City Council Workshop

Blaine City Hall City of Blaine 10801 Town Sq Dr NE Blaine, MN 55449 Anoka County, Minnesota Minutes - Final City Council Workshop Thursday, June 1, 2017 6:30 PM Cloverleaf Farm Room A NOTICE OF WORKSHOP MEETING 1 Call to Order The meeting was called to order by Mayor Ryan at 6:30 p.m. 2 Roll Call Quorum Present. ALSO PRESENT: City Manager Clark Arneson; Planning and Community Development Director Bryan Schafer; Finance Director Joe Huss; Police Chief/Safety Services Manager Chris Olson; Public Services Manager/Assistant City Manager Bob Therres; City Engineer Jean Keely; Economic Development Coordinator Erik Thorvig; Assistant City Engineer Dan Schluender; City Attorney Patrick Sweeney; Communications Technician Roark Haver; Senior Engineering Technician Al Thorp; and City Clerk Catherine Sorensen. Present: 6 - Councilmember Hovland, Councilmember King, Councilmember Garvais, Councilmember Jeppson, Mayor Ryan, and Councilmember Swanson Absent: 1 - Councilmember Clark 3 New Business 3-1 WS 17-36 2016 CAFR/AUDIT REVIEW Finance Director Huss stated representatives from Redpath & Company were in attendance to review the 2016 CAFR and Audit with the Council. Peggy Moeller, Redpath & Company, Ltd., discussed the City’s 2016 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) and the auditing process in detail. Ms. Moeller commented on the Internal Control, the audit process, and the new auditing standards that are forthcoming and reported the City received a clean or unmodified opinion. She noted the City received the 2015 GFOA award for Excellence in Financial Reporting. She reviewed the City’s General Fund balance, along with other required reports. City Manager Arneson reported Redpath & Company works for the City City of Blaine Page 1 City Council Workshop Minutes - Final June 1, 2017 Council and any questions or comments regarding the audit should be presented directly to them. Finance Director Huss reported Ms. Moeller would be providing a short presentation of the audit at the City Council meeting. Mayor Ryan thanked Ms. Moeller for her thorough report. Discussed 3-2 WS 17-37 TRAFFIC STUDY FOR 129TH AVENUE City Engineer Keely explained the Council directed staff to hire a third-party consultant to study the operations of 129th Avenue with regard to neighborhood concerns over traffic speed from the TH 65 East Frontage Road to Radisson Road. She reported the study reviewed roadway design, traffic signing, traffic volume and speed and developed future traffic volumes on this roadway when 129th Avenue is ultimately connected to Lexington Avenue. She stated traffic counts and vehicle speeds were monitored and reviewed and traffic volumes were within the limits for a collector street but vehicle speeds were elevated particularly during the weekday peak hours of 7 to 8 AM and 3 to 7 PM. Ms. Keely outlined the following recommendations made in the study: 1. Install a white edge line to create a shoulder in the median areas. 2. Install a yellow edge/center line adjacent to both sides of the medians to create an 11-foot traffic lane. 3. Prohibit parking in the median areas. 4. Increase enforcement at the critical time periods. 5. Install crosswalk pavement marking to legally establish the midblock crosswalk. City Engineer Keely requested the Council provide direction to staff on the implementation of the traffic study recommendations. Mayor Ryan stated it was hard to believe the traffic in this area will double in future years. Councilmember King asked if this information would be reviewed by the Traffic Commission. City Engineer Keely stated the Traffic Commission would be reviewing this information on June 6th. Councilmember Hovland arrived at the meeting at 7:00 p.m. Councilmember King questioned if Segment 2 meets the City’s current street regulations. City Engineer Keely explained the sidewalk in the median was a concern raised by residents. Public Services Manager/Assistant City Manager City of Blaine Page 2 City Council Workshop Minutes - Final June 1, 2017 Therres indicated the City has since changed its policies for collector streets. Planning and Community Development Director Schafer discussed the setbacks on Segment 2 and commented on how this impacted the roadway. Councilmember Garvais asked when this roadway would be reconstructed. City Engineer Keely stated this roadway has very little traffic and was in excellent condition. She anticipated it would not be reconstructed for quite some time. Further discussion ensued regarding the City’s assessment policy. Discussed 3-3 WS 17-38 105TH AVENUE UPDATE City Manager Arneson stated at the May 4, 2017 Council Workshop, City Council asked that design information from the 105th Avenue reconstruction project be brought back to a Council Workshop. Staff reviewed a technical memorandum from WSB, the City’s Consulting