5.1. SR 06-13-2005 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Elk River . Mayor Klinzing provided Elk River's perspective with Councilman Gumphrey's assistance. The information included: o The City is in the midst of a downtown revitalization project with commercial, retail and residential components. o The goal of this effort is to ensure the long-term viability of the downtown historic district through public and private sector investments that improve safety, traffic flow, pedestrian connections and potential access to transit improvements. o Traffic on TH 10 is increasing dramatically not just during the Friday/Sunday commute to the Lakes region, but daily during the morning and evening rush hours. It is not uncommon for traffic back-ups to be quite lengthy in Elk River. Increasing traffic from the south in Otsego across the Mississippi River is adding to this. o MnlDOT's Interregional Corridor Management Plan for TH 10 identified a general design option through the historic downtown district when the highway is rebuilt. The alternative has the highway being elev~ted through the downtown, which is not conducive to the plan/vision the city has for the area. MnlDOT has acknowledged this and is supportive of Elk River's funding request to explore other options. o The alternatives analysis will build updn the IRC plan and explore alternatives to elevated roadway that the business community, residents and City Council can support. o With the federal funding provided, the City will provide local matching funds and begin the study promptly. The study will include the county and MnlDOT, and have a public involvement process to build community support for a preferred alternative. o An invitation was made to visit Elk River to view the situation first hand and discuss the vision for the downtown district with local interests. . Information on the proj ect requests was provided for their reference. . All of the offices were aware of the growth in traffic along TH 10 and were interested in providing assistance in obtaining funds. The federal fiscal year '06 appropriations request that was submitted to Mr. Kennedy's office was forwarded to the Senate offices to be considered during the Senate appropriations process. The, same information was requested by Mr. Oberstar's office. Current status of the Elk River funding request - (lAlternatives analysis study) . Federal transportation appropriations request ($500,000 for THI0 alternatives analysis) was submitted to Mr. Kennedy's office. The project has support from MnlDOT, Chamber of Commerce and the City Council. No action on the appropriations request for FFY'06 has occurred. The Senate needs to be supportive of the appropriations request. Next Steps- The Tinklenberg Group will: . Continue to monitor legislative processes and maintain communications with congressional offices. Respond to information requests from congressional offices, the media and the public. . Outreach activities include working with city ~taff to identify local business groups, developers and citizen groups to share information regarding the project funding request and build support for the project within Elk River.