Special City Council Meeting - May 13, 2025: Winter Trail Maintenance, Pavement Management, Transportation Safety, and 5-Year CIP Review
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Special City Council Meeting - May 13, 2025
The Eagan City Council held a special meeting on May 13, 2025, at 5:30 PM at the Eagan Municipal Center. The meeting served as the annual public works workshop, covering winter trail maintenance, a proposed 80-year pavement life cycle, changes to the special assessment policy, updates on transportation safety efforts including Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) and school zone studies, and the 2026-2030 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). No public comments were heard, and no consent calendar was presented.
Discussion Items
- Winter Trail Maintenance: Staff presented four new-construction trail segments for winter plowing consideration. Segments 1 (Dodd Road) and 2 (Holiday Lane) were deferred due to lack of connectivity and low usage. Segments 3 (Lone Oak Road from Highway 13 to Pilot Knob Road) and 4 (Genta Trail) were approved for inclusion in winter maintenance. The council noted that Segment 4 is part of an agreement with Dakota County.
- Pavement Management Program and Special Assessment Policy: Staff recommended extending the pavement life cycle from 60 years to 80 years, with an aspirational goal of 100 years, to reduce long-term costs and align with utility lifespans. The proposal also included adding curb and gutter to special assessments for street projects, which would have generated an estimated additional $620,000 per year from 2019-2024. The council discussed the need for an apples-to-apples cost comparison over common periods and expressed comfort with an 80-year cycle, moving opportunistically toward 100 years. Staff will bring formal resolutions to the June 3 council meeting.
- Transportation Safety Efforts: Staff provided updates on the SS4A Action Plan (funded by a $100,000 federal planning grant), Safe Routes to School programs at four schools, and a joint school district traffic safety study (cost $130,000, split 50/50 with ISD 196). The study will evaluate all district schools except the area learning center. Two schools—Eagan High School (activity center expansion) and Thomas Lake Elementary—are being reviewed ahead of the full study. The CIP presentation included $166 million total costs ($100 million city share), with $14.5 million for trails (mostly county-funded), $3.2 million for North Water Treatment Plant filter replacement, and $2.5 million for larger-diameter sewer lining. The major street fund balance is projected to drop from $16.9 million to $6.9 million by 2030 absent the policy changes discussed. Utility rates would increase 9.25% in 2026, with bonding used every year. Staff also proposed reviewing policies on private water/sewer lines, with a specific example from Surrey Heights HOA.
Key Outcomes
- Winter Trail Maintenance: Segments 3 and 4 approved for plowing; Segments 1 and 2 deferred indefinitely.
- Pavement Management & Assessment Policy: Council directed staff to prepare resolutions for the June 3 meeting: (1) adopt an 80-year pavement life cycle with intent to move toward 100 years, and (2) amend the special assessment policy to include curb and gutter costs in street improvement assessments.
- CIP Approval: Formal approval of the 2026-2030 CIP and the first two years of projects (2026 and 2027) will be considered on June 3, 2025. Staff noted that the policy changes, if approved, would improve the projected major street fund balance by roughly $3 million (from $6.9M to $9.9M).
- Private Utility Lines: Staff will bring a policy proposal to the Public Works Committee by early summer regarding transferring maintenance responsibility for water and sewer lines serving single private properties or HOAs.
Meeting Transcript
Good evening and welcome to the Egan City Council special council meeting. Um today is May thirteenth, and the mayor is running behind, so we'll get started. Um do we have an adoption of it the agenda are any changes, Diane? No. Move to adopt the agenda is presented. All in favor signify by saying I thank you. Uh do we have any visitors to be heard tonight? Seeing none, we'll move on to the best part of the evening. Public works. So uh I will concur with uh Ms. Field's uh perspective, and I appreciate that. Uh so first item on the agenda this evening as our annual council or public works workshop is our winter trail maintenance. So it's our annual review of what's happening with um what's happened or what's been updated on our trail system. So um as is typical at this meeting every year. So for the council to consider for winter maintenance. Um we do not have any petitioned segments that have met criteria that the council established. So all the items that we have on this uh this year's list are new construction um trail segments. So you can see I'll start at the bottom with uh down in the southeast corner of the city. We have a segment, and then we have uh three other segments in the northern portion of the city, a couple uh near either on uh Lone Oak Road, uh near Highway Thirteen or just south on the east side of fifty-five, and then our last segment is our gentle trail, which is actually under construction right now. Yes. Yes, sorry to interrupt, but uh so every single of the four items up for consideration by us is new construction, and all of them meet the standards that we've set. Correct. It seems like a really easy and short conversation. Okay, but I mean I don't want to steal your funder, I'm sure you have a presentation, but they don't do nothing. Sorry, let's read the let's read the things, okay. Uh one does not, thank you, Jeff. Um two does not meet criteria. Three meets criteria and segment four meets criteria. So thank you for the okay clarification. So I'd be inclined to just say yes to three and four and then maybe talk a little bit more about one and two. I agree. And and because I had questions on one. Okay. Sorry for the interrupt. Thank you for helping me get this clarified. So new construction segment number one is as I mentioned in the southeast portion of the city. So actually the dash line, the dash white line on the bottom of the exhibit is the Egan Rosemount boundary. It's highway three is on the east side here, and this is trail segment along Dodd Road. So this is all being constructed as part of Park Side Circle Plat. Um so this would extend trail or this trail is being constructed by the developer as part of this, and so it goes from the northern limits of the development, doesn't necessarily tie into an existing trail at that point. Uh but then it goes along the entire uh western limits of the development down to the corporate boundary or actually extending it to 120th Street. So again, there's no trail segment to the north here, although as you continue to go north, we've got some segments of existing trails until you get to Red Pine Lane, and at that point, trail continues all the way up to Cliff Road. Mayor, yeah. To me, it doesn't make sense to follow those in the winter unless they actually connect important things. I mean, we've got some isolated chunks, but I plowing that doesn't make any sense. Where are they gonna go? Good point. Um sorry. Yeah. Well, I'm that's basically what I was thinking.
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