Corridor Improvement Authority

CITY OF STERLING HEIGHTS CORRIDOR IMPROVEMENT AUTHORITY MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL MEETING MARCH 14, 2007 – 5:30 P.M. CITY CENTER – ROOM 201 Dan Crombez called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. Members present at roll call: Daniel Crombez, Salvatore D’Angelo, Denice Gerstenberg, Pat Lehman, Mary Marcinak and Rose Tocco Members absent: Douglas Skrzyniarz (excused) Also in attendance: Michael Bartholomew, City Development Director; Gary Tressel, Senior Associate from HRC; Mike McDonald from HRC; Luke Bonner, Economic Development Manager; Jim Buhlinger, City Treasurer; Kimberly Stulz, Recording Secretary Motion to Approve the Agenda Moved by Marcinak, supported by Gerstenberg, to approve the agenda as presented. Ayes: All Nays: None Motion carried. Motion to Approve the February 14, 2007 Minutes Moved by Marcinak, supported by Lehman, to approve the minutes from February 14, 2007. Ayes: All Nays: None Motion carried. Motion to open discussion on Corridor Improvement Authority improvement project Discussion: Mr. Bonner introduced Gary Tressel from HRC as doing the traffic study and recommendations for the improvement project. Mr. Tressel stated that he has been in the business for 40 years and has done private & public projects similar to this one. His main duty was to develop a boulevard in this designated area. First, he tried a narrow boulevard with a 12ft median. There were too many problems including driveway access control and consolidation of driveways. Traffic needing to get to the N.E. quadrant would have to go through the round about potentially causing revenue loss. Ms. Gerstenberg pointed out that this was a conceptual idea and though this was the most cost effective option of around $1,000,000, this was not a workable solution. Mr. Tressel then showed a revised concept. This one would salvage a lot of the pavement and add a lane on each side of the road. This would allow the city to build under traffic and there would be the same access during the construction as before. The median would be 36’ wide and allow U turns. One set of lights could be placed into the median and the property owners would be able to supplement the landscaping with complimentary lights. In the corridor there will be plenty of storage area and no longer a direct left hand turn from Utica Road. Mr. Tressel said no driveways would be loss or have to be consolidated. There will be 9 feet plus the sidewalk, which is a total of around 14 feet for ancillary landscaping. It’s possible to have a grass strip with a bench that backs up to the roadway for a pedestrian rest area. The cost for the boulevard alone would be around $3,000,000. Ms. Marcinak asked if this price includes up to Hall Road. Mr. Tressel said it was only to Triangle Drive and the Utica portion would be around $4- 500,000. Mr. Tressel said that this could be done in phases if the cost was too much. Ms. Marcinak asked if the CIA could get a fine tuned number on the cost for Utica’s portion of the road. Mr. Crombez asked if the median was an important factor. He thought it was nice for the retail area of the district but not for the light industrial. He had a concern about the traffic volume, speed and access to the driveways. Mr. Tressel again stressed this is only conceptual and after preliminary traffic studies direct access and turn arounds would be addressed directly and the accident history on these boulevards a greatly reduced. He stated that at another project they placed address signs at the turn arounds to direct drivers on which turn around they should use. It has been most effective for that redevelopment. Ms. Tocco, Mr. Crombez & Ms. Marcinak were in agreement that the volume of traffic, speed and back-ups were a huge concern of theirs. Ms. Gerstenberg asked if the new boulevard addressed the issues of traffic calming and the board was an agreement that it did. Ms. Marcinak asked if the approaches would be paved and Mr. Tressel said yes. Mr. Tressel stated that the lights in the middle would allow fewer poles needed with just adding an additional fixture to the poles, this could save around ½ the cost. Ms. Marcinak was concerned about the 19 Mile traffic and traffic light. Mr. Tressel stated that it’s ideal to make right to left turns and that the traffic light could remain for only one side to let the 19 Mile traffic get through. Directional crossovers can be added. Ms. Gerstenberg informed everyone that this type of boulevard can hold around 45,000 car traffic volume and right now there is about 20,000 going through there. Mr. Bonner interjected that he believes this accomplishes the goals that the CIA had about traffic control and making a more dramatic effect on the corridor. Mr. Tressel stated that the preliminary traffic study would address the concerns of the traffic problem at 19 Mile. Ms. Lehman asked whether it included the round about. Ms. Gerstenberg said that the study would include the entire configuration of the current traffic pattern and round about. Mr. Bonner said the other component is the financing. This will add to the original 5 million improvements that were identified in the development plan and a 1 million bond was approved in the budget along with a 2.8 million dollar grant that may or may not happen. He suggested we move forward with a realistic cost estimate of the overall project costs. Ms. Lehman and Ms Marcinak disagreed. Ms. Gerstenberg let everyone know that there is only 1 million dollars for the use of construction costs and the grant can only be used for landscaping and lighting. Mr. Bonner stated that with revenue based