01/21/1997 - City Council SpecialAGENDA
SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING
Tuesday
January 21, 1997
5:00 p.m.
Community Room Municipal Center Building
1. ROLL CALL & ADOPTION OF AGENDA
II. VISITORS TO BE HEARD
III. COUNTY ROAD PARTICIPATION
AGREEMENT FOR PROJECT 695
IV. OTHER BUSINESS
6:00 V. DI.ALOGUE WITH KEVIN HOWE
METROPOLITAN COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE
6:25 VI. ADJOURNMENT
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city of eagan
TO: HONORABLE MAYOR & CITY COUNCILMEMBERS
FROM: CITY ADMINISTRATOR HEDGES
DATE: JANUARY 17, 1997
SUBJECT: SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING/TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 1997
A Special City Council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, January 21 at 5:00 p.m. in the Community
Room to discuss the County participation agreement regarding Project 695, an opportunity for other
business the City Council may wish to discuss and finally, a dialogue with Kevin Howe,
Metropolitan Council representative.
REVIEW COUNTY COST PARTICIPATION POLICY
FOR PROJECT 695, YANKEE DOODLE ROAD
With the development of the Eagan Promenade requiring significant road improvements to the
Yankee Doodle corridor (County Road 28), it was necessary for the City to become the lead agency
in designing and contracting for these improvements in 1996. The Dakota County Capital
Improvement Program scheduled these roadway improvements to be financed in 1997. They agreed
to the City prefmancing these improvements to be reimbursed by the County when their 1997 CIP
funds became available. The Public Works Director has been working with the County in preparing
the appropriate cost participation agreement. However, in November of 1996, the County Board
adopted a new transportation policy plan which modified some of the funding responsibilities in
Eagan's favor. The County Highway Department is reluctant to apply the new policy in preparing
the cost participation agreement. The Pubic Works Director has appealed the staff ruling to the
County Board which will be heard on February 19 and would like to review the negotiating options
with the City Council. A memo summarizing the issues is enclosed on pages .3 through .
ACTION TO BE CONSIDERED:
To provide direction and negotiating limits to the Public Works Director regarding the County cost
participation agreement for Project 695, Yankee Doodle Road.
OTHER BUSINESS
If time permits between the county road participation agreement discussion and the arrival of Kevin
Howe, the other business category provides time for the City Council to discuss any issues they
would like brought up in the work session.
DIALOGUE WITH KEVIN HOWE, METROPOLITAN COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE
This is an opportunity to ask Kevin Howe to update the City on the Metropolitan Systems Plan,
Livable Communities, MVTA, Land Use Planning Act (specifically our proposed amendment) or
any other issues the City Council may want to address.
Mr. Howe has been asked to be present at the beginning of the regular City Council meeting so the
Council can summarize the discussion and share any comments of importance from the work session
so the community has the benefit of any issues it has with the Metropolitan Council.
There are no other official business items proposed for the special meeting on Tuesday.
!S .� Thomas L. Hedges
Cite Administrator
1�
— city of eagan
TO: MAYOR +& CITY COUNCIL C/O THOMAS L. HEDGES, CiTY
ADMINISTRATOR
FROM: THOMAS A. COLBERT, DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS
DATE: JANUARY 17, '1997
SUBJECT: PROJECT 695, YANKEE DOODLE ROAD
COUNTY COST PARTICIPATION AGREEMENT
MEMO
Recent approval and development of the Eagan Promenade Addition required extensive roadway
improvements to Yankee Doodle Road (County Road 28) and its interchange with I -35E. Because
of the MPCA requirement on the Indirect Source Permit (ISP) requiring these roadway capacity
improvements be completed before occupancy (November 1, 1996), these public improvements
had to be constructed during 1996.
The earliest Dakota County could program these transportation improvements was 1997.
Subsequently, the City assumed the responsibility of the lead contracting agency pre -financing
the County's share until the 1997 County Program was approved and funds could be released to
reimburse the City.
