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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016-02-18 MinutesDraft Minutes☐ Approved Minutes☒ Approved Date: 3/17/2016 1 Minutes City of Edina, Minnesota Transportation Commission Council Chambers February 18, 6:00 p.m. I. Call To Order Chair Bass called the meeting to order. II. Roll Call Answering roll call were members Bass, Boettge, Iyer, LaForce, Loeffelholz, Janovy, Nelson, and Olson. Absent at roll call were members Ding, Ruehl and Spanhake. III. Approval Of Meeting Agenda Motion was made by member Janovy and seconded by member Iyer approving the meeting agenda. All voted aye. Motion carried. IV. Approval Of Meeting Minutes Motion was made by member Nelson and seconded by member Boettge approving the edited Jan. 21, 2016 minutes. All voted aye. Motion carried. V. Special Recognitions And Presentations A. Grandview District Transportation Study Update Mr. Mike Fisher with LHB, Ms. Zabe Bent with Nelson/Nygaard, and Mr. Colin Harris with Alta Planning presented the study update. Mr. Fisher briefly mentioned the project history and then spoke about the role of the transportation study in terms of what transportation needs to do to make the framework work. He said they’ve received feedback over the course of several meetings from residents, business owners, City and agency staff and the ETC, and is ready to present their draft near term, mid-term and long term suggestions for review and feedback. He said their draft includes housing density up to 120 units per acre and they need to identify when the transportation system would stop accommodating this level of density. Ms. Bent presented existing transportation network conditions including streets, traffic signals and stop signs, traffic counts, parking, sidewalks, crosswalk and curb ramps, bicycle network, and bicycle level of traffic stress. She said some streets have more traffic than others and some road diets could be done to shift traffic. She said while they’ve heard many safety concerns, the incident levels are low but if few pedestrians or bikers are using the area streets this is to be expected. The presentation also covered land use including zoning, building footprints, potential for change, and land values, plus, transit network and transit ridership. She said there is a fair amount of existing transit routes but the schedule was not frequent or reliable as riders would like. Regarding parking, she said there are over 2,000 parking spaces which take up as much space as developed land in the area. Another concern is that street frontage is dominated by parking. ETC feedback included the following: • Briefing book was very thorough; • Transit ridership higher than expected; • Sidewalk stress level graphic that shows the experience was interesting; Draft Minutes☐ Approved Minutes☒ Approved Date: 3/17/2016 2 • Why did they include land value? To understand the connection between land value and transportation because the study is trying to support redevelopment and the long term vision of the Grandview area. Mr. Fisher said land value isn’t helpful now but it will be in the future when they work on urban design. • Suggestion to modify page 5 to reflect that a fair percentage of the community feel like they were not worked with. • Suggestion to add a bullet item about conversation with the railroad; • Suggestion to post document to the website; Planner Nolan said there is a Grandview Study webpage and some documents are already posted; Continuing with the presentation, Ms. Bent she they looked at what could be done if the framework did not exist and they came up with three sets of scenarios that are closely tied to the original framework. Then they identified what could be done immediately without permit or construction. Some things that can be within five years include a new crosswalk across Vernon Avenue at Wells Fargo to Jerry’s (may require a traffic signal); closing some of the free rights so that vehicles come to a complete stop, especially coming off TH-100 ramps; and changing the character on Vernon Avenue. Mid-term (5-15 years) suggestions were re-establishing travel patterns on Vernon Avenue with a road diet from four to three lanes; create a new intersection to meter speed; open access to neighborhoods at certain intersection; close one of the northbound ramp to TH-100; and move the northbound TH-100 exit ramp to Willson Road. Ms. Bent said some of the mid-to long term plans may not happen anytime soon but planning for them gives the City the opportunity to react when redevelopment takes place. Long term, the plan will show all the changes and connections including a pedestrian bridge and a new road but some of these cannot be done until redevelopment is taking place. Mr. Harris presented design options to accommodate cars, pedestrians, bikes and winter plowing. Chair Bass said she would prefer protected bike lane on Vernon Avenue because of the number of children that rides from there to school. Member Janovy said she is concerned with the Willson Road ramp because the children ride from Vernon Avenue to Willson Road. Ms. Bent said they can look at options to create a safe ride. Member Iyer expressed concern over not getting approval for a crosswalk at 66th Street. He said they should take a comprehensive look at the entire city. The following three suggestions were not part of the original framework: Willson Road ramp; fronting buildings along Vernon Avenue (instead of parking); and continuing Eden Avenue past the library rather than ending it at the parking lot. In conclusion, Ms. Bent said they are taking feedback until the end of February and requested that commissioners send feedback to planner Nolan. VI. Community Comment – None New commissioners Andy Brown and Lou Miranda introduced themselves. They will begin serving on the ETC Mar. 1. Draft Minutes☐ Approved Minutes☒ Approved Date: 3/17/2016 3 VII. Reports/Recommendations A. 2016 Work Plan Updates Chair Bass thanked commissioners for responding to a survey identifying which project they’ll champion. Planner Nolan will distribute the completed survey. B. Traffic Safety Report of Feb. 3, 