Loading...
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 .i 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