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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011/04/27 - ADMIN - Minutes - City Council - Regular Sto Louis Park OFFICIAL MINUTES MINNESOTA CITY COUNCIL MEETING/LISTENING SESSION#1 ST. LOUIS PARK,MINNESOTA APRIL 27, 2011 1. Call to Order Mayor Jacobs called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. Councilmembers present: Mayor Jeff Jacobs, Phil Finkelstein, Anne Mavity, Paul Omodt, Julia Ross, Susan Sanger, and Sue Santa. Councilmembers absent: None. Staff present: City Manager(Mr. Harmening), Deputy City Manager/Human Resources Director (Ms. Deno), City Clerk(Ms. Stroth), Police Chief(Mr. Luse), Community Development Director (Mr. Locke), Planning/Zoning Supervisor (Ms. McMonigal), Organizational Development Coordinator(Ms. Gothberg), Communications Coordinator(Mr. Zwilling), Office Assistant(Ms. Luedke),Notetaker(Ms. Stegora-Peterson), and Recording Secretary(Ms. Hughes). Guest: Mr. Dave McKenzie(SEH, Inc.) la. Pledge of Allegiance lb. Roll Call 2. Presentation—Freight Railroad Update Mayor Jacobs expressed the City Council's thanks to everyone for attending. He stated that the meeting is intended to be a listening session for residents as well as a chance to talk to and listen to one another and for the Council to listen. Mr. Harmening provided brief historical information regarding the Kenilworth corridor and SWLRT, stating that the Kenilworth corridor has been chosen as the Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA), or preferred route, to connect downtown Minneapolis all the way to Eden Prairie. He indicated that that decision has raised a number of questions about where freight rail would be located and until that question is answered and a solution determined, the SWLRT project cannot proceed. He advised that two specific freight rail routing options are being considered, one option would continue to use the Kenilworth corridor by co-locating in that corridor and the second option involves re-routing that same freight rail traffic that passes through St. Louis Park and the Kenilworth corridor onto the existing MNS line. He discussed the two City Council policy statements contained in the form of resolutions which makes clear that the City Council supports the implementation of the SWLRT project, but also makes clear that the City Council continues to oppose the re-routing of freight rail traffic from the Kenilworth corridor to the MNS line unless a number of conditions are met relating to the lack of another viable route being available and that a number of mitigation measures were implemented. He noted that the County and Mn/DOT have undertaken a series of studies on freight rail, examining the feasibility of using the MNS line for freight rail which includes the preparation of an Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW) which will be released shortly. He then introduced Mr. Dave McKenzie, the City's engineering consultant. City Council Meeting/Listening Session -2- April 27, 2011 Mr. McKenzie presented a detailed overview of his Technical Memorandum #4 (Memo #4), noting that the report is still in draft form pending release of the EAW. He stated that Memo #4 provides a comparison of the Kenilworth and MNS corridors and the impacts to St. Louis Park as well as potential mitigation measures. He reviewed the TC&W freight rail map, stating that TC&W is primarily a local carrier that ships grain, corn, soybeans, sugar and some coal. He presented a map of the Kenilworth corridor compared to the MNS corridor as well as the proposed MNS/BNSF re-route, noting that more detailed maps are available upon request. He indicated that TC&W has raised a concern regarding the existing grades on the MNS route. He then reviewed how the Kenilworth comdor would look, with the proposal to shift freight traffic over to the west from its current location with light rail going down the middle of this route. He discussed the potential impacts to the Cedar Lake Shores townhome development and the potential taking of 33 units. He presented a comparison table outlining existing conditions, conditions if Kenilworth is chosen, and conditions if MNS is chosen, and reviewed train operations, track, road crossings, residential impacts, and institutional and business impacts. He noted that the correct total amount for the MNS corridor is estimated at $76,672,000. He discussed at grade road crossings and explained the exposure calculations contained in the report. He then presented information regarding SWLRT and freight rail and key factors to be considered, including relocation of the regional trail and "4' parkland issues. He provided an overview of potential mitigation measures and stated that there are three components to mitigation, including what is required under the law, negotiated mitigation between the affected parties, and mitigation efforts referred to as "betterments." He encouraged residents to contact him and/or City staff with questions. Mayor Jacobs stated that the City will continue to work closely with County, State, and Federal officials and will insist that the City and its residents be taken seriously. He indicated that this listening session is a chance for residents to voice their questions and concerns, and for the City Council to listen. He explained that following the listening sessions, City staff will combine all of the comments and questions and post responses on the City's website; in addition, the City Council will hold a Study Session on May 9h to debrief on the listening sessions. Ms. Gothberg explained the process for resident comments and reminded residents that the City Council will be listening only this evening and no formal Council action will be taken at the listening sessions. She stated that two people are taking minutes and the listening session is being videotaped for rebroadcast. 