2016 D.2. When does queuing in the street become an issue for the Planning Commission for enforcement? Or, is this a police issue? Commissioners recall having a conversation with the police and they did not believe enforcement was necessary. Planner Nolan said staff talked with Starbucks management and they were not willing to look at making changes. Member Janovy suggested creating an avenue for referring issues like these to the Planning Commission. Motion was made by chair Bass and seconded by member LaForce to forward the Feb. 3, 2016, Traffic Safety Report to City Council. All voted aye. Motion carried. C. Affirm the 2016 Transportation Commission Meeting Schedule Motion was made by member LaForce and seconded by member Janovy affirming the 2016 Transportation Commission Meeting Schedule. All voted aye. Motion carried. D. Review Transportation Commission Bylaws The bylaws were reviewed and will remain as is. Chair Bass suggested that they also review the code annually. E. Annual Elections Member Janovy nominated member LaForce to be chair and the nomination was seconded by member Olson. There were no other nominations. All voted aye. Motion carried. Member LaForce nominated member Loeffelholz to be vice-chair and the nomination was seconded by member Olson. There were no other nominations. All voted aye. Motion carried. The new positions take effect Mar. 1. VIII. Correspondence And Petitions – None. IX. Chair and Member Comments A. Traffic Safety Process Review Committee A motion was made by member Janovy to write an advisory communication to the City Council and that the ETC recommends forwarding the committee’s report to the City Council. The motion was seconded by member Laforce. All voted aye. Motion carried. A motion was made by member Janovy for the committee to continue its work and focus on items 1-5 and 7. The motion was seconded by member Iyer. All voted aye. Motion carried. Planner Nolan said next month, he’ll report on a new process for forwarding items to the City Council. He said if it is work plan related, the item will be presented as a report and recommendation on the City Council’s regular meeting agenda with a three minute presentation by a commissioner. Member Boettge said she was invited by the Mayor for a walk on Cornelia Drive with a resident who was not in favor of the sidewalk and by the end of the walk, the resident was resigned to it. She suggested using the survey to also rate how residents feel about trees or how much they value them. She said it seemed Draft Minutes☐ Approved Minutes☒ Approved Date: 3/17/2016 4 staff was bombarded with a lot of feedback from residents over the past few weeks. Planner Nolan said receiving feedback is part of staff’s responsibilities, although there was a higher than average number of resident inquiries for this project. Member Iyer suggested that commissioners consider rating themselves on last year’s Work Plan to see if they are making a difference. Regarding the Cornelia Avenue sidewalk, member Olson said he was surprised at how many residents were against a Safe Routes to School sidewalk and that it was back on the Council’s for reaffirmation. Planner Nolan said putting on the Council’s agenda for reaffirmation was staff’s idea because of the amount of negative feedback that Council and staff had recently began receiving. Member Nelson said he was contacted by a resident who lives on Olinger Blvd because there were two motor vehicle accidents at the same location near her property. He said her suggestion is to reduce the speed limit. This was forwarded to safety coordinator Totten. He said he is still concerned about not having a sidewalk from Valley Lane to and over the TH-62 Bridge because he continues to see pedestrians using the cow path. This being his last meeting, Member Nelson expressed his appreciation to the commissioners. Chair Bass and the commissioners thanked member Nelson for serving on the ETC. X. Staff Comments • Golf Terrace B Sidewalk – W. 56th Street residents were surveyed and based on feedback, the street will be 27-ft wide and parking on both sides; Woodland Road will be designed to accommodate a future sidewalk. • Oaklawn Avenue Sidewalk (2017) – an application was submitted for a Safe Routes to School grant; a public meeting was held on Jan. 28 but it was not well attended; the school district flyer announcing the meeting was not sent out; Three Rivers Park District is working directly with property owners next to the trail connection from this sidewalk to the Nine Mile Creek Trail on Parklawn Avenue. • Southdale France Avenue Area Transportation Study – A joint work session (special meeting tentative for Mar. 23) is scheduled for the ETC and the Planning Commission. A presentation will be made to the City Council and then to the public. • Pedestrian Bridge over TH-62 at Rosland Park – U of M students are studying this bridge for improvements; they are looking at the right-of-way, and a switch-back or spiral option; their report will be ready in May. • High school expansion – the school district was not supportive of aligning Chapel Lane with their western entrance; at last night’s City Council meeting, the recommendation was changed to include ‘unless another solution is agreed upon the school district and city will do a joint traffic study in 2018’ and the school district was favorable to the study. Next month, the TSC will begin evaluating the flasher at the Chapel Lane. XI. Calendar of Events A. Schedule of Meeting and Events as of Feb. 18, 2016 XII. Adjournment at 9:15 p.m. Draft Minutes☐ Approved Minutes☒ Approved Date: 3/17/2016 5 J F M A M J J A S O N D SM WS # of Mtgs Attendance % Meetings/Work Sessions 1 1 2 NAME TERM (Date) (Date) Bass, Katherine 3/1/2017 1 1 2 100% Boettge, Emily 3/1/2017 1 1 50% Iyer, Surya 3/1/2018 1 1 2 100% LaForce, Tom 3/1/2018 1 1 2 100% Loeffelholz, Ralf 3/1/2018 1 1 2 100% Janovy, Jennifer 3/1/2017 1 1 2 100% Nelson, Paul 3/1/2016 1 1 2 100% Olson, Larry 3/1/2017 1 1 2 100% Spanhake, Dawn 3/1/2017 1 1 50% Ding, Emily (student) 9/1/2016 0 0% Ruehl, Lindsey (student) 9/1/2016 1 1 50% TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION ATTENDANCE