Please rise as you're able for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America, Welcome everyone to the 03/03/2025 city council meeting. We begin every council meeting with our open comment period. This is an opportunity on our agenda for members of the public to speak on items that we will not be taking a regular public testimony during a public hearing later in the agenda. Each person has two minutes to speak for a total of twenty minutes.
I will keep be keeping time through a variety of methods. We do have a, a time a stoplight here and then we have the blue timer on the wall as well. And because of the limited time, we wanna make sure that as many as possible have an opportunity to speak. I'd also request that each speaker be concise to allow more people to speak during the designated time and, participants are further encouraged to limit comments generally to topics that are within the scope
and jurisdiction of the council's ability to affect policy. If you have any materials to share with the council, you may give them to the city clerk over there and Queso is, sitting right there and, she will distribute them distribute the items to, myself and our and my colleagues. And you will be invited to speak in the order that you signed up. Please state your name clearly and make sure, that the clerk has your information if you need follow-up. And with that, we will start with Kelly Moran.
Welcome. Thank you. I'm Kelly Moran. I'm an attorney at IBM and a member of this year's class of Leadership Greater Rochester, a year long program hosted by the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce to develop community leadership skills. One aspect of the program is that our cohort, divided into two groups executes community impact projects to positively impact our community. My group's project is an activity path which we are calling elevate wellness due to its location in the Downtown Rochester Sky Skyways. Our goal is to inspire increased movement and physical well-being through an interactive pathway that
engages and draws people along to accumulate physical movement in an enjoyable way through three types of elements. Interactive murals, ball runs, and a medallion hunt. We've been working with local businesses and artists to source the designs, artwork, and physical installations for each of our elements. As we began reaching out to businesses and organizations in and around the skyways to seek their perspectives and partnerships, we discovered a second benefit of our path, which is the opportunity to increase foot traffic in the skyways, engaging and bringing attention to those local entities.
We've received a really positive response from all the business owners and other partners that we've reached out to about the idea. Right now, our group is deep in the fundraising process and getting permissions from local partners to install elements in their spaces. We're setting the project up for long term success with a plan to address ongoing maintenance. And as the project designs advance, we look forward to working with the city to develop an agreement around the approval, installation, and maintenance of this project. We're very passionate about our project, excited about the progress that we've made so far, and grateful for the opportunity to have a positive impact on the Rochester community.
Thank you. Thank you. Next up is Laurie Ingsler. Yeah. My name is Laurie Inksler. I believe I emailed you information that's about Eighteenth Street, Southwest project that's being designed. Just some concerns that we have, I live off of Brook Lane, which is parallel to Eighteenth. There's always been a water issue that's come down off of Eighteenth and they divert it down to Brook Lane and they're continuing to do that and haven't got information how they're gonna solve that, as well as now they're gonna divert some sewer issues down to Brook Lane as
well. And the other issue was that they're gonna change our access, because right now it's a cutoff for Eighteenth, people are going way too fast, don't stop, sometimes it's hard for me and and others on our lane to even get out, to get to work because there's so many cars and they don't let us out. They're going way too fast. And now they wanna change that, and now there'll be more cars coming to go to Lenwood because of how they're designing that.
So just really concerned about that. There's 50 houses in the Lenwood development, and so that's 50 plus cars that'll be dealt with there as well. There is one of the things that they've proposed is a bike path on Eighteenth, which is really steep, and there are some houses that are really close to Eighteenth that would impact them greatly as well as just being so steep. I don't know how bikes would wanna ride on that, let alone, be a sheer drop off there and potential for environmental issues and more water issues
for us at Brookline. There are some other options for bike lane. They could cut, I believe I gave you a map as far as cutting over at, down going through Mary Hills, and that goes right to Bambor Elementary. Otherwise, going straight over to Fortieth and coming down Bambor Valley Road. And again, that's a more gradual one. It wouldn't require a lot of, fill. It probably would be cheaper, and it would be a much more enjoyable ride for people as well. Thank you. Thank you. Next up is Ryan Stack. Good evening council member Schubert and Good evening,
council member Schubert and everybody else on the council, Mayor Norton and everybody else. I am actually a Zips customer ever since 2022 since I have had an injury due to breaking my knee into into, in the shower. And one of the only modes of transportation I have is public transportation. And in addition to the private van services, with them being significantly significantly understaffed, if the Zips drivers, do not get a contract to, help improve services, and also their for their safety,
we could be looking at a backlog of, transportation for people across the board. And, this, can have a ripple effect on the economy. And I would like to have the city council look into when they, approve a contract for the when the next bid comes up that they get final say, when it comes to the contractor you guys contract with. If they choose a a business that they want to, subcontract to that city council gets a final say. Thank you. Next up is David Stiggers.
Good afternoon, everyone. My name is David Stiggers. I am the president of the ATU one thousand and five. We represent the Zips drivers as well as the Transdev drivers who are here today to give you an insight of what's we very well would like the city to retake over the paratransit, position of, of driving, these individuals. The the the people who are here today are upset because they have to fight day and night to do what they have to do without any type of, support from Sun Transit.
In our contracts right now, the Sun Transit owner actually sent an email stating that he would no longer provide service to Rochester, okay? Now imagine you being one of these, transit drivers or even a customer, finding out that out of the blue, the owner is going to cut service. These are the things that we have to deal with on a constant basis. Our contract should have been done by now. We've been going through this since March first of last year. But we're steadily asking this individual just to give livable wage and insurance. Insurance in the city in one of the cities,
in in a city where the best medical, services in the world are located. There's no reason oh, no. I don't sorry. Got thirty seven seconds. There's no reason in the world why any of these individuals here should have to be stressed or worried about whether or not their job is actually going to be here for them the next day. Then imagine the stress that they put on themselves and the customers that they, painstakingly go and take pickup every day on a constant basis and give them get them to where they need to go without without hesitation.
Okay? So what we're asking the council is to take into consideration taking over the paratransit, operations that is, currently held by Sun Transit. Thank you. Thank you. Next up is Adri Gomez. The breach of contract is significant. Negotiations are failing, and the harm is intentional. City council members, I stand before you. I am not lying. They won't let me lie. I am not lying. Besides the contract breach and intentional harm, defamation, personal injury and possible monetary loss,
we are asking the council to take responsibility for the council's decision to contract Transdev who then contracts Sun Transit for SIPs services. Please. Thank you. Next up is Didi Ware. Good evening, gentlemen, lady. I am, one of the Zips drivers. I've I've been with, Zipps for about, since August thirtieth of twenty three. I enjoy everybody I work with. It's actually a pretty nice place to work. However, due to my employer, SunTransit, there has been some issues there that I would like to address just quickly.
Been there a year and a half. I have not had a raise, which it's trying, but I still push through. A lot of my other drivers, are basically in the same boat. Things that, he's tried to offer in this contract is the most appalling I ever seen. It's He's not even it's like he doesn't even wanna try, but expects us to work every day. And and we all do. We're happy to pick up our passengers, make sure they get to where they need to go safely. That is definitely our primary goal. This service is vital to, a lot of our patrons and riders that use us,
and to be able to get from go from their home to Mayo to to Ganda to Saint Mary's, even to the grocery store or and some of them that that are employed to have jobs to be able to get there, we provide a great service for them. And to see leadership like this treat us the way they do is, it's very sad, and I really would hope that the city council would look at possibly, staying an arm and taking this away from this man, that doesn't care about any of us.
Thank you very much. Thank you. Next up is Dave Butts. Good evening. I'm the vice president of the ATU. President Stiggers just spoke. He said a lot of things I was gonna say here. But I'm gonna get into a personal situation here. I I just heard one of the riders come up and give testimony to how important this is. So back many, many years ago, I would my my aunt came down to Mayo for the best medical care she could get.
She ended up being down here for months on end. That followed up with my mom who came down with the same disease that that my aunt had. And she had to come down for months on end for the Mayo Clinic and to be here. When we came down as a family, we had jobs we had to go back to. We couldn't just be down here to run them back and forth, so we had to take turns to be here. My aunt came down. She's helping with my my aunt and my mom later on, and they had to use public transit, period. There was no way of getting around it because she could not drive.
Drive. So the importance of public transit here and why we want the council to bring this to a city ran situation is and I know I'm I'm restricted on time here, so I'm gonna try to get this quick here. But my members behind here here, the RPT, the Sun Transit, you know, they deserve better from what the company has given them right now. We have the federal government with the Affordable Health Care Act that demands us to have health care. But when it comes to our employees,
their employees, our members, they won't even give them health care to purchase for their family. I don't know how much that can bring forward to each one of you heads. I get very emotional with this because they deserve the health care, and they're not even allowing it. So take into consideration and take over this public transit to make it run more smoothly for our members and for you and your general population down here. So Thank you. Next up, and I'm probably gonna screw up the first name here,
it looks like Hearn Howie. Good evening. I'm doctor Howie, pediatrician for forty years, and I'd like to talk about cannabis. And thank you to mayor Norton and to the city council for this opportunity. Marijuana number one puts babies at risk if mom uses it during pregnancy, more premature births, evidence of damage to the brain, poor attention, hyperactivity, learning problems. Number two, legalization of marijuana puts our young children at risk. Post bulletin, 01/14/2023,
reported a 334% increase in accidentally ingested cannabis, edibles for our children under age six, our little ones. What does marijuana poisoning look like in a child? Panicky, anxious, poor coordination, heart problems, they can even stop breathing. Legislation, legalization, rather, of marijuana puts our teens and young adults at risk. One out of every ten of our teens and young adults will develop cannabis use disorder. And those that use cannabis on a daily or near daily basis,
it's higher, close to fifty percent. And what does that look like? Cannabis use disorder, lower chance of completing high school or attending college, poor coordination of movement, alert, car accidents, poor work performance, depression, suicide, psychosis, lower sperm count, schizophrenia. However, as marijuana use has increased, the number of our kids getting treatment has not. Why? Because they trust us. We're sending the message to our children, teens, even adults that marijuana is safe. The alarm does not go off to get help.
We who are supposed to safeguard our children have given marijuana the stamp of approval in their minds. Thank you, doctor Howie. Thank you. Next up is John Howie. Pretty thoughtful stuff, wasn't it? Thank you, mayor, council members. You all have the power to stop this thing. Here we are in the city with the number one medical facility in the world. And here we are gonna allow we we how many billions of dollars have we spent? Let's stop smoking. It causes cancer. You're gonna die early.
We're we're we're saying what you're gonna say is, it's okay to smoke marijuana cigarettes. What's better with tobacco cigarettes? They're bad for you. We have a law firm that is be the first. Be the first. We have a law firm that's ready to represent the city of Rochester in a lawsuit against this lunacy that this Saint Paul Democrat party had put out. It said it's okay to smoke marijuana. Do you really think so? I don't. Thank you, mister Hawi. Next up. Next up is, Michael Wojak.
There. Mayor, council president, honorable members of the council, I am here on behalf of WeBike Rochester, the Bicycle Alliance in Minnesota, and many of our, partners. And we are here to commend some good work done by the City of Rochester. In particular, we're proud of the community engagement and the engineering and public works around Eighteenth Avenue Southwest. We think this is an outstanding example of a community coming together and listening to the voices and coming forward with a safe design. At the public meetings, we heard overwhelmingly that people wanted a safer route in that part of the community,
and that is what the city delivered. And I want to elaborate on exactly why that is such a good design and such a safe route that should be adopted tonight on item H2. First and foremost, there is nothing that makes our people more safe than having safe speeds. 30 mile per hour design speed is exactly what the city of Rochester has put in their plan for arterial roadways with intersections. Thank you for making that happen on this particular project. The difference between 30 miles per hour and 40 or 45 is a lot of fatalities over the life cycle of a roadway. So thank you for taking safety first.
Second of all, safe intersections. They slow traffic and they make it safer for people to cross. You did this in a number of strategic locations. Thank you for that. And finally, physically separated bike ped infrastructure. We know that 30% of Rochester approximately cannot or does not drive. Thank you for recognizing those voices. It's coincidence. Some of the same folks are in the room tonight with ATU, but it's important that we are a community that serves all of our people. The community plans are good. I encourage you all to stick to them. Please continue to use your powers to insist that all the infrastructure that we build that's going to be around for two or three generations,
it's all as safe as you did on Eighteenth Avenue Southwest. Good work to the elected officials, assuming you pass it tonight. And good luck to staff. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Wojciech. We have two more individuals who have signed up. We are at our twenty minute time. We'll need a motion to suspend the rules in order to hear more speakers. Is there a motion? I would move to suspend the rules to complete the existing list, of people signed up for open comment. Second. Motion made by council member Keane and seconded by council member Miller.
