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Home My WebLink About2015-09-17 Minutes1 MINUTES OF CITY OF EDINA, MINNESOTA TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION THINK MUTUAL BANK COMMUNITY ROOM 3655 HAZELTON ROAD SEPTEMBER 17, 2015 6:00 P.M. ROLL CALL Answering roll call were members Bass, Boettge, Ding, Iyer, Janovy, LaForce, Nelson, Olson, Ruehl, and Spanhake. ABSENT Loeffelholz APPROVAL OF MEETING AGENDA Motion was made by chair Bass to add new Item B. NovusAgenda Overview under Special Recognitions and Presentations and to reverse the items under Reports and Recommendation. The motion was seconded by member Olson to approve the amended meeting agenda. All voted aye. Motion carried. ADOPTION OF CONSENT AGENDA APPROVAL OF MEETING MINUTES - REGULAR MEETING OF AUGUST 20, 2015 Motion was made by member Janovy and seconded by chair Bass to pull the minutes from the Consent Agenda for discussion. All voted aye. Motion carried. Motion was made by member Nelson and seconded by member Laforce to approve the amended minutes of Aug. 20, 2015. All voted aye. Motion carried. SPECIAL RECOGNITIONS AND PRESENTATIONS Discussion with Edina Public Works Director Chair Bass welcomed public works director Olson and explained that their annual meeting with him was part of their work plan to learn how they could work together to support the City’s vision of more multi-modal transportation and the ETC’s plans or policies such as Living Streets, Active Routes to School and the Sidewalk Map. She asked director Olson what has gone well within the last year. Director Olson said public works and engineering are working well together to implement the PACS program. He said over the past year they’ve learned that installing a more expensive crosswalk actually saves money because it requires less maintenance and that they will need to increase their maintenance budget for sidewalks and streets. In reference to sidewalks, he said they are currently maintaining 55 miles of sidewalk and it takes at least two days for snow removal. Another challenge is sidewalks that are 4-ft wide or sidewalks without boulevards – the snow removal machine is 5-ft wide and sidewalks without boulevards do not have a place to store snow and they become snow covered again after the streets are plowed. He said they need at least two more machines and two staff to maintain current service levels if all sidewalks in the city were maintained by City crews, which will cost approximately $250-$300,000 (contracting out vs in-house is approximately the same cost). He said the recent Quality of Life survey showed Edina was ranked at the top out of 33 cities for street snow removal but not for sidewalks. Chair Bass suggested asking engineering staff to begin including maintenance costs in their engineering study along with reconstruction costs. Director Olson was asked how streets are selected for maintenance and he said engineering ranks the streets using a Pavement Condition Index software and the goal is to get at least 60 years out of every road. Theoretically, he said their goal is do sealcoating at year 7, mill and overlay at years 23 and 40, and reconstruction at year 60. He was asked if he believed the many garbage trucks deteriorated the streets and he said yes. Director Olson said one of the challenges they face is expectation from residents – the quicker staff completes tasks the more residents come to expect their performance will always be at this pace. He thanked the ETC for their support of the sign reflective policy and justification for the increased budget. 2 Overview of NovusAgenda by MJ Lamon City Project Coordinator MJ Lamon presented an overview of the new software, NovusAgenda that the City will be using for City Council and boards and commissions meeting agendas and reports. COMMUNITY COMMENT Mr. John Plotnicky, 5525 Kellogg Avenue, said he was in attendance pertaining to a traffic safety request for the Senior Center and library parking lot at Grandview Square that was recommended for denial by the Traffic Safety Committee (TSC). Mr. Plotnicky said because of the layout of the parking lot visibility is restricted when you are backing out which leads to at least 1-3 close collisions daily and there was one accident three weeks ago. He said the issue is having safe access to public facilities and he suggested realigning the parking lot with angular parking spaces but staff said this would reduce the number of spaces. He said the TSC reason for denial was that the hazard wasn’t significant and the parking lot was of standard design. REPORTS/RECOMMENDATIONS Traffic Safety Report of Sept. 2, 2015 A.1. Crosswalk will be on the south and west leg of the intersection. A.2. Planner Nolan will check to see if the 10 mph sign is being removed. B.1. Discussion ensued about the recommendation to have a 4-year restriction on same or similar traffic safety requests. The feeling was