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Home My WebLink About12-10-07 WSr ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ 1 ~~ ~~^ ~ Minutes City of Lakeville -City Council Work Session Monday, December lo, 200 @ 5:3o p.m. Marion Conference Room, Lakeville City Hall In attendance: Mayor Holly Dahl and Council Members Wendy Wulff, Laurie Rieb, Mark Bellows and Kerrin Swecker. Also in attendance: City Administrator Steve Mielke, Assistant to City Administrator Brian Anderson, Community and Economic Development Director Dave Olson, -City Engineer Keith Nelson, Operations and Maintenance Director Don- Volk, and SRF Consultant Dave Christianson. The meeting was called to order at 5:3o p.m. • i. Lakeville Transit Plan Review Mr. Christianson presented to the City Council the findings of the Lakeville Transit Plan SRF drafted for the City. He outlined Lakeville's options as depicted in the Lakeville Transit Plan and stated that Lakeville was almost brought into the transit taxing district last legislative session. This would have required each household in Lakeville to pay approximately. $4o for transit capital bonding expenses with no money being put towards operations. There are i3 cities in the suburban area, including Lakeville, that are currently in the "hold-out" status from a 19821aw. Mr. Christianson then discussed the historical financing perspective of the various bus transit services in the metro area.. He informed the City Council that if Lakeville does nothing to voluntarily provide transit services, then the Legislature may bring Lakeville in the taxing district this session as there appears to be a lot of support to pass the required bill. In return, this may bring a transit station to both Cedar Avenue and I-35 but may lack adequate operating funds to fully support attractive park-and-ride stations. Council Member Wulff asked Mr. Christianson to elaborate on his findings for one station located on either Cedar Avenue or I-35. Mr. Christianson stated that Lakeville's ridership is very solid at both the Apple Valley and Burnsville stations and that only one express service station would .generate the same number of riders of two stations. Council Member Wulff stated that the circulator service outlined for Lakeville seemed rather expensive and didn't appear to generate additional riders for the park-and- • ride(s). Mr. Christianson stated that it was rather expensive and probably wouldn't be needed if apark-and-ride with continuous bus service was built in Lakeville. Council Work Session Minutes December ro, 200 Page 2 Mr. Mielke stated that at a recent meeting with the Met Council the transit planning staff only offered Lakeville three busses to operate every half hour during peak hours, which seems inadequate and below the needs .identified in this study. Mr. Christianson stated that he would recommend at least continuous express service during peak hours in order to attract enough riders and make the park-and-ride function properly. He also stated that transit service funding is very political as the Met Council is dealing with budget constraints and those cities already in the system want additional capital funds before Lakeville receives significant funding. He went on to state that by Lakeville having an attractive park-and-ride, it would alleviate the pressure from the park-and- rides in Apple Valley and Burnsville, reduce the amount of traffic on the highway system, and would benefit Minneapolis's parking issues. Mr. Mielke stated the options for next steps are to negotiate with the Met Council on receiving adequate express .service, supply our own service, or continue to remain an opt-out due to the lack of service being offered. The City Council directed staff to talk with the Met Council and negotiate terms that would deliver continuous express service to at least one park-and-ride in Lakeville. The City Council indicated that Met- Council's current offer of one bus every thirty minutes would not be .adequate service for Lakeville,. Council Member Wulff asked that Mr. Christianson expand on the benefits of having one adequate park-and-ride station in Lakeville verses diluting Lakeville's resources with two- park-and-rides that don't offer express service. Council Member • Wulff also suggested adding the schedule exhibit that Mr. Christianson distributed during the discussion. The rest of the City Council agreed being the Lakeville Transit Plan shows compelling evidence that one park-and-ride offering continuous service would be better than two with .minimum service. Staff will make the changes and then circulate the plan to various organizations for comment before the City Council approves the plan. 2. MV'rA Participation Mr. Mielke stated that the Minnesota Valley Transit Authority (MVTA) Board of Directors has extended an invitation to the cities of Lakeville and Farmington to participate in the MVTA as ex-officio members of the board. They have requested that we respond to their offer sometime after the first of the year. At a recent meeting the MVTA Board members outlined their desire to .increase communications and dialog with both Lakeville and Farmington for the expressed purpose of improving relationships and exchanging perspectives on transit services in the area. In addition, the board offered to provide equal status at their board meetings to both communities. The options offered by this opportunity are full membership, ex-officio membership, or attendance and participation. Mayor Dahl appreciated the offer and stated that it's one of several necessary steps towards improving transit for Lakeville residents. Council Member Wulff stated that it would be nice to participate in their discussions and being involved with the MVTA would benefit Lakeville being they are members of STA. Mr. Mielke stated that he .Council Work Session Minutes December lo, 200 Page g would. list the positions with the other Council appointments that will be assigned in January. 3. Water Use Ordinance Amendment Mr. Volk informed the City Council that during the summer of 200, there were 2,~6r warning and violation notices issued to residents. Of that total, 346 resulted in water surcharges, of which 38 went to third and fourth time violators. In .addition to regular daytime hours, operations and maintenance staff spend 35 dedicated daytime hours during the hottest part of the summer and 6~i.5 overtime hours patrolling for violators and issuing notices. Administrative support for entering violation information into a database and issuingsurcharge notifications consumed 20o regular daytime hours and 16 overtime hours. The fiscal impact of monitoring violators has an estimated operating impact of $27,812. There are three groups of violators with the largest percentage of those claiming ignorance of the water restrictions, the second are repeat violators that abuse the restrictions, and the third are the large townhome associations that require more than a day to complete a watering cycle. Therefore, to improve the understanding of the water restrictions ordinance, the public works department has previously posted approximately 16o signs throughout the City to .notify residents and -will post an additional 18o signs in 2008. Information on the watering restrictions is also published weekly in Messages, on the City's website and regularly on the government cable channel throughout the summer. The public works department would also like to promote more use of drought tolerant plantings in residential and commercial areas. In addition, staff is recommending an increase under the tiered rate structure as outlined in the packet memo. This will help reduce the operational impact caused by enforcement efforts, especially if enforcement can be reduced through increased signage, educational programs, and adoption of water saving landscape designs. Staff also recommends increasing watering citations up to $20o for a homeowner's fifth violation. After some discussion City Council agreed with staffs recommendations and directed them to bring them forth at an upcoming Council meeting for consideration of approval. 4. Legislative Policy Review Mr. Mielke briefly discussed the Draft 2008 Legislative Policies with the City Council and made some minor changes that will be outlined in the Proposed 2008 Legislative Policies. • Council Work Session Minutes December io, 200 Page 4 5. Update Items a) Walker Methodist Project Mr. Olson gave a brief description of the project to the City Council and informed them that the project had been presented to the Planning Commission on November 15th. In order for the project to comply with City Ordinance, there would have to be some flexibility on the part of the PUD zoning by the City. The Planning Commission wanted to ensure that the setback is maximized along CSAH 5o given the height of the building, sufficient screening and landscaping is incorporated on the west side along the Heritage Walk townhome development, and wanted to ensure that the proposed parking. arrangement would work properly. Council Member Swecker inquired about possible road improvements, particularly CSAH 50. Mr. Olson informed the Council that there were no scheduled improvements in the County's five year CIP to be made on CSAH 5o at this time. The City Council agreed with the planning commission's recommendations and directed staff to continue working on the project with the developer. b) Rail Car Storage on Co. Rd. 50 This item was not discussed due to lack of time. c) Regularly Scheduled Work Sessions This item was not discussed due to lack of time. The meeting was adjourned at 6:57 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Brian J. Anderson Assistant to City Administrator • • •