04/18/1995 - City Council Special \ t
AGENDA
SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING
Tuesday
April 18, 1995
5:00 p.m.
Eagan Municipal Center Building
I. ROLL CALL & ADOPTION OF AGENDA
II. POLICE DEPARTMENT BUILDING TOUR
III. RECISION OF ISTEA GRANT - NICOLS ROAD TRAILS
N. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT UPDATE
V. OTHER BUSINESS
VI. ADJOURNMENT
MEMO
IL
city of eagan
TO: HONORABLE MAYOR & CITY COUNCILMEMBERS
FROM: CITY ADMINISTRATOR HEDGES
DATE: APRIL 14, 1995
SUBJECT: SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING/TUESDAY, APRIL 18, 1995
A Special City Council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, April 18, 1995, at 5:00 p.m. for
the purpose of: 1) touring the new police facility, 2) discussing potential recision of the
ISTEA grant for the Nicols Road trail improvements and 3) a community development
update.
POLICE FACILITY TOUR
Police, Administration and Finance will begin their move to the new police facility on April
18. While a number of punch list items remain to be finished, this will be a good
opportunity for the City Council to see the building as it nears completion. As with the
previous moves of personnel, it will take several days for operations to return entirely to
normal. Even so, staff intends to provide all the public services throughout the transition
period.
All telephone numbers of City personnel will remain the same as in the past. The mailing
address for the entire facility remains 3830 Pilot Knob Road. Signage and barricades will
be located at the current entrances directing residents to the new police entrance
beginning Wednesday morning, April 19. Public meetings will be moving to Blackhawk
Middle School beginning with the Planning Commission meeting of April 25 and
continuing through completion of the remodeling project next fall.
It is anticipated that the tour will take no more than thirty minutes, leaving an hour for
discussion of the other two business items.
ISTEA GRANT RECISION
The City has been awarded an ISTEA grant for the connection of trails between Nicols
and Silver Bell Roads and the Cedar Avenue bridge. This system would provide trail
access between the City of Eagan and the Minnesota River Valley Trail System and the
Bloomington Trail System. While the project is still appropriate for consideration, staff has
discovered that costs associated with administration of the ISTEA grant is excessive and
that the money could better be spent on actual improvements than grant administration
in this case. For additional information on this item, please refer to the Parks &
Recreation Department memorandum on pages 3 through 9 . If the Council
concurs with the recommendations of staff regarding this matter, then authorization to
rescind the grant is included on this evening's Consent Agenda.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT UPDATE
Enclosed on pages s through is a memorandum from the Community
Development Department discussing current development issues within the City.
Community Development Director Reichert will be present to expand upon items outlined
in the memo. The current economy and development climate leads staff to anticipate
another busy year for subdivision and development activity. A number of fairly substantial
project's applications are being processed by the City's advisory commissions and will be
brought forward to the City Council in the coming months. This update is provided for
discussion purposes.
OTHER BUSINESS
Staff is aware of no other business to come before the City Council at this time.
ADJOURNMENT
The workshop session will adjourn no later than 6:25 p.m.
/S/ Thomas L. Hedges
City Administrator
14,4•64::;* MEMO
_ city of eagan
DATE: APRIL 12, 1995
TO: TOM HEDGES, CITY ADMINISTRATOR
FROM: KEN VRAA, DIRECTOR OF PARKS & RECREATION
RICH PELLETIER, PARKS OPERATIONS SUPERVISOR
SUBJECT: MINNESOTA VALLEY TRAIL: ISTEA GRANT
ACTION
To rescind the City's participation in the ISTEA Grant for trails development; Minnesota
Valley Trail.
HISTORY
The City of Eagan applied for an ISTEA Trails Grant in 1992 and was formally awarded
approval in 1994, for trails construction in 1996. The last several months, staff has been
trying to facilitate the construction of this trail to meet an earlier time frame to coincide with
the work effort being done by the Metropolitan Council's Waste Water Commission Project
on a portion of Nicols Road. In addition, the City is currently anticipating the upgrading of
Nicols Road, north of Silver Bell Road to the railroad tracks. At the time of the original
Grant request, the project estimate was $400,000. Of this amount, $205,000 was for trail
construction, $85,000 for shelter/informational depot, $40,000 for landscaping, $15,000
for signage , and $55,000 for design, engineering, and contingency. The City's share was
to be approximately$80,000; $50,000 of hard dollar match and $30,000 of inkind services.
Under the Intermodels Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) of 1991, 80% of the
construction cost are eligible for funding . Unfortunately, design and engineering costs are
not Grant eligible and the City would be responsible for 100% of these costs. It should also
be noted that Federal design standards for construction, which are considerately more
stringent than the typical trails design, must be met. These higher standards have significantly
raised costs associated with design, engineering and project inspection. In addition to these
costs, the City must bid the project thru State MnDOT offices. It is estimated that the
design, engineering field work and administration will be $110,000. When coupled with
the $80,000 match for construction, total cash outlay for the City is now estimated at
approximately $190,000.
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STAFF RE-EVALUATION
After receiving this higher dollar estimate from the City's consulting engineer, staff re-
evaluated the objections of the project, searching for cost saving alternatives. Considering
the original objectives for the trail construction, primary consideration was given to the end
users of the proposed trail. It was felt that the majority of the people who would use this
particular trail would be the serious cyclist, either for transportation (crossing the Minnesota
River) or recreational (connecting with the Minnesota River Valley Trail System in Fort
Snelling State Park). It is doubtful that many pedestrians would walk this trail for
transportation because of its length, and those who would desire to hike the Fort Snelling
trails, would most likely drive to the state park parking lot adjacent to the Cedar Avenue
Bridge to begin their walk at this location.
