08-24-11 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES CITY COUNCIL AUGUST 24, 2011 concerned about the lot filling up quickly, and asked about capacity at other park and ride locations. Rimstad noted the park and ride at 35W/County Road C. He indicated that users for the Little Canada park and ride would come primarily from the north and east, as riders do not typically backtrack to access a park and ride. Blesener asked the capacity at the Rosedale lot and the 35W /County Road C lot. Rimstad indicated that 35W/County Road C was 480 spaces, but was not sure about the Rosedale capacity. McGraw asked what criteria was used to drive the development of this park and ride. McGraw indicated that it appears the 61 /C lot and the 35W/C lot have adequate capacity for the area. Keis noted that there is also a park and ride at Maplewood Mall. Rimstad reported that forecasting is done and some of the information used involves surveying who is using existing parking and ride facilities to determine where customers are coming from. Rimstad also indicated that usage has almost doubled in the last few years. Rimstad stated that there is strong demand for park and rides in this area, with customers coming from the north and the east. McGraw asked how Metro Transit guesstimates how many drivers will use the County Road B /Rice Street park and ride. McGraw indicated that the proposed facility would make more sense to him if the 35W /C park and ride were at capacity. Rimstad responded that Metro Transit does forecasting and then plans for facilities into the future so that it does not end up short capacity. Blesener suggested that constructing the park and ride is to some extent an encouragement to drivers to utilize the facility. He noted Metro Transit's plans to construct this facility a few years ago, but given St. Jude's opposition due to the condition of the Rice Street /Highway 36 bridge, the project did not move forward at that time. Blesener noted that SEH has done a traffic study relative to the impact of the park and ride on traffic in this area. Roger Plumb, SEH, reviewed the results of their traffic study which was based on traffic modeling that included traffic from the future St. Jude expansion and traffic that would be generated from the park and ride. Plumb indicated that the results of that study indicate that there will be no traffic capacity problems through 2033. Blesener noted that he reviewed the study which indicates that entrances and exits will never be below a "D" rating. Blesener stated that while the traffic study is favorable, he would have preferred that the reconstructed bridge was operational for awhile before the park and ride was proposed. Blesener noted that the traffic study that was submitted a few years ago, prior to bridge 6