All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. Okay. Next up is Adam Busby. Good evening. Adam Busby, representative ATU, representing the Zipps drivers as well as the, transit drivers here in town. You've heard most of it tonight. Big thing is is we've got a, a world class medical facility here in town, and the owner of Sun Transit won't offer any insurance for employees, families. And the in the insurance he provides for the employees
is, they they can't afford it. So it's unacceptable, and that ties in with Transdev. So it's Transdev's responsibility. Transdev is the one that, is the one that subcontracted them. And right now, I don't know what their issue is, but they can't seem to run a transit they've hired all new managers. None of the managers have CDLs. None of them have worked in public transit. They don't know anything about public transit. They worked at the post office. Just as an example, all these right here are write ups that were written erroneously against our contract in one day.
Now, our president, I spoke to him earlier. They they have 2,500 folks up there. And they've never had this much in a week. So it's ridiculous. We've got transdev, don't know what they're doing, contracted to SunTransit who don't give a flip about their passengers, their drivers, or anything else. Y'all can it is in y'all's power in the contract. Y'all can hold them responsible and break the contract. What's it gonna take? There was a whole bunch of us that got our checks shorted this week. I still have it 4 and $500. A lot of us live paycheck to paycheck.
I still haven't got my check for the money I was shorted. Is it possible, waive staff? Are we gonna let our drivers suffer like this? Y'all have to do something. Y'all were the one that give these people the contract. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Our final speaker is, Vicky Hagstrom. Good evening. I'm doctor Vicky Hagstrom. At the January 22 council meeting, I made this statement. Statement. Recently, an adult male in town brutally raped and tortured a six month old baby girl for the purpose of producing child porn to distribute to a bloodthirsty global market. I'm back here tonight to follow-up about this crisis.
Since that evening, there have been numerous additional local news reports of the arrests of sex offenders who have been preying on children and who've been consuming producing and distributing child porn. Children are suffering and dying because child porn and prostitution exist and business is booming including in this community and elsewhere. What we are doing is not working. Inaction is not an option. That is why I'm here again tonight. I have an expectation of my community's leadership. I expect elected officials to use all their power, influence and resources in a cooperative and collaborative way to ensure the safety and well-being
of all children in this community. I expect public employees and law enforcement and in the judicial system to be successful at their chosen jobs to protect and serve this community's most vulnerable citizens. As a mother, physician and business owner, I won't stay silent on behalf of that six month old baby girl. I call on all my colleagues in business, healthcare, education, military, religious organizations, and in families to pull out all the stops to end this crisis and ensure that all children are cared for in ways they deserve. Our children and grandchildren, born and unborn, deserve leadership that prioritize them.
They deserve leaders that do everything in our power to destroy the systems that work to destroy them. As things stand now, no child is safe. Doing nothing means that your child or grandchild or mine might be the next. Any current community leader who is unable or unwilling to do their part to end this crisis needs to be replaced with one of the many women and men who are willing and able. This is the most emotionally radioactive crisis that we as a society have ever faced, which is why we are losing the battle. I can attest to the emotional roller coaster
of learning about child slavery, and I gladly volunteer to lead the charge against it. Thank you. We will now move on to, call to order. And, Clerk Caso, please call the roll. Council member Keane. Here. Council member Miller. Here. Council member Wall. Here. Council member Friedrichs. Here. Council member Palmer. Here. Council member Dohring. Here. Council president Schoebring. Here. Mayor Norton. Present. Next up is our city administrator's report. Administrator Zelms, please go ahead with your report.
Thank you, council president, council members. Mayor Norton, members of the public, I always start our report by thanking our teammates, wherever they're working for acting with respect, integrity, safety, and excellence in mind, when they are providing service to the community. So thank you to our teammates and also our partners, in transit for doing that. I also did wanna highlight again, we have in front of us the, Corey Hill Nature Center hosting the Minnesota Parks Artist in Residence, Cassandra Buck. So there are a couple additional times available this week. It kicked off on March 1. We also have,
times, tomorrow and Wednesday as well as on the eleventh and the fourteenth. So check that out if it's something that you're interested in. Also, we had, this we have the reverend doctor Martin Luther King Junior Park, enhancement project. We had our first open house last week, and it was, really well received. And there is an out open house on Thursday, March 6 from five to 7PM, that is taking place, well, it doesn't say on here. You can check our website, RochesterMN.gov to find that, and social media. So we wanna make sure that people are able to,
get out and share, share their thoughts. We're hopeful that this federal funding will continue. It is a project that we are planning, with some federal dollars, in mind. Also, game day at the library is coming up on March 15. That's a Saturday, January. Everyone is welcome, all ages. So join, your friends at the Rochester Public Library to, share in some game play. Unfortunately, even though we are planning for snow later this week, the Game Haven Sledding Hill and outdoor skating rinks are closed for the season. You can attempt to sled, but it is quite a nice slick out there.
Maybe that will change with snow. But the outdoor skating rinks, including the ice oval at Soldiers Field, are also closed. We did have that warmer warmer weather. Didn't help us out at all on ice, and to try to redo that at this time of year, really isn't viable. So thanks to everyone who enjoyed the very cold weather that we had. We are now in the mix of winter and spring. And then, also, as we approach spring, did wanna point out that the Rochester Public Library, has its seed library getting going. So if you have seeds, or if you need seeds, they're available March through August at Rochester Public Library on the second floor.
So there's no checkout required. You there is a limit to 15 seed packets, per person. So think about what seeds you need before you head in, and they're available on a first come, first served basis. And that's all I have. Thank you, Administrator Zalms. I heard we're getting snow on Wednesday, but let's see. Mayor Norton. Thank you very much. Well, it's, it's been busy recently. This past weekend, we had a forum in town that Common Cause held with our legislators of both parties, and I was invited initially to bring welcome.
I got to serve on that panel. So it was hundreds of people there. So very interesting, forum. Lots of talk about housing and economic development. Frankly, all the things that the visioning project showed were priorities certainly came up in that, forum. So very interesting. I also wanted to mention the National League of Cities, conference is this week, March '12, and so I will be heading up on Saturday for the board meeting and, will I had been just recently asked to serve on a panel. I haven't had a chance to talk to Chief Franklin yet.
We're trying to get an hour together because I'm presenting on safe communities, a three sixty degree perspective. And it's really about, looking beyond traditional policing, measures and collaborative approaches and innovative solutions that you're seeing around the country, but Rochester and RPD has led on many of those issues. So it's going to be my pleasure to be able to share some of that, at the conference. Today was great. It was the NAWIC, meeting this whole week, but the we kicked off with the,
a proclamation at the NAWIC luncheon. NAWIC is an organization, the National Association of Women in Construction. Some of our local members actually serve on the national board, so that's pretty impressive. And they held a local event, where we had a wonderful presentation by a woman fire fighter, a woman police officer, and a woman EMS, head, who talked about, what it was like to be a leader of their profession. And then there was a really fun exchange between the construction and the women in construction and those, three women leaders. So, this week, March '8 is Women in Construction Week.
So if you know any women in construction, thank them. And if you know any people who might be interested, our Equity in the Built Environment is enrolling people right now for trainings that begin at the end of the month and April and May to get ready for construction season. So please tell folks to call Workforce Development Inc. If they have an interest in getting into the construction fields. We have funds and free training available and other supports for women. Our transit drivers have left, but it is transit driver appreciation week, so I wanted to point that out. It starts, the the actual day,
actually, it's transit driver appreciation day, and it's Monday, March 18. So I wanted to just get that out now because I'll be gone a little bit later in the month and and wanted to make sure you you knew that. So, thank them for all they do. Just a quick reminder again, it looks like, we are, go perhaps with this, Japan trip, which has been kind of a long time in coming, but we've got a number of people signed up. So we would welcome more of you. It's not too late, so, let me know if you need more. Also, we kicked off the, hear about youth in January at, the State of the City,
and I sent out a letter to, some organizations in town asking them to share information with us about what they're doing for youth in the community. And those ideas have already started coming in and are shared on our website, as well as some offers for, perhaps some support for, some of the initiatives, financial support from some of our area foundations, which was a nice surprise as well. So if you know of any youth activities, let us know and we'll get them on the website. Also, the community police policing academy, was started up again. This was, I think, prior to the pandemic and kind of went on hiatus for a while and now
is back. So the, police department hosted. It's an eight week it's over eight weeks on Thursdays, April third to May 22 from 06:30 to 9PM. And, it's to help people get a better understanding of how the police department works, their operations, how they serve the community. Also, they'll give demonstrations of the various aspects of policing, and have a really and it's free. But to have a really nice dialogue with the community so they truly understand the police department can get their questions answered. And, I think the only requirement is that you be 18 years of age,
and they're for people who live or work in the city Of Rochester. So if anyone's interested, I I think there's a registration form on the police department's website, and probably this link, will take you there as well. Space is limited, so if you're interested, sign up. Speaking of QR codes, we are signing folks up for the mayor's newsletter. It is very brief, doesn't come out a ton, but it will have information a little bit like for those of us here on the dais, when we get the a to z at the end of the week. It won't be that frequent, but it'll be short like that.
So just snippets of some things that are happening in the community. So we're gonna see if we can increase, we've just started a bit to increase, folks to sign up for that newsletter. So tell your constituents. They're welcome to do that. And if you have ideas for topics, let me know. And, lastly, you can reach me at the office by email or in person or by phone. That's it. Thank Thank you, mayor. Next up is our order of the agenda. Are there any changes to the order of the agenda? Being none, is there a motion to approve the agenda? Moved by, council member Fredericks.
Second. Seconded by council member Doring. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. Motion passes. We're on to our consent agenda. Council member Miller is pulling item f 11 and council member Wall is pulling f 24. Before we take a motion, I would just like to highlight item f five, which is the appointment of Anne Queso as our new city clerk effective March 20 and is currently one of our deputy city clerks.
And prior to coming to Rochester, she served as city clerk in Austin, Minnesota for ten years and holds a bachelor's degree in paralegal studies from Winona State. And she's not only a Minnesota certified municipal clerk, but she is also a certified a certified parliamentarian as a member of the National Association of Parliamentarians. Our current, city clerk, Kelly Geisler, will return to her home roots to a new position in Minneapolis after five years service here in Rochester.
So, I just would like all of us to join me in wishing Clerk Giesler, well, and welcoming Clerk Casel. With that, we have two pulled items. Is there any other pulled items? Seeing none, I would invite a motion to approve and block items F1 through F10 and F12 through F23. So moved. Moved by Council Member Miller. Second. Seconded by Council Member Fredericks. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, same sign.
Moving on to our public hearings, we have two pub you know, I I keep seeing that little thing right there and it looks like a raised hand and so it grabs me, this thing right here. So, anyway, we have two public hearings. And before we begin the public hearings, I'd just like to clarify the process by which, we have every hearing. First staff will introduce, the, item and then if there is an applicant representative, they will have up to 10, to discuss the item and then I will open the public hearing.
Members of the public will have five minutes each to, to to discuss the item, and then, I will close the public hearing. The applicant will have a rebuttal time of five minutes and then at that point, I'll invite my colleagues to ask any clarifying questions and then we'll move on to a motion. So with that, our first public hearing is a zoning map amendment by SHS Construction and,
we have Community Development's Elliot Mueller here to give us a presentation on that. Mister Mueller. Evening, council president, mayor, members of the council. Elliot Mueller with Rochester Community Development, and I'll be giving introduction for CD2025001 c ZC by SHS Construction. The site is located at or South Of Marion Road Southeast and West of Pearl Court Southeast at 2221 Marion Road Southeast. And the request tonight is to change the zoning designation of approximately 3.89 acres from r two,
low density small lot to MXC mixed use center. You may recall that back in January, I I came before the council to bring the land use plan amendment forward. This is just the next logical step in the development process. Again, just to refresh your memory, of the others, a mixture of surrounding uses, including heavy commercial services, contractors offices, communication towers, as well as single family residential. And so tonight, the development review team recommends approval and the planning commission has forwarded a recommendation of approval, seven to zero. And I'll answer any questions you might have.
