Good afternoon.

Welcome to the regular meeting of the Climate and Infrastructure Committee for Thursday, September 4th.

I'm Katie Cashman, chair of this committee.

Before we call the meeting to order, I want to offer a friendly reminder to all the committee members and staff and the public that these meetings are broadcast live to enable greater public participation.

Please be mindful of the rate of your speech so that our captioners can fully transcribe all the comments for the broadcast.

Thank you.

At this time, I'll ask the clerk to call the role to verify quorum.

Councilmember Vita.

Present.

Osman present.

Chavez?

Present.

Chowdry.

Present.

Vice Chair Koske is absent.

Chair Cashman.

Present.

We have five present.

Let the record reflect we have a quorum.

And we had a previously noted absence from Vice Chair Koskey for today's meeting.

All right.

So we'll begin with the consent agenda, which I'll read for the record.

Item one is approving appointments to the Shingle Creek Watershed Management Commission.

Item two is approving appointments to the Bassett Creek Watershed Management Commission.

Item three is a resolution adopting revisions to the snowbound cart policy.

Item four is a resolution designating the location and improvements proposed in the Lowry Avenue Northeast reconstruction.

Item five is approving the concept layout for the 18th Avenue South Bridge Project.

Item six is setting up public hearing for October 16th, 2025 to consider water and sewer service line repair assessments.

Item seven is approving the concept layout for the 9th and 10th Street Corridor Project.

And I will move all items for approval, though I do understand that the protected bike late bikeway project 9th and 10th Street Corridor will have some questions too.

So with that, is there any discussion?

I see Councilmember Vita.

I have some questions about item seven.

Okay.

So I will move items one through six for approval.

And just a quick note I'm just really thankful and grateful to the sewer division, Angie Kraft and Liz Stout, in particular, for helping to fill the Shingle Creek Watershed Management Commission and the Bassett Creek Management Commission are going to have both commissioners and alternates filled for the first time in a very long time.

And we always think about the Mississippi as we should, and we always think about the lakes as we should.

But Shingle Creek and Bassett Creek are often forgotten, and they should not be because they're really important water sources to the north side, to Brynmarr, and the neighborhoods that they touch.

So I'm really grateful for the folks who are stepping up to serve on those commissions and protect water access for all neighborhoods of the city.

So move on the motion to move items one through six for approval.

All those in favor say aye.

Those opposed say nay.

Any abstentions that motion carries.

And we will now move on to item seven, which is approving the concept layout for 9th and 10th Street corridor project.

Um this does impact ward seven and ward six.

And there has been uh many, many years of work on this project.

Uh there's federal funding involved.

There has been a lot of stakeholder engagement and um in particular, we've had a lot of briefings and have also met with some of the stakeholders too.

I believe Public Works has really done a great job in trying to manage all of the priorities here and to uh increase protected bikeway access for downtown while not sacrificing the traffic flows that are really important here too for the commuters who come in and out of downtown, especially now that a lot of people are back in the office and traffic is getting a lot busier.

So I uh am supportive of the project, but I do understand that there's a lot of questions about uh what's what's to come with the different um aspects of the flex lanes, uh bump outs, and potential new developments that are slated to be developed along this stretch, including at 900 Marquette.

So, with that I will call on Councilmember Vita.

Thank you, uh Chair Cashman.

I think that um you're you're right in saying there's been a lot of work done, but there's still just a lot of uncertainty and concern.

And um, I just saw the letter that was emailed a little while ago, and so I was kind of reviewing that, but in speaking with BOMA and others, that I mean that's what it is is.

It's like folks just want to guarantee um how things are gonna happen.

So maybe, director, if you can kind of speak to the exchange from just today.

I've had conversations about this, but I think we just need to maybe clear up some of the things that feel uncertain for folks.

Yeah, thanks.

Yeah, thank you, Chair Councilman Rita.

Um I'm happy to respond to some of this.

I'd also invite uh Fontaine Burris to come up, who's been our project lead for for quite some time on this, yeah.

So please come on up.

Um I think the uh I can address a little bit about the exchange from today and talk about just that um, you know, the BOMA and business stakeholders downtown are a key group here that's you know that we really have been trying to listen to and work with.

Um, there was a series um after meeting with them a couple weeks ago, there was a series of six questions that came up from the group, and we worked really hard to try to address all of those to the degree that we could, and it did result in some some changes and some areas that we're gonna continue to explore.

And so rather than getting too much into it, I I would I think Fontaine's probably better to address those specifics and maybe also give everyone just a very high-level overview of the project and a little bit of the background on sort of the timing, and as the chair mentioned, the federal dollars and how that wraps into this as well.

Welcome, Fontaine.

Uh Chair Cashman, uh, Councilmember Vita Fontaine Burris.

I am a senior transportation planner with public works.

Um, as mentioned, uh, there has been a lot of coordination and conversations with BOMA.

