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e e e e e good afternoon welcome to the March 6 2025 New Alm safety commission meeting we will call it to order here our first order of business since this
is the first meeting of the year is we need to um elect officers so we'll start with chairman um we U open up nominations to serve as
chair I would make a nomination to uh for Chris vber to remain on his chair again in 25 I second that all right are there any other nominations all right we will close the
nominations then and all in favor of Chris War as the chair for 2025 say I I opposed all right next we'll go to Vice chair um I'll open up nominations for
that I'll also make a nomination for Connie to stay on in 25 I'll second all right any further nominations all right we will close the nominations all in favor of Connie as
Vice Chair say I hi hi opposed all right and as far as secretary the um do we need to make a motion to propose the city staff do this yeah that' be fine Mr chair okay so does make that motion that the city
staff continue to perform the duties as secretary required by our uh parliamentary procedure of this I second it all right motion and second for that proposal uh any
discussion all right all in favor of City staff performing those duties say I I opposed all right all right we have officers completed here then next order of business is the approval of minutes our
last meeting was September 5 2024 uh the minutes should have been included in your packets there if everyone had a chance to read through it is there any additions changes Corrections that anybody notices otherwise we'd entertain a motion to
approve those minutes I Mo second all right there's been a motion in a second to approve the September 5 2024 meeting minutes as they were submitted all in favor say I opposed all right the minutes are
approved uh next we move on to Old business um receive update on the 2025 Capital Improvement program projects all right thank you Mr chair and commission members good evening uh just a quick update for you um if you
remember from your last meeting in September uh there was recommendations for sidewalk and Bridge Street and that ultimately went to the city council for review and adoption and they uh accepted your recommendation so we will be putting sidewalks in on the west side of bridge street from Tower Road to
Cottonwood Street as part of the 2025 utility and reconstruction project and sidewalk um plans were also ordered in um as presented for the Lakeside Village Edition as well so those project plans and specifications have been prepared by
City staff project is out for bids uh we will open bids um on the 19th of March at which time we'll get a Contractor on board and um proceed with those improvements as the update for now all right thank you uh are there any
questions pertaining to that summary all right then we would consider or entertain a motion uh to receive this report and order it filed I'll make that motion
I all right motion and second to uh receive in order filed that update all in favor say I I opposed all right now we will move on to new business uh first of that is receive
update from City Eng engineer on the city of New Al comprehensive Safety Action Plan development all right thank you Mr chair commission members so um happy to announce that the city is the recipient of a $200,000 Federal grant for the development of a comprehensive
safety action plan for the city um this is Federal Highway Administration funds um that they released a grant opportunity in February of last year we were notified in September that we were re successful in that application we received these Grant funds for the
Safety Action Plan development so really what this comprehensive Safety Action Plan um it looks at the city as a whole um as far as all modes of transportation where we can make safety improvements and things of that nature um also comes um um uh includes multiple
recommendations um that can be implemented in in the future um the plan is kind of a living document similar to what the city has for a comprehensive plan for the development side and uh of the city this is kind of the comprehensive plan for the
um for our transportation um aspects of the city so we are currently out uh have an RFP or request proposals proposals out um for consultant Engineers to um look at and um submit if they are
interested in this work um it's going to be a pretty extensive process a lot of public Outreach a lot of safety commission involvement as well um that's why I wanted to bring it to you just kind of put it on your radar that there there's going to be things um whether it's workshops or meetings um we're
we're going to be looking at the commission to make some recommendations for what's included in the plan verbage and um and things like that so uh just a little bit additional note there is that we also received a $50,000 Grant from
the state of Minnesota using iig funds so this development of this plan is not going to cost um come out of the city budget at all the $250,000 budget uh for the plan will be fully funded by Grant um funds which is
real good for um for the city I feel and that we can get this plan developed and it's just going to cost us staff time and and resources in that regard so um it's a pretty it's kind of a newer type of plan a lot of um you kind of see this in the
