02-09-2000 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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Honorable Mayor and City Council February 4, 2000 Page Two There are several design issues that require further discussion either at or after the public hearing. A brief discussion of each of these issues is as follows: 1. Venetian Inn property. The road alignment and scope of the improvements laid out in the County feasibility study would require additional easement or right -of -way be acquired from the Venetian Inn property. The amount of the easement necessary would likely result in entire taking of the property because it would restrict the parking for the business substantially. We have looked at an alternative alignment, on a temporary basis, which would curve the road slightly to the north and build it within the existing right -of -way. The south curb line would be approximately 0.5 feet away from the Venetian Inn north property line. This raises two issues: (1) the ability of the Venetian Inn and /or the City to plow snow without interfering with each other; (2) the future cost to reconstruct this portion of the roadway to its original design concept. We will have an estimated cost for this at Wednesday's meeting. 2. Bike lanes. The proposed street section includes a six -foot bike lane on each side of the roadway the entire length of Little Canada Road. In areas where it is relatively difficult to construct the proposed road improvements and sidewalks adjacent to the existing business it may be appropriate to discuss elimination of the bike lanes in an effort to fit everything into the available right -of -way. These bike lanes are made up of 18" of concrete gutter and 4% -feet of bituminous paving. Approximately four -feet of the bituminous paving could be eliminated from each side reducing the total street width by eight -feet. 3. Sidewalks. The proposal, as mentioned previously, calls for a sidewalk along the entire north side of Little Canada Road and a portion of the south side. Again, where it is difficult to install all of the improvements within the existing right -of -way another consideration would be to eliminate the sidewalk at least temporarily. In front of the Thunder Bay Plaza and Round Lake Plaza, as it is currently laid out, sidewalk would cause the removal of all the existing trees in this area At the informational meeting there was some discussion of whether or not to move the sidewalk to the south side of the road. This raises the question of where would the pedestrians cross the road to get to the sidewalks since the majority of the housing units are on the north side of the road. With some of the residential properties still being used on the south side of Little Canada Road west of the railroad tracks, it would also be difficult to get the sidewalk along the entire length of the south side of the road. 4. Right Turn Lanes. Again, as mentioned previously, there are right turn lanes in the proposed layout between Rice Street and The railroad tracks at major intersections. Consideration could be given to eliminating the right turn lanes thereby reducing the total width of the street section and hopefully allowing more room for sidewalks and boulevards beyond the curb line. O: \PROJ \805750J \0060 \Its 2 -4 -00 ct rcI r, „ oany cc Page 15 me