Uh, the reason that you have a printed layout in front of you today that differs slightly from the one that is on LIMS is reflective of those conversations and adjustments that we have made in uh those conversations with the BOMA group into in response to some of the concerns that they have shared in our commitment to working with them to make sure that we are meeting the needs of the corridor.

Um to back up slightly, this project is on both 9th and 10th street, spanning from the Elliott Park neighborhood through downtown to Glenwood Avenue on 10th Street and 2nd Avenue North on 9th, uh ending right between Target Center and Target Field.

Uh the project is looking to make improvements for all modes of transportation.

Uh this corridor, both 9th and 10th are on our high injury, have been identified as high injury streets.

So you've seen a high proportion of crashes along both 9th and 10th street.

Uh so we came into this project with the goal of improving uh safety for all users, uh, people biking, people walking, and people driving.

Um, this street is also on the transportation action plan, so looking to upgrade the existing bike lanes that are out there today to add separation and help meet the goals of the transportation action plan.

Uh this is a federally funded project that we have about 4.5 million in federal funding for this project that was awarded in 2022 that is uh being put towards these improvements.

Uh the project also aligns with the downtown action plan um strategies supporting to support the revitalization of downtown by activating the streets and sidewalks in this project supports that vision by adding pedestrian safety improvements and making it a street that uh balances the needs of pedestrians, people walking, and also addressing uh traffic flow through downtown.

Some of the changes that we've made uh to the layout in our conversations with BOMA was adding in and extending where we had a three-lane segment to address some of the traffic patterns that we were seeing specifically in the peak PM afternoon as folks leave downtown.

So there's a segment between uh Marquette and uh LaSalle, where we've introduced uh what we've referred to as a flex lane, where in the peak PM it would operate as a through lane.

Um, but in the off-peak when we don't see as much traffic volumes, it would uh offer places for parking and loading.

That is a strategy that we've used on other streets in downtown, such as A Street.

Um and what it allows is flexibility to um with that space to uh accommodate changing patterns as we see traffic patterns change in downtown.

If it needs if the hours of that flexed lane need to be adjusted, that is something that our staff monitors and can do with this design.

Uh we've also added uh quite a few uh left turn lanes and right turn lanes and keep places where needed to also help with that traffic flow to have a place for people to queue to make those turns and uh queue for pedestrians that are crossing without impeding traffic flow that continuing down the corridor.

Um we have been working with stakeholders, working with BOMA.

Um some of their concerns were about the layout, and we have worked to make those changes.

Um there is a property at 900 Marquette that uh has a potential future development planned.

Um so you'll see in the it's very small, so I assume you can't read it, um, but there is um we've removed the bump outs that were proposed there um to uh coordinate with the Heinz development.

Uh we've met with them today to talk about what their needs are with the future development to make sure that our design is not impeding on that future design.

Um so we're working with their line work, the design that they have, looking at the vehicles they've uh given us the vehicles that they will be using at for loading and using those to make sure that we're not impeding their turning radius, um getting in and out of that property with the design.

So there is a segment there that is blanked out that just notes that that bikeway separation is going to be worked through during final design so that we can coordinate with that property.

All right, thank you for uh all that additional context, Councilmember Vita.

Do you have more questions?

Not more questions.

I just wanted to say I think thank you, thank you so much for this additional information, and I know some of the folks who have been working with staff on making some of these changes really do appreciate staff's willingness to work on these things.

I I think though, like I would want to move this forward with our recommendation because I haven't had a chance to check in with both sides to see um the changes you're presenting.

I believe you and I I trust that these things are gonna happen, but I want to have an opportunity to talk to the folks who have been advocating for these changes about how the new map that you have before us here, and then um also be able to talk through with staff and them about how these changes are gonna happen so that there is no confusion around what the changes are, and that we have a commitment as the city of Minneapolis to make sure that what you've just presented before us is really going to happen.

So, just um, Chair, if we could move it forward without recommendation, that'd be great just to give myself some time.

Um I see Councilmember Chavez is also in Cuba, but I'll note the motion is already there to approve this, and I think given my position on it and uh Ward 6's position on it being the ones that are impacted by this, I would like to move approval today, and if that fails, we can move forward without recommendation.

Okay.

Councilmember Chavez.

Uh thank you, Chair Cashman.

I want to thank staff for all the incredible work on this project.

There has been a ton of engagement.

There has been a lot of work, a lot of conversations with different stakeholders balancing various different needs.

I am in full support of this project.

I think it just makes sense, and I want to thank the work that you are doing along with public works.

And I will be supporting Councilmember Cashman's motion to move this forward with the recommendation to full council.

Any other council members who wanted to Rainville wants to speak.

Oh yeah, Councilmember Rainville.

Thank you.

So I I would uh encourage us to take a step back on this.