3. Audience Comments Ms. Jamie LaPray, 3256 Blackstone, co-chair of Safety in the Park, noted that two of her neighbors have yielded their allotted time to her (Mr. Ray Auer, 3200 block of Blackstone, and Mr. Tip Lausen, 3200 block of Blackstone). She stated that Mr. McKenzie's report was thorough and it quantifies everything very well. She felt the report was missing some of the nuances that make the two lines very different, for example, one of the things Mr. McKenzie mentions is that both lines have curves, but the MNS curves are tighter. She stated that the tightest curve on the Kenilworth corridor is actually east of Cedar Lake Road with no structures around it and it is in the middle of park land. She stated that the curves on MNS are near schools, homes, and buildings and some of these curves are closer than the length of a rail car. She stated that derailments are more likely on a curve than a straight track. She indicated that another interesting item the report alluded to are the number of trains on each track and their speed. She stated that whichever route is chosen, the tracks will be upgraded to a higher standard and that standard will bring trains to 10-25 mph and trains do better if they are traveling on a straight track, at low City Council Meeting/Listening Session -3- April 27, 2011 grade and with little turns. She stated that going through Kenilworth and crossing at Beltline and Wooddale where there are a lot of cars, there are straight tracks and trains can go 25 mph, but that same 100-car fully loaded train will need to go up a grade, through a series of curves before heading down a curve to the BN track. She stated that when she asked Bob Suko of TC&W how fast a fully loaded train would go up that interconnect, he said less than 25 mph, and when she asked that same question of Tom Johnson, he estimated the train could go 8-10 mph. She stated that those crossings are a mile apart at Wooddale and Beltline and will not be blocking both crossings at the same time. She stated that trains will be blocking Walker Street, Lake Street, and Dakota Avenue for upwards of ten minutes which will make it impossible to get around that section of the City when a train is going through at 8 mph. She stated that a lot of nuances were left out of the report and agreed to write them down and send them in. She stated the report needs to look at the differences between the two tracks more closely. She stated that the resolution adopted by the City Council in 2001 recommended removal of the wye, and Mr. McKenzie said the wye will not be removed and a second wye will be created in the northern section of St. Louis Park which will become a switching wye. She stated that any train can go north to Golden Valley, and the train will come back in the other direction, so instead of seven trains going north through the neighborhoods, it could be more depending on how many trains are going south to Savage which will happen in the future. She stated the City needs to keep in mind that there will be a lot more trains. She stated in the 2010 resolution, the City Council says that it wants the County to do a careful analysis to find that no other viable route exists. She stated that after the November 2010 meeting where the County gave a report showing another possible route, she found mistakes and learned that they did not look at all possibilities. She stated in that report in November, they were told that freight rail and light rail had to be 25' apart and were led to believe that the 25' was because of Federal regulations; however, in a Freedom of Information Act data search conducted on Mn/DOT, she found that it was not a Federal regulation but it is a Mn/DOT choice for distance between freight rail and light rail, therefore other possibilities were not looked at in terms of safety walls or safety barriers between freight rail and light rail. She stated that they left out information that we should have had and should have been able to figure out whether or not something else could be done. She stated that the County is ignoring the City Council's resolutions and did not feel that the County is taking them seriously. She stated that the PMT process is a mess and does not address anything. She urged the City to hold on to that piece of land that the City owns that is required for the interconnect and make the County respect the resolutions until the County lives up to what the City Council and we as residents want, to not give up that land, and to do whatever is necessary to keep the County from taking it and bulldozing this plan through before the City and residents have what it needs to have a livable, wonderful city to live in. Mr. Thom Miller, 2900 Yosemite Avenue, stated that this listening session is refreshing compared to the County's sessions. He stated his feeling that the County and Mn/DOT have been deliberately deceiving the residents of St. Louis Park and deceiving the City Council by asking us for our input, making us believe that the input was valuable, and that decisions had not been made before the study process. He stated that most important is the deceit that light rail is the cause for this improvement to the MNS line and SWLRT is merely a convenient trigger to upgrade the MNS line, to get Federal funding so it becomes a more important