Agenda - Council Work Session - 04/05/2005

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No~hstar Corridor Rail Station Feasibility Study Ramsey Station Pedestrian and Vehicular Access The Northstar Corrido~ parallels TH 10 through Ramsey. in the final concept plan for Town Center, the proposed Ramsey station would be in the south central portion of the Town Center site, which would, facilitate auto access from TH 10 to Armstrong Boulevard or Ramsey Boule- vard. The Town Center development would be focused toward the train station,.forming a core for the Town Center street network. Ramsey Town Center is bounded by industry Avenue, Armstron9 Boulevard, TH 10, and Ramsey Boulevard. These are also the major access roads into and out of Town Center. Within the development, three "avenues" would link industry Avenue to TH 10, traveling generally north-south through Town Center. These three avenues would constitute the major vehicular access to the proposed station. An extension of Sunwood Drive would be the primary east-west connector street in Town Center. Ail other streets within Town Center would be neighborhood- scale to facilitate pedestrian and bicycle activity. Sidewalks would be provided, and bike traits would link Town Center to existin9 regionat bike routes. The focus of Town Center would be 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/bicycle 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 platforms, and pedestrian crossings. Because Town Center is being ptanned as a transit-oriented development (TOD), excellent access to and from the train station is a primary criterion of Town Center planning. Those areas outside Town Center would have access off TH 1 0 at either Armstrong Boulevard or Ramsey Boulevard. Both intersections will be signalized; therefore, vehicular access to the rail station via these north-south collectors will be convenient to those traveling along TH 10 and also feeding from northern Anoka County. Ridership EstimatesmYear 2025 The Metropolitan Council (Met CoUncil) is the regional planning agency for the Twin Cities and seven-county region around the Twin Cities. Based on information from the Met Council, the population and employment estimates proposed in the City of Ramsey's memorandum of February 9, 2004, to the Met Council to update the Met Council's 2025 demographic.assump- tions and forecasts fOr'Ramsey. With the concurrence of Met Council staff on methodology, the populatior~ and employment estimates for each transportation analysis zone (TAZ) (39-48) were replaced with the updated Ramsey estimates for this analysis. The ridership estimates were prepared by AECOM Consult, Inc. AECOM prepared the ridership modeling for the entire Northstar Corridor. The Met Council trip generation and distribution programs were then rerun With the new demo- graphic data. The new trip tables were then combined with the expanded trip tables (to include those areas of the Northstar project which are outside the Met Council modeling area), which produced a new 2025 Home-Based Work (HBW) trip table. Table 2-t presents average weekday boardings by station-for build alternative. The Bi9 Lake alternative with Ramsey utilizes the revised trip tables. Rail boardings at the station levet can be summarized as one half the average daily number of passengers boarding and alighting the train at each stop. The number of daily trips is halved to avoid "double counting" since transit trips are assigned in production-attraction format. Table 2-2 presents user benefits for the Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc. ~-5 March 2004 -6-