I am I'm really concerned that the traffic study, in fact, maybe you could tell us when the traffic study was done, please.

Yes.

Uh the traffic study was done in when we first kicked off the project in summer of 2024.

Um it looked at Wednesdays, which is what we see as our peak days in downtown, both on a game event day when there's a twins game and a non-game day.

It also then took in 2018 pre-pandemic numbers into account, so that we were looking at both patterns today and also what it looked like pre-pandemic, so that the uh numbers are reflective of before the pandemic and the traffic patterns that we saw changed during that time.

Um we looked at the game days and the non-game days so that we could balance what is it look like in the on a peak Wednesday when you both have people leaving downtown or traveling in downtown for work and for events, and then balancing it with the 2018 uh.

Thank you.

So the the point I'm trying to make is this is a different traffic, uh new traffic study meet needs to be done because downtown is much more active now than it was in the summer of 24.

Uh Target has brought their employees back, uh, and uh all the other office towers are much more active.

So this traffic study that you're basing this information on is outdated.

I also want to just kindly say uh not only affects wards seven and six, it affects the whole city because this is our tax base.

We are going into a budget season where we're gonna have to make some really tough choices because our tax base is dropping, and by not having the certainty for the business community and the trust that is needed, we're gonna limit our new investments in downtown Minneapolis trying to get that tax base up because none of our uh pet projects are gonna be able to get funded if we don't have that tax base.

So I would just uh really encourage us to take a step back and listen to uh the business community.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Rainville.

Yeah, just I'm very aware of the financial situation, which is why I do not want to leave four point something million dollars of federal funding on the table to advance our transportation action plan to advance our downtown action plan, and I also wanted to mention that this support for this project is in the downtown council's 2035 plan on page 89.

Protected bikeways are the future.

Um we need more people to get on bike, you need a different type of facility, a protected bikeway.

And then on page 90.

There's federal funding for protected bikeways on 9th and 10th streets.

Um, and it goes on to express support.

So I think this has been going on for a long time.

There's been a lot of due diligence done.

There's a lot of support for it across all the stakeholder um groups, and I think Public Works has done a great job to make those promises that they will consider new developments as they sketch out the final designs of the flex lienes and bump outs that will come at the last phase of the project.

Thank you.

Uh so maybe staff can say uh what are the constraints on that 4.5 million dollars from fellow government?

Does that be spent next week or next month or next year?

What is that?

Uh Chair Cashman, uh Chair, Councilmember Rainville.

Uh we based on our schedule, we do need to proceed into final design to meet federal authorization.

Um in 2026, uh, if we push back the timeline further to start final design, we will not be able to meet that federal authorization deadline.

So you have to have final design by 26.

Correct.

Okay.

And this is September of 25.

Correct, but we do need some time to work through that final design.

Okay.

And we are asking for layout approval so that we can start that final design process.

I don't have a vote on this committee, so I'm naturally all voted here.

But if this is a good plan, it can wait a little bit longer to make sure we have the trust of the community to do this.

So I can again I cannot vote on here, but uh this to me is incomplete because we haven't done the outreach we need to do.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Um this was on our agenda last CNI committee as well, which so we which we also held over um to this cycle.

Uh Councilmember Osman and then Councilmember Chowdhury wanted to adjust.

Yes, uh, thank you so much.

Uh and thank you, Steph, for for the presentation.

And as some of us say always, let's trust our professional staff.

I believe they are making the decision to move our city forward uh to plan.

They are the professional, they are the experts.

And you know, uh I don't think they are here to create any traffic conjunction or anything like that.

So with that being said, uh the biggest uh important thing for me is a high risk uh pedestrian uh place, and now it will make it more safer and safe life.

So that is really important.

I received the letter.

I don't see a lot of concern other than just delivery trucks and um this will create conjunction uh and they cited 2019, which is COVID.

We have less traffic now in downtown uh uh than that.

So um all this concerns of the I guess uh business community or people in downtown um, you know, could be right, but I I like I say I I do trust our staff, and I think this is uh no-brainer to use this money and to continue to improve our our roads and to make it safer for uh many people that are uh walking, biking, and driving.

So fully supported and always and and this is also ward six and ward nine.

So um as a council members, I'm sorry, for seven, war seven and war six, and both of us um support this uh to move forward, and uh we did receive uh presentation a few months ago about this project, and I'm still excited uh to get this guy to get this done and give the staff uh to go ahead to do the work.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Councilmember Chowdhury.

Thank you, Chair Cashman.

Maybe this is first a question for you.

Do you know how many years that this concept has been in the works?

I believe it's been many years.

Um maybe Fontaine can answer that question for us.

Chair Cashman, Councilmember Chowder.

Um, this project kicked off in 2024.

Um there were previous iterations of this project in the past, um, but this is the one that received the federal funding.

Um, when did the previous iterations start?