that residents would be turned away without a resolution and that it was important to track the number of times residents requested improvements for a certain intersection. Planner Nolan said the recommendation is similar to other communities. B.3. Should this be handled by the Planning Commission (PC) since they are responsible for parking lots? Planner Nolan said the TSC felt it was a safety issue. Also mentioned were PC deals with capacity not safety; the parking lot is at capacity; what can be done instead of denying the request; where does staff park; is the parking monitored to make sure it is not used as a park and ride; parking is adequate for regular use but becomes an issue when events are scheduled in the meeting rooms; why are there dedicated on-street parking for condo use. B.4. It was stated that this request has come up before and at some point a crosswalk should be added. Also noted was that the denial is inconsistent with another crosswalk that was approved and taking action to review and update the City’s crosswalk warrants policy to ensure it is consistent with the Living Streets plan. Planner Nolan was asked if a marked crosswalk would make it less safe for pedestrians and he said there are studies that show this can sometimes be the case. Member Nelson would like to see this continued instead of denied. D.5. Add more explanation for better understanding. Motion was made by member Iyer and seconded by member LaForce to postpone approval of B.1 pending review of the full TSC process by the end of 2015; move B.3 to C to determine if the TSC is the proper group to handle this request and address it in an integrated way; move B.4 to C; and for A.2 remove the 10 mph street sign and forward the amended September 2, 2015, TSC report to the City Council. All voted aye. Motion carried. 2016 Work Plan The 2016 Work Plan was reviewed and finalized. CORRESPONDENCE AND PETITIONS – None CHAIR AND MEMBER COMMENTS Participation in Open Streets on 50th Event Chair Bass said this event is scheduled for Sept. 27 and that Minneapolis extended the boundary on their side. She said the ETC will have a Living Streets table that she and member Spanhake will be helping with; other members volunteered to assist. Member Nelson invited members to an annual beer tasting on Oct. 15 at Braemar Golf Course. 3 Member Laforce said he saw a construction work sign placed in a bike lane and one placed on a sidewalk that could have been placed elsewhere so they do not impede travel. Planner Nolan said they are to take these things into consideration when placing the signs. He said he attended an urban design workshop and it was interesting how the presenter made a case for density because it increases the tax base and spreads it among more property owners. STAFF COMMENTS (Sept. 2015) • Planner Nolan gave an update on the 2015 reconstruction projects. • He handed out draft engineering reports for the 2106 projects for the ETC to review for October’s meeting; Morningside and White Oaks will be distributed in October. • Work began on the Interlachen Blvd sidewalk. • A $200,000 grant was received for the Cornelia Drive sidewalk scheduled for construction in 2016. • Four Requests for Proposals were received for the Grandview Transportation Study and three of the companies will be interviewed; chair Bass, staff and a member of the Planning Commission will conduct the interviews; City Council final approval is scheduled for Oct. 20. • Bids were opened for the Nine Mile Creek Trail for the section east of Tracy and tree removal will begin in Oct. • A grand opening for the Promenade is scheduled for Sept. 23 at 5 p.m. CALENDAR OF EVENTS Schedule of Upcoming Meetings/Dates/Events (distributed with packet) ADJOURNMENT Meeting adjourned. ATTENDANCE TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION ATTENDANCE J F M A M J* J A S O N D SM SM WS # of Mtgs Attendance % Meetings/Work Sessions 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 10 NAME TERM (Enter Date) (Enter Date) 6/17 Bass, Katherine 2/1/2017 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9 90% Boettge, Emily 2/1/2017 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 10 100% Ding, Emily 1 1 100% Iyer, Surya 3/1/2018 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9 90% LaForce, Tom 3/1/2018 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9 90% Loeffelholz, Ralf 3/1/2018 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 75% Janovy, Jennifer 2/1/2017 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9 90% Nelson, Paul 2/1/2016 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 10 100% Olson, Larry 3/1/2017 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9 90% Whited, Courtney 2/1/2015 1 1 100% Spanhake, Dawn 2/1/2016 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9 90% Ruehl, Lindsey 1 1 100% Rummel, Anna 9/1/2015 1 1 1 3 30% Campbell, Jack 9/1/2015 1 1 1 1 4 40% *cancelled