Thank you, mister Mueller. Is the applicant here? And, please, step forward and you have ten minutes. Good evening. My name is Vanessa Hines. I'm an engineer with Widset and I'm here tonight representing the applicant. We tonight are asking for your support in this zone change. This is the last step in the process we went through, as Elliot had mentioned, the land use plan amendment process and now are requesting the zone change. We're happy to answer any questions you may have, and again, we ask for your support. Thank you. Thank you. We'll call you up after the public hearing. This is a public hearing.
If you wish to be heard on this item, please step forward. If you wish to be heard on this item, please step forward. Seeing none, I will close the public hearing and invite you back up to, address any other aspects to your application. I have no additional information to add unless there are questions. With that, council member Keane. I just had one question. I don't I'm sorry. Not sure. There is there a is there a, like, a residential property on this property right now? There is not. No. There's a residential property that is just to the north. Okay.
That is not part of the zone change. Okay. Thank you. Yes. Any other questions from council members? Seeing none, is there a motion on this item? I'll make a motion to approve the zoning map amendment number CD twenty twenty five zero zero one z c by SCH Construction to change the zoning district designation of approximately four acres, four acre parcel from R 2 to MXC. Second. Moved by council member Keane and seconded by council member Fredericks. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. Motion passes. Moving on to our,
second public hearing, which is a vacation petition by Stack Downtown Investments LLC. And, mister Mueller, go ahead. Yep. Again, good evening, president, mayor, members of the council, Elliot Mueller, Rochester Community Development, here to introduce CD 20 20 5 0 0 1 v a c by SAC Downtown Investments LLC. The site of the vacation is located between Ninth Street Northeast and Eighth Street Street Southeast, and West Of First Avenue Northeast. And the request tonight is to vacate a 15 foot wide alley right of way within Block 33 of the Northern Edition subdivision.
So after reviewing this, it would, further the policies of the, comprehensive plan because it would aid in the redevelopment of the site at large. Stack, Downtown Investments LLC owns all surrounding properties of this alleyway, and their plan would be to then combine all the properties, for a future housing development. Again, when we look at these vacations, we're making sure that they're in the, public's interest as well as them not, denying legally required access. We've the development review team found this vacation to be both in the public interest and to not deny any legally required access.
And so the development review team is recommending approval with one condition, and the planning commission forwarded that recommendation of approval to you tonight, seven to zero. And I'll answer any questions you might have. Thank you, mister Mueller. Is the applicant here to address this project? Please step forward, state your name, and you have ten minutes. Yes. Thank you, everyone. I'm Chris Rappi with ISG, the engineering and architecture firm working on the project here with the developer as well tonight. So, yeah, we're looking to redevelop the site here into, like they said, a a mixed u or a residential,
housing development. So this is kind of the first step in that process here. So we're excited about this project kind of our first step here. So here to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you. Thank you. We'll call you back after the public hearing. With that, I will open the public hearing. This is a public hearing. If you wish to be heard on this item, please step forward. If you wish to be heard on this item, please step forward. Seeing no one, I will close the public hearing and invite the applicant back up. And, if you have any additional words to say? No.
Nothing additional to add. Just happy to answer any questions that you may have to Alright. Council members, any questions for the applicant or staff on this item? Council member Keane, go ahead. Just question for staff. I understand the direction here, and I expect it's gonna work out. But if this doesn't end up combining, is there any, onus on the city that we'd have to provide access on these lots, if they started selling individually? I would say there's existing access on those roadways, that outline it. It's just a the the configuration is very thin lots.
So I assume there's the garage, the garage access is off the alley and, I so it doesn't create any any binding requirement back on the on the city if, you know, not the plan, but if it didn't work out and these sold as city lots again. Yeah. I would hope that, they're able to go forward with this and consolidate it. As of right now, they, own all of them. I would say if they wanted to develop them as single family lots, they would probably want to combine them into, larger, residential lots so that they would have full access. As for that, I'm not sure if the city has any requirement to replace that,
alleyway. I would defer to public works. Is there someone from public works who wishes to address that? Mister Dembrowski? I can try it and take this one, mayor, president, members of the council. If this is vacated, obviously, it would go back to the neighboring property. So at that point, we wouldn't have any obligation to maintain. If for whatever reason the development didn't move forward and something different came forward in the future, I would anticipate some additional planning that would need to occur to support something different if that's what the approach was going to be.
Yeah. I I I realized that this is unlikely to happen but I just want to make sure we're not taking on any liability and I'll I'll assume we are not. Thank you. Council member Wall. Thank you. Just south of, the properties that are in, Brown there on Eighth Street Northeast, right by the alley, there was a house recently taken down. Do I understand that's, property is owned by the same, people who own what we're talking about here? Yeah just South of 8 Street that's correct. And any development suggested for that particular narrow lot?
Yeah. I think that one they're looking at is not specifically tied to this project. Correct. Yeah. Just wondering if there was any development or any tie in to what is going to be done on the North Side. To add to that or Derek Kerriksen, Stack Development. We're looking to put a duplex on that lot. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Council member Palmer? I'll make a motion. Adopting resolution approving vacation partition number CD twenty twenty five-one VAC by stacked, Downtown Development. Second. Moved by Council Member Palmer, seconded by Council Member Fredericks.
Any further discussion? I'm going to add one thing to that. There's one condition. Yeah. Thank you. Got it. All in favor say aye. Aye. All say nay. Motion passes. We're on to our reports and recommendations. The first item is a contract award, Center Street Ramp Restoration with RAM Construction Services of Minnesota. And, we have, mister Nolan. Nolan Shield. Shield. Welcome. Council president, members of the council, Mayor Norton, administrator zones. So just a few quick talk talking points.
My name is Nolan Shield. I'm the parking systems manager here in the city of Rochester. As noted in the request for council action, we're asking City Council to adopt a resolution awarding the contract to Ram Construction Services for the Center Street Ramp Restoration Project. I'm here this evening just to provide some quick background information and high level details regarding the project itself, and answer any questions that you might have. Just some high level background is, the Center Street restoration, project is part of our standard four year cycle for maintenance of all of our
city owned ramps. That process starts with an engineering firm completing a condition assessment of the ramp, and then providing the city team with a formal report on a recommendation for any repairs and maintenance on the facility. And then the city team completes the appropriate procurement process for those repairs. The project specifically, is in the six year CIP, and was also shared as one of the major projects utilizing unrestricted fund balance of the parking enterprise fund in two of our presentations last year in April and August related to the parking system evaluation and rate study.
Important to note, the parking enterprise fund has unrestricted funds available to complete all aspects of this project. The restoration work specifically includes concrete repairs of columns, beams and haunches. The two most significant aspects of the project are replacement of the post tension tendons, which are metal cables within the concrete that provide additional support for the parking And safety This helps prevent chloride or salt from entering into the concrete and causing deterioration of
structural elements. Three of the less major items we'll say are expansion joint replacement, minor plumbing items, drains and pipes, along with other minor concrete and caulking repairs. The project is intended to extend the useful life of this facility for ten plus years. That does not mean that those condition assessments won't need to be performed or that additional repairs and maintenance wouldn't continue to be performed on that four year cycle. Currently, the project has five phases. There's only one phase that requires temporary access easement.
That phase is planned for the last phase of the project, allowing the team to work with the adjacent property owner. And then last, it's important just to note that the contract that we're asking you to award is approximately $2,500,000 under the independent cost estimate that was completed for the project. That's it. Any questions? Thank you. Questions from council members? Council member Palmer, go ahead. If I remember correctly, did we do this couple years ago? The Southeast portion of Level 3, did have the PT tendons repaired in 2022.
And so when you say we have to, work with the property owner, is that to the property owner to the South or to the North? To the South. PRE Holdings is the property owner, and the reason for that access is to provide, shoring on the surface parking lot underneath the Level 3 and Level 4 portions of the ramp, the south portions of the ramp towards the Wells Fargo building. If they say they don't wanna give you access, what do you do then? We've had some internal conversations about that. One of the first things we could do is extend this contract and complete the
work next year and continue to work with them. Additionally, our city attorney and other city teammates have had conversations with PRE, representatives. And I'd let Michael maybe speak a little bit more to additional options that we're discussing. Councilmember, Councilmember, Councilmember, Mayor Norton. Yes, it has been a discussion to date. You are correct. It was 2022 when on a bit more, time sensitive nature, we needed access in order to do, structural repairs, worked through a voluntary access agreement at that time.
We've been essentially on that same path since. We do need, as you see from your materials, we do need access to PRE's space in order to support, the latter portion of of this repair. So we are in discussions with them. Certainly the city understands that we need to make them whole regardless of how we go about it through a voluntary process or otherwise. The shoring portion would, take away some of their parking spaces for a period of time.
Not all of their surface, parking spaces, but we recognize that it's an imposition. And, so we're certainly working to that end. So preferably, that is by voluntary agreement, access agreement. If not, we understand that there are other options, that may involve, the council if need be in order to get access to make those repairs. So my follow-up question would be, would it not be more prudent to have That agreement prior to doing the rest of this work because if we don't get the access, we can't do the the the work.
So are we kind of the I mean, shouldn't we have access first? Ideally, preferably, there would have been an access, voluntary access agreement in place already. However, those discussions didn't lead to a voluntary access agreement. We're still working in that direction. The phasing of the project is important here. It's the last part of the project where we need access. We believe that even absent a voluntary access agreement, we would still be able to complete that final phase.
If it if it involves court action in order for us to, exercise, that direction, that that is where it will go. In the worst case scenario, if we weren't able to, get access, later in '25, it's a it's a part of the repair that would go into '26. But we feel confident, that the timing can work with the phasing that you see in the materials. Council member, do you have a follow-up? Yes. I'm trying trying to be a little delicate here, but but there's absolutely zero motivation for them to give us access because if the
ramp goes away, they get their lot back. So I don't wanna put money into something that we don't get and I don't want to put money into something that that we have to go from a judge that might take a year to get to. So, is the ramp if if we have to wait is this and I'm not familiar with the actual work. If if that holds us up, is the ramp closed? Is it unsafe? So council member Paloma, that's a great question. Currently, the engineer has stated that the ramp is safe for continued operations.
It's safe for us to continue operating it as is. It's safe for us to perform these, restoration and repairs. They would want to understand a little bit more and do additional observations during this work to reassess that if that were the case that that they would have to make a final decision on that. And mister president, I I can add a bit to to try to answer council member Palmer's question about about timing. We do appreciate your sensitivity to that. Council has some history with that kind of court action and,
the timelines involved in that court action are, it's not a short amount of time, but it's not a year. And we are factoring in, those timelines that are pretty prescriptive, by statute. So when I indicate that we believe that, if court action is needed, we could accomplish that by the point in time in the project where we need that access that is factoring in, the the timing involved in a court action. And and I understand that you're saying about that, but we also have winter construction.
And so and so, you know, if it took six months, that means it's next year, to get access because of winter. We're not gonna do work in the winter time on this, I'm assuming. Is concrete work in the ramp? We could, but it would be a significant additional expense. Correct. Okay. And I think if I may, what you've seen from the anticipated phasing is a September into October when access would be needed, which is still a time frame when it's it's not too cold to be doing that kind of work. Well, you're assuming we don't go to court.
We go to court. No. Oh, sorry. Correct? If we go to court, it's three months at least. It may be three months. Yes. Which would still give us enough time at this point. Okay. Any other questions, comments on this item? Is there a motion on this item? I'll move to adopt the resolution awarding the contract to Ram Construction Services of Minnesota LLC in the amount of of $3,798,000 plus a 20 contingency for Center Street ramp restoration project number J2592 and rejecting bids from Paragon,
restoration systems and Western specialty contractors as unresponsive. Second. Moved by council member Keane and seconded by council member Doring. Council member Keane, you have the floor. Yeah. Again, I I had questions for staff today on this too. Just trying to understand what the access is. I think what this comes down to me is the city has a valued asset here that we're trying to maintain. And we I think that we're operating in the best interest of the citizens of Rochester and for this enterprise to extend the life of this asset. So, I understand the potential legal quagmire,
but, it would feel, negligent to walk away because we'd be afraid of having legal actions. Any further discussion on this item? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. Nay. Passes six to one with council member Palmer in the opposition. Moving on to item h two, which is a geometric layout for Eighteenth Avenue Southwest reconstruction, and this will be reported by is it you,
mister Dombrowski? It is. K. It's on. Okay. Thank you. Alright. Good evening, mayor, president, members of the council. I do have to start off by giving kudos to Amy Krejovsky, our assistant city engineering team who've really been working on this project. I've obviously been involved but not to the level they haven't. I've seen Amy on so many things and I don't think I haven't met her yet. So Unfortunately, she's not she's been under the weather for a couple days. So Well, she's I'm finishing maybe the worker behind the scenes here.
