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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01-13-2014 Work Session Minutes Meeting of: COLUMBIA HEIGHTS CITY COUNCIL Date of Meeting: January 13, 2014 Time of Meeting: 5:45 P.M. Location of Meeting: CONFERENCE ROOM 1 Purpose of Meeting: WORK SESSION Present: Mayor Peterson, Council Member Williams, Council Member Nawrocki, Council Member Diehm, Council Member Schmitt, City Manager Walt Fehst, Public Works Director Kevin Hansen, and City Clerk Tori Leonhardt. 2014 Alley Program Background: Staff has developed preliminary plans and prepared the draft Feasibility Report for the Alley Reconstruction on the following alleys: Van Buren Street to Central Avenue, 39th Avenue to 40th Avenue, Van Buren Street to Central Avenue, 42nd Avenue to 43rd Avenue, Monroe Street to Quincy Street, 42nd Avenue to 43rd Avenue, and Polk Street to Buchanan Street, south of 39th Avenue These existing bituminous alleys have severely deteriorated and are requiring more extensive maintenance each year, especially in the spring. Current City standards have established new or reconstructed alle ys to be concrete construction with an inverse crown. The advantages of concrete are longer design life, ease, and ability to construct and maintain an inverse crown and lower maintenance costs. Storm sewer extensions and repairs are required to correct drainage issues and maintain the collection system. Water main cleaning and lining in the alley from Polk Street to Buchanan Street, south of 39th Avenue to improve the distribution system. Private and city owned retaining walls range from good to poor condition. Staff requests replacing two city walls as part of the construction. The cost to replace these walls will not be assessed. Alleys are assessed to the benefitted properties on a parcel basis. Single family and duplex units are subsidized, based on the funds available, and/or part past practice. Commercial, multi-family, and industrial properties pay 100% of the assessment cost consistent with our current street rehabilitation assessing policy. Based on the required water main and storm sewer work and retaining wall construction, staff recommends constructing the alley between Polk Street and Buchanan Street, south of 39th Avenue with future street rehabilitation work in Zone 1 and Zone 2. The remaining three alleys are proposed to be constructed with 12’ wide concrete. Adjacent bituminous and concrete driveways and turf will be restored to match the new alley grade. The estimated cost is $397,440 for the alley reconstruction. Assessments would be between $263,340 and 272,890. The utilities costs will be further developed during the final stages. In 1999, 15 alleys were improved or reconstructed and the cost per residential lot was $1,200. The equivalent rate for 2014 would be $2,069 per lot. If we assessed at 45% that would get us to $2250.00. We have garbage pickup in the alleys and that is one of the problems. Alleys all drain towards the center. They took a photo of the retaining walls and they are in need of replacement. There are frost boils that are present. The water main in this alley needs to get cleaned and lined. It also has a large public retaining wall and both ends are starting to fail. There is only a 10” pipe in this alley. We are recommending delaying this alley until 2015 or 2016. Existing concrete alleys found to be in adequate to good condition are proposed to have their joints cleaned and sealed to extend the life of the pavement. Staff would recommend this under a separate crack sealing program to be funded out of the infrastructure fund and this work will be done in the next 1-4 years. Most are in good shape. Five additional alley segments have been identified by staff, based on the pavement analysis and review of our maintenance activities, for reconstruction in an 8-10 year timeframe. Staff recommends establishing an alley program in the “off” years of the Street Rehabilitation Program. Funding would be 45% or $2250.00. Alleys were not originally part of the funding source. Info structure cannot withstand funding alleys. The first seal coats are paid for by the city. If we continue to pay for the alleys, we are going to have to figure out some other means of funding source. We are only recommending 3 alleys at this time and will recommend more in 8 years. With mapping, we have located where the alleys are. We identified with these five additional alleys in the next 8 years. These are getting more and more difficult to patch. We have done thin overlays to buy us some time. Schmitt asked if we banned trucks on those alleys in spring time. Hansen stated no we do not. Our alleys are rated at 4 tons. Garbage trucks are rated at 6 tons and they are exempt from those restrictions. Nawrocki stated he would not vote for any major work in these alleys without seeing them. He questioned the cost going up from $1200 to $2200 and he does not feel that the senior’s income has gone up this much over the years. Hansen stated he can certainly get pictures of these areas and two of the three alleys are historically flood areas. This would be the time to get the drainage resolved. We have known about this since 1996. Hansen stated in 1999 we did give a discount in regards to access. Peterson asked if the next step would be a public hearing. Hansen stated this would be correct. Schmitt asked what his vision would be for a retaining wall. Hansen stated modular block. Diehm asked when the last time these people paid street assessments. Hansen said there are a few in there that are still paying on a preand a few are paying $500, Tami asked for a list of the residents and what they were assessed and what they have left to pay,. Schmitt indicated it would be nice to know on the commercial as well. Nawrocki stated it is a short time between the public hearing and the scheduled time. Hansen stated it would be. It would be in January and then it would not be until March. It would be about 8-10 weeks. 