04/22/1996 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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COUNCIL MEETING APRIL 22, 1996 the pedestrian traffic concerns the best because it is centrally located within the group of people needing to access the school site. Mr. Mitchell said that the 80 pedestrian count was generated by the school and was generated from a one mile radius of the middle school. It does take Second Avenue pedestrian travel into account. He explained that Option D is undesirable because there are two (2) left turns that are not signalized. The Neighborhood Business zone shown on Option F, located between the existing Elm Street and the new Elm Street, will access the new Elm Street. It is very unlikely that MnDOT or Anoka County, which ever has jurisdiction, will allow a driveway accessing Lake Drive. The safest point to place that driveway on Elm Street is at a four (4) way stop sign rather to introduce a driveway somewhere else on Elm Street. With regard to vehicles per day, the 1200 vehicles per day is a projection of vehicles that will be on Elm Street if the middle school was not built. This traffic is going to be there even if the middle school is not built. Mr. Mitchell said that he is projecting an additional 400 to 500 vehicles on Elm Street west of Gray Heron Drive that would be associated with the middle school traffic. These vehicles are going to be primarily associated with the residential areas north of Lake Drive (Highway 49), east of Sunset Road and south of Elm Street. Mr. Weigold asked what happened to the 2000 vehicles per day that was mentioned. Mr. Mitchell said that there are 1500 to 2000 vehicles per day that are generated by the middle school. The majority of those vehicles will go east to Lake Drive. Mr. Weigold asked if the City will accept changes to the new Option F because this Option has been entered in the eleventh hour. He said there are some good merits to this Option that are better than any other option. Mayor Landers said that there will be no decision made on this matter tonight. The City Council is only taking public input this evening. A decision will be made on May 13, 1996. Mr. Weigold asked if the City Council will accept public input on this Option between now and May 13th. Mayor Landers said that if the City Council feels that there has been enough public input, the public hearing will be closed tonight. Mr. Weigold said that he asked the people about this Option F. They did say that there could be some merit to it but added that the Option F has Gray Heron lining up with the exit driveway for school buses on Elm Street. The residents say that this is the major "holdback" of this plan but there are other things that can be done on site to get the buses exiting east onto the new portion of Elm Street. Mr. Weigold said that this is the major issue that got the entire issued "fired up" back in early February. Council Member Kuether said that she would not vote for anything that has the buses coming onto Elm Street. Mayor Landers said that he could not answer Mr. Weigold's question because that may mean further neighborhood meetings. Mr. Ahrens said that he would have to talk to the School District officials because changing this driveway would have a major impact on their site. He said that this matter could be talked about when all options are considered and a staff recommendation is prepared. Mr. Ahrens said that if a neighborhood meeting is needed to talk about this portion of Option F, he could get one scheduled. Mr. Weigold said that if OSM, City Officials and the School District want Option F, then other options need not be discussed. If there is merit to this option for the PAGE 32