Engineer, hired in 2014 to design and prepare construction plans for this project. The memorandum dated April 7, 2015 was prepared to explain the safety benefits and attempt to reduce speeds with the design layout that includes the existing traffic signal at Davenport Street and a roundabout at each main entrance to the National Sports Center. City Manager Arneson explained that the final bonding bill of the Legislature has been approved and in anticipation of receiving the $3.2 million from the Legislature a Council action item is on tonight’s Council meeting agenda to authorize the project to be advertised to start the bidding process in order to start construction in August of 2017 after the USA Cup Tournament. Staff presented a short video that provided a visual of the proposed roadway with the lane narrowing, pedestrian underpass and roundabouts. It was noted the pedestrian underpass would cost the City an additional $1.4 million. He indicated if the Council elects to pursue the pedestrian underpass the project would have to be put on hold until the spring of 2018. Councilmember Jeppson asked if the left turn lane into the proposed Kwik Trip would need to be added to the engineering plans and therefore delay construction. City Engineer Keely reported the plans have been revised and resubmitted to MnDOT to reflect this change. Councilmember Hovland questioned the width of the pedestrian tunnel. Assistant City Engineer Schluender explained the tunnel would be 10 feet wide. Councilmember Hovland stated he feared the tunnel would be extremely congested and would bottleneck with pedestrian traffic. Councilmember Swanson discussed the requirements within the bonding bill City of Blaine Page 3 City Council Workshop Minutes - Final June 1, 2017 and stated if the Council were to change direction additional signoffs would be required and the City would have to declare its funding sources. Councilmember King stated the City did not have the funds available for the pedestrian underpass. City Manager Arneson reported this was the case and that the City would have to bond for $1.4 million. Councilmember Swanson indicated he did not want to delay this project any further by altering the plans for fear of losing the State funding. Councilmember Garvais explained the City had the money for this project and supported the project being altered in order to make it better even if this meant there would be a short delay. Mayor Ryan thanked the local legislators for all of their assistance and discussed the process that had been pursued in order to receive State funding. He said it was his opinion the additional $1.4 million for the pedestrian underpass should not be the responsibility of Blaine taxpayers and stated this expense should be the burden of the NSC. Councilmember Swanson stated he was not convinced of the need for a pedestrian tunnel, especially given the fact the NSC was moving more of their fields to the north. City Manager Arneson indicated the fields to the north would not be ready for another two years. Councilmember King questioned the life of the new roadway. Assistant City Engineer Schluender estimated new roadways had a life expectancy of 20 years. Councilmember King supported the City spending $1.5 million in order to improve the safety of the 105th Avenue corridor. He stated he believed this was the right thing to do and anticipated the City would not have the opportunity to add a pedestrian tunnel at a later date. Assistant City Engineer Schluender stated in the future the only option would be to add a pedestrian overpass. He provided further comment on the proposed pedestrian underpass and noted the NSC has no trail system to drive pedestrian traffic to this amenity. Councilmember Jeppson stated she was having a really hard time with this decision. She indicated she would be beside herself if a child were to get hurt on this corridor and therefore supported the project being completed with a pedestrian underpass. Councilmember Hovland stated at this time he did not support the elevated roadway with the underpass. Mayor Ryan indicated he has attended the USA Cup every year. He discussed City of Blaine Page 4 City Council Workshop Minutes - Final June 1, 2017 how traffic flowed in and out of the site and noted players were driven to the fields and remained on that same side of 105th Avenue for their games. Councilmember Jeppson asked if the western roundabout would have a crosswalk across the National Sports Center’s driveway. Assistant City Engineer Schluender stated a crosswalk was not planned because there were no sidewalks to connect with. Discussed 3-4 LEVER STREET IMPROVEMENTS - ASSESSMENT POLICY This item was discussed during Item 12.3 on the City Council agenda. Discussed during Item 12.3.. ADJOURN The Workshop was adjourned at 7:31 p.m. Adjourned City of Blaine Page 5