Agenda - Planning Commission - 03/03/2005

Home

their major concerns is that they do not have sidewalks. This is a community of primarily senior citizens that use the drive as they walk on a daily basis. Their speed limits are posted at 15 mph and they do not have cars running through there. This will be a liability to the Association, as will the road maintenance, and all of this comes out of their association fees. There will be additional vehicles, and in the winter they wilt have to put down salt or sand. They do not use those materials now because it will break the road up that much faster. She stated the Association is responsible for the streetlights and all of those things. The City will be pu~ing a financial hardship on the majority of these people to come up with the monies to support the maintenance on these roads. The City is asking to take a private property with a private drive access to be opened up to the public, and their properties will be devalued. They all purchased the property knowing it was private. They have no objections to closing off the one road and putting a break-through gate in there because a lot of people use it as a cut-through. Their gate was designed as a break-through gate as an emergency access. Councilmember Cook explained the City was not trying to open a road up for public use; the idea is to make sure that Mallard Ponds has two exits out of it. He noted if there was an accident that closed down Dysprosium Street the neighborhood would not have a way to exit, Ms. Mack stated their gate can be kicked down with a foot. Robert Wanzon, 5333 140th Avenue NW in Mallard Ponds Townhomes, stated their association has no objection to the closing of Barium Street, as that is an accident waiting to happen. They have talked to the Ramsey Police and the Anoka County Sheriff's office because the cars zip through there. Regarding putting up a "No Through Traffic - Private Street" sign on Argon Street, they have signs on Barium Street and 140th Avenue, and that does not stop anyone. The only thing they would ask is to have a noise barrier put up, as expanding the width of CR 116 will push it closer to the units backing up to it, which will increase the noise. They rely on the City Council to go to work for them and get the county to do something to cut that noise down. He stated there are small children that live along there and that traffic zips through at 50 mph. Also, if they open up the gate at Argon Street he sympathizes with that development, as they will go through what his development has gone through for the last few years. Judy Herman, 5348 140~h Lane NW, clarified that there are two associations present tonight. The Mallard Ponds Association and the Mallard Estates Associations. There are two private drives. paul Miller, 14138 Argon Street, stated his neighborhood was pretty involved when this Mallard Ponds development came up a couple of years ago. They went to all of the meetings and had a good part in how Mallard Ponds came together. One of the key parts of that was the closing of Argon Street, and e-.,'eryone was convinced at that point that if Argon Street was open it would be a problem. He is a little upset because he was a responder to the death in this area. It seems to him the City is forgetting the traffic issues they have, which is a problem the City acknowledged a few years ago. The gate was open for two days this fall, and in that two days the amount of cut- ttu'ough traffic was amazing, with people driving at high speeds. He knows as a parent that the kids are out in the street, and the fact of the matter is someone will get killed. In this case it will probably be someone he knows even better. He would like to hear logic as to how this gate P48 City Council/February 8, 2005 Page 8 of 30