Yep. She'll present the next time we talk about this project. Anyway, we're we're here tonight, obviously, to present the progression of how we've gotten to where we're at on the Eighteenth Avenue Southwest reconstruction project. Project limits are obviously from Millwood Road at the north end to Fortieth Street Southwest on the south end of the project. Tonight, wanna talk about the goals of the project, talk about the engagement we've had to date. Scope of work, cost, cost, schedule, and then, leave you with that recommended action that's in the packet.
So a little bit of background on Eighteenth Avenue. This, this is a county road. It's always been a county road and as the city has grown and developed, it's obviously is a corridor that has changed in, you know, the land use around there and the the types of users. And being that it's now turning much more residential, it lends itself to be an urban street versus that. Essentially, it's a county highway, 45 mile per hour speed limit today. When we did a speed study prior to the project,
starting 65% of the drivers on the it's a two mile project. So the North mile, let's say, 65% are exceeding the speed limit. On the South mile, it's even straighter. 75% of the the drivers are exceeding the speed limit on that end of the corridor. Crash rate, crash rates, crash history, that we look at when we're looking at these types of projects are six times higher than the state average. So, another reason why we really wanna improve, Eighteenth Avenue Southwest, and make it safer for all users. So, just another thing to note,
there there is there has been some pedestrian facilities, a shared use path that was constructed way at the south end on the west side of the roadway as Hart Farms and Fieldstone have developed. However, it doesn't really get you anywhere along the corridor if you think about people who may wanna utilize that, walk, bike to get down to the South Zumbro Trail, John Withers Park. They may wanna recreate along the river corridor or get to work quite honestly or safely access transit. So really nothing there today and that's what the the project,
with our goals here on the next slide. We really wanna have that sort of transformation to an urban street, from the highway, county highway it it feels like today. So, I and I didn't I should've stepped back. This is not just a city project. It's a joint project with Olmstead County. We've done a number of these over the last ten to fifteen years where upon completion, and constructing the roadway to city standards for what we would define, you know, within our complete streets policy and and what the city street should look like.
It gets turned back to the city. So, we share in the cost. We don't we don't wanna receive the roadway from Olmstead County without these improvements occurring, because it just becomes a long term maintenance issue and safety issue. So, when the project is complete, if we, you know, move forward with the recommended actions tonight and and get into final design and construction eventually, it will become City Street. It automatically goes on our state aid system. We don't have to count for it against our 20% of our state aid system. 20% of our roadways can be state aid. This doesn't count against that whenever you receive a turn back.
So we get the funding for the entire length of this this roadway and it doesn't count against our 20%, formula. So just overall, goals, traffic calming of of course, making it safer for all users, lowering speed limits, our proposed speed limit will be, 30 miles per hour. I talked about the walking and biking along the corridor, how people can talked about the walking and biking along the corridor, how people can safely access recreational opportunities along the flood control network, get to the bus stop, just even you have neighborhoods on the East Side who there's a new park in
Fieldstone talking to people at the open houses. You know, they don't aren't even comfortable crossing this roadway to get to that park, just across the street. So, and I I touched on transit stops as well. So, stops as well. So the team held two open houses. The first one was last summer. We had that one at Willow Creek and it was well attended. 20 plus attendees. We had online engagement, that we posted for a few weeks. We had, 200 comments between the people who were at the open house as well as that online engagement. The themes we heard were speeding, which I touched on earlier, which which we knew was an issue.
Lot of comments about, just sight distance, difficulties turning off of those side streets on the Eighteenth Avenue, both with just the speeds and the design doesn't doesn't fit, today's standards. And then, a lot of comments around, looking for a different intersection control at Millwood Road at that intersection. The t intersection, Millwood Road is a through movement, the stop condition is on Eighteenth Avenue. Large crash history at that intersection. And then just, other general feed feedback around, you know, things we hear like bearing power lines, questions about,
street lighting, winter maintenance, what would that look like along the corridor. So using that feedback, we then started to develop, some alternatives of what that corridor could look like and took it to a second open house which was held just, about six weeks ago. Also well attended. This one was held at we we were not able to utilize either Bamber Valley, we'd like to do it, you know, as close as possible. Bamber Valley was being used at night. Willow Creek where we held the first one was also in use. But as we looked at the distance over to the Olmsted County Public Works Building,
off of Saint Bridget Road, out, you know, past the shops on main area by Game Haven. It's actually the same distance almost from a a good portion of the corridor as Willow Creek Middle School. So well attended, 80 attendees. We we had upwards of a 20 comments coming out of that one. Very similar, feedback, speed concerns, wanting a multi use path, light narrow drive, you know, narrowing the drive lanes. Today, it's wider lanes, wide shoulder, putting in drive lines that we would put on a city street and then, just shortening the crossing distances so people feel safe moving about the corridor.
So we use that to really refine the layout that's before you tonight. And I will touch note that the layout you see tonight does not include path along both sides of the street the entire length. It includes, you know, the the paths on both sides on the, south end of the corridor. But as you get from the currently developed areas, move north in that sort of north mile, it's, the the terrain, the grading off of the roadway are it would be challenging for us to have a path on both sides. Just from,
like I said, grading, retaining wall needs. So we looked at it. It was almost $3,000,000 if we wanted to have it on both sides. We just we didn't wanna bring that back because, we just don't see the value in spending that money when we if we can get people safely to the the path on one side, they'll be able to utilize the corridor and feel safe moving along. So, the proposed design, you can see the typical sections here. The top one is is really the south, mostly the south portion of the corridor. And then that's where I noted that we'd have a 10 foot path on each
side. And, the the north end of the corridor is that bottom one with just the path on the west side. All of this would meet today's design standards when we think about the the grades and, clear zones if you're walking or riding such that we aren't creating any sort of safety issues along the corridor. It has to meet ADA requirements as we think about designing biking and walking facilities. So grades would be well within our standard. And then, as I noted earlier, narrowing the drive lines to 10 feet. When you consider the the gutter with the curb and gutter on each side,
it's it's 13 feet from face to face. The effective pavement width is 10 feet and then you have the gutter on each side. And then, not necessarily what we're looking for you to approve tonight but just more project detail around the utilities. We are extending sanitary sewer from that Brook Lane area where one of the, residents spoke at the open comment period. We're not it's not under capacity. It has a capacity to handle where we're extending it to. So we wanna connect on to that existing sewer, get it south southerly along the corridor to 20 Eighth Street.
There's future plan to serve, that area east of the corridor going along 20 Eighth Street, East and kinda northeast of the the project area. So while we're in there digging up the road, let's get the utilities in right now. Additionally, our p is gonna do some water main work. There's been some pressure issues, some of you recall up on the the Ponderosa area in that subdivision and so our PUs working on a plan. They don't have a project yet that's planning for how can we get water and adjust our pressures zones so that we have adequate pressure in those areas.
So we will also be including the water main underneath the Eighteenth Avenue portion project. With this project, just setting it up for that future success from a utility perspective. And I should have also noted, just stop me while I'm going if you have a specific question on any of the slides. I'll I'll try to fly through these next six, five, or six just to talk about some of the intersection improvements. We heard a lot about Fortieth. So this is Fortieth Street on the left side of the screen. North would be to the right. So if you zoom in and blow that up, we heard a lot about people sitting at that t intersection looking to turn let's
say you're looking to turn left, head towards the highway, car gets in that right turn lane, it skews your view from being able to see any through traffic, offset that right turn lane, slide those right turning vehicles over so that the the the car that's sitting at the stop sign at Fortieth has vision of any oncoming traffic in the three lines. The next two are similar and that were, looked at alternatives as we did our, traffic study for how do we, provide intersection control. So this is at Hart Drive and 36 it's Hart Drive to the West, 30 Sixth Street to the East.
Looked at a side street stops, which is what it is today versus, mini roundabout. And the mini roundabout, was warranted and will help with provide traffic calming, provide safer crossings for those people wanting to walk and bike and or, get to a transit lower right as as we're looking at it on the screen. Mister Demrowski, I think, council member Palmer has Oh, you have this up. Yeah. Two questions for you. Why aren't you using a full size roundabout? The the mini roundabout fits within the existing right of way. We have some we do have some great challenges if we would try to build
a full size at this location and, get into properties. It's it's less grade but more property access to property. Right. Second question quick is on Fortieth Street, why don't you have a roundabout there? We that was one that came up, so we went back and studied that, and it's not warranted. There's not enough traffic in that corridor. I I would see us in the future as development occurs west of this west and, you know, southwest of that intersection. Our team would evaluate that, work with, you know, that's a County Road still from fortieth, eighteenth over to Eleventh.
We'd work and if we had to do an intersection improvement project, we would do that in the future but it's just, it's not even warranted in the next twenty years. Is it fortieth that goes from township to county to city? It is. We're also talking with all the, between our agencies as we start to evaluate it. What does that look like in doing a corridor study to identify, you know, jurisdictional transfers potentially in this whole area. And then on fortieth, isn't everything to the west still in the urban service area? It is to a point. Oh, yeah.
Over towards Bambar Valley. Yeah. Okay. But if you recall, the West Zumbro Sewer Shed is very challenging, very costly to develop that area. Thinking back to those conversations we had a few years ago with the school. Similarly, at, Fieldstone Road, So, we'll go to the next slide. So, we'll go to the next slide. So, we'll go to the next slide. So, we'll go to the next slide. So, we'll go to the next slide. So, we'll go to the next slide. Last open house. We had nothing shown in any of the intersections north of the sort of developed subdivisions I talked about earlier. Got a lot of feedback at the last open house about people not liking the
side street stops. Really worried about speeds. So our team, circled back after that second engagement and talked about how can we address intersection control and I'm gonna flip through two more. So this one's at 20 Eighth Street and this is where we would get that sanitary sewer and water main to. It's, currently a t intersection. It's skewed, and lot of concerns about speeding. Studies show with, adding a roundabout within 500 feet, you reduce, speeds by seven miles per hour, which is really good as you slow people down coming into that intersection control.
So team talked through it. We talked about adding a mini roundabout at this location as well because again, it will primarily fit all within the right of way and address those concerns. And then just to the north at Ponderosa Drive, similarly, with this, mini roundabout, it'll do the same with slowing traffic, providing those crossings. A little bit more nuance though at this location, we have some homes from, you know, when this corridor was first in in place and with, you know, township was developing. They were built really close to the right of way.
And when we build sidewalk, paths in the city, we always put it within six inches to a a foot from the the right of way line. It you know, their the feedback was it feels like it's really in our front living room, and and it is very tight. They also have driveways. So trying to make space so they can not only access their properties, you know, turn around safely if they wanna pull out of their their driveway and leave the corridor and be able to, you know, park in their driveway without hanging over the the path.
So in addition to the intersection control slowing traffic, adding those crossings, it pulls it away from those front yards and we were able to pull the pathway and and give give a little more of a buffer between our facilities so there's an added benefit with this one at that location as well. And then, sorry. Finally, the the last intersection is obviously the the the high crash history at Maywood Road and Eighteenth Avenue that that we heard about. And we looked at not changing anything, doing an always stop, a roundabout, and this one is traditional,
traditional size roundabout and then a signal system. The the the traffic analysis showed that the always stop or roundabout were warranted, and the signal wasn't recommended and, so we're recommending a round of a traditional roundabout at this intersection of Eighteenth Avenue Southwest and Maywood Road. And then, you you can kind of see it. I don't have a slide, but up at, kind of the right side of the page, if you look to the top of that, just it'd be west of the roundabout up on the screen. There is a,
an intersection with Lenwood Road, that doesn't meet intersection spacing standards. And Maywood Road is still a county road. So we're looking at making that a right in, right out, such that the the cut through traffic, you, you know, the complaint you heard about earlier in the open comment, people will no longer be able to because what happens is people come north and they turn left to try to short circuit sitting at the T and they cut through and over and head west on Millwood Road. So we'll we'll be making that a right in right out. It will limit the cut through traffic.