Do you have a is it like pre-2020, post-2020?

There were some uh some protections added during uh COVID um where um to address some safety concerns in downtown.

Um, actually gonna look to um Nathan Coster.

Um 2021 um was the the previous one.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, so this has been in discussion for a number of years in different iterations.

Thank you so much for coming up and presenting on this item.

Really appreciate it.

Um the first question I wanted to kind of ask, and maybe this is for um uh staff that takes on uh the traffic study.

I know that it was brought up here, and I think it's important that we move this along and this is what committee is for, so we can get some of these questions answered.

Um is there staff to kind of speak to this traffic study questions?

Um my understanding is that it should be pretty close to up to date, so just wanted to check in.

Thank you, Mr.

Klugman.

Good afternoon, Chair Cashman, Councilmember, Councilmember Rainbows.

Well, you raised some questions regarding traffic.

Maybe we'll just do a really quick overview about some of the traffic analysis that's been done.

I think what we need to do is just kind of explain what we've done, and um I think that'll be helpful.

As Fontaine mentioned, the study was done fairly recently, but we took a very thorough approach with both what we call before COVID and after COVID data.

So we did look at the 2018 counts, which are actually higher than what we have today.

And when we looked at today to try to get the more recent patterns, so it's kind of in a I'll say an assimilation of the data across the two sets, including the higher volumes from pre-COVID.

So we did consider that.

I think maybe we didn't really advertise that in our public engagement and whatnot, but we did look at those higher conditions.

So that's one point I want to make.

And I think this is an important message to go to the stakeholders in the community, and we don't often bring this up at the layout stage, so I just want to say it.

That the focus today is like approving a layout that's a physical space design, but with any big project, we always overlay an operational plan on top of that physical layout.

And that's the kind of thing that sort of happens after this meeting in the next couple years as we work forward.

And we've already actually begun that right now, and that's why Fontaine was able to mention that although we've generally had some reduction from say three lanes to two lane, we strategically added those left and right turn lanes at key intersections where we had higher volumes or higher turns, or so higher impedance where the turning vehicles are waiting for peds or bikes.

And so sometimes like two lanes plus a left turn lane actually kind of gets you more than three lanes where that left lane faces a lot of turbulence and interference with cars that are queued up trying to go straight.

They're behind someone turning left.

We sort of clarify the situation by segregating those left and right turn lanes.

So I think that's an important outcome that's already started by us trying to put this operational plan on top of the fiscal design.

Two more things I want to make is um or points I want to make is that in general when we see a road that kind of gets reconfigured with different lanes or say fewer lanes, we always look back and say, what do we need to do differently to operate it?

It's partly why Fontaine was able to talk about the dynamic lanes where you have a lane that can be parking part of the day, but it's available for traffic flow during the peak hours.

And then the other thing that's really important is we will adjust our signal timing within the downtown grid to reflect that these two streets, 9th and 10th Street, now have a different traffic flow characteristic, and we always keep our signal timing up to date with the new designs.

Did the same thing with Hennepin, you know, a couple years ago, fourth A Street, as these new roads come online and have maybe slightly different layout, the patterns change a bit.

We respond by reflecting our signal timing plans.

Last thing I want to say relative to that is in 26 and 27, we're doing a complete overall retiming of all the signals in the city.

Big effort will take us two or three years, but that's kind of a start from scratch rather than just kind of a revision and a refinement.

And the new road layout that we'll have for 9th and 10th will be factored into that.

And I just want to make that point because I think a lot of times we look at kind of what's out there today, and we sort of wonder what's going to happen if we change something.

I just want to be really, you know, emphasizing this point that although some physical space will change, the operations that we put with that will stay up to date because we're literally starting from scratch downtown in the next couple years.

So I think we have a really good opportunity to fit our operational plan with the new design that we'll see for these roads.

Thank you.

That was really helpful.

It sounds like things are kind of evolving with the plans that come into the next year as it comes to downtown.

And just appreciate your conscientiousness in that and the work related to this concept plan.

My last question was Fontaine, you did a good job of explaining that there had been discussions with uh BOMA, and that some of the considerations that they brought forward were uh put into the project.

Could you just speak to that a little bit more and put a bit of a finer point on it?

Chair can council vice president Carrie.

Um, yes, so some of the uh feedback that we received initially uh we had two just two through lanes with full-time parking between uh Marquette and LaSalle.

Um, one of the first changes we made after looking speaking with BOMA, um, going out and looking at a different additional traffic patterns was to add in that flex lane.

Um we then did also remove some of the uh curb protection and the um uh kind of pork chop islands and one segment to work with um the Heinz future development to make sure that those pieces are aligning with their development.

So we will work with their line work and their planned vehicles to make sure that what we design does not impede in their operations and their access to their building.

Some of their questions were more about operations, such as snow plowing.

