townes Rd;  Important that measures taken are both functionally and aesthetically equivalent throughout area; 5 Jonathan Gross 4208 Grimes Avenue  Thanked commissioners for work proposing raised crosswalk at the bottom of the hill at 42nd and Grimes; confused how it would be effective in increasing safety; according to the Neighborhood Traffic Management plan, speed control devices are to be installed mid-block;  At least three times in the report it mentioned that daily traffic volume on most residential streets exceeds 900. This is not necessarily true because out of 40 streets only 17 were measured and only 12 of 40 streets had traffic volume that high. Should change it to say ‘daily traffic volume on most of the measured streets within the studied area’. Derek Pitt 4616 Wooddale Avenue  Endorse the plan because it is a solution to a known problem that was quantified by the engineers;  Needs to be more study to make Browndale a one-way to eliminate cut through traffic, this would be cost effective;  Need to keep in mind that they are trying to eliminate the 30% cut through traffic that does not live in the neighborhood and are creating the problems with speeding and squealing tires. Scott Herbst 4011 Grimes Avenue  Five of six on his block oppose sidewalk for safety reasons because it is a hill and even with good maintenance in the winter it could be dangerous for kids and bikes; will lose old maples; does not want concrete in yard; does not want St. Louis Park residents walking in front of their yard;  Concerned about their perception to the rest of the community – speed bumps and humps make them an unfriendly neighborhood; can make changes by using stop signs like St. Louis Park instead of making the neighborhood look unfriendly. Tim Ryan 4929 Maple Road  Not sure what effects the speed bump will have on Townes Road;  Solution to encourage people to use the arterial is great, but not sure that there is enough discouragement to keep people from cutting through the neighborhood.  Would like to see all of the solutions occur contemporaneously so that traffic is not diverted from the Country Club to Maple Road;  Are speed bumps the equivalent of realigned intersections? Jean McGahee 4160 W. 44th Street  Traffic between Wooddale and Grimes is concerning; drivers seem to forget that there is a stop sign at Grimes; please install a sign beyond the park so they can be made aware that there is a stop sign ahead. 6 Santosh Kumar 4171 W. 44th Street  Opposes the sidewalk between Wooddale and Grimes on 44th St because houses have small front yards; crosswalk would serve the purpose of getting to the park;  Great that changes will be made to the artery so that traffic can move faster, but would like to see more quantitative analysis to determine the impact from each of the proposed steps; Bruce Eggan 404 Jackson Avenue So.  Allowing passenger train along Highway 100 would reduce traffic in Edina but there is a law against it right now. Two handouts included “Minnesota Commuter Railroad LLC” and “Do you want passenger train service in Edina? It will not happen.” Pat Donahue 4003 Sunnyside Road  Speed bumps on Sunnyside, close to the Convention Grill, seems like it will inhibit the flow of traffic coming off of France onto Sunnyside going west. The same inconsiderate people driving 40 mph eastbound past his driveway will still achieve this speed. Chandra Hammond 4150 W. 44th Street  Choker and Central Island narrowing off of France will not do much to slow down drivers as they are heading toward Wooddale and Grimes;  A sidewalk between Wooddale and Grimes will not do much; a crosswalk would be a much better alternative;  A speed bump on either side of the park in both of the east and westbound lane would help to slow down traffic. Mark Horton 4202 Branson Street  Heard a lot of comments about reduction of speed on various streets. Have you considered reducing the speed limit? The ETC should recommend that Edina has the ability to at least change the speed limit so they have the options to reduce speed limits in some areas;  Would address at least two study goals: reduce diversion of traffic through neighborhoods and keep speeds at or below limits; John Gordon 4505 Browndale Avenue  Thanked the ETC for undertaking this task.  May see potential hostility unless you can show quantitatively how people will be affected;  Understanding what the term realigned intersections means would be helpful;  Unclear what effects the traffic humps close to intersections will have; “If serious about reducing speeds,” seems more stop signs would be more effective and cheaper, as well as electronic speed monitors. 7 Lance Silverman 4519 Edina Blvd  Thanks for convening meeting and appreciate the amount of time commissioners and staff has put into this;  There appears to be a lack of understanding exactly what things do; a speed bump will not hurt your back if you go over it at the speed limit;  15% going over the speed limit is a lot of cars;  There is a lack of information as to what the measures do and this information should be available because these measures have been around a long time;  Middle of the block is where speeding occur so put speed bumps there. Kris Johnson 4103 Morningside Road  Lives on the morning race track drop off for Golden Years; impossible to get out of driveway, especially during snowstorm because they slide through the intersection;  Speed bumps were put in at the high school to slow the traffic and while going the speed limit, students driving SUVs above the speed limit were passing her while going over the speed bumps so she questions their effectiveness. Vince Bongaarts 4243 Crocker Avenue  Retired police officer (27 yrs.) and was the traffic safety coordinator, city of Edina;  Agrees with 50th & France proposals  Regarding Morningside and Country Club, need to do a better job of determining where traffic is coming from. Can use traffic counters, place them at every entrance and exit in the Country Club area and run checks to see where flow is coming from and going to; may be surprised to see more flow from this area than is cutting through;  Best time to do counts is Tuesday to Thursday, covers school, meetings, etc. (did the city’s traffic counts from 1996 to 2005); should run for at least three days; what was run recently by staff (24-36 hrs) is not good enough to tell average daily