People can choose to leave that neighborhood either going back to Eighteenth Avenue and going to the the roundabout taking a left on Eighteenth or they may just choose to take the right and do the u-turn if they're looking to you know, head west. Otherwise, they can just make the right and they're on onto Millwood Road. So, that's one other, geometric. Council member Palmer has a question. Yeah. It would be helpful if you would, number your slides that way we can go backwards. And so, I'm looking at this slide right now and so I'm looking at this full roundabout and to the right as you go over the bridge,
the bridge is wide and it has shoulders on it. Is that road going to be wider at that location to mirror what the state has put in? Mirror what what the what the state is put in? We won't be that wide. We'll we'll taper it down. There is actually enough room to look at adding a path up to the bridge because the bridge has a a path on the South Side. And why aren't we doing that? We are. We're gonna propose doing that on the South Side. So that's why that's road. Yeah. Well, I got the floor here. I'm gonna ask you one other quick quick question. We're designing this for 30 miles an hour. Why don't we design this for 20 or 25 miles an hour?
With our speed limit policy, this arterial corridor, we actually the the 30 is what we've adopted. It's similar like Broadway as we would reconstruct Broadway south of downtown or north of downtown. It's a 30 mile per hour roadway. Well, I guess what I'm my understanding is if we designed it for 20 miles an hour that would make people think about it, you could have a 30 mile an hour speed limit if that's what you really want. But if we're at 20 miles an hour for design that would slow down that traffic because there's really isn't a lot of driveways here unlike Broadway which has a
lot of commercial and a lot of driveways. So, why wouldn't you design it to 25 or 20 miles an hour? Is this our policy? Yeah. We we can have that conversation. The only thing that would change would be we would look at some of the vertical curvature, on the and the horizontal curvature could could be slightly tweaked. That would then have that effect of slowing. We're not doing that would then have that effect of slowing. We're not doing anything different though as we think about lane widths, you know, with that traffic calming of just how narrow the, you know, we're also, I didn't know we'll be adding trees which help provide traffic calming.
With the Vino cars parked? No. So the the last question on this slide here, Millwood Road is is difficult if you're a pedestrian or you're running or you're a cyclist on it. In this out of County Road, is that something that we're looking at as a next step to get that wider and and get it to have pass on both sides? I'd have to look back on the active transportation plan on what it says for Millwood Road specifically. So, this project isn't showing anything along Millwood Road other than we wanna safely get people over to the the River Trail corridor there and or the,
you know, the sports complex just west of this intersection. So we're proposing to have a crossing on the west side of this roundabout, which you can see on here. And you see, like, a a dark gray. Yep. It'd be the right side of the screen. You can see sort of that dark gray path that would connect over to the the South Sunbro Trail, 10 feet wide. My my last question on this slide, since we're putting these paths in, are we going to plow them in the winter and maintain them? That is, something we'll talk with the parks and public works teams. I would envision, yes, this is a corridor that would get used and,
we would get that feedback if we weren't plowing them. So we would have we're gonna have to talk about just what is our capacity every year we've we meet, we look back on the previous year with some of the feedback we've received whereas where we're seeing use that we're not plowing and vice versa and and just having those conversations. I I would see this as being pretty critical, to providing that access and connection to again recreation and you know people who choose to commute throughout the entire year. Well, South Sunborough we plow. Yes. We're connecting to that.
We have a huge amount of people up at at Hart Farms that they could use it for extended period of time to have it be cloud. I would think you'd wanna have that in your budget. I I personally I would recommend we do that so we're gonna So you're gonna talk through that after the project is complete. Yes. Okay. Looks like you were getting close to that budget there, mister Dombrowski. So why don't you move forward? Alright. Just talking projects. On that on that slide. Oh, I'm sorry. Council member Wall has question on this slide. Yeah. I used to, live in Maywood Common for more than twenty years, so used all these roads a lot,
especially, Maywood, Road. And, you called that intersection high crash history? That was always a wonderment, so I appreciate the roundabout. Coming, down off the bridge from 52 though, there were many days a year where that was just so slippery that, five miles an hour was and you'd still kind of slip through the intersection. Will there be more attention to, people won't be able to negotiate the roundabout, as they don't have control of their car on the slope down from the overpass.
Yeah. So that's as we lay out that vertical profile or roadway, we're looking at that how can we improve some of that. So you're coming in. We wanna make sure you're coming into that intersection flatter than it is today. And we honestly, like the county knows that that's an area where they gotta keep an eye on because it's one of the steeper, descents, you know, you know, aura scents, but really, coming down that hill. So like our city team does, we have sort of these hot spots of of we know they get slick and they're steep, and that's the first area they hit,
when we have, icing events. County's similar, so we work with their team on addressing that but we do as much as we can with design as well to improve that profile. And I'm certain it's on your radar, but, to the west of this, the Bamber Valley Elementary Intersection as well is just a kind of a horror, when it went to a four way stop years ago. People would fly north and south through there, not even looking at the stop sign. By now, it's just occasionally. Yeah. But occasionally isn't good. Yeah. That's that's also a challenging intersection. Those are two county roadways.
Okay. Okay. Alright. I'm wrapping up here, with cost and schedule. So project cost, $16,000,000 is our estimate currently. Obviously, we haven't moved into final design, but, it's changed a little bit since you first saw this. We have been able to get additional federal funding, both through our, surface transportation block grant program through the FHWA, via that's the money that comes through ROCOG. So we have the '26, '20 '7, and 28 money through ROCOG. In in addition to that, we also have the 26, 20 seven, 20 eight carbon reduction funds through roll COG,
which can be utilized for all the paths, connections to transit, anything, you know, to help reduce that that carbon footprint. So the federal number is up to nine almost 9,600,000. The utilities have some cost and then when when you based on the cost participation policy with Olmsted County, we'll split the difference. So our number, coming from those reserves has dropped dramatically just with the addition of that federal funding. Obviously, we're monitoring, you know, where federal funding is right now but, currently, that's what we have programmed for this project.
So just again, kinda where we're at. We had the two open houses. We're through preliminary design. We would look at final design occurring over the course of the rest of this year, getting those, bidding documents ready for, bidding next winter, you know, a year from now and getting the project kicked off. It would be a two year project. So construction occurring in '26 and '27. So tonight, here looking for your approval of the geometric layout and authorizing our team to move into final design work which I just I I would like to touch on some
of the comments that came up earlier. Thank you. We we've we've already we've started to meet with the neighborhood on Brook Lane looking at those drainage challenges. That's more of a final design thing. We understand there's been ongoing historical erosion down there. Whatever if we can do something with this project while we're in there doing that utility work and how we leave the project as we think about both erosion control but just can we make tweaks to the grades, we wanna look at all of that, as part of the project. So that's a final design thing. I do think and I touched on the the sewer. The sewer is designed to to handle those flows.
We're not gonna adversely impact any of the downstream properties, with with sewer backups. It's it's size and has capacity with the line that's in Brookline that we're extending. And then I I honestly, I there will be there should be less cars driving through there because we're taking away that ability to make that cut through, skip the Millwood Road intersection and cut west Mhmm. Through that neighborhood. So reducing that that through traffic, it's really gonna be that local traffic coming off of those those neighborhood streets that are located just west of the the project.
So I just I did wanna touch on that. But again, tonight looking for the approval of the layout that was in your packet and then authorizing the team to continue working on final design. So more questions, I'm here for those. Thank you, mister, Dombrowski. So I know that we are not looking at the budget today. You're giving us some numbers, but I have a budget question. So, you have 16,000,000, and you talked about the federal funds. We don't know what's happening there. But we're talking about bidding a year from now.
And then, you're not at final design. So talk to me about your confidence in this budget, with what you showed us and when, you know, we're not gonna see this for a year. The so this was prepared based on, you know, the layout you you see and so it's, you know, our team and our consultant team, Bolt and Mink that's working on this project. We utilize historical bidding numbers and we have good estimate of all the total quantity of work that's planned to occur. So I would anticipate it I mean,
unless we totally change the project or something changes just in the that bidding environment, we're confident in where we're at currently with the the construction budget. Okay. And I asked the question because I think one of the things that we really want to make sure we do from my perspective is I thought the project looked great, and I love, you know, the the amenities, the bicycle lanes on both sides, and then moving to the other side, the the cul de sacs. But I don't wanna see us get into a place where we set expectations for
something. And then a year from now, we don't have any anywhere close to the funds that, that we need for that project. And then we're we're having to go back to the community and say, sorry, but we didn't mean that. Yeah. We wouldn't, I wouldn't be comfortable standing up here in front of you. Let's say a year from now suggesting we start pulling things because costs have come in higher. We we worked with the county when we first scoped this project. We each had, like 4,000,000 plus coming out of our reserves.
We're down in the 2,000,000 range. So we are gonna do whatever we can to find, the funds to make sure that this project happens and it's meets our complete streets policy and improve safety for all users. And that's what we'll bring back. Thank you. Safety for all users and that's what we'll bring back. Thank you. Questions from council members? Council member, Keane. Yeah. Thanks. I've been to some of these open houses and they do get kind of rambunctious because this is a pretty, major undertaking. I know that the real business in front of us is moving from preliminary design to move towards final design, and we're not bidding and things. But I wanna just if you could talk to me about this idea of approving
a geometric layout. Is this unique to this project or this is a standard street design thing that happens on any project? It is. You've, just examples in the recent years, you approve the geometric layout for North Broadway, the next one that will begin here shortly this spring, from Silver Lake to the rec center. Amy and I were here really late one night talking about Center Street. You approved the geometric layout for Center Street. Yeah, very typical. We wanna make sure that the council has approved what we're designing and that gives
us confidence that we can move forward and things aren't going to change in the future. Okay. And then the topography out here, this is, you know, over this two mile stretch is one of the things that make it, hard travel is the is the up and down and the hilly things, but that also makes water difficult to manage. Have have we found ways that with this road project going on, I see there's areas where it's more collection. Where is it reasonable to assume we'll be better at stormwater management with a project like this than we would have been prior to it? Yeah. We'll we'll be required to anyway with the the permitting requirements as we think about
water quality and the rate control. So we're gonna incorporate rain gardens, other treatment measures along the corridor so that not only like I said we're meeting the water quality requirement but also reducing, you know, keeping that runoff to today's rates or less. Yeah. If you think about the corridor today, it's a it's a wider lanes, wide shoulders. We're trying to reduce that, you know, footprint of runoff from the roadway. We're going to be talking, with our team about, low salt design, thinking about how do we design for snow melt, so it isn't creating adverse impacts on on the users.
And, anything we can do to improve and and and limit the the runoff along this corridor, the more, you know, it's going to improve things. It's because we will now have storm sewer pipe collecting it and it won't be a, you know, a number of ditches to maintain. So the storm because this is this is the first time there'll be storm sewer in under this road. But I'm trying to go back to 2019 and all the water damage that happened up near the the south end of this project going, heading from all the new development south that went under went down through Broadway and
then under. Is that water still gonna is that the main travel for stormwater or is this gonna reduce that noticeably that it's that we're gonna carry that water this way south or north. We're actually, I mean, we're not changing the drainage patterns dramatically. A portion of it's gonna obviously drain north but then there's a a good chunk that also drains easterly like you noted down towards Yeah. 60 depression, and how we could potentially utilize some of that for some additional storage and rate control. And at that location, you're and rate control. And at that location you're talking about that that Yeah.
Ones under the Eighteenth Avenue and easterly through the Springbrook Valley Yeah. Drainage Way. I do wanna talk about that same area because that's where we go from. And I I wanna also make a point here. We're not putting in bike lanes, we're putting in bike paths. Correct. We're we're putting in off off street. Off street. And and that's important here because when you talk about trying to get to the trails, bike paths are much better there. But we know that we're running, dual up to, I think it's a 20 Eighth or is it 30 Second Street? 30 I think it's 30 Second Street.
30 Second. Correct. But that will force a crossing. Yep. And is that, a managed crossing or how does that work? Crossing. Yep. And is that, a managed crossing or how does that work? Yeah. Let's see. Trying to find the best slide. What we'll have there is a and I'm it's on the larger layout. I think I do have some slides here. You can just talk to it. It's just It'll it'll be, you know, narrower crossing because we're reducing the width of those lanes and Okay. And and we will make sure we have pedestrian ramps at, you know, each corner of that intersection. You have the median refuge. Okay. That you want it? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's what I'm looking for. Wanted. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's what I'm looking for.
I I noticed on the the roundabouts, there's not a big curve going into them and that's usually another like, traffic calming design thing, but we probably didn't have enough room to do those. Well, I mean, we'll look we'll we'll dig into that with final design and we always like to, yes, as much as we can reintroduce some of that curvature to slow people as they're entering their own ball. Good. Good. This discussion on design for 30 miles an hour, that's I think it's important and I'll just say this in a public meeting here that we have the ability to do that on the city Street when we're dealing with Mail Would Road or Fortieth Street.
Those things aren't options. But when we were working recently, I think it's a county project, Sixtieth Avenue Northwest. I believe they're not is that gonna be a city street or is that going to stay as a county? No. 6 the Sixtieth Avenue corridor is also Casaw 44. So that was recently added to the county's state aid highway, list and then all the way, you know, from 14 up to 70 Fifth Street and over to Highway 52. Right. That's a pretty major crossing. But that's one where, I mean, I'm much more concerned with that because you've got neighborhoods forming on both sides of
that And you've got, I believe, we're gonna have is it 45 mile an hour speed limits? Yes. Potentially 55. I'd I'd have to talk with the county. Yeah. One thing I was noticing at the, like, in the July meeting. There is this, obviously, all these new homes that have gone out there probably 10,000 new addresses over the last twenty five years. But there's also these older homes that were built in the townships, you know, thirty and forty and fifty and sixty years ago. They seem to be more distressed with this project because of the, driveway access on the Eighteenth Avenue.
Can you talk about some of the things that we're doing there or that, are, you know, because some of the I mean, sometimes there's no I don't are we putting in much boulevards that are blocking two way like access left and right into those driveways or is there? So what we're the team's already been meeting with a number of those property owners, you know, on-site just to talk through what what their wishes would be because this is our opportunity to change, and try and like for instance, we had a couple that were very close. We talked about consolidating them. So you come off and then you split into the two properties.
One didn't like it, so we're not gonna force that on them, but how can we line things up and make sure, there's one we had across from an intersection. Can we slightly move that driveway so it lines people up across from the intersection? I talked a little bit about what we're doing at that area where it's really tight with, where the homes were built right up near the right of way. So Mhmm. We've been meeting with them and, so it's it's been, you know, the consultant team and our team are just trying to understand do they have desire to make any changes because here's our opportunity. But, yeah, we just, again, we wanna we wanna think about where those conflict points are and how do we
safely design them, thinking about what turning movements might be occurring, what users may be passing through their walking and biking, and how do we effectively clean it up where we can. Yeah. We're not looking to take away, if I mean, we can't just start to take away driveways and forcing this upon people. So Is is the design or is the the way Eighteenth Avenue runs there, there's probably more driveways on the, north side than there are as you go further south. But is that, if like from a statistics, how many of those do you need before you'd say,
you need a frontage road? I we don't have that sort of risk. No. We're nowhere near that. The the only other thing I would note is we even, you know, with the median, we look at providing a cut within the median so that people can still Okay. Take a left into their driveway. So those sort of conversations occurred as well. The other the other important reason to have that cut in the, you know, in the median where it disappears for a short segment is with emergency access and just access along the corridor if something were to happen blocking a lane. We only we can only have the median of,
you know, 500 feet maximum, before we'd have to start incorporating shoulders and an additional lane and we don't wanna do that because that's just gonna promote driving faster. Okay. Well, we've been this is, again been a pretty big project for the last three years or so and it's good to see it kind of coming coming forward and staying on schedule. Thank you. Council member Palmer. Thank you. I only have two quick I don't know that it'd be a huge change. Again, it's changes some of our vertical and horizontal, profiles. So if the city council said that we wanted this road to be 25 mile an hour design, you wouldn't have a problem with that?
I wanna revisit that with Sam and just think if there's any policy impacts. Okay. Second question for you is, there's the core edge in this area, a lot of it. How much did that cost us or what what what do you anticipate the cost of of going through that with the road is? Well, the team took borings that, you know, we'll use those to inform our pavement design. I don't recall specific Decorah concerns. Well, there isn't Ponderosa. There is on that road. Within? Yes. I don't recall them within any of the borings that were we we took but,
How many borings did you take? We'll have to evaluate that and and we yeah. It was probably a dozen or more but we'll have to evaluate that as part of our as we're designing our pavements and our sub grades and, you know, we have sub drain along the roadway. We we'll just we need to take that into account where Okay. Where it's present. Okay. Any other questions? Council member Keane, did you wanna make a point to where the Decorah edge was? No. It's just I I under it's Ponderosa that road rises really quickly. And I I don't think the Decorah is on that decor is gonna be an
issue on the Eighteenth Avenue Road. It's in that area, but I don't think it's on the roadway itself. I think it's I think it was on the when Ponderosa went up the hill, they had issues. We've had drain under drain issues on Ponderosa Drive in the past that we went in and dug up the road and added even more under drains to address some of that. Council member Doreen. Yeah. I'm gonna move to approve the geometric layout and authorize advancement of plans from preliminary design to final design on Eighteenth Avenue Southwest from Fortieth Street Southwest to Mayo Road,
Southwest project number J7346. I'll second. Moved by council member Doring and seconded by council member Keane. Council member Doring, anything to add? I have nothing to add. Any further discussion on this item, council member Palmer? Yeah. I'm gonna, amend the motion that the design be, done to 25 mile an hour's, speed limit. Is there a second to that amendment? I'll second. Seconded by, council member Palmer I mean, council member Miller. Council member Palmer, do you want to speak to your amendment? I think I've talked enough about it. Council member Miller,
do you have anything to add? Yeah. I'll just recommend it, and I'm interested in the idea. I I do wanna give the team an opportunity to come back and and let us know, that we wouldn't be violating any policies or understand that that impact. But I think this is a very residential area, 25 miles an hour makes a lot of sense with the safety concerns. There's a lot of kids, adding bikes and pedestrians to that pathway. I I fully support a lower speed limit in this corridor. Council member Keane. Yeah. Again, I wanna make sure I understand this. I don't believe council member Palmer is moving for a lower speed limit.
He's moving for a lower design point, which actually bothers me to design it for one speed and then have the speed limit differently. I wouldn't support this as I like what I would call an on the fly amendment, for this design. Further discussion on the, amendment. I could maybe just elaborate on the we we definitely wouldn't if we were designing for 25, I we would wanna post it at 25 because when we've done things like that in the past, it's where we didn't have the ability to control speed limits as much. So we look at how could we at least try and design for a lower
speed limit to try and add those controls, but not having the ability to change speed limits that remain posted at the same limit, but we we looked at ways we can make it safer. So, if we were to design it for '25, I would wanna post it to '25 and again, just would wanna understand any policy impacts or if there would need to be some, you know, revisions or amendment to that speed limit policy that was adopted? Council member Keane? Yeah. Again, I our our neighborhood speed limits are 25. Our arterials are not. And this is this is an arterial road that's a way out of neighborhood.
So again, this is in my view, this amendment is against what we've been trying to work as a consistent, set of policies around, neighborhood streets and arterials, within with for our city streets. Further discussion. Council member Palmer, can you amendment was to, have it designed to a 25 mile an hour speed limit. Any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, say no. Mark nay. The amendment does not pass. We're back to the original, motion by council member Doreen. Any further discussion on the original,
motion? Hearing seeing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say nay. Nay. Motion motion passes six to one with, council member Palmer in opposition. Thank you. We will take a five minute break. Thank you. There he goes. Okay. Moving on to our reports and recommendations, we have item h three, which is the former f 11, which was pulled by council member Miller, which is the use of the Third Street Ramp skywalk for the location of an, an elevated
elevate to elevate, wellness installation. Council member Miller, go ahead. Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. I just Pull the item to ask questions. I I've dug into this. The mayor and I talked about it before it even hit our agenda. But I guess my question for staff is really what sort of plans do we have in place to evaluate public art and do we have the right set of plans? Because I see in the final, section of the resolution it says, that if, you know, once this comes back the city agrees to review the final design and if found acceptable will approve set design.
How is that reviewed and approved ultimately? Who's miss Steinhauser go ahead. Sure. Thank you for the question. Council member Miller, council president Schuengeringer, members of the council. So we have a couple of, guide processes that guide this work. Right? So the primary guiding documentation for what we'd say city initiated public art is the city's DMC district guidelines. Right? So that becomes, a starting point. Parks also has a policy, and but it's really more geared around trees,
benches, other items not art specific. Right? So the intent under both of those is that we incorporate public art into city initiated projects or programs rather than some that maybe come through a citizen initiated process. So, what we have done in, in the past because we don't have a formal process laid out, we work with the party, in this case, LGR. We've met with them early on. They were already working we were already working on activation and wayfinding and so met with them to understand their intent and how that could
align with our work around activation and wayfinding. And then like we have done in the past because there's a formal process, we bring forward an MOU, a memorandum of understanding that where we agree to review, we do that through an internal review process that brings some city teammates together, make sure we're in alignment with the guidelines and then bring forward the MOU to the council for approval and that MOU speaks to installation, maintenance, our ability to remove it if necessary if maintain, those kinds of things.
So ultimately, it comes back to you. So it would come back to us. But are there any artists involved in the the review itself? I mean, we have a city department of public music, but we don't have a department of public art. So in in the past, in the past examples, our partner has been Rochester Arts Right. So, they are sorry, Rochester Art Center, Pam Hugo is the director there. So she has been the, she has in the case of Art for Trails and the case of the mural projects, she was the lead, entity that was advising on the art review.
We also I should I could mention when we did, art selection for example selecting the artist for BRT, again we worked with our partners at Rochester Art Center to lead and guide us in that process because they are the experts. Okay. So the 02/2014 public art plan is is basically not any sort of guiding document for the city. Was that ever formally adopted? To my knowledge, it's not been adopted. Oh, okay. Administrator zones? I can pause. Deputy city administrator Steinhauser answered the question. And I I just appreciate raising the question,
the opportunity to talk with colleagues as we're updating our strategic priorities, thinking about public art, a lot of public projects coming forward. I just felt like, personally, I would love to see something guiding this process a little better with diverse stakeholders in our arts community, having a chance to weigh in to adopt something that then we can feel comfortable of having a broader public engagement. But I I just felt like I was missing exactly how this process would be evaluated, so I appreciate the the additional effect on mobility in the skyways or elsewhere? Thank you for the question, Council Member Wall.
This project that includes murals, a marble or ball run or medallion are all vertically mounted, so they're designed in a way that the profile is very slender, so they should not impede navigability of the skyways in any way. So the medallions aren't affixed to the floor? No, it's my understanding the medallions are affixed to vertical surfaces. Thank you. Council member Palmer. I wanna make a motion authorizing approval of the use of the Third Street Ramp
skyway for location of Elevate Wellness insulation. Is there a second? I'll second. Moved by, council member Palmer, seconded by council member Keane. Before you made your motion, council member Palmer, council member Dohring did wanna speak to the item. Do you wanna defer to him or do you wanna speak to it first? We'll we'll let him speak. Okay. Council member Doreen. Yeah. I just had a a quick question again about the installation project. Will will the art be accessible, the project be accessible for those who are differently abled? So if someone's in a wheelchair, will they still be able to navigate the marble run,
see the medallion, participate fully in the project? Thank you for the question Councilmember Doring. While we the short answer is I believe yes, I believe so. They're very low in the elevation so it should be accessible. Councilmember Palmer anything else to add? I mean this is an LGR group that's been a long time with the Chamber of Commerce. They've always done good work in our community and I look forward to seeing what they end up with. Councilmember Keane? Yeah, again I commend Councilmember Miller for bringing this up because I read through it and
did not see this as an art project. I saw this as, do we allow people to use our right of way for this sort of project? I I really thought that was the issue in front of us. And then that idea of, like, if they use it and then how long or what something happens to it and make sure we have the right agreements and arrangements. And again, reading it closer, there are some things like that and then access and making sure we're not blocking others. So it's probably good for us to to do a little more with it. But again, when I see something called elevate wellness and trying to get this more activate, I think it feels consistent, with with other sort of the city for health and and I I came planning
to support it, but I hadn't really wrestled with these questions of like under what guys do we approve art? I know it says murals and things like that, but I didn't get caught up. I got very much caught up on the they're using public space. Is this good use of public space? Is this a group that's going to use our space wisely and make sure it stays, maintained and things like that. And that's how I was looking at their business in front of us. Council member Miller. I'll just say I plan to support this as well. I I just am noting this as we go into the strategic priorities update and I'm guessing art,
vibrancy, cultural relevancy might come up and again, I will note at those times that I don't see that we had a have a set of guiding documents for how these projects will be evaluated, represented of the community, represented various art, organizations and artists in town and so again, I think this is a great project. I wanna see us activate our public spaces including the the skyways and just we'll continue to look for more guidance on how we're doing that in a consistent manner in the years to come. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay.