We work very closely with our maintenance group to look at the designs, look at where are they going to be snowing storing snow store storage in the winter?

How are they going to plow it?

Making sure that they are plowing toward towards the curb protection and not towards the sidewalk so that they're not pushing snow up onto the bikeway or onto the sidewalk, and that it's getting plowed towards the street.

Some of their other questions are less about the design and more about operations in downtown related to traffic control at parking garages and who can who can do those.

We have connected them with the correct people and passed along their questions so that those can be continued to be discussed.

Great.

Thank you.

That answers all of my questions, and it seems like a lot of the work that needs to get done to address concerns and have more engagement.

Is this next step, which is the operational process?

So I'm in support of moving this forward.

And again, just thank you to our staff and especially you for presenting today on this concept layout.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We have Councilmember Vita and then Councilmember Chavez in Q.

But I just wanted to first call on uh director Sexton as uh we had some new info about the duration of the time that this project has been in the works.

Yeah, thank you, Chair.

Um so we want to just clarify an earlier statement that there's been multiple iterations, but the original start of this uh project where the first conversation came up were back in 2014.

Um so again, there's been multiple iterations, and so that was back with the some of the bicycle planning where this was first talked about.

Oh, thank you.

That's helpful.

Councilmember Vita.

Thank you, uh Chair Cashman.

Um I'm not against this project.

I want this to happen.

What I what I was asking for here today is just an opportunity for us to work with the partners.

I don't know about other colleagues, but I hear often that these projects are missed opportunities sometimes, things that could be worked out on the front end and make things less complicated, don't happen.

Therefore, these projects get way more complicated with construction, businesses close down, people are confused about what is actually going to happen.

And I mean, it's to me it's it's not about stopping this.

It really is about uh having the opportunity for our partners to work with city staff, answer quite for staff to answer questions or partners to answer and ask questions.

I that that's all I'm asking for.

It's not at all like I think all of the work is good.

I would I would say that the partners think so.

I think there's a project that happened nearby that people felt like was similar and it went wrong, and they just want to be assured that this project is not the same, and you know, something is different, something different is happening.

But again, I just hear a lot from people when these sort of big projects come up that we've missed so many opportunities to confer with community and to have discussions and um, you know, this council takes votes, clearly selective votes.

There are other projects that didn't go this way, and they they were similar projects and they weren't in council members' wards, and they took the leadership on that.

But you know, this is this project before us.

I I just really think we're missing an opportunity, and I I need time to confer with BOMA.

They're a partner.

We're trying to rebuild downtown.

We've all had these speeches around how downtown is the economic engine of the entire city.

I know what happens downtown affects the the ward for um home ownership pool.

So I want to have a discussion about this.

I'm I'm not saying you know, just tank all of the work.

It's really about assuring these folks that we are gonna be good partners too.

And so if there's a way for me to just um take action on making sure we confer with BOMA clerks, I don't I don't know what we need to do, but I just want to make sure before the final vote is taken that we come forward with BOMA and make sure that um the questions and sorts have been answered.

Thank you.

Yeah, I believe Public Works would be more than happy to offer you a briefing, Councilmember Vita.

I don't need a briefing, Chair Cashman.

I'm I will also ask where I could say, With Balmah to confirm uh the next steps that you'll take in the next couple of years uh to continue working with Boma.

Yeah, thank you, Chair.

Um I think we are don't have specific next steps outlined.

Um we are very open, committed both verbally here and in writing to BOMA and continuing to engage with them on the operational needs of this corridor.

Um as Fontaine mentioned earlier, um, you know, we heard concerns about one particular location, and because of that, um we understand that more work is needed on this small portion, and that's highlighted.

I apologize that the versions you have in front of you again are difficult to read.

Um, but you know, I think it just reflects on the fact that when we're hearing specific concerns, we've done everything we can to address those specific concerns, and we'll continue to so um very much would offer that today, even after this meeting.

If we'd like if BOMA would like to talk with us, continue that that conversation.

Um, you know, the future of downtown is critically important to us as well.

And I think that like we just we want to figure out a way that we can make this work for everyone while staying true to the vision for this project and the federal funds that are tied to it, which are really connected to the bikeway and improving safety for all users.

So again, we have some flexibility here.

We want to continue working with them and other stakeholders who would like to engage with us as the project continues.

We realize it's an important project.

Um, and so again, I will meet with folks after this to identify what those next steps can be in the short term, medium, and long term as this project moves forward.

I'm not done.

Um thank you, Director Sexton, for that.

And I appreciate you know that there are federal funds that you are seeking here, but I don't want to lose businesses.

The federal funds are gonna come and go, and we'll lose businesses if we don't do the right thing here.

So I do appreciate that, but I don't want to lose current or potential businesses because we didn't get it right on the front.

Thank you.

