Agenda - Public Works Committee - 05/17/2022

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The Public Works Committee reviewed and discussed the resident's requests with them on October 19, 2021, and afterwards the committee directed Staff to contact the developer and their engineer to determine if either or both would be willing to partner with the City to redesign, reconstruct and/or extend the noise wall to serve it's intended purpose. The Committee also directed Staff to contact MnDOT to discuss the option of relocating the wall onto their right-of-way, and to present estimated costs to reconstruct and/or extend the sound wall to the end of the plat and/or to connect to the existing wall to the north during a future meeting. Staff then contacted the developer, Riverside Development Company, and received three response letters from their attorney infonning Staff that the developer is willing to assist the City in resolving this matter by providing a history of past discussions and to offer its opinion on any potential changes to the wall, but that they are not agreeable to assuming any financial liability associated with such changes. Their attorney also noted that the City cannot retain any of their client's financial securities outside of what is allowed by the Development Agreement, namely their one-year warranty and landscaping warranty. Staff therefore returned all securities outside of the warranty securities outlined within the Development Agreement. Staff also contacted the design engineer, Bogart -Pederson, to discuss their willingness to assist the City in resolving this matter. Bogart -Pederson said they informed City Staff that a wall constructed on their client's property would not be able to serve as a noise wall due to the low elevations on site, and that constructing a wall within Highway 47 right-of-way would not likely be economically feasible due to the need to relocate existing buried utilities and overhead power lines, but that Staff instructed them to construct the wall per the plans, which was done. Bogart -Pederson said they would share their topo survey so the City could explore relocating the wall within Highway 47 right-of-way. Staff also contacted MnDOT and was informed that their preference would be for the wall to be constructed on private property but MnDOT did confirm that they would be willing to discuss construction of a wall in MnDOT right-of-way, though they do not have funds to pay for such work. Also, the City would need to execute a Limited Use Permit to define the responsibilities of the City related to maintenance and removal of the wall, if necessary in the future. On January 18, 2022, the Public Works Committee discussed this information, along with the estimated costs developed by Staff, and directed Staff to obtain the opinion of the new City Attorney as to the responsibilities of the developer and their engineer in this matter, to speak with the engineer to ask if they would at a minimum provide the required design services, to contact MnDOT to determine whether they would allow the wall to be relocated, reconstructed and/or extended within MnDOT right-of-way and whether any other funds may be available, to discuss available funding sources with the Finance Director, to review the site conditions, and to determine who the property owners are. On February 15, 2022, the Public Works Committee received updates from Staff including responses received from the developer and their engineer, and estimated costs for the options previously discussed. After discussions, Staff noted that they would look at the grades to see if an opportunity might exist to cost-effectively add fill outside of MnDOT right-of-way while avoiding impacts to utilities, which could then be discussed in more detail at a future meeting. Since February, Staff has confirmed that the developer's engineer will provide their topographic survey data and utility as -built data to allow City Staff to further explore options for relocating, constructing, or extending sound walls within MnDOT's Highway 47 right-of-way. Staff anticipates receiving this data very soon. However, additional topo survey will be needed to determine where a sound wall could effectively be constructed along the Highway 47 corridor, especially if the wall is to connected to the existing 6-foot tall sound wall approximately 900-feet to the north. Attached is the figure showing how long the sound wall would need to extend to the north of the Ramsey Villas North plat to connect to the existing sound wall. As previously discussed, Staff estimates construction costs for a similar sound wall to be approximately $210 per linear foot at today's construction costs. This would equate to a minimum construction cost of $50,000 to salvage and reinstall the existing wall within the Highway 47 right-of-way. To extend the wall past the north end of the