Agenda - Public Works Committee - 02/20/2018

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Councilmember Kuzma asked how this would interact with the efforts of Mr. Tinklenberg. Community Development Director Gladhill stated that Mr. Tinklenberg believes that this is a necessary step and will help with the City's momentum. He noted that once there is more certainty in the planning, it will increase the priority ranking of the project. Chairperson Riley asked for additional details on the planning that has been done for the rail crossings. City Engineer Westby replied that the previous funding applications for the Ramsey rail applications used the cost estimate that was obtained from Anoka County. He stated that the City has not expended funds to do any additional design work on that. He stated that the more information, the better. He noted that the better the estimate and design work is, the higher ranking and more opportunity you will have. He stated that the City will no longer be competing with Anoka once their funding is completed. He explained that the additional design work will solve some of the unknowns including property acquisition costs and whether the crossings should be underpasses or overpasses. Chairperson Riley asked if the coalition partners have looked at this design proposal. Community Development Director Gladhill stated that staff first wanted to obtain support from the City Council prior to sharing that proposal. He noted that the partners are aware of the desire to complete the design work. He stated that the recommendation could be to move this forward, contingent on sharing the information with the design partners. Councilmember Johns stated that perhaps the proposal could be shared with the partners prior to this moving forward to City Council. Chairperson Riley noted that there are five public meetings scheduled and stated that seems like a lot of meetings. Community Development Director Gladhill noted that the temperature of the public could be gauged as the process moves along and if that number of meetings is not needed, the schedule can be scaled down. He noted that some business owners and stakeholders like more one on one interaction while others like an open house meeting style. He noted that staff can scale back if that seems appropriate as this moves forward. He stated that all of these options are still within the overall vision. He stated that this would provide flexibility in that smaller pieces can be constructed individually, or they could also be partnered together. He noted that the details will provide a lot of information, and used the example of the cost for property acquisition. He stated that in some instances, a few feet make the difference between partial acquisition and whole parcel acquisition which have major cost differences. Chairperson Riley stated that he would want to ensure that this is in line with the coalition and wants to prevent the perception that Ramsey is going rogue and working on their own project. Public Works Committee / January 16, 2018 Page 6 of 14