freight rail line for Minnesota and becoming, in the long run, a commuter line for Minnesota. He stated that the reason they believe this is that all those things are written out in the 2013 Minnesota State Rail Plan where it clearly states that the MNS line or Dan Patch line will become at some point in the future a far more important freight rail line with far more frequent trains and could be used as a commuter rail line in the future. He stated that this plan has been in place for many years and some of the legislators that represent Bloomington introduced legislation to take Dan Patch off City Council Meeting/Listening Session -4- April 27, 2011 the table, but that legislation is being repealed now and a vote taken soon and tagged on to another bill to be re-studied as a commuter line. He stated that the dollars for this rail plan, outlined earlier, should have been in the LRT Federal funding and if LRT is really the cause, then those dollars should have been in the LRT plan. He stated the upgrade to MNS is not part of the Federal LRT funding package. He stated that Ms. LaPray mentioned the PMT study process, which was intended to get opinions from the neighborhoods affected by the switch and those monthly meetings have been a sham. He stated that residents have voiced all their mitigation measures and none of the measures asked for has been included. He stated that the most concrete evidence of this flip-flop is the bridge over Minnetonka Boulevard, noting that in November the track was moved 8' to the east of that line, clearly indicating that Mn/DOT had a plan to move that rail line so it could be a more important rail line. He stated that the challenge is for the City Council to challenge the County and stand up for the citizens of St. Louis Park. Mr. Curt Rahman, 4209 Browndale Avenue, stated that he owns several businesses in St. Louis Park and is the PMT representative for the West Lake Street businesses. He presented two pages to the City Council of vibration criteria and community vibration criteria from the MN&S Study. He stated the charts are from Kimley Horn and he used their numbers. He stated that he is a big fan of light rail and all he hears from the County and Mn/DOT is they are making an equal evaluation of the options for freight rail, but his observation as part of the PMT process is that they are minimizing the cost of this project. He stated that if that is the right answer, so be it, but it will not be done without proper mitigation of freight rail issues. He spoke about the real and tangible impacts, stating that those who live and work near the trains experience severe vibration that already exceeds Federal guidelines. He referenced the "infrequent events" column on the criteria, noting that for businesses the level is 83 and for residents it is 80. He stated the Kimley Horn vibration study shows today they have to be 50' from the track to experience those levels of vibration, but he had a study done at one of his buildings which showed vibration ten points higher at 50' from the tracks than the measurements taken by Kimley Horn. He stated the studies of Kimley Horn are highly suspect and the City needs to take another look at that. He stated that business owners told him it feels like an earthquake when trains come through and he has had to stop a phone conversation because of the vibration. He stated that vibrations are measured in VdBs and Kimley Horn did studies at two places with two trains, which said it should be able to handle 83 VdBs at that location. He stated that according to Kimley Horn, the proposed re-route will see increases of 5-8 VdBs of both additional frequency and severity. He stated that this needs further evaluation because you cannot increase vibrations on a line when it already exceeds Federal guidelines. Ms. Denise Zurn, 2608 Webster Avenue South, stated that she has concerns about the process that the County is working with. She stated that she does engineering studies for a living and felt that the Kimley Horn study is not an engineering study. She stated Kimley Horn made clear they were not documenting options and were leaving things out to suit themselves. She stated Kimley Horn did not include any option with respect to grade separation as an option because it represented too big of an impact. She stated that is not the nature of an engineering study which should do its best to provide equivalent solutions,but Kimley Horn has no intention of doing that and represents a really bad process for the County to be paying for. She stated that the issues she has with the design include the high school and her opinion that the high school needs a complete grade separation as a safety issue. She wondered if there was no adequate way to quantify the safety issue at the school and whether that was the reason why it has not been highlighted. She stated she did not think that long term, the residents will find exposure of students to increased freight rail acceptable. She stated this is not in the initial cost structure for freight rail and will come back to the citizens after huge, unacceptable safety issues arise. She City Council Meeting/Listening Session -5- April 27, 2011 stated that another issue she has with the design is the 29th Street closing, noting the limited street grid for Birchwood and the impact of that closure on traffic east of the railroad on Minnetonka Boulevard, which is extremely dangerous to turn off or on to. She requested the addition of lights on Minnetonka Boulevard to mitigate the loss of that key element of the street grid from Birchwood. She