Important to know is that as part of the Metro Council's Waste Water Commission (MCWC)
project, the repairs of Nicols Road will provide for 5 foot paved shoulders, which should
be adequate for hiking/biking. The City was able to negotiate this as part of the
reconstruction project for Nicols Road, but is not be able to take credit for it as part of the
ISTEA Grant. A separate bike trail through this section of Nicols Road does not seem
warranted because of the low volume of vehicular traffic and because of the significant
environmental impacts on the adjacent Fen.
In pursuit of additional cost reductions, staff requested the engineering consultant to develop
an estimate for the trails project, which would shift the focus from off road trails to providing
bike lanes/bike trails. These would be striped, signed and paved shoulders of sufficient
width to be allowed to be designated for bicycle use. The estimate for design engineering
and construction of this type of trailway is $60,000.
The Council should be aware that this is not an apples & apples cost estimate comparison.
The lower cost estimate of $60,000 is for a lessor design standard trail than originally
anticipated with the ISTEA Grant application. This lower cost design is strictly a functional
trail without amenities, such as the interpretative shelter, rest area and landscaping excluded
in the revised design. The most significant cost savings are realized by the reduction in
design and engineering costs. Estimates vary from the $10,000 for the functional trail vs
$110,000 for the ISTEA proposal. Reviewing the two alternatives and the costs involved,
it was felt that the additional expense for the ISTEA design was not justified and the City
should consider pursuing the construction of the Minnesota River Valley Trail on its own
without using ISTEA funding.
REVIEW
Staff will be present at the Council Workshop on April 18, to review any trail issues, left
unanswered to enable the City Council to make a determination on the ISTEA Grant.
cslhunvalley.kv
MEMO
— city of eagan
TO: TOM HEDGES, CITY ADMINISTRATOR
FROM: PEGGY A REICHERT, DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
DATE: APRIL 13, 1995
SUBJECT: COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT UPDATE ON APRIL 18, 1995
At the City Council workshop session on April 18, 1995, I would like to briefly cover the
following items:
1. Opus Development Application - Opus did submit an application this week and we
have begun our staff review. I have scheduled a meeting for Tuesday meeting
with Ken Vraa and Tom Colbert to give it further review. There are a number of
issues presented by this application and I would like some City Council direction
on how to negotiate with Opus.
2. Wescott Apartments - I met with various property owners and the managers of
Wescott Apartments last week. Two HRA staff members were also in attendance.
The purpose of the meeting was for HRA staff and me to get a sense of what the
various owners were thinking about doing with their property. The meeting was
very interesting in that the property owners seem to believe that the City should
step up to the plate and provide low interest loans so that they can secure their
investment. These property owners, and their representatives, were extremely
aggressive at the meeting and I was quite taken aback. I would like to update the
Council on this meeting and tell them where we are going from here to explore the
various problems out there and what potentially could be done to resolve some of
the issues from the City's perspective.
3. Cedarvale Special Service District - We held a meeting of the property owners in
Cedarvale this past Monday morning. Only four property owners attended. They
were not particularly ready to proceed with constructing an 80' high sign fronting
Cedar Avenue, but they are interested in some ground signs that could serve to
direct people in to the site from Highway 13. City staff will be doing some
additional review of signage options and we are meeting with Cedarvale again in
a few weeks.
4. Remick Trucking Terminal - This item was continued from the last City Council
meeting We have been contacted by Joe Christensen and he has informed us
that Mark Remick is terminating his purchase option with the sellers so that he can
get his $10,000 earnest money back and they will be formally withdrawing the
application.
5. Definition of Setbacks - I would like some Council direction on how we should
handle some commercial building setback issues. The City Code requires a 20'
landscaped area between street right-of-way and parking lot in all our Commercial
districts. While this works in most cases, we continue to have the situation that
we had with Red Robin restaurant in which the applicant negotiates an easement
instead of a right-of-way dedication with Dakota County and thereby skirts the
requirement for this landscaped setback area. We now have this coming up with
a little IndyLube project proposed to the north of the Phillips 66 station on Pilot
Knob Road adjacent to I-35E. I have discussed how we might resolve this issue
with the City Attorney's Office and the best thing would be for us to redefine the
definition of setbacks in the Zoning Ordinance. If it is the City Council's intent that
we provide this 20' landscaped area in our Commercial districts, we should then
measure setbacks from right-of-way of public streets or any roadway-related
easements. I am working on a draft of this ordinance amendment for
consideration at the Planning Commission meeting on April 25th. I would like City
Council direction on this issue and whether to proceed in this code amendment.
6. Sale/Lease of Old Unisys Building on 1-494 - I would like to update the City
Council on the status of the old Unisys building. There are a number of potential
buyers and/or lessees and this all signals a very positive direction for the
continued development of Class A office space over the coming years.
7. Southeast Industrial Area - The Economic Development Commission will be
discussing this matter at its meeting on Thursday, April 20. The Planning
Commission will then be discussing it on April 25th. I know that the City Council
has been receiving many phone calls and comments on this. I would just like an
opportunity to hear if there is any additional information that Council is going to be
wanting and if they have any other direction for me on how we should be
proceeding with this matter which has become quite a small political football.
8. Carriage Hills Golf Course - I have been told that this area is now for sale. This
may be something the City Council may want to discuss because I am sure they
will be selling it for residential development purposes.4:,C,A.e..1-Ci) 9
Directo�ommunit Development
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