07/07/2020 - City Council Public Works Committee
AGENDA
PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE MEETING
TUESDAY, JULY 7, 2020
(After conclusion of Regular Council Meeting)
CITY HALL
COUNCIL CHAMBERS
I. ADOPT AGENDA
II. SPEED LIMIT LEGISLATION UPDATE
III. TELECOMMUNICATIONS TOWER STUDY
IV. AUTOMATED METERING INFRASTRUCTURE
V. OTHER BUSINESS
VI. ADJOURNMENT
Agenda Memo
July 7, 2020 Public Works Committee Meeting
II. SPEED LIMIT LEGISLATION UPDATE
DIRECTION TO BE CONSIDERED: Receive an update from City staff regarding the 2019
legislation that allows Minnesota cities to establish speed limits without MnDOT approval.
BACKGROUND:
• During the 2019 special session, the Minnesota Legislature established two new laws
allowing cities to set speed limits on certain city streets without a Minnesota Department
of Transportation (MnDOT) traffic study.
• Prior to the adoption of these new laws, which became effective August 1, 2019, the
ability of a city to change speed limits was limited and required a city to request MnDOT
to conduct an engineering and traffic study on the city street. After the report was
completed, MnDOT would then set the speed limit on the city street. The new law allows
a city to adopt speed limits on its streets without MnDOT involvement.
• In order to set new speed limits on city streets, a city must establish procedures based
on a city’s safety, engineering, and traffic analysis. This analysis must consider national
urban speed limit guidance and studies, local traffic crashes, and methods to effectively
communicate the change to the public. Speed limit changes must be made in a consistent
and understandable manner and must be posted on the affected street.
• The 2019 speed limit laws were requested by Minneapolis and St. Paul for their own
purposes and were not initiated or supported by the League of Minnesota Cities (LMC),
and were opposed by the City Engineers Association of Minnesota (CEAM) due to the
anticipated inconsistencies in application by cities throughout the State.
• In response, MnDOT and their State Aid Office have established a Speed Limit Task Force
and working group with many varied stakeholders (law enforcement, bike/ped groups,
County, City, etc), which has representation from CEAM, including our Transportation
Operations Engineer Tim Plath as the chair of the CEAM Traffic Safety Committee. This
group is trying to create a unified vision on the current speed limit legislation, and all
speed limits on local roadways across the state. Staff reports progress is being made by
this task force with hopes of presenting the vision to the State Legislature through CEAM
in the 2021 session.
• LMC staff has provided informal guidance on the speed limit legislation, indicating that
while the locals now have authority to set speeds on their streets, the industry standard
of setting speeds remains the same (85th percentile, with other factors possibly
evaluated per the MNMUTCD).
• On June 18, 2019 the City Council Public Works Committee was briefed on the new
legislation. The Committee indicated they see no need for a change in the City’s speed
limits on local residential streets from the current 30 mph limit and encouraged City staff
to coordinate with neighboring cities on this item for consistency in application. With
suburban neighborhoods often crossing city boundaries, it will be important to
cooperate with neighboring cities’ staff to ensure that there is speed limit consistency
for public safety and enforcement purposes. Discussions with staff from other cities has
found uniform support for such consistency. There has also been uniform support to
leave speed limits as they are and continue to process speed studies through MnDOT.
City staff is part of a Dakota County public works/engineering professionals’ group that
is coordinating efforts on this new local authority.
• City of Eagan staff have received no formal requests to change speed limits on local
residential streets but will keep the Public Works Committee apprised of any requests
received in the future.
• Public Works staff will present an update and address any questions the Committee may
have on this item.
ATTACHMENTS (0):
Agenda Memo
July 7, 2020 Public Works Committee Meeting
III. TELECOMMUNICATIONS TOWER STUDY
DIRECTION TO BE CONSIDERED: Provide direction to City staff regarding the consideration
of an engineering study to address tower placement for wireless communications to address
the following: future automated metering infrastructure (AMI) for City water meter reading,
maximize coverage for the City’s two-way radio system, SCADA, street light radio control
system, and future traffic monitoring, as well as the possibility of including the placement of
cellular telephone and small cell antennas.
BACKGROUND:
• On May 12, 2020, the City Council received an update from staff to enable their
consideration of implementing an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) or alternative
water meter reading options for residential water meters. Council directed staff to
migrate all residential water meter reading to the automated radio reading system (AMI)
utilized for commercial, industrial, and institutional water customers.
