#09 - Oak Land Middle School Minor Subdvision & CUP

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PUBLIC WORKS Wayne Sandberg, P.E., Director, County Engineer Frank D. Ticknor, P.E., Deputy Director August 28, 2024 Sophia Jensen City Planner City of Lake Elmo 3880 Laverne Avenue Lake Elmo, MN 55042 Oak-Land Middle School – Conditional Use Permit, Minor Subdivision, and Variance Application Dear Sophia, Thank you for the opportunity to review and comment on the application for the Oak-Land Middle School expansion, located along County State Aid Highway (CSAH) 15 (Manning Avenue) and adjacent to the intersection of CSAH 15 & CSAH 10 (10th St). The county thanks the City of Lake Elmo and the Stillwater School District for meeting with the county to discuss the expansion of the school that meets the community’s needs while also providing for safe transportation connections. The county will continue coordinating with the district and city on this expansion, but we have concerns with some of the design details. The plan proposes two new science classrooms, six general education classrooms, and a two-station gymnasium. According to the narrative, this would potentially increase the staff by 23 and add 210 students. The school is heavily dependent on vehicular transportation as the area largely lacks pedestrian connections, and the school is located within walking distance of a few residences. Despite recent investments in a traffic signal and additional length on the exit lanes, the school currently has issues with vehicles queuing along CSAH 15 and delays in exiting the site during peak times. Queuing on highway shoulders or turn lanes causes obstructed sight lines for drivers, the denial of left-in access during peak times, and incentivizes drivers to make U-turns to join the queue. Washington County is concerned that expanding the school enrollment will exacerbate the queuing, delay, and safety issues if additional improvements are not made to provide more internal vehicle stacking space. The traffic plan submitted with the application states, “With the future enrollment, parent pick-up/drop-off queues are expected to extend beyond turn lanes, which may cause friction and additional conflict points along Manning Avenue.” The county would not permit an access for which the plans indicated that queues extended into traffic on any roadway, much less a 55-mph county highway. As such, the county offers the following recommendations regarding the queueing plan: 1. Providing two internal circulation lanes to allow leap-frogging may be beneficial, allowing parents to pull forward to reach any open curb gaps rather than proceeding single-file.