Agenda - Council Work Session - 06/01/2004

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Northstar Corridor Ramsey Station Rail Station Feasibility Study Pedestrian and Vehictltar The Northstar Corridor parallels TH 10 through Ramsey. In the final concept plan for Town Center, the propos,.;d Ramsey stati(m would be in the south central portion of the Town Center site, which would facilitate auto acc~.ss fi'om TH 10 to Armstrong Boulevard or Ramsey Boule- vard. The Town Center developme~ ~t would be focused toward the train station, forming a core for the Town Center street network. Ramsey Town Center is bounded b,/ Industry Avenue, Armstrong Boulevard, TH 10, and Ramsey Boulevard. These are also the major access roads into and out of Town Center. Within the development, three "aw~.nues'' would link Industry Avenue to TH 10, traveling generally north-south ~hrougt~ Town Center. q hese three avenues would constitute the major vehicular access to the prop()sed station. An extension of Sunwood Drive would be the primary east-west connector street in Town Center. Ali other streets within Town Center would be neighborhood- scale to facilitate pedestrian and bk:ycle activity. Sidewalks would be provided, and bike trails would link Town C~:nter to existing ~egional bike routes. The focus of Town Center would b~ the train station and the nearby civic center and town green. The internal streets in Town Center would lead to the train station, where parking would be available. However, pedestrian/t,icycle activity would be encouraged by the scale and char~ acter of the local streets. The station design would include such ADA features as handicap parking, accessible station platform~, and pedestrian crossings. Because Town Center is being planned as a transiboriented development (TOD), excellent access to and from the train station is a primary criterion of Town Center' plannin9. Those areas oulside Town Center would have access off TH '10 at either Armstrong Boulevard or Ramsey Boulew-~rd. Both intersections will be signalized; therefore, vehicular access to the rail station via these north-south co!lectors will be convenient to those traveling along TH '10 and also feeding from northern Anoka (: ounty. Ridership Estimates.---Yea~' 2025 The Metropolitan Council (Met Cou~cil) is the regional planning agency for the Twin Cities and seven-county region around the Twin (-~ities. Based on information from the Met Council, the population and employment estima ~es proposed in the City of Ramsey's memorandum of February 9, 2004, .".o the Met Coun~:il to update the Met Council's 2025 demographic assump- tions and forecasb~ for Ramsey. Wi:h tl~e concurrence of Met Council staff on methodology, the population and employment estima'es for each transportation analysis zone (TAZ) (39-48) were replaced with the updated P, amsey e,~:timates for this analysis. The ridership estimates were prepared by AECOM Consult, Inc. ,.'\ECOM prepared the ridership modeling for the entire Northstar Corridor. The Met Council trip generation an, l distribution programs were then rerun with the new demo- graphic data. The new trip tables w~re then combined with the expanded trip tables (to include those areas of the Northstar projeci which are outside the Met Council modeling area), which produced a new 2()25 Home-Base{ Work (HBW) trip table. Table 2-1 present~ average weekd~y boardings by station for build alternative. The Big Lake alternative with Ramsey utilizes the: revised trip tables. Rail boardings at the station level can be summarized as one half the average daily number of passengers boarding and alighting the train at each stop. The number of ~laily trips is halved to avoid "double counting" since transit trips are assigned ~n production-att~ aclion format. Table 2-2 presents user benefits for the Kirnley-Horn and A.'.;sociates, Inc. 2-~ March 2004 -6-