Passes unanimous unanimously. Moving on to h four, which was the former a f 24, rejecting bids and rebid advertisement for the BRT civil underground utilities and architecture and, council member Wall, you pulled this item. Go. Thank you. I've pulled F 24 for two main reasons, the sheer cost of the project that demands really clear communications, with the public. And second, that cost has been the subject of recent public conversation and so instead of allowing
something to pass under a consent agenda I think there needs to be a more open discussion of an item in which there's been much public interest and I have questions that I will ask when the chair deems that appropriate. Are you turning over to me? I guess I'm gonna, ask staff and I actually would have, pulled this in addition to council member Wall, ask staff to, to go through, what we're doing as far as, now that we're rebidding, I know we're we're going through a different process. We're pulling apart what was the former bid into two separate bids.
We're inviting, more estimators into the process. So and I'm looking at, miss Steinhauser. I now nobody behind you. Yeah. If you can kinda give us a a briefing on the process moving forward. Yeah. Thank you, councilman Schubert. I was just looking to Steve to let him know that I'll jump in and then turn it over to him. So, just to clarify, what we wanna Steve can provide information related to this latest round of bids and
kind of what some of the language means that's in the RCA as well as share with you what we believe to be a good path forward. In terms of a path forward, we are still evaluating. We've got a couple of different ways in which we might approach it and Steve, our director of construction who his team is leading this project can go into a little bit detail on that. And then in terms of the comment of bringing in some additional cost estimators, I think what I would phrase it is that we have identified a third party who can assist with number validation
verification beyond what our consultants would provide as part of this next process. So I think with that I will turn it over to Steve, our Director, Samson Brown, our Director of Construction that can walk through a little bit some of the questions that we heard over the weekend. Thank you, Council President. So the first question, how are we going to repackage the bid? Project management team along with our design consulting team and construction manager advisor, we've been collaborating pretty much since we opened bids and the price was identified as the apparent little bidder $83,000,000
We basically have three paths, to move forward. One is simply rebid as is. Take the same documents, and I'll touch on that in a minute why it makes sense to redo that. What we put together was called bid package B and C, although it was just one bid that was submitted. They both were merged, contractually. Bid package, B is the civil package. So roadways, utilities, basic things like that. That bid package came in actually 2,400,000.0 below the engineer's estimate. So we also, West Transit Village was,
considered earlier on the consent agenda. That project came in approximately $1,500,000 below engineers estimates. So and we received five bids on that. So what we're seeing is in the local market, for traditional road construction work, we have robust set of bidders that are interested in our projects and our prices are coming in as we've been estimating them in partnership with our public works and engineering team. Our second option in terms of rebidding is to take bid package B and what we're calling breakout a miniature bid package C1.
Bid package C1 would basically be the foundations for the stations, everything that's below ground and also the Saint Mary's Transit Center, which includes the tunnel. The reason why we would consider breaking out, the bid package work is a, that concrete work in performance by a contractor is very similar to standard road building in most cases or bridge building. Also it's the below grade work that has the longest lead time. So we're trying to get BRT open for business. Initially, we were looking at fall of twenty twenty six.
So we can help jump start the construction process if we get the foundations package going as soon as possible in a rebid process. Third option, sorry, and to finish that thought, then later this summer, we would look at what we're calling bid package C2, which is on the architectural package which involves the station platforms, the vertical staircases and elevators of the tunnel. That would be bid later this summer. We would take an opportunity to better diagnose from the low bid,
apparent low bidder, where our numbers were off significantly. I have a chart here that shows that, for just the stations, platforms themselves, and the tunnel, the engineers estimate was off by $28,000,000, which is a lot of money. But that's it. Everything else in that, we had over 200, line items of unit prices that were bid, and they were all at or generally on budget. So we obviously know where our disconnect is from our estimate to where the bids came in. We talked to SRF or consulting team. Obviously, did not hit the estimate.
I asked them for summary. They what they understood from their estimator as to why the bids came in on the vertical work related to contractor experience. They didn't quite get the more sophisticated So we have low voltage data and those aren't two typical construction methodologies that are mixed often in the construction market. Material pricings are obviously pushing up especially with the tariffs. I happen to meet with a local contractor today. They said material prices in January jumped 4% in the Greater Rochester area in one
month. And this was during the time of our bidding. Pressure on labor rates, so a lot of people have talked about, well, why don't we just reach out to the broader Minneapolis market, great group of contractors to work with there. Their labor rates are traditionally 20% higher than the Rochester market. So if we bring a contractor south, they're going to pay the rates that their employees are used to getting paid. So they're not going to provide a 20% discount to their laborers to to come to Rochester. So we're seeing pressure on labor rates, competitive bid environment, obviously, Rochester areas,
unique bid environment currently and just risks. There's a fair amount of risk with this project. We had some timelines that require contractors to get on the job related to business forward and impact. We wanted contractors in working and getting out and moving on to the next phase. So there is an element of risk. So all those blended factors are why we believe the estimate came in much higher. I just want to just jump into the comment about element of risk, not risk in terms of is a risky project just in terms of when you
think about getting a project done and the window in which we have to get it done, contractors label that under risk and that's how it's reflected in their bid package. So in terms of, it's not a risky project, it's just from a So in terms of, it's not a risky project, it's just from a bidding perspective that's how that fits under that definition. So I just want to clarify that for the public. And our third option to move forward is, immediately go out and rebid, bid package B which is the civil package and then later this summer after, looking for opportunities to value engineer, then bid bid package c.
One of the things you need to remember under federal and state bidding laws, we as city staff are not allowed to negotiate with the apparent low bidder once the bidders received. We can only have those deep conversations after the council chooses to award the bid or as recommended tonight after bids are rejected. So we cannot give a full diagnosis of opportunities for perhaps switching out similar materials that look and function the same but perhaps a contractor is aware of a cheaper product in the market that our engineers were not.
So, related to bid package C at the architecture, that's what we'll do after tonight after you take action on this item. Thank you. Councilmember Walt? Thank you. And I really have appreciated some of that same information since last Thursday and the city staff who have gone out of their way to help explain what is really a complex project. One of the phrases that jumped out at me from the request for action is the phrase bidding irregularities and good faith errors.
I'd like more explanation of that so that the public who might be watching say golly, how have we participated in this? Sure. Council Member Wall, anytime bids are open, city staff focus on analyzing the bid to make sure it meets the intent of the bid documents. In this particular case, there were two line items of measurable costs related to constructing the First Avenue local bus stop. What our estimated price was which is what the contractor wrote in for a bid amount for that one line item and also the St.
Mary's Tunnel. There are significant variations in their submitted prices. So by definition in construction law and under the Minnesota DOT that's considered an irregularity. We also call it unbalanced bid items sometimes is another phrase we use. So, we want to make sure the bid is responsive that's a condition of all bidders to be responsible and responsive. In this case, we had concerns over their unbalanced bid items for low bidder and then as we were working through that,
we learned last Thursday afternoon, the apparent low bidder submitted a letter to the city clarifying that they had made a bonafide and good faith error and they underwrote in their bid amount by approximately $3,200,000 There were some confusion as they were submitting their bid between subcontractors and which electrical costs were included by which subcontract or general contractors. So upon their, formal ask to withdraw their bid and the next apparent low bidder over $20,000,000
higher than the lowest bidder. City staff in collaboration with a lot of people. On the city team, came up with on the city team came up with a recommendation to reject bids. We think we can certainly come back and package, repackage the bids and hit close to the $83,000,000 mark. Again, we're there is no guarantees in any process forward, but we do think we've got some good indicators that the roadway cost should be relatively stable and we certainly think there is an opportunity for us to fine tune our design to try and make the package more appealing for
for commercial building contractors in a sense. So the tunnel really functions like a building. So once we pour the concrete box, all that other work elevators, staircases, glass enclosures, heating, air conditioning, that's really a commercial building function. So we think we can reach out to a broader regional market to try and entice more commercial bidding contractors to again increase competition, perhaps they're more familiar with the work, so they can be more efficient at it and provide a better low bid price to the city or as a subcontractor provide that lower bid price.
So I think in all of that, I could safely say that by using those phrases we're not trying to assign city, staff who prepared bids and are trying to do the very best possible in, providing the service to the city. That is correct. So it is language that a bidding irregularity and good faith effort is state statute language when, there is an irregularity in a bid submitted by a contractor. It is not as a result of poor performance on the part of Citi teammates
and developing the, bid documents. I have two more questions. Go ahead. So it it has not been uncommon, in, public forums, in these days for people to see, the cost of things and, they say something like, well, just stop. How many millions have we already put into BRT? Yes, thank you, Councilmember. We have approximately $58,000,000 invested in this project from design to real estate acquisition that has been acquired as well as the contract for the buses which came under.
So again thinking about all of the bid packages, in this last round, one came in over budget and we're learning every day really good information about how we can, in the next go around bring hopefully bring those costs down. And so I would say that we are committed to bringing the very best project possible to the City Of Rochester. And my last question, would you comment then on what these delays might mean for completion of project? Sure. Thank you. Again that part of that analysis Steve was talking about the different scenarios.
We're doing that pros and cons this week to understand what's the time implication, what is a cost implication, associated with each scenario. There is a very real possibility that the project does not get completed in fall of twenty twenty six, but could go into November or it could go into 2027 depending on which, bidding version we land on. We are talking about what does an interim service look like, so we still can't even though the project isn't complete,
but say all the stations aren't done, but all the civil work is done and so theoretically you can run your buses and, FTA has, given some early indication that they are willing to discuss an interim temporary, what we call temporary service until the system is fully up and running, fully completed. So, but there is a very real probability that this could go into 2027 depending on the next step that we take with the bid documents. Thank you. Thank you. And I I just also wanna thank staff for being extra transparent on this.
