Committee Minutes

Minutes of the Grand Forks City Council/Finance/
Development Standby Comm. - May 15, 2007 - 4:15 p.m.

The city council of the city of Grand Forks sitting as the Finance/Development Standby Committee met in the council chambers in City Hall on Tuesday, May 15, 2007 at approx. 4:15 p.m. Present t roll call were Council Members Glassheim, Brooks. It was noted that Council Member Brooks has to leave at 4:40 p.m.

Also present were Mike McNamara, Rick Duquette, Greg Hoover, Jane Williams, John Thompson, Mark Aubol, Ryan Brooks, Pete O'Neill, Roxanne Fiala.

1. Matter of downtown parking.
Greg Hoover, Urban Development, asked to break downtown parking into three segments: 1) trial diagonal parking, 2) handicapped parking issue and 3) parking on wet side of the dike on old Riverboat Road.

He stated referencing the study that was done through MPO last year and one of the things in the report was to try diagonal parking downtown and presented map of the areas (colored with yellow highlights) and that the DOT's e-mail to John Thompson regarding our ability to do this on test sites before they would approve our going ahead and letting us do it on all the other sites because there are some maintenance agreements that we have signed with the State that prohibit diagonal parking, and if pass the test they will approve diagonal parking throughout.

1) Trial Diagonal Parking:
Ms. Williams stated we have N. 3rd between 1st and 2nd Avenues and also have in front of the Herald - and it was noted that will gain 10 parking spaces from now; that we will have to stripe and move the centerline of the road because when put the diagonal parking on one side it will take up more room than parallel parking She stated that there is fencing along North 3rd Street and that will have to be moved before doing any of that.

Mr. Hoover stated he had just talked to the developer and that he is talking to his contractor, based on previous discussions the fence that is on N. 3rd St. needs to stay there because they are going to be doing flat work along there along there and moving the monuments, etc. and need to leave the fence on 1st Ave. N. which does not affect the diagonal parking because that is their storage area, that the fence that is on 2nd Ave. N. in the half block they will try to get that down as quickly as possible, and their contractor will be calling Mark Aubol to coordinate that, as they need to do some flat work along that portion of 2nd Ave.N. and will try to reach some accom-modation so we can do the diagonal parking in that block as quickly as possible and then it would be followed after construction is done in front of the Brownstone's and then the fence can be taken down. He stated they continue to press them and they are trying to make every accommodation they can.

CHRISTENSEN REPORTED PRESENT

Mr. Hoover stated on the 2nd Ave.N. side that the contractor thinks they can take the fence back to the curbline but doesn't know if that will allow for striping but will do that as quickly as possible. He stated they would go ahead as soon as they can. He stated that one of the other test sites was to be on Kittson Ave. and that is not going to be done. Ms. Williams stated that not going to be able to put in angle parking on Kittson Ave. as it is not wide enough. John Thompson stated that included in the MPO report consultant showed street as 51 ft but was caught before going into the actual report; Kittson Ave. is 47 ft. and not enough for parking with 2 lanes of traffic - travel lane is 12 ft. and would be backing into oncoming traffic. (Other streets are 51 ft. wide).

2) Handicapped Parking Issue.
Mr. Hoover stated to refer to the same map and pick out the Ryan House on the southwest corner of N. 3rd St. and 1st Ave.N., and have talked about putting in some handicapped accessible spaces. Ms. Williams stated they have a method of providing for accessible parking spaces on the street, can sign with required sign, problem is that we cannot designate them for a particular person or building and would be for any person who has a placard or a license plate that gives them the authority to park in that space, can provide a couple spaces on the street but anybody who can legally park in an accessible space could park there.

Mr. Hoover stated he had talked with the developer of the Current Apts. and MetroPlains of Mpls. who manages the Ryan House but a different group of investors and also manages the Current Apts. but different group of investors so they can't commit one property to the other but have given him their assurance that once construction is complete they will work with the Ryan tenants and try to make accommodations for them over in the service parking across the street but that won't happen until this time or later next year when construction nears completion.

Gary Carlson, Ryan resident, stated they had 6 handicapped parking spaces in the former parking lot across the street, 8 or more handicapped people at the Ryan House and need to make up for the 6 spaces that they lost, and hoping for 3 on 1st Ave. and 3 on N. 3rd St., parking ramp won't work for these people because of walkers, wheelchairs. Mr. Hoover suggested that the Ryan House residents contact the property owner to their rear which is Browning Arts building about the availability of some space and might be willing to lease those out.

