01/07/2008 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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Main Street Village page 10 planning issue that will require the attention of both County and City. It likely will require further improvements such as additional lanes on Main St. The plan includes an additional five feet of right of way dedicated for Otter Lake Road as well as a triangle for future needs at the Main St. intersection. This is shown on the plans. The site ultimately will have four access points: a right -in only slip ramp from Main St.; the existing access on Otter Lake Road north of the bank; a new access on Otter Lake Road north of the water tower; and the service road along I -35E. The internal circulation design has changed significantly since the concept plan discussion in early 2007. • The "slip ramp" into the site from Main St. was negotiated with the Anoka County Highway Dept. as part of the CSAH 14/8 improvement project and the I -35E interchange project. This access will allow vehicles to leave Main St. to enter the site, but not exit the site onto Main St. It will not pose a safety problem on Main St. The slip ramp route continues south and intersects with the existing bank access road. The plan shows the bank road ending in a "T" except for a driveway entrance to the larger retail building lot, L2 B2. The intersection has a stop in all four directions. Most of the traffic flows north and south. • Circulation in this area of the site has been the topic of extensive discussion. After meeting with the applicants, we received a sketched revision to the October plans. This shows a reconfiguration to the access to the large retail site (Lot 2, Block 2). Access to the coffee shop drive through windows would be through the lot's parking lot exclusively. That is, vehicles could not turn west out of the southern gas station driveway to go to the drive through window. This is an improvement to circulation in this location. It corrects a situation where coffee window patrons would be held up by vehicles leaving the gas station, which in turn would need to wait for vehicles stacked at the southbound stop sign. The revision eliminates concern with severe congestion at this point. Though its impact on the project is significant, the actual revision is a minor change to the plans. Staff instructed the applicant not to submit a full set of revised plan sheets until City and County staff could confer about the staging of roadway improvements. Unfortunately, County staff has not been able to meet with us yet. (We did receive new plans on January 3rd, as noted in the introduction to this report. The January 3 information includes the new layout.) • The May 2007 traffic study included vehicle movement counts. We learned later that two numbers at the CR 84 access (the bank road) were transposed in the submitted study. This data correction eliminated staff s concern for severe congestion for vehicles entering the site on the slip ramp from CSAH 14. • The existing access road along the north side of the bank will become right - in/right -out in the foreseeable future. Otter Lake Road will be reconstructed in this area in order to accommodate future traffic, and at that time a median will be created. It is possible that Anoka County could require that the existing access be converted to right - in/out with this • • •