on inflation, only 1 million would be available and $200,000 of that is for engineering and the 1st phase improvement. Ms. Marcinak wanted to know if there was a way to get more money. Mr. Bonner agreed there was and that the CIA can accept money from multitude of sources including the general fund where the CIA would pay back upon agreement between the city and CIA. Ms. Marcinak and Ms. Lehman agreed that we should petition money from the general fund. Mr. Bartholomew said that we should get exactly what we need and not to compromise to just be able to hurry up the process. His recommendation was to put together a complete plan with numbers and then say this is what we want to do with the $1 million dollars. Ms. Lehman and Ms. Marcinak stated that they wanted the entire boulevard to be the 1st phase. And the landscaping and lighting could be the 2nd and 3rd phase if need be. Mr. Bonner let everyone know that there are upcoming projects that he was not able to discuss at this time that have the possibility of generating more revenue. We would provide incentives to the projects and in return they would support the improvement authority with its improvement plan. Ms. Gerstenberg stated there is a plan already in place that would require businesses to do their part in the improvement authority. Ms. Lehman asked HRC if this would be bided out. Mr. Tressel stated that it would not be and the cost they were giving us was from their knowledge of the average unit prices for this type of work. They would also include a contingency at the end that would include inflation if the project were put in phases. The board agreed that this portion of the meeting was not a motion but an item of the agenda and therefore, no motion was put on the table. Therefore another more related motion was introduced. Motion to direct Gary Tressel of HRC to proceed with the boulevard plan with specifics of putting in an additional lane on each side of the boulevard, widening the median, creating indirect crossovers and relevant cost estimates Moved by Marcinak, supported by Lehman, to have HRC proceed with the boulevard plan with specifics of putting in an additional lane on each side, widening the median, creating indirect crossovers and relevant cost estimates. Ayes: All Nays: None Motion Carried. Discussion on DTE Update Mr. Bonner started out by letting the CIA know that a DTE engineer would not be assigned to this project until April and that Gary Tressel has a better handle on what the cost would be for underground utilities. Mr. Tressel stated he had a project he did in 1995/96 that was around 2.8 million dollars. In today’s dollar it would be around 4-5 million dollars. Ms. Marcinak asked if we could just move the poles to the back of the businesses. Mr. Tressel said it’s possible and in the long run may be better but you run into the problem of service points. They will all have to be redone. This would cost around 1 and half to 2 million dollars. Ms. Tocco said that in Florida they have concrete poles that look very nice. Ms. Marcinak thought there were too many poles in the area now and asked why so many. Mr. Tressel stated they are usually spaced every 130 feet and it all depends on the number of wires and voltage. He said that building a major duct band for the utilities would be a great undertaking. It’s extremely expensive including the conversion of the gas and water. Mr. Bonner stated that buying easements would most likely be an added cost. Mr. Tressel said that removing the current poles and replacing them with the steel or concrete poles and having the lines higher (not below 30 feet) may solve the problem since the poles right now are in direct line of sight. The board liked this as a possible option. Ms. Gerstenberg stated that when the engineering department sits down to discuss this with them they would request all of the different scenarios and pricing. Ms. Marcinak said that we should also look into eliminating the ones that are not really necessary. Public Comments Ms. Lehman wanted to know why we weren’t addressing the 14 to 15 Mile Road stretch. That this is the other area where there isn’t a boulevard. She said that there’s no point in waiting for MDOT to eliminate the Jersey turn. Ms. Gerstenberg let her know that MDOT has no intension of creating a boulevard or removing the Jersey turn. Mr. Bonner said that if we were to consider that area a whole new authority would have to be put together because it requires the residents and property owners in that area to be involved. Ms. Gerstenberg stated that unless we extended it from Triangle to 14 Mile. Mr. Bonner was not in agreement with that for the reason that it would include the inflationary and future growth including Ford and Chrysler, taking hundreds of millions of dollars away from the general fund. Ms. Lehman thought we should consider this since attracting new business to the Van Dyke area involves the entire city. Mr. Bonner introduced anther tool called the LDFA (Local Development Finance Authority) which operates similar to the CIA but is more site specific which you can include adjacent public infrastructure and would be contingent of the redevelopment of the old TRW building. Ms. Lehman expressed her interest in getting this program implemented asking Mr. Bonner to look into it. Mr. Bonner thought that in the next month or so that certain districts could be chosen and to watch the City Council for updates. Ms. Marcinak asked to be notified directly by Mr. Bonner when such a thing happens. Adjournment Moved by Crombez, supported by Marcinak to adjourn. Ayes: All Nays: None Motion carried. The meeting adjourned at 6:45 p.m. KDS