Mark Aubol reported that all the streets under control of DOT, that the City was paid by the DOT to do the overlays and do the work downtown, signed contract with them that the City would maintain everything as is; and thought would remain until going through process and changing it.
Mr. Hoover stated that DOT has stated areas on map where City can do a test and if test work, they will work with us to amend the agreements to allow diagonal parking. Test could last 2 months.

Mr. Hoover also noted that they would have to accommodate location for deliveries in front of Ryan House, that there is loading/unloading zone in front of the bakery; and it was noted that needed because of Dial-a-Ride. Christensen suggested having loading zone and 2 handicapped spaces in front and 4 on the side on 1st Ave.N. Hoover asked if they could leave that to the traffic engineer to get 6 handicapped spaces and 1 loading/unloading zone. Loading zone would be primarily to assist the client or tenants of the Ryan who use dial-a-ride, but anyone can use of deliveries, etc.

It was noted that this would be handled administratively; and with caveat that may be changed once testing is done. Mr. Duquette asked Mr. Hoover if they could communicate with the DOT and convey to them that they want to keep their test period to 2 months; and it was noted that they could do that. Mr. Duquette stated their decision here is also to advise us to communicate with DOT that our test trial is 2 months. Committee agreed to the motion unanimously.
Christensen stated he would like to get fence moved back across the street in front of The Current Apts. construction; no reason to have the fence in the street as they have the room in back to stage the construction. Mr. Hoover stated they have communicated with them, part of the issue is that the Corps has not released the area on the backside near the dike as all the work is not done there and is still within the construction limits, and so the fence had to be out there to allow the contractor to keep their staging stuff off, and as soon as that clears up they will work with them to push the fence back. Christensen stated he didn't see a fence between the dike and area that hasn't been released yet, and asked they follow up on that because he believes the fence can go back rather quickly when it can. Hoover stated they would check with engineering.

COUNCIL MEMBER BROOKS EXCUSED

3) Parking on wet side of the dike on old Riverboat Road.
Mr. Hoover stated that Mr. Gershman had asked them to look into additional parking on what used to be Riverboat Road that is on the wet side of the dike that runs to the parking lot below, and asked for a look at perpendicular parking one side and parallel on the other. Ms. Williams presented map on that area that would lay out diagonal parking and parallel parking, and stated this would lay out if the 90 degree parking was on either side with 27 total parking spaces, and reviewed dimensions to fit everything in; only thing about the 90 degree parking is that her concern would be in leaving curb open is that people would be tempted to park against there, the difference between 90 degree parking and the 45 degree parking is one space. She recommended the 45 degree parking and allow people to park along the curb so that wouldn't trap people into being violators as they will want to park along that curb.

Moved by Christensen and Glassheim to approve recommendation of the traffic engineer. Motion carried. Mr. Hoover stated they would move on those as quickly as possible.

Christensen asked when they have some time to give brief report on parking lot below wet side of the dike; get that cleaned up and lighting, and to find more money for parking ramp. Mr. Hoover stated he could give update on that - that they are not going to go with a lease for the next school year because they hope to take some of that area for contractor parking and put it down there for that entire year for overflow stuff; that he talked with principal from Central and they were okay with that as long as they still had the lot across from the civic don't anticipate would be needed by anybody during the school year. Christensen suggested that as they are managing the Current project to get a list of the contractors, get stickers for their employees to hang in their windows and that as part of the contract have to park down there, get them off the street to free up spaces for general public. Hoover stated he would follow up with an e-mail to mayor and council with respect to what Mr. Christensen asked them to look at and parking lot.

There was some discussion about handicapped spaces when street cleaning is every other night, and trying to find spots to park, that if have to move cars back to 3 spots on either side. Mr. Duquette stated they are going to need to clean the streets and move snow and see if can deal with it operationally and work with Ryan and clients to see if can create a policy because don't know if can solve that. Glassheim stated that snow removal more important than cleaning and cleaning maybe not every other night and before the snow comes get release on additional spaces and keep that in mind and if ticketed every other night, not going to work. Mr. Duquette stated that he and Mark will talk re. this issue.

Adjourn

The meeting adjourned at 4:50 p.m.

Alice Fontaine, City Clerk