Agenda - Council Work Session - 03/29/2011

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Coborns, and Acapulco, to name a few. It will also be the future home to many more including the newly announced Veterans Administration Clinic and we are currently working with another K -12 school that will provide educational opportunities to ultimately over 1200 students and families. The City's goal to proactively plan for the integration of land use and transportation relies on transit. It is imperative and we ask you to consider changing the plan to include a transit station in Ramsey to utilize the many millions of dollars that have already been invested in the NorthStar rail and capitalize on a train that passes through our community every day. The highways section (Chapter 6) of the draft 2010 Transportation Policy Plan is most disappointing — it focuses primarily on the freeway network — not the Metro Highway System or Regional Highway System as mentioned in the text. It severely limits the ability of local agencies to implement needed transportation improvements even if they are for safety concerns because an intersection is unsafe or for public safety concerns such as access to the southern part of the City that is separated by a railroad. Additionally it doesn't even allow for (common sense) creative approaches to find alternative funds and put them to use. It seems to say only my projects and only with my money - even if there is a better idea. Help us all if we can't work together to find new and creative approaches to raising much needed funding. Strategy 11 e Access Management refers to Appendix E. Appendix E limits opportunities to provide an interchange — even if it is the appropriate improvement to make from a safety and operational viewpoint. While we agree that it is a good idea to implement flexible design standards and to identify lower -cost solutions, the actions described in the plan once again focus on the freeway system. As this region continues to grow there is a limit to what can be supported by local roads. In addition to accommodating our growth, we must also somehow account for the traffic that comes through our community from the west and north which is outside of the Metropolitan Council boundaries. The desirable interchange spacing in the TPP is two miles. The new policies associated with interchange development contradict the work that the City of Ramsey, Anoka County, Mn/DOT and the Metropolitan Council have been cooperating on for over eight years on the US 10 Corridor. As mentioned earlier, the City of Ramsey, Anoka County, Mn/DOT and the Metropolitan Council have invested millions of dollars in planning for interchanges along US 10 in the City of Ramsey. The interchanges identified for Sunfish Lake and Ramsey Boulevards are less than two miles apart on "A" minor arterials. All of these interchanges have a signed environmental documents and RALF funding has been used to secure right -of -way. An additional study is currently underway for Armstrong Boulevard. The new interchange policy described in Appendix E would halt all of these improvements. The public has been involved throughout this process and businesses have been relocated as a result of the plans. To go back now and undo all of the work that has been done would be shortsighted, would be upsetting to the public and to property owners along the corridor, and would waste millions of dollars of public investment. Please consider changing the policy to allow interchanges to be located on the already constructed A -minor system within the Metropolitan Urban Service Area.