04-12-2021 HRA MIN SPECIAL - Laserfiche WebLink

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Housing and Redevelopment Minutes April 12, 2021 Page 2 city to do so. The city let go of the school district building, which was then sold. He stated the council is asking the HRA what direction, if any, does the HRA want to go. He felt what he has heard from Commissioner Wagner and the feedback from public forums and residents is that the downtown area does not need to change. He stated he did feel if there is anything to modify or review if opportunities come do up, where does the HRA want to take those ideas. He felt a focus on improving traffic flow, if any, with a traffic study is appropriate and within the authority of the HRA to gain that knowledge of a study and staff expertise. He outlined a second takeaway from the public forum and that is to explore development on the other side of the railroad tracks and the potential for a pedestrian bridge or walkway across Highway 10 by finding a way to explore that option with MnDOT. He felt that could provide substantial benefits for our community. Lastly, he felt expansion of the downtown district, continue southwest along the river and consider future zoning alignment to work on the river view frontage and commerce aspect. Chair Toth agreed with reviewing the riverfront area. Mr. Portner stated the city does not have the ability to do a traffic study in-house. Commissioner Wagner stated the line item in the proposals presented by Houseal Levigne Associates (HLA) was for $17,000 to complete a traffic study with the option to complete a pedestrian bridge location study for $15,000. She felt this is a big, broad conversation and from the beginning of discussions, her stance has been the Council, HRA, and EDA never answered whether or not they wanted to redevelop the downtown. She stated they are always open to the private groups coming to the city for ideas. She does not want to spend $76,500 on a consultant study until the city knows if they really want to make changes. She feels if the city wants to get the best value for their funds and walk away with a good plan from consultants, the city provides the consultants with their vision. She explained the smaller suggestions that came from the downtown business group were that they were not looking for a big redevelopment in the parking lot area, but they are not opposed to some changes if it was the right thing. The HRA discussed downtown parking, noting it should be addressed. She noted she does not think there is a parking problem downtown and felt educating business owners with parking suggestions may help. The HRA discussed the traffic study, the possibility of closing traffic on Jackson south and using diagonal striping, and if there's safety concerns, as well as the businesses on Jackson. Mr. Carlton commented on the HLA traffic study and along with Public Works Director Justin Femrite, they outlined their suggestions to HLA and the impacts of these changes. He stated that once the changes are made to Highway 169, there should no longer be a lot of traffic movement from Parrish across Highway 10 and over the tracks. He noted during construction, however, it will remain an unadvertised detour. He explained the pedestrian bridge would take a large footprint over Highway 10 and the railroad. He suggested having HLA overlay a pedestrian footbridge on the area to see the effect of it and how much space it would really take. He felt depending on where a footbridge is placed, it may also have to take people over the railroad tracks and is an option to include with the traffic study.