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Mounds View City Council July 10, 2006 <br />Regular Meeting Page 29 <br /> <br />could be valuable in the long run, but he would rather put the money into the actual 1 <br />improvement. 2 <br /> 3 <br />Mayor Marty stated he would like to send it back to Staff for discussion at a future meeting. 4 <br /> 5 <br />Councilmember Stigney stated he believes it is prohibitively expensive. He questioned why is 6 <br />the study going up to County Road J when it is not part of the plan, and suggested it be held off 7 <br />until MedTronic is finished. He stated that Mounds View owned traffic counters. Mayor Marty 8 <br />stated they have not worked. Councilmember Stigney stated the City could buy new ones and 9 <br />that the expenditure for the study should be reexamined. 10 <br /> 11 <br />Councilmember Gunn stated that the majority of the surveys indicated that this is the information 12 <br />they wanted. She asked why the City is studying County Road J and Airport Road under number 13 <br />3. 14 <br /> 15 <br />Consulting Engineer Rhein said the study area is larger than what is being considered for the 16 <br />improvement project. He stated the proposal is to do 30 counts in the City streets and 17 <br />intersection turning movement counts at northern and southern limits of the study area to 18 <br />determine traffic coming into and out of the area. He stated they are specialized counts. 19 <br /> 20 <br />Consulting Engineer Rhein addressed Councilmember Gunn’s question about number 3, and 21 <br />replied that the streets are included to determine what traffic is “cut-through” traffic versus traffic 22 <br />that stays within the area. Councilmember Gunn said that is the information citizens have 23 <br />requested. 24 <br /> 25 <br />Mayor Marty stated that there should be a follow-up in a few years to see if the road 26 <br />improvement worked, as well as to determine the impact of increased traffic from the Medtronic 27 <br />complex. 28 <br /> 29 <br />Councilmember Flaherty said that it is what citizens want, but they want it when Medtronic is up 30 <br />and running. He stated the study is way more comprehensive than he imagined. 31 <br /> 32 <br />Consulting Engineer Rhein stated that there are tools to project how many trips will be generated 33 <br />by MedTronic when the study is completed. He explained that citizens want to stop high speeds 34 <br />and cut-through traffic before MedTronic is opened. He stated that analysis will help the City 35 <br />anticipate problems and solve them before they are worse. 36 <br /> 37 <br />Councilmember Flaherty stated that cut-through traffic will not be stopped and speed is a law 38 <br />enforcement issue. He stated he is not convinced about the benefits of the study. Consulting 39 <br />Engineer Rhein stated that it will help the City determine what improvements can be made to 40 <br />discourage traffic from local streets and intuitively find arteries such as Long Lake Road. 41 <br /> 42 <br />Consulting Engineer Rhein stated the goal is to determine four to six alternative improvements to 43 <br />the street project. He stated that estimates could be included in the feasibility study. 44 <br /> 45