I think it really helps, the public see that these issues are very complex. And when we're pulling together, a multi engineering architecture and, public works project, it it takes a lot to bring that together. And sometimes it doesn't come out the way we think all the time. And so, the transparency that we're seeing from staff is very appreciated by myself and I think the public as well. Council member,
Palmer, go ahead. Well, I would agree with that too, but I've got a couple of questions. There was a DMC meeting on Friday that got canceled. What was that meeting for? Yes. Thank you for the question Councilmember Palmer. The intent of that meeting, at that point we had an active bidder. We were going to bring forward for action tonight, recommending the low bid, to Elcor construction. To do so, we had a conversation with DMC to request additional funding, so that the, there was sufficient money both in the what would be the new base bid and
additional contingency. And so that that meeting was for the purpose of asking for some additional funding. Since the low bidder withdrew, the meeting was canceled. That makes that makes great sense. I'm trying to go back in my memory on the bids that we had prior. Or is this the same bids that we didn't get any bidders on before? That is correct. And then we try to clarify to the best of our ability but our hands are kind of tied to how we clarify, am I remembering that correctly? Yeah, that is correct. Maybe I'll let Steve explain what happened with the first round when we received no bids. Sure. The first round,
so as part of any normal capital bidding process, we allow contractors to be posed by the general contractors or the subs. In that case both times we've bid we've had a pre bid meeting where we also host kind of an online seminar. In this case within twelve hours of the bid the first time we thought we had three general contractors that were interested in going to follow through and submit a bid based on questions they were asking. Within the last twelve hours there was some confusion over what I'll call the low
voltage which is the data side of the project. Ultimately, the general contractors were not able to get a bid submitted by the low voltage electrical contractors to complete their bid. Therefore, no one ended up submitting a bid. Between the first bid and the second bid, we cleaned up all that information, tried to clarify. In this case, seems like we were successful. We got three complete bids that were submitted on the project. So we resolved that problem, and that's why we ended up with the second bidding process. Thank you. And and just to clarify too,
there is no property tax from Rochester being involved with this project. Is there? No. The project is funded with, federal funding and then DMC local match. I I appreciate everything. Thank you, guys. Council member Keane. Yeah. I do should we put a motion on the table? Go ahead. I'd like to make a two part motion. One, first, rejecting the bids received February 4 February fourth '20 '20 '5 for the BRT, and part two, authorizing the advertisement of bids for, BRT civic civil underground utilities, and then architecture projects,
for the, length of the corridor for project number J8707. Second. Moved by council member Keane and seconded by council member Palmer. Council member Keane, you have the floor. Yeah. I I really do appreciate more in-depth thing here, but I I I don't know if I'm gonna oversimplify. But what we're doing is taking this bigger project and breaking it into two and basically making one road project and one building project, and we think that'll make it easier for people to bid on. Agreed. Yes. That's correct. And then the second part is, and I think this is important, and council member Wahl pulled us out,
but we're probably not gonna make our schedule with these sort of things happening on the front end of this. And I think we're still within the window of what our funding allows, but we are I think I'm hearing and maybe I should hear it a little crisper that we're losing our ability to make our fourth quarter of twenty twenty six goal. That I think thank thank you, council member Keane. I think it yes. That is correct to say. To have a fully open system by November 2026, we we will likely not hit that schedule. We will definitely,
we definitely anticipate meeting the the completion time that our contract with FTA requires, which is August of twenty twenty seven. And so as part of this evaluation this week is understanding of the three scenarios, what would a new opening day look like and then work back from there, where is there an opportunity to do what's called temporary service to at least get something in play and when would that likely happen. But to be fully open, we will not hit November 2026. Okay. And then, again,
I I again, I I don't I don't know if there's complexities we're creating for ourselves, but I really do appreciate. Let's have the road builders do what they do, and let's have the people who build structures do what they do and not make one group doing both. Is there a reason we have one project number still or is there two projects or let me let me just stay out of the complexity in that and it's you're not gonna have somebody sub subcontract the other part. We're gonna the there's gonna be separate companies bidding on separate bid packages. When you refer to project number,
are you referring to the the in the the j number in the budget? Yeah. I We would still keep it all under that j number. Keep it all under that, but I I wanna it'll look there is two different bid packages not like we're looking for. I think that was part of our problem. We were looking for road builders to now take on this other sort of building structures or people who build structures now have responsibilities for building roads and we're I think in insightfully taking them apart. That is correct. And let me just from a budget perspective just to help you understand everything from the design to road acquisition,
I mean, to property acquisition, to the bus contract, to these contracts, Okay. I did that's good. I I shouldn't get caught up in that. I just didn't I I wanna make sure that, that that we're not making things more complicated accounting wise. It's still the one project. Thank you. Council Member Wall. The BRT is a centerpiece of the city's work to support, so support bold forward unbound not to mention a huge development called West Transit Village. It's intended to save downtown congestion and save hundreds of millions of dollars in downtown
ramps. While escalating costs are not welcome, I think it would be irresponsible to abandon a vital cog in making our downtown more accessible for decades to come. We simply need to ensure success in this next or third bidding process. I'll be supporting the, motion. Thank you, council member. Council member Palmer. Just quick, our partners Mayo Clinic are are on board with our completion date. They understand. Yes. They understand. Thank you. Any further discussion on this item? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay.
Passes. Thank you. Moving on to our, ordinance first readings. We have one. Go ahead, mister Spindler Craig. Thank you, mister president. Item j one, an ordinance annexing to the city of Rochester, approximately 49.9 acres of land located South Of Drive Northeast and North of Silver Creek Road Northeast and the East Circle Drive Northeast and Viola Road Northeast right of way parcels. Thank you. No second readings. Moving on to other business. We have, lots of other business and I'm going to we've got Council Member Miller, Council Member Wall, council member Doring,
and council member Fredericks. I'm going to take them in that order. So council member Miller, go ahead. Sure. Thank you, council president Schubert. I'll be brief. Just wanted to, update my colleagues and city staff and say thank you for the support. At our first meeting of the year, I was accepted and invited to be part of the 2025, Smart Growth America Champions Institute cohort. So I will join 13 other local leaders, mayors, county commissioners, city council members across the nation. Look forward to learning from them, helping share the story of Rochester, and bringing some items back, to to our great city,
which already has, many plans in place that bring us to roadway projects that improve safety for all users, and I I will look forward to being able to learn from others across the country. Thanks for your support. I'm excited to be able to join. Congratulations, council member Miller. We are all very proud of you and we look forward to your reports. Council member Wahl. I too will be brief. Last Friday night, presentation hall at Mayo Civic Auditorium, was filled with people who came to celebrate the sound of gospel. The spirit of goodwill was absolutely palpable amongst all the people who attended there. I thank Sean Palmer,
Mayor Norton, Chow Mottella, and the city of Rochester for supporting this worthy effort. Thank you, council member Wall. And I watched, as I was on my ride around with sergeant Marks, I watched as the attendees left, and they were all very excited. Yes. Great event. Council member Doreen. I will also try to be brief. Over the course of my first two months serving on the council, a previous council member has misrepresented a letter I sent to them, and I would like to take a moment to set the record straight.
During the campaign season, my predecessor began corresponding with me, and the tone and the tenor of the communication made me very uncomfortable. Accordingly, in early September of twenty twenty four, I sent a letter to my predecessor through registered mail asking that they cease all forms of communication with me and to not contact me at my place of employment. Since the end of the campaign and my subsequent election, my predecessor has asserted that this communication was sent in order to bar them from coming to and speaking at public city meetings.
This is simply inaccurate. I believe that everyone has a voice in our public meeting spaces and welcome all citizens to attend public meetings and share their voice. It is my desire to move past this and focus on city business. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Doring. Moving on to Councilmember Fredericks. Yes. I won't be as quick. Actually, I will try to be. These are just a couple of things that I'd like to just, share with staff and my fellow council members and the mayor, just to go over. And I don't wanna be the guy kicking a dead horse,
here, but I do I do just wanna go over these things. The first thing is is the city council not being consulted before seeking money from from DMC. At a previous meeting, city staff brought forward five options for dealing with the Peace Plaza. But city staff had already taken this item before the DMC board and got funding for the preferred option of the city staff. This effectively tied the hands of the city council as the three options cost other options cost much more than the funding from the DMC. Now, it may be that the DMC would not have funded these higher cost items but
by not consulting the city council, we have been left out of important decisions regarding Peace Plaza. Our hands were tied at the last meeting by the amount of funding we had available. I would like funding requests from the city to come before city council before going before going to the DMC board. Thank you, council member. During, I'm a I'm Fredericks. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's not even that late but it is my birthday. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. Thank you. So, the the staff have a response to I mean, council president, I typically, we don't respond to one council member that's requesting that unless there's another or multiple
council members that would like to change the process that's been in place for ten years. What what I would say, council member, Fredericks, is, as projects come before DMC, I am now a new member of the DMC board as well as, mayor Norton is also a member of that board, and, county commissioner Mark Tine is also a member of that board. One of the things that I can, say to you is that I will try try to be as proactive as possible moving forward on items that will be on my DMCC DMCC board agenda if,
and, and they are also public meetings, and the the agendas are, published. So if there are any issues on that DMCC board agenda packet that you wish to to address with me, feel free. You had a second? I don't Fair enough. And, obviously, I trust you to that too, president Schubert. Alright. The second one is regard to how we're dealing with the land use plan on the fire contract. My understanding is that how the city handled the Nyagan did I say that if I mispronounced that, I I apologize.
Farm upset the county board and the townships. The county board acted dictate the land use policy rather than our stated objective of reducing the cost of the city. We need to negotiate a reducing the cost of the city. We need to negotiate a fire contract with the townships that is just about fire protection and not other issues. Last week, we learned about legislation introduced by our local legislators that would give us control two miles outside of city limits. The city's legislative priorities were presented to the city council in December, and we're going to be able to The city's legislative priorities were presented to the city council in December when only three of us current, council members held office. There's no mention of legislation for the land use at all.
I don't recall being informed of it until after we were till it was introduced. My understanding is that this legislation has has is that this legislation has has very little chance of succeeding and by it being introduced, we are further antagonizing the townships as we negotiate the fire contract. Why is the city pushing this legislation and why was the city council not consulted? Administrator sounds. Council president, council member Fredericks, rest of council, Mayor Norton, the city didn't initiate that legislation. We did meet with legislators with the small group, prior to the legislative session starting and our legislative session starting.
And our legislators approached us with concerns about what was occurring, concerns about growth, concerns about development, concerns about the ability of the city and the region to continue to meet housing goals that are critical, and that all of the things that were are critical, and that all of the things that were talked about in both August and November by the city council, while it was a prior city council, it has some continuing members. So all of those things, were things that our legislative delegation were following. We reviewed some basic information, but they wrote the legislation and submitted it. The other thing that I would,
share, and I'm happy to defer to, to assistant city administrator Yetzer, is that we have consistently shared with all of our partners that what we are looking at in the fire contract, and we did this again last week, the physical development does have impacts on fire service, and the city of Rochester is the only of the entities that have been talking about this that provides fire service in this region. The townships work with us for us to provide fire service and with other partners depending on the township, And we have consistently and in all of our meetings with the township made it
clear that while I can understand time wise why it would perhaps appear that they are directly connected, the next ten years, if we are growing at the rate that has been predicted by many, there will be significant implications for fire service. We have an eight step plan. The the step order might adjust with a new fire chief that includes building a fire station and staffing that fire station, which is a considerable cost to the taxpayers of Rochester and which in the existing contract processes is not paid for by the townships, but they will receive additional service because of that.
And that's directly related to additional physical infrastructure and development. Any development that happens in the city limits, part of your review packet that you receive see includes predevelopment comments from the fire department. And that's because the physical development of the community that they are responding to has a direct impact on the amount of time it takes for them to get to the fire or other incident if it's in the city limits of Rochester or some other incidents in the township. And also their ability to prioritize calls for service based on the most
most important life saving activity that they might be doing on that day. Mister Yesler, anything to add to that? Covered well. I I've got a follow-up to to that. I, we so we we discussed the fire contracts at was it at last Monday's study session? Can you give us a report on an, any contact that we've had with the townships and and how that's progressing? Sure. I was out of the office last week, but I did speak with two of the townships today. I don't necessarily think I necessarily should share which two exactly,
but I had positive conversations with both. One of them indicated that option two seemed to be a preferred option and the other, indicated that they're still interested in looking at a third option that would base the contract on tax capacity growth within the township, which would be another way to represent that same thing of if if Disney North lands in a township, then, their tax capacity would surely grow and then the rate that they pay would would also increase. So that's an option that we can can think about as well.
So positive conversations with both. I do understand that the legislation that was introduced did, catch the townships by surprise. I heard that from the folks I talked with today, but would reiterate missus miss Selm's, comments on that topic that that's not legislation that we authored, but that was authored by our our representatives. So thank you. Thank you. Council Member Palmer. I think the difficult part for me is when the legislative people are putting out items that the city doesn't ask for and if we knew about it on last
Monday, I think what upsets the township people is here you have this legislation that's in, Somebody knew about it in the city and we didn't say, hey, by the way, this is what's happening to the city council. So I I wasn't aware of it. I've been pretty, involved with with the the conversations in the last six months. So that that's troubling to me that we have state legislative people putting in stuff that that in all likelihood won't pass. And and I'll go back to the first thing that that mister Fredericks had brought up. Asking the DMC for stuff when you only have one person that's asking for it,
as a counsel, we can't do anything one by one. We have to have all four of us. And so for me, I think some of the stuff would be nice to have, especially with the Peace Plaza as an issue that's been a huge issue for the City of Rochester, that asking for some resolution prior to getting the funding, because I think there are some people on the council who decided, well, this is all the money we have and so that's all we can do. And so that's just my $0.02 worth. It's an early day, so we have plenty of time to talk about this. But those are my I can talk slower if I need to but, I don't think I will. As I said to you earlier,
council member Palmer, I may have to reestablish the eight minute rule that previous councils have had. I understand for some older people than me that it's tough to, stay up late like this. But happy birthday, everybody. Thank you, council member. Oh, I am yeah. You're right. Yeah. Three months. Thank you. Any other business for tonight? Seeing none, is there a motion for adjournment? So moved. A second? Second. Moved by council member Miller and seconded by council member Fredericks. All in favor say aye.
Aye. Any opposed, nay. We are adjourned. Thank you. You're welcome. Recording stopped.