District 10 Community Council

District Plan Ad Hoc Committee

Monday July 8, 2013

Historic Streetcar Station

Meeting Notes

Present: Committee members—Chris Harkness, Bill Sylvester,

D-10 staff—Ted Blank

Theo Woehrle and Josh Williams were unable to attend.

Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 7:05 p.m.

Theo is not able to be here and sent the following report:

“-I have combined all the transportation data into one file.
-My Lyngblomsten contact has been on vacation for the past two weeks. I am going to reconnect with her and get a meeting scheduled.
-I had a meeting with Mark from the Park Pointe Apartments a few weeks back. He had very few issues with transportation. Plenty of parking, good placement of bus routes, access to the park... All good. The only issue he identified was that residents don't have a close grocery store (walking/biking distance).”

Transportation Issues Discussion:

There are 3-4 guiding principles emerging from our public input thus far:

Safety

  • Crosswalks
  • Sidewalks
  • Safer bike routes for commuters
  • Traffic calming measures (both city and community solutions)

Emerging modes of transportation

  • Connected routes
  • Nice Ride Bicycles at key locations to be identified
  • BRT/Streetcar/Trolley integration (where we want them to go and not)

Streets/Curbs/Gutters--Reference RSVP plan

Como Park Transportation Issues (pulled from the public transportation meeting notes)

  1. Parking lot “update” signs (lot full) located in a central area wrongly encourages people to drive in the centrally located areas (increasing frustration and congestion.) Have them on the periphery, closer to the parking for shuttle and entrance points to Como Park zone.
  2. Use Reserve Patrols at Lexington / Horton and Midway Pkwy / Hamline on weekends in the summer during Park hours. With major backups on Horton, Lexington, Midway Pkwy into the park and on Hamline north of Midway Pkwy, this is causing a public safety concern.
  3. Less parking within Como Regional Park can reduce congestion, encourage shuttle use, improve vistas. Consider 1-hour parking to replace large areas of “on street” parking within the park. Also reduce to one side parking on Estabrook and Nason Place in particular. These are areas where long backup of cars make people frustrated, resulting in rude behavior and unsafe driving (u-turn pullouts, honking, yelling.
  4. Review a comprehensive map of Como Regional Park that includes all existing trails, parking lots, features and attractions.
  5. Protect the ridge on the east side of Hamline between Como and Midway Pkwy by preventing erosion on the two footpaths into the Park at Albany and Almond.
  6. Horton/Beulah Ln—Dangerous pedestrian crossing. The road narrows, but vehicles do not slow down. Add a button activated flashing light to indicate that people are in the crosswalk (on Horton at the crossing from woodland/streetcar bridge to the picnic area with fire pits.)

Looking to the future ideas:

  • Consider dropping the Snelling Ave Bridge to allow for commercial development.
  • Protect homes along Larpenteur and California with zoning changes.

Ted will find the Como Transportation Plan so we can begin to address D-10 needs in response to that plan. We will ask Theo to reference the Parks and Rec plan so that we can respond to initiatives concerning not just Como Regional Park but also the other D-10 parks. If Theo is unable, then Ted may be able to do this after Como Fest.

Next meeting: The next District 10 Land Use Plan ad hoc Committee meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on Monday, August 12, at the Historic Streetcar Station. We will plan for the public meeting concerning parks in the district.

Meeting adjourned:8:35 p.m. Future Meetings: The second Monday of each month.