2014 State-Aid Streets/Assessing Background: In 1996 the City of Columbia Heights adopted Resolution No. 96-28 that initiated a Street Rehabilitation Program. This program was set up to preserve the large investment in and extend the life of the local street system. Under this program, the City is divided into seven zones providing for a repeating 8-year program, with the additional year added for alleys or other projects. Tow citywide cycles of the Street Rehabilitation Program have now been completed. The program was suspended for two years for the rehabilitation of the City’s concrete streets (2013); and evaluation of our alleys and State-Aid Streets (2014). In 2012, a pavement evaluation was conducted by Braun Intertec for the bituminous alleys and State-Aid Streets. The evaluation included a surface condition assessment and a falling weight deflectometer test to determine the structural strength of the roadway section. City staff also rated the streets using the Pavement Distress Manual created by the Local Road Research Board (LRRB). Staff is recommending the flowing MSA street segments for a Mill and Overlay: 2014 program: 38th Street: Main Street to 3rd Avenue 3rd Street: 37th to 38th Avenue 39th Avenue: Central Avenue to Reservoir Boulevard Stinson Blvd: Fairway Drive to 5th Street Other MSA streets are recommended for Mill and Overlay in the next program off cycle in 8-10 years: 37th Avenue: Main Street to University Avenue – Minneapolis boundary Reservoir Blvd: 37th to 40th Avenues 40th Avenue: Reservoir to Stinson Blvd’s. 44th Avenue: Tyler Place to Reservoir Blvd. Staff is recommending seal coating all other State-Aid streets in the next four years. Mayor Peterson asked when we did 44th, Hansen stated it was in 1991. Schmitt asked if the rest of Reservoir isn’t being recommended. Hansen stated that is County. Profiling is diamond grinding – joint problems – would have to do a lot of panel repairs. Problem with covering it with bituminous is you have curb and gutter there. Schmitt asked about the railroad tracks. Hansen stated they are not that old. Fehst asked if they were rubberized, 37th is, not sure if Stinson is. Hansen stated a couple of important program factors regarding our Street rehab program and funding should be noted: 1. The City pays for the first seal coat after one of the three rehab treatments. 2. In the first two cycles, a couple of the zones have been split into quadrants, adding additional years, and costs to the overall program. 3. The assessment policy and associated City share remains constant over the program. 4. State-Aid, alley, or other construction is assumed in each subsequent “off” year at $130,000 to $170,000 City Share (not accounted for in the 20-year fund analysis). 5. Additional program revenue of $270,000 to $300,000 annually is included from the certification of the City’s local State-Aid system as complete, which must be recertified every two years and is not guaranteed. 6. The program recognizes that infrastructure represents a huge public investment and in the long term, is more cost effective to make an investment to maintain streets at a satisfactory or good condition level as opposed to letting the streets go to bear a more extraordinary cost in the future. In the metro area we are the only city that does not assess on state aid routes. Diehm asked if they assessed at the same formula. Hansen stated each city has their own policy. Most assess for local street costs. They only assess for the portion on the state aid route. Diehm feels we should assess state aid roads. Hansen stated what we are proposing to pay whatever the local rate is because it is a wider street or at least use 75%. Fehst stated the difficulty we would have is the people that have been around awhile and have not paid in the past maybe upset. Put on the 27th agenda Authorization to seek proposals to update the City’s Water Resource Management Plan WRMP) MN law requires that all municipalities develop a water resource management plan. The general process is as follows: The State creates the rules and order in which the standards and processes for protecting surface and ground water are drafted and approved. The Board of Water and Soil Resources (BSWR) adopts rules that establish the minimum standards in the State for surface water management. Each jurisdictional water management organization in the state prepares and adopts a plan based on the rules established by the BWSE. Within two years from the date the WMO or WD has adopted their watershed plan, each municipality within that jurisdiction must adopt a local surface water management plan that is consistent with all WMO or WD plans they are in. WMO or WD plans are updated on a 10-year cycle. Columbia Heights is in the Rice Creek Watershed District and Mississippi Water Management Organization. The City first created a water resource management plan in 1992, adopted in 1993. The intent of the original plan was to guide the City in managing its surface and ground water resources. Its main purpose was to enable the City to develop drainage facilities in a cost effective manner, while maintain or improving the quality of its water resources. As required by law, local water management plans must, at minimum, conform to jurisdictional watershed plans affecting eh City. The local plan was updated in 2000 for conformance with updates of MN rules 8410 and the second generation plans form the jurisdictional watersheds. The third generation plan for the Rice Creek Watershed was completed in 2011. With the dissolution of the Six Cities WMO in 2011, the City became a member of the Mississippi WMO in 2012. Their third generation plan was completed in 2013. We are now required to update our WRMP to meet the state law and RCWD and MWMO requirements. It is a major plan rewrite. There are major changes in it. This is referenced in our comp plan. We will go out for RFP’s for this. Hansen stated this is a state law and we are required to do this. This is a document that we use for redevelopment. It sets forth the minimum standards that have to be taken into consideration for developments. Fehst stated in 2003 they began to get really strict on these types of things. Hansen stated we have to demonstrate that we are treating where we do run off. Schmitt stated if we do not do these things we will not be eligible for state funds. Hansen stated if we do not have an updated approved plan we cannot get a permit for things. Peterson stated he has a folder of people that have applied for the arts commission and would like to appoint them this evening.