questioned how the City will protect property values in the neighborhood if the area ends up with the minimum right-of-way and whether homes will be taken along the railroad tracks. Mr. Joe Neal, 6915 West 23rd Street, asked the City Council what the ultimate benefit to the taxpayer of St. Louis Park will be with this whole program. He stated he has not heard anything from anyone about the benefit to the taxpayer. Ms. Kathryn Kottke, 2712 Brunswick Avenue South, stated that she did not understand this issue until 2010 and since them became informed of the issue and is part of the PMT process. She stated she has never been part of a group more dysfunctional than this group. She stated she has learned five things in the past year, including the County, in an effort to secure funds for LRT, lied on its Federal application by neglecting to state a rail line exists. She stated that Gail Dorfman told St. Louis Park residents last April that the re-route was a done deal, but through the PMT process, Katie Walker told the PMT that no decisions had been made. She questioned which statement was true. She stated that Gail Dorfman also told St. Louis Park residents that if mitigation could be secured for the re-route, these requests would be considered in the planning, but not one request from the Bronx neighborhood has been reflected and in fact, the re-route pushes additional, faster and more dangerous trains in the area and around schools. She asked whether the County is offering true mitigation. She stated that the County hired R.L. Banks to determine the viability of co-locating and the consultant told the City that had the County allowed them to shift the predetermined line, the two lines could co-locate. She asked how this is a real study if the County is creating arbitrary parameters. She stated the greatest lesson she learned is that the County has lied to Federal authorities and St. Louis Park residents, and this lie runs so deep she does not even know who is responsible for re-routing the trains in the first place. She stated she wants honest, fair dealing, and the City Council must say no to this route because it is unsafe, unwise, unaffordable, and dishonest, and will reap serious consequences. She asked that the Council at least consider a pragmatic reason for telling the County it will not accept the re-route. She referred to the Council resolution saying the Council will protect its residents. She asked that home values be reassessed and asked how the City Council is going to explain to its constituents that property taxes will increase significantly because it failed to protect residents from the re-route. She stated that she voted for the City Council to represent the residents and trusts the Council to make decisions that have a positive impact on the City and its residents. She asked that the City Council tell the County that it will not stand for their dirty politics. Mr. Mark Christiansen, 3011 Brunswick Avenue South, expressed his thanks to the City Council for holding this forum. He stated he has three issues against the re-route, including property values, standard of living, and safety. He stated he will have to sell his home and the person who buys it will have to sell it at a lower price and before long, the neighborhood will be an undesirable location and St. Louis Park will be a drive-through neighborhood if this happens. He stated that noise and vibration affect quality of life and there are health issues. He stated this is not a corridor but is wedged between and close to homes. He stated that safety issues include too much traffic next to the high school and this will change the dynamic around the high school and it is not safe. He stated that derailments happen and it will happen here, and there needs to be a plan in place because of the proximity to homes making it dangerous to people. He requested City Council Meeting/Listening Session -6- April 27, 2011 that the City Council make continued efforts for property and fair mitigation because residents are not being listened to at the PMT and there are no proper safety and mitigation plans in place. He also asked that the City demand to be at the table for the decision-making process because St. Louis Park is not currently in the decision-making which boggles his mind and he failed to understand how that happened. He stated that there has to be a better way and urged the City not to let St. Louis Park become a second class community. Mr. Al Boyce, 3208 Edgewood Avenue South, stated that he sent an email to the City Council earlier today and recited his email to the City Council for inclusion in the record. Ms. Cheryl Martin, 5728 West 26th Street, stated that she has not been active in this until December and has attended several meetings, and she has lost her hope in government. She stated what she has seen is exactly as portrayed earlier where government officials ask for input and then ignore that input, and it feels as though this railroad is being railroaded down our throats. She stated she lives three blocks from the tracks in the Birchwood neighborhood, and it appears that a small railroad will apparently become a big railroad if the City ends up with a freight rail line. She stated that she does not want to see this train re-routed and would like to see it in the Kenilworth corridor with light rail. She questioned the total dollar value placed on the project, and expressed concern about property values. She stated that she took a survey of how many properties were sold on the rail line since last year, and learned there were seven, two of which involved a traditional sale, two of which were short sales, two of which were foreclosures, and one was an auction that sold at $71,000. She stated that homes along the tracks are taking a long time to sell and are seeing a 5-7% property value reduction. She stated that she is also concerned about safety and did not believe that children can be taught to stay away from the tracks. She stated that the City is going to have issues around the high school that scare her. Mr. Kevin Terry, 3200 Hampshire Avenue South, stated that he works at Target Center and it does not matter if you are in the basement or on the terrace level, you can feel when a train goes by. He stated that he has lived in St. Louis Park for a long time and the City is a Children First community, and the City needs to fight for its children now. He stated that he is counting on the City Council and asked that the City Council fight for its residents. Ms. Keisha Piehl, 6325 33rd Street West, expressed thanks for the opportunity to speak. She stated that she has three high energy kids that keep her and her husband moving and what they love about St. Louis Park is their ability to be on the go and not be in the car. She stated that other communities cannot walk their city like residents can in St. Louis Park, either on foot or on bicycle, skateboard or rollerblades. She stated that her family walks to the store, to schools, to the community center, to the dentist, to McDonald's, and to six or seven different parks. She stated that many of these walks involve crossing the MNS tracks and she is concerned that a dramatic increase in train traffic would affect this walkability that makes St. Louis Park so family friendly. She stated that these tracks do not skirt around the edge but cut through the center right through neighborhoods and cut through a vibrant, active part of the neighborhood, with family friendly amenities on both sides. She stated that her family wants light rail in St. Louis Park and acknowledge that there are not many good options for the freight rail traffic, but this seems an especially bad one. She stated that Park Pride runs deep in her family and her family loves this city and the parks and recreation, and she appreciates how well the City is run. She asked the Council to stand firmly on the freight rail re-route. City Council Meeting/Listening Session -7- April 27, 2011 Mr. Ron DaBruzzi, 2651 Yosemite Avenue, stated he has been to a number of meetings and was particularly interested in the presentation as far as mitigation on the two options. He expressed concern regarding the setback requirements and the number of units mitigated for the Kenilworth route. He stated that if a derailment occurred, there are a dozen houses on each of those blocks and felt there was no way that a car coming off those tracks would not end up in someone's yard. He questioned how it was not possible to at least acquire all the houses surrounding the track and expressed concern that this request has been made but appears to have been blown off. Mr. Joseph LaPray, 3256 Blackstone, stated that the County and Mn/DOT have chosen a route that is the least efficient and presents the greatest hazards to public safety. He stated for railroad operating efficiency, the best route is a direct, short route that has few railroad crossings and few curves; the MNS route is the longest, has the sharpest curves and most crossings, yet this is preferred by Mn/DOT and the County. He imagined that a railroad engineer going around those curves between Dakota and Library Lane and by the time it makes contact, it is too late to stop his train in an emergency, it is a blind curve and there is nothing the engineer can do to stop. He stated that there are no comparable line crossings and this was brought up to Kimley Horn and they said the crossings meet Federal standards. He reiterated there are no comparable crossings yet the MNS route is preferred by Mn/DOT and the County. He referenced the Professional Journal of Real Estate Appraisal which looks at areas when freight rail is re-routed and the property values most depressed by a freight rail re-route are smaller homes that are at or below the level of the tracks and those homes that are not defended by berms or other breaks, and those homes describe homes in St. Louis Park. He stated that meaningful mitigation measures have been dismissed as betterments and the MNS route does not make sense from an operational, public safety, and property value perspective. He stated the residents are not contemptible or expendable. Mr. Greg Suchanek, 2740 Blackstone, presented a short videotape taken on Monday in his backyard when a train went by and asked the Council to consider how close these trains really are. He stated if a train were to derail, it would take out his garage and possibly his house. He expressed concern regarding increased speed of the trains to 15-20 mph and stated the trains would then be a lot noisier. He stated he has been doing some remodeling and found that he has had to adjust doors because they do not line up square, and increased train traffic and speed will cause more problems, more settling, and more noise, as well as decrease their home values. He stated that their home values have already been affected and are going down, and at some point he will want to sell and if he is not able to sell at a fair price, he will probably rent the house. He stated he felt the City Council had several options, including letting the County force this re- route through, which is wrong because the County has not come up with any mitigation and the PMT study is a joke. He stated that residents have asked for a number of mitigation measures and nothing has been done. He indicated that his assumption going into the PMT process was that they would look at all these, come up with costs, and present it to the County to make a decision on what items are viable; instead, they decided what was viable and threw out anything expensive. He stated another option is to keep fighting for trains in the Kenilworth corridor. He disagreed with Mr. McKenzie that the option of having a single track for light rail through that pinch point with stations at either end which can control traffic in that area through a single track. He stated a third option is to build a true corridor in St. Louis Park, buying up homes on either side of the track, and moving the tracks to the east as they get north of the McDonald's and moving it away from the high school, which would provide safer curves and a true corridor that is functional and better for the community. City Council Meeting/Listening Session -8- April 27, 2011 Mr. Doug Guild, 7100 West 23rd Street, deferred his comments to a written comment card and did not wish to speak. Mr. Brian Zachek, 6108 Minnetonka Boulevard, stated that this train re-route has been ruining their lives for the last year. He expressed concern about this going through and their home not being bought out. He stated that he has been to all the PMT meetings and all of their mitigation requests have been ignored; in addition, Dave Christianson from Mn/DOT gave a flowery speech talking about the rights of the train companies to make a profit. He stated it is the County driving a wedge between the train companies and the people of St. Louis Park. He stated that this is a serious issue and would like to know why it only seems to be the citizens of St. Louis Park and Safety in the Park that are talking about the repercussions of a derailment and why this has not been mentioned by Kimley Horn. He indicated he was surprised at that and this is a massive problem for the City and it is going to happen. He stated he was here to ask the City Council to please protect the physical and economic safety of his family by preventing this or holding the County accountable to purchase homes that need to be purchased. He added that the City Council represents his hope to save not only his family but several others along the line. Ms. Judy Johnson, Director of Government Affairs for TwinWest Chamber of Commerce, 10700 Old County Road 15, #700, Plymouth, expressed thanks for the opportunity to voice the Chamber's thoughts on the SWLRT. She also expressed great respect to the citizens in attendance at this listening session. She stated that TwinWest is part of the transportation alliance in support of the SWLRT and offered some insights as it relates to TwinWest's support for SWLRT. She stated that there are no easy solutions and referenced studies that show co-locating SWLRT and freight rail is not as robust for future economic development. She stated that TwinWest Chamber is aware of St. Louis Park's strong support of light rail, and it will be up to the City and the other partners to weigh and measure the impacts to people as well as to SWLRT as well as what it would mean to the NTSB since this project ranks high for Federal funding and is in fact one of the highest ranked projects in the region. She added that the TwinWest Chamber continues to serve as a resource to the City as light rail moves forward. Mr. Doug Bruce, 9850 Edgewood Road, Bloomington, stated that the issue the City is dealing with is a regional issue and expressed his appreciation for the opportunity to speak. He stated that there is a group involved with the Dan Patch Alliance which has chapters in Bloomington and other locations, and the Dan Patch line runs through those communities. He stated he has been in contact with State representatives, State senators, and the County Commissioners and he comes to the City with experience on commuter rail issues, noting that it is obvious that freight rail, light rail, and commuter are all tightly inter-wound. He advised that he was appointed from Bloomington to take part in an interagency study studying commuter rail in the Dan Patch line, which included looking at data that consultants brought forward and came to the conclusion that it was not appropriate to consider moving forward with commuter rail. He indicated that one reason was that in order for the Dan Patch line to handle commuter rail, the whole line would have to be completely rebuilt at a huge cost to taxpayer; in addition, there was a question raised about the property values along the line. He stated the studies they came up with showed a 12- 15% decrease in property values and that decrease goes back into the community, with an impact in Bloomington of about $2 million a year. He stated that they are concerned about the investment in the crossover of starting that process of upgrading this whole system resulting in more rail, more freight rail, and priming the pump for commuter rail. He stated that his concern would be that he hoped the City did not do something where it shoots itself in the foot by making commuter rail sound attractive. City Council Meeting/Listening Session -9- April 27, 2011 Mr. Dave Wanger, 7807 Edgebrook Drive, applauded the City for all of its work and stated that the railroad property is in his backyard. He indicated that he has been fighting this for 20 years starting in the early 1990's when TC&W began as a company. He stated the TC&W started as an entirely duff freight rail