outer ring suburbs they've taken on this um in Denver and um it seems to be a pretty successful exercise for the community so I'm pretty excited to take this on and um and move forward with it so um I guess any questions it was
pretty pretty quick summary but um something we're pretty excited about not only will we have a plan for the city for future improvements but this may also be another Avenue to solicit Grant funds in the future for the actual infrastructure improvements so that um
we can show we are you know making strides in that regard so that goes a long way with uh certain grant opportunities including bicycles including bicycles yes all modes walk bike and roll I said that I was just
clarifying yep okay all right um be good to be involved with that uh any other comments or questions from anyone I don't have any all right um so should we have a motion to accept that
update yeah Mr chair if we could receive an order filed receive an order file oh we don't have to no no real action at this time but yeah if we if we can get a motion just to receive it that would be fine okay I'll give a motion to receive the update
second all right um we have a motion to receive and in order filed um all in favor say I I opposed all right MO carries uh next we're to 5.2 right y receive update
on the intersection control evaluation report at fifth North Street and Garden Street by Chris mitson from SE Incorporated all right thank you Mr chair and commission members uh Chris canuteson from SE he's our project manager on this uh Garden streight project and included in this Garden
streight project was the uh study of the intersection at fifth North and Garden Street to really determine um warrants for Traffic Control change at the intersection so Chris and his um staff uh went out and performed a full traffic
study at the intersection so I'm just going to pick out some highlights from the report for for your review here today um the first slide I have up here today is um the existing traffic volumes at the intersection so these volumes are broken down by North Southeast and West
legs um you can see the 2021 year uh the year 2021 counts that we got from mot and you actually see the 2024 counts that were done was this last fall Chris October 3rd October 3rd of last year um
so I think it's safe to say that those 21 counts may have been slightly skewed because of still coming out of covid that they were done in the spring I believe of 21 um because we have sub I would consider pretty significant change from the mot counts to the actual counts
done out in the field last fall um General assumption we can 15 to 20% of these traffic move movements are turns uh at the intersection as well so that just kind of gives that Baseline data of where we're at currently there we
go okay um next item or next table I picked out of the report here is to show what the level of service or how's this intersection perform in its current configuration so the to remind the commission it's currently an always stop configuration um obviously uh if
anyone's been there through that intersection in the mornings the am Peak is the trouble time um and that's uh you can see that in the AM peak hour uh the intersection gets a d on that Northbound approach on Garden Street it's not much
better on the other legs uh C uh sees across the board so it gets a level of service of as a c and level of service is graded on a kind of like a grade scale a is really good and it goes all the way down to F which would be um failed and you'll see this change when
we project our traffic volumes out in 20 45 the afternoon's a little bit better it's not quite as intense as the morning the morning peak hour but it's still in that c category so okay uh could be better could be
worse so next one uh next slide here is that projected traffic volume out in 2045 uh as you can see the projected volumes out uh you know looking 20 years from now really puts that intersection in a fa failed category in the AM peak
hour and then keeping it at a c in the PM Peak over peak hour overall but um we do get some uh degrades in that time frame as well so the intersection was then also
modeled using um a mini roundabout configuration in it as well and these these uh grades are for the future uh 2045 um traffic volumes so as you can see using those projected volumes with
the construction of a mini roundabout the modeling shows that the intersection will operate at an a level um overall during the AM and PM peak hours um the report if you read through it it goes through a bunch of Warrant analysis
to really analyze the intersection um you know as in terms of what it support a traffic signal or and really the options that we looked at were keeping it as it is no build traffic signal and then a uh mini roundabout when the
traffic signal was analyzed um we did not find that or SE found that it did not meet any warrants um for the construction of a of a traffic signal so what that kind of means is if we were to take this report
to mindat and tell them we want to construct a signal being that it's not justified mindat being that both of these routes are on the state aid system they wouldn't necessarily allow us to do so because the warrants aren't meant so ultimately um the report does
recommend the construction of a mini roundabout at the intersection uh the figure that's included in the packet does show that it does fit within the footprints of the intersection um rather nicely actually so the city does have a little bit of extra RightWay
