9.C.1. PRSR 02-14-2001 - Laserfiche WebLink

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controversial, primarily because of anticipated truck traffic that would use this route to get from TH 169 to TH 10 and the proximity of truck traffic to rural residential developments. The County had not taken any position on the need for this route and wanted the overall plan to review the recommendations in the context of the entire County transportation plan. The review of this issue was based primarily on a review of the functional classification system, future land use and the growth potential of the area, and a field review of the area. The findings and recommendations are as follows: • The existing east-west collector system is insufficient to distribute future traffic. There is an insufficient number of east-west collector routes in the developing northern portion of the City. This is evident in the two-mile gap in the east-west collector system between School Road to the south and 205th Street (County Road 33) to the north. This deficiency in the collector system puts increasing traffic pressures on School Road (first east-west collector route to TH 169 on south) and will result in more cut-through traffic on neighborhood streets such as 193rd Street and 197th Street. Since most of the commercial and commuter destinations are to the south and east, access to TH 169 would be the primary function of an east-west collector in this area. In the long term, the proposed connection would improve the distribution of traffic from the northeast part of the City to TH 169. In addition, the area adjacent to TH 169 may ultimately be developed as a future commercial area once existing gravel mining operations have been 40 completed. If commercial development occurs at this location, this collector route would provide access to the area from the west. • The timing and type of east-west corridor improvement is an important factor. The timing of the construction of this east-west corridor is important because it relates to the type of traffic that could be attracted to the corridor. Based on discussions with the County, City and gravel pit operators, the east-west corridor would not be feasible to construct until after the mining operations are completed (estimated to be 20 years). In the meantime, it is recommended that the route be planned (right-of-way protected), but not constructed until -the mining operation has been completed and the area is redeveloped. The City and County should consider constructing the route as a potential parkway because of the topography and parks that it would traverse. Trails and other amenities should be considered during the design and planning of the route. The recommendations of this study differ from recommendations in the draft Elk River Transportation Plan, which showed an east-west arterial route from TH 169 to eventually connect to TH 10. In theory, this would help reduce some of the traffic through downtown Elk River on TH 10, which is expected to have operational problems. In addition, there is a lack of north-south connections to TH 10 west of Elk River; this connection would help reduce the traffic demand on Proctor Avenue (CSAH 1). • However, the western portion of Elk River has significant residential development and Sherburne County Transportation Plan 49