company and has grown more every year. He noted the vibration, noise and pollution is nothing compared to when they block cars and he would like to see the blocking of cars in St. Louis Park eliminated entirely. He stated that the noise when they park trains in the back yard with the train engine running for hours has caused him to feel dizzy and sick and close to setting off the carbon monoxide detector. He stated that TC&W has been a bad neighbor and it is going to get worse. He asked that the City Council consider that this company is going to cause more problems in the City until the situation is addressed. Mr. Richard Earle, 2628 Florida Avenue South, was not present at the listening session when his name was called. Mr. Jack Haskovitz, 8143 Westwood, stated that he owns a business at 2625 Louisiana Avenue South and as a business owner along the railroad tracks, he has experienced trains going by quickly and questioned what happened to the speed limits. He stated that the SWLRT corridor appears to be putting a bulldozer through the neighborhoods, without consideration given to the infrastructure needed to support it. He asked about all the litigation and people that will fight the City every bit of the way. He referred to the I-394 project and all the litigation involved with that project, noting that it still got built but at a significant cost. He expressed concern about the parking lot for light rail and asked why the City is not looking at existing infrastructure buildings. He expressed concern about scams and mismanagement and stated that common sense needs to take precedence here. Mr. Lynne Carper, 4010 Highwood Road, stated that he represents the Lake Forest neighborhood on the PMT. He stated that he feels that St. Louis Park is being forced to eat this railroad and is being told that the Kenilworth corridor is not feasible, that it costs too much, and cannot be done. He challenged that assumption. He stated that Mr. McKenzie discussed how much distance would be needed in order to operate and mentioned having a 25' clearance. He stated that it has been mentioned that the Federal government decides that, which is not true, or that the State decides that, which is not true, but the individual railroad determines this distance. He advised there is a publication that contains the entire railroad operating rules, including all railroads in Minnesota, and this book costs $1,100. He spoke with a State official at one of the PMT meetings who informed him he has this book, so he submitted a question to the State official asking him to tell him what this book says about TC&W; his question has not yet been answered. He stated that he also submitted this question to Mr. Harmening and has not heard anything. He stated that at this point, he does not believe the number and has seen no substantiation for the number. He discussed the Federal government modeling of passenger trains at a 15' clearance between other trains which tells him that the northeast corridor will be operating at much tighter standards. He stated that he also believes that if there were no freight rail in the corridor and only a walking path and trail and light'rail, that the walking path and trail would be gone in order for light rail to go through and can be relocated at a low cost to accommodate both freight rail and light rail in that area. He requested more discussion regarding distance and clearances if BNSF is going to put in a new main line to the north of the existing line which becomes a spur and puts trains closer to existing homes in the Cedar Isles neighborhood. He expressed concern about the dangers of freight rail going by the high school with 30,000 gallons of ethanol. City Council Meeting/Listening Session -10- April 27, 2011 Mr. Jeremy Anderson, 3208 Dakota Avenue, stated that he represents the Lenox neighborhood on the PMT and felt that the single overriding issue here is safety. He expressed significant concern about routing kilotons of freight rail past the high school and all it takes is one bad railroad accident or derailment and the death toll would be horrific. He stated that moving within 80' of a high school is bad engineering. Mr. Brian Bevel, 2837 Yosemite Avenue, stated that during the 1990's he lived in downtown San Diego near the existing freight rail lines and believes that San Diego represents a model for the nation in a light rail system. He stated the orange line engineering was constructed near his residence and alongside existing freight rail and commuter and passenger rail tracks already in place. He stated that San Diego was able to put this line in a much more congested area without putting a train anywhere near a high school or someone's home. He stated that the City and other agencies have bright and capable officials who should come up with a better solution without bisecting existing neighborhoods. Mr. Gary Aiken, 1811 Traymore Road, Minnetonka, stated that he is with the TwinWest Chamber and past Board member, and agreed with Ms. Judy Johnson's comments. He added that he felt the rail situation in St. Louis Park is very important to the economic development of the southwest metro area. He stated that he grew up in St. Louis Park near the trains on 29`h and Blackstone and felt that rail safety has greatly improved over the years. Mayor Jacobs expressed the City Council's thanks to everyone and stated the second listening session will start at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow evening. 4. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 9:00 p.m. i Nancy Strot , City Clerk Jeff a•obs, ayor