During this process, Dakota County revised and updated their 15 -year-old Comprehensive
Transportation Pian. The significant element of this plan update was numerous policies pertaining
to cost participation of the County and the affected municipality. At a special council workshop
meeting of June 25, 1996, 1 reviewed with you a seven -page memo summarizing all of the policies
that would potentially impact the City of Eagan. Based on Council feedback, the Public Works
Director and the City Administrator coordinated the city engineers, managers and administrators
of 12 Dakota County cities in negotiating an acceptable transportation policy plan which was
subsequently adopted by the Board of Commissioners on November 5, 1996. Since that time,
there have been three issues of contention with the County staff that the Public Works Director
and City Administrator believe should be appealed to the County Board of Commissioners, This
appeal is scheduled for February 19, 1997. These issues are briefly summarized here and will
be expanded on at the special workshop session of January 21, 1997.
SIGNAL COST PARTICIPATION
The existing signals for the 1-35E ramp terminals on Yankee Doodle Road had to be modified to
accommodate the new roadway improvements. Typically, MnDot would participate in 33%of the
cost with the remainder being split 50150 between the City and the County. MnDot declined to
participate because they felt the roadway improvements and signal revisions were "development
driven" and their policy does not allow participation. Subsequently, County staff has taken a
position that they will not share in any unfunded MnDot responsibilities. Subsequently, they are
requiring the City of Eagan to finance 67°% of these signal costs for an intersection on a County
road with a state highway. I feel the appropriate cost split should be 50150 of the total cost. The
cost differential is approximately $25,000.
NEW POLICY APPLICATION
Through the lobbying efforts of Dakota County Municipalities, the new Transportation Funding
Policies provide for an increase in financial participation by the County. When the County
Board approved these new policies, they excluded five specific projects from the new funding
formulas that were delayed by local council action under the premise that the City should not
benefit from the new funding policies due to their past delay in proceeding with a previously
scheduled improvement. The Cliff Road Upgrade (Project 680) from Chesmar Drive to
Lexington Avenue which was denied by council action on May 7, 1996 was the only project in
Eagan that was specifically identified as being excluded from the future beneficial policy plan.
However, the County Engineer feels that because the Yankee Doodle Road improvements were
performed in 1996, that it too should fall under the old policy funding formulas. Although the
construction may have been performed in 1996, a formal cost participation agreement had not
been entered into and it is being funded with the County's 1997 Road Improvement Program
which clearly falls under the recently adopted transportation guidelines. The cost differential
has not yet been computed but it could easily approach $50 - $100,000.
STATE AID DESIGNATION
Yankee Doodle Road from T.H. 13 into Inver Grove Heights (4.2 miles) is designated on the
City's Municipal State Aid System (MSAS). As such, the City collects $6,300 per year for
maintenance (trails, boulevards, street lights, etc.) and receives construction dollar allocations
which are used to finance the City's share of related County road improvements.
The County Highway Engineer wants to have this segment of Yankee Doodle Road designated
as a County State Aid Highway (CSAR) so that they can collect annual maintenance dollars and
State Aid construction allocations. A road cannot have dual Municipal and County State Aid
designations. Therefore, the County Highway Engineer has stated that he will agree to the
application of the new funding policy recently adopted by the County Board only if Eagan will
revoke its State Aid designation and transfer it to the County. This results in an annual financial
impact to the City of Eagan of approximately $20,000 per year of construction and maintenance
allocations in addition to eliminating our ability to use State Aid funds to finance the proposed
upgrading and extension of Yankee Doodle Road into Inver Grove Heights.
Because the County Engineer has not approached Inver Grove Heights requesting the same
transfer of State Aid designation, I feel that the City is being coerced into transferring State Aid
funds to Dakota County in order to receive County cost participation in accordance with the
recently approved funding policy.
The City Administrator and Public Works Director have spoken to both Commissioner Bataglia
and Commissioner Jim Mueller about our concerns. Due to the complexity of the issues that
are hard to convey in this memo, they have not yet been fully optimistic of our position.
SUMMARY
Therefore, the administrator and I would like to review these issues with the City Council to
determine to what degree we should negotiate with either the County Engineer and/or the
County board. The end result would be a cost participation agreement that will be presented
to the City Council for formal execution at a future Council meeting.
Respectively submitted.
Director of Public Works
ON