Agenda - Council Work Session - 06/07/2011

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CC Work Session Meeting Date: 06/07/2011 By: Brian Olson, Engineering/Public Works Title: Consider cost participation for access improvements on Sunfish Lake Boulevard near Trunk Highway 10 Background: 2.4. In 2008, Anoka County upgraded the capacity of the intersection of Sunfish Lake Boulevard and TH 10 with the financial assistance from the City of Ramsey. This improvement accomplished a number of things. This intersection operated at an unacceptable delay and had a significant safety problem as evidenced by being the 5th most dangerous intersection in the entire metropolitan area. Additionally, there was safety improvements installed at the rail crossing that allowed the City to move forward with the implementation of a quiet zone on the eastern side of the City. Although there were many positive aspects of the project, it had impacts to the access of the businesses located on the Nothwest quadrant of the intersection of TH 10 and Sunfish Lake Boulevard. The purpose of the case tonight is to discuss the potential for City participation for the design and construction of an improvement to the access for Sunfish Express and the multi -tenant commercial use directly to the west. As you recall from a previous City Council work session, the Anoka County Highway Department has an access spacing guideline that allows access improvement consideration as long as there is a study that is done that documents that there is a benefit to the Anoka County Highway system. The last time that we ran into an example similar to this was on the Bunker Lake Road project. At that time there was a desire to open Unity Street before we provided municipal consent for that project. In that case, design was underway so the costs to develop a cost estimate and determine the extent of the improvements was absorbed by the design contract. It cost about $4,500 to hire SEH to analyze the request and the operations of nearby intersections to prove that there was indeed an improvement to the Anoka County Highway system. In this case the cost will be more extensive because of the additional scope to estimate costs and determine the impact to adjacent intersections. Staff met with the Anoka County Engineer and Attorney, City Attorney and business owners on May 16, 2011. The consensus of this meeting was that the business owners agreed to pay up to $7,500 for the study only if the City was willing to participate in the construction costs. Since this meeting, Frank Yamoutpour of ZSunfish Express spoke with the City Administrator and indicated that he spoke to the mall owners and that they would pay half of the engineering study, and Sunfish Express would pay the other half The condition they have of paying for the study is that they want the County and/or the City to commit to paying for the recommended changes ($50,000 - $400,000) that might come out of the study. County Staff will be bringing this issue to their Public Works Committee to see about their desire to participate. Staff has contacted the County Engineer and has not heard the status of this request. An update will be provided on Tuesday night. Notification: The businesses that we met with were notified at the May 16th meeting and subsequently via e-mail that this case would be discussed this evening. Observations: Recommendation: Based upon discussion Funding Source: