2002.09.12 CC Minutes - I-35 W/E Coalition

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City Council meeting of September 12, 2002 Page 2 Councilmember Carlson inquired about Anoka County's preferred alignment of the roadway. Ms. Manthey stated there is not a lot of opportunity to go off the existing roadway. The roadway will have to be reconstructed along the existing corridor. The County will be meeting with property owners who will be affected by the roadway and presented with options that are available. Community Development Director Grochala stated the portion of the project that is in Anoka County is scheduled for 2004 and will follow a similar process. Mr. Hegberg, Washington County Commissioner advised the construction cost of $7.7 million dollars does not include the necessary right-of-way. The County and State are contributing a lot to the funding for the project. I -35E AND CSAR 14 INTERCHANGE STOP SIGNS. MICHAEL ERICSON/LYNNE BLY, MNDOT City Administrator Ericson advised the stop lights on the overpass are necessary for safety reasons. There is also the need to move forward with the formation of a coalition. Ms. Bly, MnDOT, stated that at the last meeting the need for the first step in the process for getting the improvements was stressed. The preliminary step in that process was to take a look at possible improvements and how it would benefit the area if there were an interchange. The results of that study will be presented at an open house September 17, 2002, 4:30 p.m. — 7:00 p.m. at Century Forest Lake High School. Ms. Bly advised MnDOT would like to work with the communities as a partner to have preliminary studies done. Communities will be contacted regarding that issue. I 35E AND CSAR 14 FORMATION OF COALITION. GLEN VAN WORMER. SEH SENIOR TRANSPORTATION ENGINEER Mr. Van Wormer, SEH Senior Transportation Engineer, advised a 35E Study and Corridor Management Team was established in the early 1990's to study the interchange at 35E and Highway 96. He gave the background of the project noting that five communities and several counties have participated to try to match land use and the transportation system. Other issues studied included congestion, operations, and effect of possible improvements and development impacts. There are a lot of concerns about the project including the side roads. Local involvement is very important on a project like this because land use has a lot of impact on the transportation system. He reviewed different types of land use development scenarios that were used for the previous study. An organized coalition between cities, counties and state agencies are critical to long-range road improvements. Without the coalition the project would be much lower on the priority list. The coalition still meets quarterly and the costs are fairly minimal because they are shared. He referred to a graph that indicated the traffic projections. Most of the issues that were identified in the past studies are very similar to the issues for this project. Other traffic considerations include peak hours and types of trips made on the roadway. Cities really need to look at land use and how locally the land use will affect the traffic. Other entities such as the counties and MnDOT also need to be involved.