Minutes - Public Works Committee - 09/19/1999

Home

Councilmember Hendriksen stated that the City provided "Private Drive" signs for the development, and any other traffic calming measures they would like to make they should incur themselves as an Association. He noted that he liked Staff's recommendation in regards to the street lights. Public Works Supervisor Riemer stated that at the August 17, 1999 Public Works Committee meeting, Dorothy Stickney made a request for snow plowing of Xenon Street, which runs through the Sunfish Pond Townhomes. He explained that the portion of Xenon Street that runs through the townhouse development is a private road. The developer was granted a variance to deviate from the standard road design. The variance was granted with the understanding that the townhouse association would be responsible for snow removal and general maintenance of their roadways. The segment of Xenon Street contains bends sharper than the standard design allows. The bends would make plowing with large equipment difficult. There are also small "parking bays" used by the residents and their guests for additional parking along the road. One pass of the City's equipment could essentially block an entire neighborhood that may be ill equipped for snow removal. Staff's greatest concern with the snow removal would be the lack of set back distance from the road. On a normal residential road, in the urban portion of town, the City owns about fifteen feet of right-of-way. In addition to the fight-of-way, there is a required set back of 35 feet from the right-of-way. That places the front of the house about 50 feet from the road. There is no such allowance in the townhouse development. The fronts of the townhouses are approximately 20 feet from the road. This is not including privacy fences used to separate their decks, which are about ten feet from the road. There are also trees and other landscaping close to the roadway, which could be damaged during plowing operations. In actuality, the City would be storing all of the snow on private property, and, therefore, would be responsible for any damage that occurred. Staff also contacted the street departments in the cities of Anoka and Coon Rapids to see what their policies were. Jim Lewis, the street supervisor for the City of Anoka, stated they do not plow any private roads and refer that type of work to private contractors. Greg Cronin, from the City of Coon Rapids street department, said that they do plow some main roads in townhouse developments, but only roads that were built to their standard specifications and are dedicated to the city. They also use blue street I.D. signs on private roads in their city, instead of the normal green to help avoid confusion and alert their plow drivers that they are entering a private road. The opinion of Public Works was that the situation would best be served by removing the snow from the site. At the present time, the Public Works Department is not equipped to do snow removal. The snow plowing fleet consists of one front-end loader, two motor graders, four 2-½ ton trucks, and six pick-up tracks. The loader and the large trucks would be needed for snow removal, and at the present are used extensively in the City's snow plowing operation. The equipment would not be available for snow removal until they completed their assigned routes. During a normal snow event of two to four inches, it would be approximately eight hours. A private contractor equipped to remove the snow from the site would best serve the operation. They would have the ability to do both Xenon Street and the side streets between the residences simultaneously, thereby decreasing the chance of leaving people stranded for an extended period of time. Mr. Riemer suggested that they could supply a list of contractors able to perform the work and share some ideas on how to make sure the work is completed in a timely matter. Public Works Committee/September 21, 1999 Page 3 of 9