5.10. SR 09-07-2004
Item 5.10.
13065 Orono Parkway
Elk River, MN 55330
August 30, 2004
File: 823930J-0060
The Honorable Mayor and City Council
City of Elk River
13065 Orono Parkway
Elk River, Minnesota 55330
RE: GATES AVENUE RE-S1RIPING AND PARKING ISSUE
Dear Councilmembers:
As directed, we have reviewed the options available on the south end of Gates Avenue to
allow on-street parking to continue adjacent to the residential properties. We have also
discussed with other department heads their opinion regarding this issue. Perhaps first a bit
of background is in order regarding the history of Gates Avenue. In the mid-1980's, Gates
Avenue was continued north along the Freeport Avenue alignment to connect Main Street
with School Street. The combination of Gates Avenue/Freeport Avenue were put on the
City's Municipal State Aid (MSA) system at that time, indicating that the City envisioned this
route to be a collector roadway. This was all done in conjunction with the first large-scale
commercial development along Trunk Highway 169 of Elk River Plaza. There was much
conversation by the City Council at that time of trying to connect the commercial along
Trunk Highway 169 with the downtown area so that the new commercial area would not
have a negative effect on the old established commercial and downtown area.
Since the Gates Avenue/Freeport Avenue corridor was placed on the Municipal State Aid
System, we have traffic counts every four years as required by the MSA system. The
following table lists the year and the average daily (mid week) traffic on the south end of
Gates Avenue and Main Street in the area of Gates Avenue.
Year
1987
1991
1995
1999
2003
Gates Avenue
2,780
5,063
7,000
5,700
6,100
Main Street
4,140
6,300
7,100
7,700
9,500
Phone: 763.635.1000
Fax: 763,635,1090
www.cLelk-river.mn.us
Gates Avenue/Freeport Avenue
August 30, 2004
Page 2
As you can see from these traffic counts and as I am sure we are all aware, the traffic
volumes have continued to grow on east Main Street and Gates Avenue. The one anomaly
in the list above of 1995 with the spike up to 7,000 daily trips on Gates Avenue may have
been a result of some activities on other parts of the transportation system encouraging
motorists to find alternate routes.
We have done a visual survey of the residential properties along Gates Avenue and prepared
the attached exhibit which shows for each residential property, the approximate number of
parking spaces on the property outside of the garage, and also indicates the closest on-street
parking available given the three-lane configuration with no parking on Gates Avenue.
I have had discussions with Police Chief Jeff Beahen regarding the issue of parking along
Gates Avenue. Jeff's statements to me, and I believe he has discussed this with some
Councilmembers previously, is that given the collector status and associated traffic volumes
on Gates Avenue, Jeff is not in favor of allowing parking and creating what he considers to
be an unsafe "choker" two-block segment, regardless of the striping configuration. He went
on to indicate that he believes the three-lane striping configuration is a much safer
environment in the commercial areas further north, due to the fact that left turns out of the
various driveways do not have to contend with two lanes of through-traffic and can actually
use the center left turn lane as a place of refuge, if necessary.
I have had my traffic engineer re-analyze the options for continuing a three-lane striping
configuration but allowing parking on the southern end of Gates Avenue. My traffic
engineer's concern is that to eliminate the three-lane configuration coming south on
Freeport Avenue prior to the residential area, to go back to a two-lane configuration with
parking along the residential properties will likely violate driver's expectations and may lead
to an unsafe situation with motorists not sure of how to drive on the combined roadway of
Gates Avenue and Freeport Avenue. We also looked at the option of maintaining the three-
lane configuration but moving it further to the east or west to allow a parking lane on one
side of Gates Avenue. The concern with this option is that in any kind of snow condition or
dark, rainy weather where the roadway stripes are difficult or impossible to see, the driver's
expectations would be that the striping configuration is centered in the roadway, so there will
be times where the motoring public would not know how to drive a non-centered striped
roadway. We believe that this could also create an unsafe situation.
In conclusion, it is staff's recommendation that the three-lane configuration as is currently
striped on Gates Avenue/Freeport Avenue should remain in place. We would further
recommend that if the City Council feels that parking along Gates Avenue needs to be
restored, the roadway should be re-striped to its old configuration with two lanes at the
south end on Gates Avenue with parking, transitioning to a four-lane configuration on
Freeport Avenue through the commercial area. I will be in attendance at your September 7,
2004 City Council meeting to answer questions and discuss this issue further.
Sincerely,
~~
Terry J. Maurer, P.E.
S:\PLANNING\Terry Maurer\08 3004 Gates-Freepolt,doc
(1) 3-4 CARS
(2) 4th STREET
(1) 4-6 CARS
(2) 4th STREET
(1) 1 CAR
(2) 3rd STREET
(1) 6+ CARS
(2) 3rd STREET
(1) 2-3 CARS
(2) SOUTH OF MAIN
1r
N
~
River
NvV
N\N
420
NW
GATES AVENUE
NO STREET PARKING
(1) 3-4 CARS
(2) 4th STREET
(1) 2-3 CARS
(2) 4th STREET
(1) 2-4 CARS
(2) 4th STREET
(1) 4-6 CARS
(2) 4th STREET
(1) 4-6 CARS
(2) 3rd STREET
(1) 3-4 CARS
(2) 3rd STREET
(1) MAYBE 1 CAR
(2) 3rd STREET
(1) 2-3 CARS
(2) SOUTH OF MAIN
(1) = NO. OF CARS
OUTSIDE OF GARAGE
(2) = CLOSEST "ON
STREET" PARKING
DATE:
8/31/2004
DRAWN BY:
CML
SHEET
1
SCALE:
NOT TO SCALE