CC MINUTES 07261988 - Laserfiche WebLink

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1 Mr. Wiger indicated he had noticed the Council was scheduled to discuss the Anoka/Hennepin Northeast Corridor Study later in the agenda. He s said as they already knew, the Metro Council was going through some 4 major decision making as to whether and when the metropolitan area is 5 going to have light rail transit. He perceived St. Anthony was caught 6 in the middle of decisions made between the three counties in terms of 7 how the City wanted to position itself with all the options, 8 including numerous proposed corridors of which Highway 88 is one. 9 The statutory mandate from the state is for the Metro Council to 10 coordinate all seven county proposals and Mr. Wiger's advice to the City 11 would be to work closely with at least Hennepin Ramsey, and Anoka County 12 Railroad Authorities to determine how St. Anthony's interest could best 13 be served. Metro staff people would be available to help the City 14 "troubleshoot" any problems encountered with the planning, he added. 15 Sundland indicated he had sat in on a couple Anoka/Hennepin meetings 16 on light rail and had a personal conversation with an Anoka County 17 Commissioner where he had gotten the impression that not everybody's 18 questions on the issue had been answered yet. He said he personally 19 had sensed things were moving too fast when it came to Hennepin County's 20 proposal. The Mayor said he was glad to find out that the Metro Council 21 intended to serve as the bridge over which the plans had to travel to 22 assure equal treatment for all areas. 23 Marks commented the question of whether we really need a public transit ?4 system is easily answered by just driving down Highway 35 in rush hour traffic which he has to do to get to the southern part of the 26 metropolitan area to teach. He said driving long distances at "a fast 27 walk" pace made him conclude "it's a lot worse than last year and 28 projecting what will happen next year with major construction projects 29 planned for Highways 35, 94, 694, and 55, it's apparent even with 30 another lane of traffic added that we have to do something different to 31 solve the transportation problem." 32 The City Councilmember said he perceived there was a high level of 33 frustration with the unsuccessful attempts in the Legislature to do 34 something about getting a LRT system set up while the current system 35 gets more tightly packed every year. He commended the Metro Council's 36 and Hennepin County's efforts to grapple with the transportation 37 problem "which is getting worse and worse every year." 38 Makowske told the Metro Council Member that the City hadn't included 39 metropolitan transportation questions in the community survey this year 40 and she later suggested that might be an issue the City might want to 41 get insight on with the next survey. 42 Sundland commented that because St. Anthony is so close to Downtown 43 Minneapolis and residents can use other methods to get there, the level 44 of frustration might not be as high as it would probably be in Fridley 45 and Coon Rapids. He agreed that St. Anthony had good bus service, which 5