speed;  Parkwood Hills area was studied and was able to tell what was coming and going; this is much more effective than license plates study; Wooddale being a collector street sees traffic from south Edina going to north Edina and into St. Louis Park, it is used by residents from Country Club, Morningside and other areas; if you do not know the residence of the license plates, it is not effective;  Changes in 1993 diverted traffic from Browndale to Edina Blvd; Wooddale diverted traffic to Drexel;  Staff has been working on this for years;  Stores in St. Louis Park are much more accessible than those at 50th & France;  Traffic today has not increased any more since 1999/2000;  Perception of speed is what the driver feels comfortable with even though he is aware of the speed limit; challenged those in attendance to drive 30 mph when going home from the meeting – “it can’t be done;”  Sunnyside and Edina Blvd does have higher speeds than rest of area;  The 85th percentile is interpreted to mean that if 85% of the drivers are going at a certain speed, that speed is considered a good speed for everyone;  To reduce speed to 25 mph, the entire state needs to reduce to prevent confusion;  Talk with residents of Kenwood and Richfield where speed bumps were installed and were removed shortly after installation; 8  Will be swamped with requests from the rest of Edina for realignment, etc. and he does not want to be assessed for them;  Fix 50th & France, leave the Morningside and Country Club area as they are, they will survive; Kristi Anderson 4140 W. 44th Street  How will you weigh public comments?  Will the commission alter any of the report based on comments received?  Is one week sufficient time to review comments? Commissioners will receive comments weekly so by the time of the meeting everyone will be aware of comments made; not sure what alterations will be made, but will use the NTMP to deal with individual effects.  Is there a process for altering the report? It is usually altered at every meeting. Bradley Benyas 4200 Lynn Avenue  Pleased to see amount of attention given to main arteries;  What are combined measures and realigned intersections? Combined measures require a street 30-ft wide; it is a combination of measures such as shrubs, center island median and different paved brick. The approach to the plan is to impact the most amounts of drivers at the best locations which are the entry point of the perimeters to slow speeds and to let them know they are entering a neighborhood. The locations shown are not exactly where the measures will be; they are aware that changes will have to be made when they enter the design phase. Travel lanes would be realigned at the intersections by narrowing them down and making them one-way. Speed bumps are small and usually used in parking lots in commercial developments; speed humps are more gradual and if you are going the speed limit you will not bottom out your car.  Logic of restrictor at every entry is faulty; these measures would not stop him from cutting through so questions the logic;  Any measure taken will not stop speeding; questions the number of measures, seems disproportionate in the Country Club area compared to the Morningside;  How will cost and assessment be distributed?  Is the plan subject to being refined and then shown again? This is the third draft plan and the final report after the public comment will be sent directly to the Council. They will consider making a recommendation to Council where cost is concerned (they do have a policy in place for assessments); Karen Tully 4619 Bruce Avenue  Based on applause, should put a moratorium on this until changes are made at 50th & France, Highway 100 and the Browndale Bridge to see what impact they will have;  Maybe you should focus on the Country Club residents and when they know it is going to hit their pocketbooks maybe they’ll slow down;  Does not want to see speed bumps in the neighborhood;  Cut through has always been a problem and they’ve lived with it;  Have not seen a major increase in traffic in 40 years; Heidi Brandenburg 4620 Browndale Avenue 9  Business owner at 50th & France;  Seconded the comments that were made earlier;  Can go over the narrow Browndale Bridge, go over hump, narrow realigned intersection and pass over four speed bumps to make it home; not appealing  Get 50th & France ironed first, this has a huge impact on the neighborhood; the roads cannot be made wider; why do they keep building bigger and taller buildings there; even with underground parking, the residents will have visitors;  Many days 491/2 is completely blocked with traffic in the evenings because people are already diverting; Spud Carpenter 4356 Oakdale Avenue  Not a fan of speed bumps; please review and minimize how many you install;  Will the October meeting be closed?  Might there be a third option such as delaying doing anything;  Highway 100 should be completed by October, how might this impact what will happen?  2-3 studies done so far; do not see the urgency in this one;  No one has talked about enforcement; maybe this will deter people from cutting through;  Do not fully understand the cost; community will want to know this;  Thanks for your efforts. Scott Busyn 5018 Arden Avenue  Commendable effort by the ETC;  Slowing down based on Highway 100 project; there is a 20-unit building going up at 52nd & France which will increase traffic in his neighborhood;  Wait until 50th & France is developed;  Any reason for studying north of 50th? Based on taskforce recommendation from 1999;  Would like to get word out to his neighbors;  There are no sidewalks in his neighborhood; there is a petition on file for sidewalks but haven’t heard anything from city; Sherrilyn Mahowald 4330 W. 42nd Street  Arterials are not adequate;  Traffic calming will shift traffic in neighborhoods and “push traffic around”;  Problem will be pushed around if no good arterial exist. John Cracraft 4227 Alden Drive  Against speed bumps;  Reduce speed limit (was 20 mph when he grew up in Morningside);  Clearly marked crosswalk at Kojetin Park at 44th would help to slow traffic. Wanninger wrapped the public hearing by reminding attendees that written comments can be sent in until August 31. 10 Meeting adjourned at 9:25 a.m. NOTE: Bold fonts in the body of comments reflect changes that were approved by the ETC at the August 18 meeting.