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<br />Councilmember Dehen stated he is not advocating to pave people's driveways or that the City <br />require people to pave them. What he has advocated in the past is that a certain portion of the <br />driveway from the road be paved. He does not think the City should be telling people that they <br />need to pave their driveways. From the City's benefit it can be an aesthetic matter and can make <br />things look nicer, but there are some gravel roads that look nice too. He stated gravel from these <br />driveways is tracking out onto the roads and people on roller blades are falling down from <br />chunks of gravel in the road. A secondary reason for the paving is that it allows more effective <br />ordinance enforcement with the driveway and parking surface, rather than vague notions as to <br />the area ofthe driveway. He thinks there is a benefit from it and he will advocate for a certain <br />amount of distance to have it done, with people having the ability to make their own choice <br />whether they want to continue the paving further. <br /> <br />The Committee and staff discussed the following in relation to eliminating gravel driveways: <br />. Receiving bids from contractors that would be available for residents to contract with for <br />paving their driveway. Options would include paving to the point the City determines as <br />mandatory or the length desired by the property owner. <br />. The likelihood of difficulty for contractors to formulate a bid price without knowing the <br />number of driveways that would participate or the ability to get equipment in and out. <br />· A policy that would require the right-of-way to be paved. <br />· The City to complete an inventory to determine the number of potential driveways, <br />receiving contractor bids, and making arrangements with the contractor to work out <br />arrangements with the individual homeowners. <br /> <br />Public Works Director Olson suggested completing an inventory and providing notice to all the <br />property owners that have gravel driveways to determine who is interested. <br /> <br />Councilmember Olson questioned what the City is really trying to accomplish with this program, <br />and whether they are just trying to put out an incentive to get people to do this or if they are <br />looking at somewhere down the road making this mandatory. She stated if the plan is to make <br />this mandatory in the future she thinks that should be stated up front. <br /> <br />Councilmember Dehen stated the paving is mandatory; the question is not what is required now; <br />this discussion is about the older homes. He questioned if the Coon Rapids policy included an <br />incentive followed by some sort of enforcement. <br /> <br />City Engineer Jankowski indicated he spoke with the Coon Rapids City Engineer and his <br />understanding is that they passed an ordinance requiring all the driveways to be paved. They <br />then put this program together and offered people to buy in, which a number of them did, but <br />they did not go out and enforce the requirement. <br /> <br />Councilmember Dehen stated he would be in favor of getting the program going and then giving <br />people perhaps one year to react. He suggested the possibility of including a hardship exception, <br />although he would not want it to be used too much because people would use it as a reason not to <br />do the improvements. <br /> <br />Public Works Committee / June 19, 2007 <br />Page 5 of 12 <br />