uh kind of on that southwest corner along with the city property on the northwest corner that allows it to It just fits in pretty nice at at the intersection so uh Chris is here if you have specific questions um he's going to be the one to answer
those I just was here to give the kind of executive summary of the report um Chris's team did a great job on the reports very thorough and it's actually we have sent that off to mot for their review as well and uh approval consideration so I open it up for any
comments or questions I know there's not a lot of heavy traffic coming down there but there is some grain that does come in from that side I mean round out will still satisfy that Chris you want to come up to theing yeah so the the uh the roundabout is selected is a mini roundabout with
multiple curbs so the the center Island and the splitter Islands can can all be driven over by larger Vehicles so uh they will deter smaller vehicles to to go through the roundabout as they should but the larger Vehicles can make the turns uh as part of development of the roundabout uh truck movements were
incorporated into to um into a software program to make sure that everything would work out okay sounds good any other questions or comments All right so do we need to
receive yes Mr chair what we'd be looking for today is if the commission so chooses to do so today um to make a recommendation ultimately um to uh approve the report and then to recommend again if you so
choose to do so the preferred alternative of the mini roundabout and recommend the city council that we proceed with that construction okay again this is 2027 construction is what we're looking at sure all right um any more discussion on
it all right Joe you're just looking for a recommendation on the roundabout part of it today or you ALS where we also reviewing option one and option two that'll be next on the agenda yep so considering them um just asking for clearity as different items yep correct
y I would make a motion to entertain the uh continue to go forward with the mini roundabout I'll second that motion all right motion and second to go with the proposal of the mini roundabout uh any more discussion all
right all in favor say I I hi opposed all right okay now we'll go to the North Garden Street layout recommendation all right thank you Mr chair um so before you today I I know
this this figure got it's quite large uh compared to the rest of the sheets in the in the packet so I probably should have tried to resize that but I do have some additional slides here that we had at the public open house last week as well so the options before you today are options to consider for the new layout
of North Garden Street between 2 North Street and Fifth North Street um so we held a public open house last Wednesday um I would say we had around 20 four attendees roughly I can't remember the exact count um no strong feelings with
uh from the residents that had attended one way or another um you know some people like the median some didn't um some had no preference um ultimately the roadway will be um kind of shrunk from
its current configuration it is a wide 60ft rway uh roadway currently it doesn't need to be that wide so it will be shrunk at the minimum to our our current um standards um for uh 40ft Street which would what
would match on the north side of fifth North that that footprint that so we're looking at that similar footprint or typical section for the roadway at the bare minimum um on the sou side of fifth so this is a rendering drawing of what
that uh again 40 foot street right Chris 44 foot Street sorry uh so it'd be 44 foot from Curb face to curb face 8ot parking line 8ot parking Lanes excuse me and 14 ft uh worth of driving Lanes in each Direction a nice wide 10-ft
Boulevard and 6ot sidewalk on both sides of the street again we're just looking from 2 uh to fifth at this time um the segment from second to uh our tie-in point between first and Center Street is going to be a little different we'll look at that in a second here and this
matches your option one in the pack y this is the option one in the packet correct so this rendering oh whoops what did that not work there we go sorry user error there
go the second option here uh so this is option two to for consideration is really includ it includes the 8ft parking Lanes the 14t driving Lanes but also includes an 8ft median down the center of the roadway again maintaining the 10-ft boulevard 6 foot sidewalks on
both sides um it just incorporates that green space in the Medan area uh as opposed to just having uh the lanes of traffic back to back uh um the existing RightWay in this Corridor is 120 ft so we have a little extra room to play with
that's why the roadway is so wide currently um so this is just another alternative to look at um um for consideration um some benefits of the median maybe it has that natural deterrent to help slow people down
naturally um um but uh otherwise the layouts are pretty much identical other than the median lay option and here's kind of that cross-section view are the lanes still the same size with the Boulevard in the center yep so
the the lane width so here's the no median option so we have that 18t driving lane or 8ft parking Lane and 14 ft driving lanes and that's the same in both options we'll go to the
next crosssection still with 8 and 14 just with that 8T median down the center so if you put the median in there is that proposal more expensive to
