Agenda - Public Works Committee - 09/21/1999

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PW CASE # lA REQUEST FOR SNOW REMOVAL FROM SUNFISH POND TOWNHOMES By: Grant Riemer, Public Works Supervisor Background: At the August 17, 1999 Public Works Committee, Dorothy Stickney made a request for snow plowing of Xenon Street, which runs through the Sunfish Pond Townhomes. The portion of Xenon Street that runs through the townhouse development is a private road. The developer was granted a variance to deviate from our standard road design. This variance was granted with the understanding that the townhouse association would be responsible for snow removal and general maintenance of their roadways. This segment of Xenon Street contains bends sharper than our standard design allows. That would make plowing with large equipment difficult. There are also small "parking bays" used by the residents and their guests for additional parking along the road. One pass of our equipment could essentially block an entire neighborhood that may be ill equipped for snow removal. Staff's greatest concern would be with the lack of set back distance from the road. On a normal residential road in the urban portion of our town, the city owns about fifteen feet of right-of-way. In addition to the R.O.W., there is a required set back of 35ft from the R.O.W. That places the front of the house about 50ft from the road. There is no such allowance in the townhouse development. The fronts of the townhouses are approximately 20 feet from the road. This is not including privacy fences used to separate their decks, which are about 10 feet from the road. There are also trees and other landscaping close to the roadway, which could be damaged during plowing operations. In actuality, we would be storing all of the snow on private property, and, therefore, would be responsible for any damage that occurred. Staff contacted the street departments in the cities of Anoka and Coon Rapids to see what their policies were in this situation. Jim Lewis, the street supervisor for the City of Anoka, stated they do not plow any private roads and refer this type of work to private contractors. Greg Cronin, from the City of Coon Rapids street department, said they do plow some main roads in townhouse developments, but only the roads that were built to their standard specifications and are dedicated to the city. They actually go a step further to avoid confusion in this matter, and use blue street I.D. signs on private roads in their city, instead of their normal green. This is done to alert their plow drivers that they are entering a private road. Observation: It is Public Works opinion that this type of situation would best be served by removing the snow from the site. At the present time, the Public Works Department is not equipped to do this. The snow plowing fleet consists of one front-end loader, two motor graders, four 2-½ ton trucks, and six pick-up trucks that are used in our operation. The loader and the large trucks would be needed for snow removal, and at the present are used extensively in our snow plowing operation. This equipment would not be available for snow removal until they completed their assigned routes. During a normal snow event of 2-4 inches, that would be approximately 8 hours.