I'll also just make the commitment as a downtown council member to continue working out the operational details of this um project and just stay in coordination as um construction begins, which will take a couple of years, and I know things are gonna change during that time as well.

So lastly, we'll have councilmember Chavez and then we will call the roll.

Thank you.

Uh I had a question.

Can you please clarify like the funding sources again?

How much federal dollars is in the project?

I think I'm reading on as I read it, was it 4.51 million dollars in this project from federal funding?

Yes, uh, Chair Cashman, uh, council member Chavez, there is uh 4.5 uh million in federal funding.

Uh there's also funding from the municipal state aid.

This is an MSA street.

Uh so there's funding in that as well, as well as the local match.

Um totaling uh approximately 8.5 million.

Okay.

Thank you very much for detailing that.

I'm not interested in risking $4.5 million dollars from the federal government in very hard times.

I just ask that we vote in favor of this project that not only is beneficial, I think we'll actually make downtown a better place for our neighbors.

So thank you.

Thank you so much.

Uh Clerk Michael, if you could call the role in the motion to approve.

Councilmember Vita?

No.

Osman.

Aye.

Chavez.

Aye.

Childry.

Aye.

Chair Cashman.

Aye.

We have four eyes and one nay.

Thank you.

And that will be forwarded to full council.

Thank you so much, Fontaine.

Our next item is approving a concept layout for Park Avenue and Portland Avenue Safety Improvement Project, which I believe is another protected bikeway.

And I'll invite Peter Bennett, transportation planner, to provide an overview on this item.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair Cashman and members of the committee.

My name is Peter Bennett.

I'm a transportation planner with Minneapolis Public Works.

And we are excited today to bring you a request to approve a concept layout for Hennepin County's Park and Portland safety improvements project.

I'm joined today by several members of the county's team who worked on this project, principally Olo Goke Afalalbi, the county's project manager, and Danny Maloney from HDR.

So in today's presentation, we'll share a few key highlights of that concept layout and provide an update on the ongoing coordination with this project and other projects along the corridor, including a summary of the coordination with the 38th in Chicago reenvisioned project.

So this project will make improvements to Park Avenue and Portland Avenue from Interstate 94 to 46th Street East.

This project is scoped as a retrofit project, not a full reconstruction of the roadway.

However, it will include resurfacing.

This project is anticipated to begin construction in 2027 and complete in 2028.

A defining feature of this project has been all the coordination with the street projects that cross it, and that can be seen on the map on the screen.

We held coordination meetings with many of those project teams.

This is a list of all those coordinated projects from north to south.

They were delivered by both the county, the city, and Metro Transit.

The projects include completed projects at 34th Street, the Green Central Project, and on Lake Street.

Next up, coming this year are projects that will begin on Franklin Avenue and on 24th Street.

And then the city is bringing in future improvements to other streets that cross the Park and Portland Corridor on 26th, 28th, 35th, 36th, 38th, and 42nd.

This level of coordination shows how our network is growing.

Park and Portland play a key connective role between and for a whole spine of South Minneapolis.

And in particular, with the coordination with the 38th and Chicago re envisioned project, there are elements of the concept layout at 38th and 39th Street that accommodate uh various options that are that could happen in the future on in that location.

Both project teams have held joint meetings.

They developed a concept layout that is compatible in terms of the design, the operations, and any potential access changes in the area.

It's compatible with transit operations for the D line and Route 5, both on Chicago Avenue and on the other routings of those transit lines.

The way it does that is there are bump outs included on 38th Street at Park in Portland.

These bump outs are the same size and shape as an ABRT station, a platform for the bus, should one need to be built in the future.

That space is reserved.

The D line and Route 5 can go use those bump outs as a bus platform.

And then lastly, there's a median at 39th and Park Avenue that accommodates bus turning movements, similar to the turn it makes today, if it is routed onto Park Avenue.

So next I will go into other features of the concept layout.

The project started with its purpose and goals, has four main goals: improve safety on these avenues, enhance crossing for people, walking, biking, and rolling, create a protected space for biking, and reduce vehicle speeds.

We continue to hear about crashes and high speeds on these corridors.

The project team observed speeds that were well above the posted speed limit.

The crashes that we've heard about just this year are unacceptable, and we've made design changes that we hope this project will bring that directly address speeds.

There were three open houses, two listening sessions with the county commissioner, 15 pop-up events along the corridor, an online interactive community map for feedback, which got a lot of comments.

So next, I will go into what the proposed improvements are in this layout and how they were influenced by the engagement.

In the concept layout that is also attached to this action, you will see these features distributed across 6.4 miles of Park and Portland Avenue.

It's a big layout, so instead of going intersection by intersection, these are kind of the general tools used interspersed throughout it.

There are curb-protected bike facilities that move the bike lane to the sidewalk side of the parking lane.

We'll actually see some visuals of this in the next few slides of a lot of these features.