construct said in the packet was estimated what 250 over uh yes there will be additional costs there's the the payment width is about the same uh there's twice as much curb with a center Island um and then they
yeah there could there could be additional maintenance with uh whatever is planted down the middle because that'd be City maintained I assume uh through the median now as far as cost goes it is a more expensive option but it all fits within the the budget of the the grant that's been received so um either option would would fit within
that number so is lower cost the primary benefit of option one then and or what what keeps option one in consideration versus the median option well uh speak for maintenance staff I know our
maintenance staff prefers option one it's easier to snow plow we may have to have parking restrictions during the winter especially during snow events uh for them to fit the plows through with the median option because right now they can if there's a car park they can move out and around uh do that with the
median then we'll be wrecking stuff more than we do already yeah um yeah it would be a problem with the median in there with the how we'd plow it I mean if we could have no parking there during the winter yeah then it' be all right but otherwise
it's going to be a that 14t lane and a car right there our front blows are 13 ft already and then we got our wing hanging out there it could be a problem with with the making the width less than what it is now how's that going to affect bicycle traffic and
stuff like that so we'll be at that 44t total Street width if we go to no meeting options so the 14t driving lanes and 8ft parking Lane there there is that um um Avenue for a bicycle to fit in that in that um area as well similar to
north of fifth North it'd be that same type of footprint yep not so with the median it be you'd have that same room with the median yep so with the median option we're just sliding that um kind of closer to where
that existing curb line is at um so try to zoom in here if we can so if we Zoom way in on on this layout option this line work kind of under the green shaded area that's the existing curbing gutter so you can see
we're just coming in maybe a couple feet from where that existing curb is at um in order to fit fit that 8ot median in there that's that's kind of how how that fits in so if we scroll up and look at the no median option you can really see
how much that curban gutters coming into the roadway and really expanding those Boulevard areas um um making that much more um much more of a buffer for people using the sidewalk as well
so everyone that's been talking about this that are people that I hang out with wonder why you're making the road narrower um the short answer is it doesn't need to be 60 ft wide it it 60t roadway width and Chris you can jump in
any anytime here it really invites excessive speeds because you you know that you're just it's a lot of payment um but it's so busy down there yep and it's so unsafe already um for Walkers and
bik and you're crowding it together more Yep less space no I understand that yep from The Walker standpoint if they're using a sidewalk the the buffer is going to be much bigger now uh under the proposed condition um bicyclist
generally um maybe down by the park is where parking and that's going to stay very similar to what we have today um you know I the street kind of parking between second and fifth I don't think is necessarily full a lot at times it
does with events at at the park and things of that nature um does this decrease the number of parking spot no uh we might lose a couple um with the bump outs and stuff by the park but I'm just that's why I'm trying to break this up just second to fifth right
now um on street parking should stay the same um just because it's near there's still that parking Lane that's available the uh thought is with the road as wide as it is so if we cut at 60 ft and half so each side of the road has 30 ft you
have that 12 to 14 ft driving lane and then 15 ft of parking that's just there's no kind of visual buffer that help slow people down with that wide of a street I think with a narrower roadway regardless what option goes moves forward people are going to naturally
slow down because you're in that tighter window um you know it's uh it's an abnormal section of roadway in new home we don't you know it doesn't really make sense compared to the rest of the the core network of streets kind of in this
area with the Boulevard in the center that would that be Main maintained by the city is that yep that would need to be maintained um so we don't have firm plans but you know it could be ornamental trees similar to
North Highland Avenue um something that flowers in the spring some perennial Shrubbery and some grass plantings and we'd be looking at some low maintenance um options if we move forward with that yep Joey I mean I would agree with your
and Chris's assessment I mean that is % right if the road is narrow narrower typically you do slow down because you don't have the visual Lookout I mean whether it's in a rur road or a Town Road The Wire Road is or the bigger space you got the more you're you know naturally you'll go faster so this will
help that my other question is your comment to this is did you get any push back at all I mean I can understand you know the city's maintenance standpoint and definitely the higher costs are going to come with that median but any of them people backing out the driveways right now they can go go either way now
