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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012/12/03 - ADMIN - Minutes - City Council - Study Session , fit St. Louis Park OFFICIAL MINUTES MINNESOTA CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL STUDY SESSION ST. LOUIS PARK, MINNESOTA DECEMBER 3, 2012 The meeting convened at 6:30 p.m. Councilmembers present: Mayor Pro Tern Susan Sanger, Steve Hallfin, Anne Mavity, Julia Ross, Sue Santa, and Jake Spano. Councilmembers absent: Mayor Jeff Jacobs. Staff present: City Manager (Mr. Harmening), City Attorney (Mr. Scott), Director of Community Development (Mr. Locke), Planning/Zoning Supervisor (Ms. McMonigal), Communications Coordinator(Mr Zwilling), and Recording Secretary(Ms. Hughes). Guest: Mr. Dave McKenzie(SEH Consulting). 1. Discuss SWLRT DEIS Comments Mr. Harmening presented the staff report. Councilmember Spano thanked staff for their efforts on the DEIS comments. He requested an update regarding why the State Rail Plan was included in the DEIS and stated that he continues to be curious about how the State Rail Plan factors into the DEIS. Mr. Locke stated that it is not yet known why the State Rail Plan was included in the DEIS. He felt it may have been included because the DEIS is now talking about freight rail, and during the EAW process there was some discussion of the State Rail Plan. Councilmember Mavity presented a copy of her written comments and stated that she wanted to make sure the City's message on SWLRT is clear by stating that St. Louis Park strongly supports SWLRT. She suggested that the second paragraph of the DEIS comments be moved to the end of the introductory section. She expressed concern that the reference to Resolution 10-005 is not accurate. The statement that "the City's support for SWLRT was in fact conditioned on these issues being appropriately addressed" is true for Council's July resolution, but that is not what Resolution 10-005 was about. Councilmember Mavity then recited her suggested language. She also suggested that the references to the resolutions include the exact language from the resolutions to be clear. She suggested that a title be added to the section regarding potential impacts starting at the bottom of page 7. She requested clarification regarding the reference to a "modest residential neighborhood" toward the bottom of page 8 and asked if this refers to moderately priced homes. She suggested that the regional trail referenced under paragraph 1(a) on page 9 include a reference to a recent report from Three Rivers indicating this is a heavily used trail with 500,000 riders per year. She requested that paragraph 1(d) on page 9 be expanded upon and recited her suggested language. She requested that Section 3 on page 10 include mitigation needed for the ramp to be built from Blake to Louisiana. She suggested additional language on page 11 that discusses mitigation for the ramp and recited her suggested language. She requested the removal of the words "potential for" in the last sentence under paragraph 3(a) on page 11. She also presented suggested revisions to the section regarding removal of the wye. Mr. Locke stated it is important to recognize that the wye currently fills the function of providing access to the businesses in the Oxford industnal area, the wye makes it possible for the railroads to travel north from the Bass Lake spur onto the MN&S, and the wye makes it possible for the Study Session Minutes -2- December 3, 2012 railroads to travel south on the MN&S and removing the wye may require replacing all of those functions. He stated that the wye is only being used for one customer at the end of the wye, and trains traveling on Bass Lake are not switching to MN&S either north or south but have the ability to do so. Councilmember Mavity recited suggested language changes to paragraph 3(e) on page 11 regarding removal of 40 single family homes. She stated the 4f considerations on page 14 needs to make sure the language is factual and not subjective. Council continued its discussion regarding removal of the wye and continuous flow of freight rail. Councilmember Hallfin noted that the DEIS comments are still in draft form and the City now has until December 31st to submit its comments. He stated that Council previously adopted two resolutions, and the DEIS comments state that the City wants the County to look at co-location and prevent the reroute. The resolution also states that in the event the reroute takes place, certain mitigation needs to take place, and this is well laid out in the City's comments. Councilmember Santa stated that the DEIS comments regarding mitigation should incorporate the work done by SEH and the rail study done in 1999 that said the City will look at the reroute only if there is no other viable option, which serves as the basis for Council's resolutions. She stated that the environment goal on page 19 should expand on the wetland and floodplain impacts and added this section should point that out, that the conclusion is based on faulty information. She stated that the quality of life goal needs to address the ripple effect of the reroute and how people's quality of life is impacted no matter where they live, and resident's ability to go about their daily business is impacted. Councilmember Ross stated that businesses will be landlocked if the Lake Street exit off Highway 7 is closed and there will be no way to get to those businesses when trains are going through the area. Councilmember Sanger stated that the DEIS data comparing the reroute option and co-location option is faulty because it analyzes the impacts by segments that don't correspond to the freight rail routes. She said that the evaluation of the Kenilworth route should only look at the portion of the segment from the West Lake Street station to the point where the Kenilworth corridor meets up with the Burlington Northern tracks, adding that anything else in that segment is the same, whether rerouted or co-located. She stated that the DEIS does not address train traffic going onto the Burlington Northern tracks heading east which will impact housing along the Burlington Northern track and will carry more freight rail traffic than it otherwise would, which means that the Blackstone