Pedestrian ramps will be upgraded, curb extensions and medians will be added, signal systems will be upgraded, flashing beacon crosswalks installed, the parking lane relocated, as I mentioned earlier, to be the protection for the bike lane.

The pavement will be resurfaced.

We'll be adding green space to the boulevards of the street, and it will have generally two motor vehicle lanes with added right turn lanes where needed.

So here's that visual.

So looking at the bottom image, what has changed?

Moving from left to right, you'll see that the travel lanes are slightly narrower.

Then there's the relocated parking lane, then a curb, and then finally the protected bike lane.

With the space of those buffers, there is a widened boulevard with green space added just to the bike lane side.

Now we'll look at a few snapshots from the concept layout.

The cross section alone that was seen on the last slide doesn't really paint the whole picture of all the different safety improvements that are brought with this project.

These are what tie all those blocks together.

The team used context and analysis to look at the different intersection treatments and add traffic calming benefits throughout the corridor.

There are closed medians at unsignalized intersections, meaning the pedestrians only have to cross one lane at a time, and the vehicle travels traffic will slow because both lanes bend around that median.

There are also chicanes where both lanes bend back and forth together through the intersection, creating a large bump out on one side.

We've also added parking lane medians, which is where the bikeway production widens out at the corners uh on the approach to signals.

And finally, a full curb extension, where not only is it widening out on the approach to signals, it's also bringing the bike lane up to sidewalk level, significantly narrowing the crossing distances.

And next, we'll look at a few snapshots of this corridor between intersections.

The first one is a typical cross section where it is the two-lane cross section with the protected bike lane and parking uh but we also have a few places along the corridor where we've actually added the right turn pocket and that's shown in the second image the third image where there's a mid block median and the last image where it shows how the bikeway protection is a little different shape when there's frequent driveways.

So with that I'll conclude this presentation with the timeline of the look ahead the project team will spend the next year completing its uh final set of design plans and construction is expected to begin in 2027 and last two construction seasons.

So thank you for the opportunity to present this proposed concept layout for Park in Portland Avenue and our public works staff and our project team will be on hand for questions.

Thank you so much Mr.

Bennett for the presentation I just have a couple questions which section will be done in 27 and which section will be done in 28.

Thank you Chair Cashman and for an answer to that I would actually like to call up Henne County's project manager uh to share more information on that.

Thank you Peter.

Hi I'm Mala Gorkia Falabi within County that's a great question.

So regarding that we still don't have an exact inside to that at this moment we are currently working through our preliminary design um our preliminary stage and phases so as we continue the project we will start to determine which part is getting constructed first but right now we're still working through some of those details and which part of the project gets constructed in 2027 or which one gets done in 2028.

Thank you.

Next question was about financing the project if you could help us understand um just where the funding is coming from and also if there will be an assessment on the property owners nearby yeah thank you Chair Cashman I will start this answer and we'll also look to some of our Minneapolis public works staff and uh Director Sexton to continue the answer for us as the project team we know that there are two grant funding sources for this project there are regional solicitation grants that were awarded to Hennepin County and also a program called HSIP Highway Safety Improvement Program awarded to both city and county for different segments of the project with that I'll pass it to Director Sexton about assessments.

I'm sorry Chair can you repeat the question will there be an assessment on the property owners to fund this project.

I think we're gonna have to follow chair excuse me we're gonna have to follow up with you on that I don't know that we've determined one way or another just yet.

Okay.

Chair or Councilmember Osmond I could be wrong but I I did ask this um during the presentations and I thought there was no I guess there's no charges to the residents for this project that's I could be wrong but I think I'll wait here.

Yeah it's sorry chair and council member um I just want to make sure that we have the most up to date information for you so I'd be happy to follow up after this that'd be great.

Thanks thank you.

And then just the last question for either of you is about the um crashes on these streets I am familiar with residents at 26th in Portland who experience nearly weekly crashes at times of the year.

Can you just give us a little bit of an understanding of the current conditions and what types of safety statistics are really driving the need for this project.

Yes.

So I'm sorry.

Yeah, over the so over the last year we've collected various um traffic counts as well as analyzed various traffic uh data as well as crash daters, and we do notice that there's a significant amount of crashes throughout a corridor.

And based on that, we've done various analysis um to analyze which particular intersections get various types of treatments, and that is reflective of what uh Peter shared earlier, where we look at close uh proximity to parks, proximities to school, um, existing pet crossings as well as existing crash data uh and cross history.

So a lot of this goes into how we are treating each intersection and goes into how we are designing our various intersections to provide significant safety improvements at DCM sections addressing some of these crashes.

Okay, thanks.

Do you do these streets like rise to the top in terms of high injury uh Hennepin County roads in the city?

Uh yeah, we do we do look at a lot of the streets and see where the line in terms of prioritization and wherever we notice that a lot of significant crashes, we do put a lot of we do take a closer look at those intersections to make sure that we provide we're putting in the best possible um safety treatment to improve those intersections.