• Implementation of an AMI water meter reading system requires the use of antennas to
receive the signals from the individual meters and forward the collected data to the City’s
Utility Billing system.
• The Sperry Tower is currently being utilized to read all non-residential water meters as
part of the City’s AMI system for commercial/industrial/institutional water meters.
Through discussions with engineering consultants, City staff have the understanding that
it is likely that two new telecommunications towers, for a total of three locations, will be
needed to have an AMI system that will read all residential water customers within the
City.
• The City’s two-way radio system was updated two years ago, but some areas of the city
have weak radio signals. While most is connected by fiber, some of the Utilities’
infrastructure operated by SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) still has
radio connections, some of which also have weak signals. City owned street lights are
regulated by a street light radio control system; that system cannot reach the Viking
Lakes street lights. The addition of one or more new towers could improve radio
coverage for these City operations.
• City staff have been approached by multiple cellular telephone companies over the years
expressing interest in removing current antennae from City water reservoirs and placing
them on new constructed telecommunications towers adjacent to the reservoirs.
Specific interests include greater flexibility with the upgrades of the antennae facilities
and the requirement to remove said antennae infrastructure when the reservoirs are
refurbished. City staff consider the removal of the antennae to be beneficial to the water
reservoir structures and water system operations.
• Staff have been in discussions with two cell phone companies discussing this interest
over the past nine months. The original meeting was prompted by the scheduled
refurbishing of the Southern Lakes water tower in 2020 in hopes that a resolution could
be agreed to prior to the start of the improvements to avoid replacement of the
antennae on the reservoir at the end of the improvements. The cell phone providers
asked to delay further consideration with the understanding that the antennae
replacement would occur as typical.
• In order to proceed with the timely implementation of the AMI water meter reading as
the current walk-by water meter reading services ends, it is important that antenna
locations be selected early in the transformation to AMI. Temporary antennas will need
to be placed in the proposed permanent antenna locations so all meters may be
configured appropriately to ensure all meters are being read at the time of the switch
over to the new system.
• Knowing that a telecommunications tower study would be needed to determine the AMI
antenna locations, staff have discussed the study with other utility/cell phone providers.
Interest has been expressed by representatives of said companies for the possible use of
their own AMI systems as well as an alternative to placement on City water reservoirs.
• Public Works staff will present an update and address any questions the Committee may
have on this item.
ATTACHMENTS (0):
Agenda Memo
July 7, 2020 Public Works Committee Meeting
IV. AUTOMATED METERING INFRASTRUCTURE
CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT/VARIANCE APPLICATION
DIRECTION TO BE CONSIDERED: Provide direction to City staff regarding the consideration
of a Conditional Use Permit or Variance application to address the placement of temporary
towers upon City property at 1311 Cliff Road and 1683 Skywood Lane.
BACKGROUND:
• On May 12, 2020, the City Council received an update from staff to enable their
consideration of implementing an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) or alternative
water meter reading options for residential water meters. Council directed staff to
migrate all residential water meter reading to the automated radio reading system (AMI)
utilized for commercial, industrial, and institutional water customers.
• Implementation of an AMI water meter reading system requires the use of antennas to
receive the signals from the individual meters and forward the collected data to the City’s
Utility Billing system.
• The Sperry Tower is currently being utilized to read all non-residential water meters as
part of the City’s AMI system for commercial/industrial/institutional water meters.
Through discussions with engineering consultants, City staff have the understanding that
it is likely that two new telecommunications towers will be needed to have an AMI
system that will read all residential water customers within the City.
• It is important to implement the transformation to the AMI water meter reading as the
current walk-by water meter reading services ends. Temporary antennas will need to be
placed early in the system design process so meters may be configured appropriately to
ensure all meters are being read at the time of the switch over to the new system.
• Staff has the understanding that temporary antennas will need to be placed by
November 2020 in order to coordinate a transformation to AMI meter reading with the
scheduled end of current meter reading services on December 31, 2021. Temporary
antennas for the residential AMI system are proposed to be installed at the Deerwood
reservoir and Cliff Booster Station sites. Antenna heights are estimated to be 100 feet
at the Cliff Booster Station and 140 feet at the Deerwood reservoir.
• Per city Ordinance, Conditional Use Permits may be required for the construction of
telecommunications towers in excess of a height of 50-60 feet. Heights in excess of 100
feet may require a variance. Public Works staff would continue to work with Community
Development staff to complete the appropriate process for the placement of the
temporary poles/towers.
• Public Works staff will present an update and address any questions the Committee may
have on this item.
ATTACHMENTS (0):