HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014/06/16 - ADMIN - Minutes - City Council - Study Session f,] St. Louis Park OFFICIAL MINUTES
MINNESOTA CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL STUDY SESSION
ST. LOUIS PARK,MINNESOTA
JUNE 16, 2014
The meeting convened at 6:45 p.m.
Councilmembers present: Mayor Jeff Jacobs, Tim Brausen, Steve Hallfin, Gregg Lindberg,
Anne Mavity, Susan Sanger, and Jake Spano.
Councilmembers absent: None.
Staff present: City Manager (Mr. Harmening), City Attorney (Mr. Knetsch), Director of
Community Development (Mr. Locke), Director of Engineering (Ms. Heiser), Planning and
Zoning Supervisor (Ms. McMonigal), Marketing and Communications Coordinator (Mr.
Zwilling), and Recording Secretary(Ms. Hughes).
1. Southwest LRT Preliminary Design Plans—Continued Discussion
Mr. Harmening presented the staff report.
Councilmember Sanger reported on the recent meeting with Met Council Chair Susan Haigh and
stated that information was presented regarding the City's priority of grade separating vehicle
and pedestrian traffic at Beltline and Wooddale and they also discussed how to obtain Met
Council's commitment that no further studies of a potential reroute would be completed. She
stated that Met Council acknowledged the City's concerns regarding the grade separation issue
but could not make any commitments at this time. She indicated that Met Council intends to
send the base plan out for estimates with and without the grade separation and Met Council
wanted to know the City's priorities because as the project gets underway and some of the
contingency funds are released, Met Council will begin assigning the contingency funds to
projects that are important to the cities. She noted that Met Council also made it clear that
projects with local funding would go to the head of the list but it was less clear whether projects
with partial funding would go to the top of the list. She stated that Met Council also
acknowledged the City's concerns regarding a potential freight rail reroute but was not in a
position to make a commitment that there would be no further studies. Instead, Met Council
requested that if the City and Met Council enter into some kind of agreement or Memorandum of
Understanding where the various milestones along the project path would be laid out, the reroute
issue could perhaps be considered at that point.
Councilmember Spano stated that the Minneapolis mediation was also discussed and Chair
Haigh indicated this mediation would not impact St. Louis Park. He stated that with respect to
the reroute issue, Met Council was informed that St. Louis Park would like something in writing
that identifies, understands, and recognizes the reroute issue and the importance to the City of
not having the issue raised again in the future and Mr. Fuhrmann informed them this project is
dead if they run into an issue with the shallow tunnel and have to come back to a reroute.
Councilmember Mavity stated that one of the milestones in the project is the application for
Federal funding and Met Council's response to the direction given by the FTA that freight rail be
addressed by the SWLRT project. The SWLRT design plans represent the Met Council's
official response to the FTA on how to deal with freight rail as a part of this project so that the
freight rail issue does not have to be revisited. She added that with respect to the contingency
funds, Met Council was asked about the criteria it will use to allocate that money and Met
Council's response was that the criteria has not yet been determined. She stated the station area
Special Study Session Minutes -2- June 16, 2014
planning was also discussed and she requested that Met Council make sure the previous station
area planning work be incorporated into the project.
Councilmember Spano stated that Met Council was asked about assurance that if the City passes
a clean municipal consent resolution followed by a Memorandum of Understanding that Met
Council will work with the City on its priorities as contingency funds become available and it
was his sense that Met Council was willing to work with the City on those priorities.
Mr. Harmening suggested that Council review a draft municipal consent resolution and draft
Memorandum of Understanding at its June 23`d study session. He stated that Mr. Fuhrmann
made it clear that the Memorandum of Understanding will indicate that Met Council and the City
will work diligently on grade separation of the trails and grade separation of Beltline but the
Memorandum of Understanding will not promise to fund these improvements.
Council discussed the Eden Prairie municipal consent resolution.
Councilmember Brausen felt the City's municipal consent resolution should be detailed similar
to the Eden Prairie resolution and he would like the resolution to include the assumption about
the freight rail reroute study being discontinued.
Councilmember Lindberg agreed and stated his concern relates to how clearly the reroute issue is
addressed in the resolution and/or Memorandum of Understanding.
Mr. Knetsch advised that a Memorandum of Understanding is not binding and is intended to lay
out the City's priorities and ask Met Council to recognize and acknowledge those priorities in a
signed document and agree to work with the City on those prionties.
Councilmember Hallfin pointed out the City is being asked to provide clean municipal consent
on 15%design plans and felt it was in the best interest of the City to grant municipal consent.
Councilmember Mavity expressed continued concern that the station area plans have been
ignored and requested that the Memorandum of Understanding include language that states that
St. Louis Park and its residents have dedicated significant time, effort, and resources to the
station area plans and that the City acknowledges the design plans represent 15% engineering
and expects to continue to work with Met Council on the station area plans.
The meeting adjourned at 7:17 p.m.
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Nancy Strotff, City Clerk Jeff Jac• , a or