Yeah, all right.

Well, that's um that's I think a really important point for us to approve this project today.

Is the safety aspect I think is really important because uh people really go incredibly fast on park in Portland.

I know a lot of people run uh red lights on these streets as well, uh, eager to get in and out of town, and it's just the nature of having one-ways as well.

So I'm really supportive of this.

I thank you for the city county collaboration uh for finding outside funding.

I hope there won't be an assessment.

Um, hopeful for that outcome of this extra research, but I will um move this item for approval and call on Councilmember Osman.

Okay, yeah, thank you so much uh staff and the county staff for first of all for your engagement.

I have been following.

I attended Councilmember Jason Shabbos and I attended the urban um conversation and presentation on uh 36 and Parliament Park, one of those ones.

But uh someone who lives in Portland, um the speed is ridiculous.

Uh the safety is very, very uh challenging.

I think what is it, the average like four to four miles an hour, even though it's supposed to be 30 miles an hour.

But um this will definitely bring a lot of um you know uh safety uh uh protections for for the resident that walk.

Um, and I'm uh super excited about the separation of the bike lane or or the sidewalk from the traffic.

Um and I think you have also been getting some of the emails and crashes and updates to that.

So thank you for your engagement for a different language for different uh group of people coming to the neighborhood organizations and providing the update that that's really helpful.

People are are aware of what what's happening right now and and are excited.

Um one of the things I'm seeing uh someone who lives in Portland is that um I'm seeing buses stop in there for drop-off, and it's I'll tell you that man, it's really really dangerous for um for anybody to uh pick up their kids from from those things.

I know they're not a designated bus drop-off, but I don't know if if those things have you heard about those things and what what are the plan of um school buses uh dropping off uh kids in in a almost like a freeway.

Thank you, Chair Cashman and Councilmember Osman.

Uh for a specific location where there's bus dropping off.

Uh this project did work with some schools in the area and did look at some pickup and drop-off questions, but we'd be happy to take a specific location from you and uh look into that.

I'll send you to that.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thanks so much.

Next, I'll recognize Councilmember Chavez.

Uh thank you, Jake Cashman, and thank you uh staff for all the work that has been going on uh with this and with the county and other engagement that is happening with neighbors.

Um I've heard from a lot of neighbors about just Portland and Park and how unsafe it is for neighbors, it just feels like a highway at times where neighbors literally um struggle and feel very unsafe on these corridors because of the amount of traffic, uh the speeding, and I think that this project is going to help address some of those concerns.

I think that our our goal is to reduce the amount of crashes in our neighborhoods, the speeding that's happening in our neighborhoods.

Uh for Council Cash with some of the comments for for example, I used to live on 35th in Portland right next to the how the home that literally has to put cement barriers as their own traffic calming because of how dangerous it is on Portland.

And the amount of times I would see cars coming in the wrong side of the one way, cars jamming into their fences to the point that they had to get concrete beers has just been really, really like messed up, and something that needs to be addressed and I hope that part of this project, one of the goals is to reduce those concerns, and that's what I am supportive of this, while also understanding that we need to do other work to address those concerns because it's not gonna go away just with this project.

For example, there was someone on Portland Avenue who had their legs cut off because of how dangerous it was.

Like we're we're here as a city to also figure out what else we can do on top of this project to make sure that neighbors do not feel unsafe on their corridor.

And since the county is here, what I'll just say is that like whatever the city and county can do together, I know it's a county road, but whatever we can do together to address those concerns before this project is even finalized and after, like I would just press on those because I would feel very guilty not mentioning those stories today because I get those emails from my residents on a very often basis.

Just this past few days it was another car crash into those cement homes.

And I know that it's gonna take more than just a project we have today.

So like I need to say that out loud and again I'm very thankful about the work that is going into the project.

I know that we're hoping to address a lot of the concerns that neighbors have, and we're here to figure out how what else we can do to make sure we can address those concerns.

But I know it's gonna take uh beyond just the city of Minneapolis, so I just wanted to make sure that I said that.

Thank you.

So before we take the vote, I just wanted to note for uh Clerk Michael the question on whether there'd be a tax assessment.

And uh Councilmember Osman, if you could send the stops for the school buses and include uh Clerk Michael in there, then we can make sure that that gets into the uh staff memo for the for the whole council.

All right.

Thank you so much.

So uh on the motion to approve, um, please call the roll.

Councilmember Vita?

Aye.

Osmond.

Aye, Chavez.

Aye, Chowdhury, aye.

Chair Cashman.

Aye.

We have five eyes.

The ayes have it.

That motion carries.

Um thank you so much to the county also for coming to present on this as well.

And with that, we've concluded all business to come before the committee today without objection.

We are adjourned.

Thank you.