12-05-2011 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Item No: 2 Meeting Date: December 5, 2011 Type of Business: Work Session Administrator Review: ____ City of Mounds View Staff Report To: Honorable Mayor and City Council From: Nick DeBar, Public Works Director Item Title/Subject: Discuss Municipal State Aid Status of Sunnyside Road Background/Discussion: Sunnyside Road between County Roads H and H2 is located in Area E of the Street and Utility Improvement Program (Program) and is scheduled to be reconstructed next year (2012). This segment of Sunnyside Road is considered “non-standard” due to it’s inclusion of the Municipal State Aid System (MSAS). These non-standard streets are required to be evaluated on a project- by-project basis for street design configuration (width), mostly due to the stricter design standards required for MSAS streets. Standard streets with existing widths between 26 and 32 feet are reconstructed to 28 feet wide (face-to-face of curb). Public Works and the Streets and Utilities Committee are recommending that Sunnyside Road be reconstructed to 32 feet wide, allowing a designated parking lane on the west side of the street and dedicated southbound and northbound travel lane. This is the same configuration constructed for Jackson Drive during this past summer. As part of the Committee’s evaluation of street width for Sunnyside Road, adjacent property owners were informed of the Public Works recommendation and invited to attend the Committee meetings on September 19 and November 21, 2011 to solicit any input they may have regarding the recommendation. The notice for the November meeting is attached to this report, as is the Pubic Works staff report to the Committee discussing the considerations and reasons behind the recommendation. At the November meeting, a “petition” was given to the Public Works Director requesting that this segment of Sunnyside Road be undesignated from the MSAS streets (see attached). This “petition” is more of a formal request since MSAS streets cannot be petitioned in the sense that a public improvement project with special assessments can. Although the designation process for the MSAS streets was discussed at that meeting, it was still ultimately the recommendation of City staff and the Committee to keep the MSAS designation and proposed 32- foot street width. The State Aid Program provides resources (from the Highway Users Tax Distribution Fund) to assist local governments (counties and municipalities) with construction and maintenance of community-interest highways and streets on the state-aid system. The municipality portion of the program (MSAS), allows cities to designate up to 20% of the total municipal street mileage to receive this funding. To be eligible, MSAS streets must be constructed to stricter design standards required by Mn/DOT (who administrates and oversees the program). These design standards include having unimpeded drive lanes for two-way traffic, including additional width for any on- street parking. Mounds View has 12.43 miles of MSAS streets and a map showing these is attached to this report. Mn/DOT requires a licensed professional engineer to manage MSAS streets on behalf of local governments, including certification of mileage each year. Sunnyside Road was added to the MSAS in April 2003 (Res. 5990) when it was discovered that the City had less than 20% of its streets designated on the MSAS. This segment of Sunnyside Road (0.50 miles), along with Jackson Drive between County Road H2 and Hillview Road (0.75 miles), were added to the system to maximize the receipt of state aid funding. These segments were selected because they meet all requirements of an MSAS street and were preapproved by Mn/DOT. Since 2003, the City has been banking state aid funds for construction and maintenance of Sunnyside Road. The financing plan for the Street and Utility Improvement Program has $400,000 in MSAS monies planned for reconstruction of Sunnyside Road next year.