and Cedarhurst neighborhoods will have impacts that are not counted in the DEIS. She stated that the DEIS contains nothing about the impacts of the proposed new siding in the Burlington Northern rail area nor is there any mitigation proposed. She stated that the 4f issues have not addressed the statutorily required analysis necessary before it can be stated that park land should not be used for transportation purposes. Mayor Pro Tem Sanger recessed the Special Study Session at 7:28 p.m in order to convene the City Council meeting. Mayor Pro Tern Sanger reconvened the Special Study Session at 10:06 p.m. Study Session Minutes -3- December 3, 2012 Mayor Pro Tern Sanger stated that the DEIS needs to add comments regarding the failure of the DEIS to address the study provided by SEH that showed a valid co-location option exists; in addition, the DEIS has not analyzed whether to relocate the bike trail so the Kenilworth could include both freight rail and light rail and the required mitigation. She indicated it appears that homes being taken in the Kenilworth corridor are further from the tracks than homes along the MN&S route, and there should be an objective analysis of how close the homes are to the tracks. She stated that page 8 regarding the EAW needs to highlight the issues previously raised by the City, and that all of the City's comments were ignored. She requested that the mitigation for the Beltline crossing be expanded to indicate mitigation is necessary, whether or not freight rail is there to include a bridge over both the bike trail and light rail tracks. She stated that the whistle quiet zones addressed on page 10 indicate that the railroads have stated they will not stop blowing their horns at the crossings near the high school because of the blind curves, and putting in whistle quiet zones does not solve the noise problem in this area. She stated that the DEIS does not address the question of noise coming from the locomotives going up and down the grades and did not address noise from switching and blocking, and there needs to be more stringent noise mitigation requested. She indicated that the fencing and signage referenced in Section 2(d) on page 10 needs to clarify that the City needs all this fencing at the edge of the right-of-way wherever tracks are adjacent to homes and businesses to provide a barrier. She stated that the connection to MN&S South in Section 3(c) needs to talk about how the prior proposal had trains going north and south through the neighborhoods and has already been deemed unworkable by the railroads; there is also no indication who will compensate TCW for any significant delays and who pays that compensation. She stated that Section 3(j) on page 12 should note that these parks are directly across from each other and includes a lot of foot traffic resulting in a safety issue. She stated that paragraph (f) on page 14 needs to add that northern communities were not included in the SWLRT planning process or DEIS analysis. She stated that Section 2 on page 14 should indicate the County did not evenly compare the co-location and reroute options because they did not specify the criteria that they used to make this companson and reach their conclusion. She added that Section 2 on page 14 regarding high income housing should state there was no explanation provided as to why the high income of these residents matters and points to economic justice issues. She stated that the parenthetical statement in Section 3 on page 14 appears to contradict the statement on page 7 and should be deleted. She stated that the sentence at the end of the first paragraph on page 15 needs to be further explained and needs to point out that co-location is proposed in the DEIS for a number of miles west of 169. She stated the economic development goal on page 19 needs to address economic development issues around the West Lake Street businesses and the businesses around Highway 7 and Louisiana. She asked if the statement in Section (1) on page 20 regarding operational functionality was a quote from the EAW. Mr. McKenzie explained that when the FTA informed the County to redo the DEIS, the City thought that they were going to take the Kimley Horn work and SEH work on co-location and do more engineering studies; the County did not do that. Mayor Pro Tem Sanger stated that paragraph (1)(iv) on page 20 regarding ownership should state it is unclear who will own it or maintain it and what the cost will be and who pays those costs. She stated paragraph (1)(vi) regarding vertical clearance needs to add another section stating they need to do a derailment study since there has been no analysis of the potential for derailments around the blind curves. She stated paragraph (1)(vii) needs to state the data was not based on trains going up and down steep inclines or around curves where the noise is much greater. She stated paragraph (1)(ix) on page 21 could point out how the trains going north would have to get permission from Burlington Northern to enter the Iron Triangle resulting in more blocking trains. Study Session Minutes -4- ; December 3, 2012 She stated there has been nothing to indicate there has been any input into the process from the Surface Transportation Board. Mr. McKenzie indicated the Surface Transportation Board has been requested to be an associate agency and this Board is reviewing the DEIS and has stated it will submit comments if warranted. Mayor Pro Tem Sanger urged the City to request that the Surface Transportation Board make a request that the DEIS be returned for further analysis by independent reviewers not previously involved in the DEIS or EAW which would provide a further comment period. Mr. Harmemng stated the purpose of the DEIS is intended to correct inaccuracies, errors, and incompleteness of the study before the final EIS is prepared. Mr. McKenzie stated that the next round of contracts awarded by the Met Council include preliminary engineering and referenced the EIS process contained in the staff report. The meeting adjourned at 11:02 p.m. Written Reports provided and documented for recording purposes only: 2. Reconsideration of Comprehensive Plan Amendment for Former Eliot School Site 4/7 2e,---.-e...4 L-- Nancy Stroth, city Clerk Susan Sanger, y ayor Pro Tern