they're forced to go to the intersection and come back come back and you know after looking at the larger Maps you know as I left that night and reviewed everything that was the first thing that came to my mind is if I lived on that side of the street now I'm forced to have to go a different direction half a
block one way or another to make my turn yep to make your U-turn and go back the way you want to go um we did have sorry I didn't mean to cut you off but we did have one resident that was that was their reasoning they they preferred the non Med option or option one just being
able to access their driveway in a um kind of a a a normal Manner and not you know have to drive around the roundabout come back get into your driveway and things like that camper trailer or something makes it more difficult it might even tweak potentially you know some property
value in that context for the certain person yep does make certain access more difficult yep so before we move on I am going to just share the other kind of the south end of the project here and just show the area
by uh by the park here um in both options we are keeping or we're proposing to keep the on Street diagonal parking so we have to apply for a variance through the menot uh Commissioner of Transportation um because it doesn't
meet state aid standards for setback requirements from the uh parking Lane to the driving lane so we have that meeting with the variance committee at the end of the month um right now I I would guess we're 50/50 if we get that variance approved or not um there may be
other parking options we could do like 30 Dee parking um to try to keep to maximize our on street parking but we'll have to see how that variance um meeting goes but if we get to move forward with what we're proposing um we will have bump all at uh first North on both sides of the
intersection at second North we will have the bump outs on the south side of the intersection and we will have three sets of rrfbs The Pedestrian activated uh warning lights um at those three locations as well the parallel parking
will remain on the east side of the roadway there is there would be no parking on the other side oh we would we're proposing to keep the diagonal parking but on on the other side of the street yeah on the park side of the street the diagonal parking would remain yep yeah we're not trying to take any
parking away I mean the not the park side the other side parallel parking on that side it stays okay yep um I can't quite see your sidewalk width on option one the upper one but I see on
the bottom one you've got 8T what is it on so on the park side both Sid both sides yep for both options I mean with your potential Hazard there Chris you know where you asked about the variance for you know the dot engineer and stuff
like that can you move that in to a six foot which would be the same after second so the change here would be the sidewalk be located directly behind the curb and with a diagonally parked vehicle they're going to overhang there a twoot requirement for for that
overhang um while that still leave enough room to maneuver around Vehicles there wouldn't be much so having an 8ft sidewalk provides a little bit more space for that overhang um and I know vehicles are definitely getting larger that overhang 2 feets required but
doesn't mean it's going to be 2 feet with all of them so right uh it just provides a little bit of a safety buffer to go at 8T and it is 8T at um Second Street uh moving West uh the existing sidewalk um so just trying to complete that 8 foot sidewalk Loop through here should note that we are constrained
by the um softball Diamond dugouts and bleachers area as well so ideally we would push it back further but we're constrained by those facilities all right lot a good discussion here um I don't know if we're ready to make a
recommendation yet are we maybe we need some time to think about it or what does everyone else think my initial thoughts here is to go with the non-m median way uh just because of for for snow plowing reasons and for
uh being able to turn into your driveways that's where I'm leaning but was everyone else I am too my uhuh agree so maybe we are ready to make a recommendation I would I mean I would
recommend if it was me living down there or you know is option one also you know the lower cost option and it'll still service that neighborhood very well and we do get the safety factor of by narrowing it up we are slowing them down and we're also by not putting the Medan
we're helping our you know City Maintenance staff you know again because that's a long-term deal you know it's estimate here is about 250 but longterm that's a lot more because you're constantly maintaining them curbs and gutters the lawn and the median trees whatnot
so it it's not just a onetime 250 deal it continues so okay well then if someone wants to make a motion to that effect we could entertain that I make a motion that we recommend
option one without the median in the center I second all right we have a motion and second to recommend option number one any further discussion all in favor say I I opposed all right
motion carries thank you that is the end of our agenda here um our next meeting is scheduled for April 3rd 2025 and there be no more
uh anything to work on I will dur in the meeting thank you e