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5. HRSR 05-02-2005ITEM # 5. ~~~ ti~ tver MEMORANDUM TO: Housing & Redevelopment Authority FROM: Catherine Mehelich, Director of Economic Development /~~ DATE: May 2, 2005 SUBJECT: Downtown Revitalization Project Update Attachments • MetroPlains Project Schedule King Avenue Parking Lot Taskforce, Apri15, 2005 draft meeting minutes Articles re: Riverfront redevelopment in Hastings, St. Paul Pioneer Press and MN Real Estate Journal Background The City entered into a development agreement with MetroPlains Development at the end of last year. Since that time staff has been working closely with MetroPlains to make progress on a number of activities leading up to the anticipated summer project construction outlined in the attachment. Current Activities King Avenue Parking Lot Improvement Assistant Director of Economic Development, Heidi Steinmetz is working closely with the King Ave Parking Lot Taskforce and their monthly meetings to provide input on the parking lot design and enforcement options. Draft meeting minutes from the April taskforce meeting is attached for the HRA's review. The taskforce will meet again on May 5`" to finalize recommendations for the HRA and City Council regarding parking enforcement. The recommendations will be presented at the June HRA meeting. The anticipated construction schedule remains as follows: • May Building removal and Council considers bid for parking lot improvements • May/June Commence parking lot construction • June/July Completion of parking lot construction In accordance with the Development Agreement MetroPlains has deposited funds with the City to pay for the parking lot improvement project. The City Council will consider awarding the bid for the improvement at its May 2 meeting. The construction would begin approximately two weeks following the bid award. The construction period is expected to take four to six weeks. Downtown Revitalization Project Update May 2, 2005 HRA Meeting Page2of2 Project Construction Following the substantial completion of the parking lot improvement and a number of contingencies outlined in the development agreement, the Jackson Block property will be transferred to the developer. One of the conditions of the sale is the City Council review and approval of the project construction plans. The construction plans will include the parking plans for the construction staging period and post construction period. The plans will be reviewed and approved primarily for consistency with the goals and objectives of the city's tax increment financing development program. The review and approval of the construction plans is only a requirement as it relates to the development agreement and does not constitute review and approvals normally required of the city's planning and zoning process. Staff anticipates the Council's consideration of the construction plans at its May 16`h meeting. Communications Over the next month the City Engineer will be distributing information related to the upcoming parking lot construction by visiting businesses door to door in the downtown area. Staff is preparing the next edition of the Downtown Revitalization Q&A Newsletter for distribution in June prior to the project construction. MetroPlains has erected a sign at each project site that includes an image and brief description of the project and contact phone numbers for sale or lease of the housing and retail/office units. The signs have generated several calls for the condo units. The items above are highlights in activity from the past month. Staff is open to addressing any other specific questions that Commissioners may have with regard to any aspect of the ongoing project. Related Articles The attached articles describe the redevelopment process taking place in Hastings, another downtown area along the Mississippi riverfront. Over the past month the Hastings City Council has gone through the process to select a developer for the first phase of the project to include condo units and retail. The City of Hastings is dealing with similar project issues as Elk River, including parking and blending the design with the traditional/historic character of downtown. a~ ~ ~ ~ ° o U N G~ A ~.+ ~ ,~ ~ ~ .~ ~ O eet O U O --~ ~~, V v ~ ~ 7 O ' c ~ ~ ~ r . ~ ~ 'a ~ v . r--~ ~ "'O ~ C N ~ ~ ~ •~ o c ~. .~ ~ ~, ~ ~ o ~ ;~ '~ ~ c W .x v .~ ~ ,~ / ~,, a. ~ C C w ~ ~ ~' ~ ~ ~ Q1 8 ~ ~..~ U ~ ~ ~ ~ C ~ ~ '.F-~ ,~ o ~ r~ ?-~ ~ ~ ~ C ~ ~ ~ ~ O ~ ~ ~ N ~ O , ~ p O ~ ft ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~~ .:~ O ~ c ~ o ~ '~ 'a ~ a `, ~ d~ .~ v 'C ~ • ~--~ CC3 . ~ ~ ~ ~ C ~ ~ U x ,--~ a~ W a o b s, ~ w ,~ o R, ~ ~ 0 O .., 0 c u d~ e~ ~ ~ O ~ O CCU ~ ti MEETING OF THE ELK RIVER KING AVENUE PARKING LOT TASK FORGE HELD AT FIRST NATIONAL FINANCIAL CENTER TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2005 Members Present: Keith Holme, property owner, Kemper Drug; Fred McCoy, McCoy's Pub; John Houlton, First National Bank of Elk River; John Anderson, downtown resident Members Absent: Steve Johnson, property owner, Antiques Downtown; Dr. Tony Jarmoluk, Elk Dental Center; Ty Sunderman, Dare's Funeral Service Staff Present: City Chief of Police, Jeffrey A. Beahen; Catherine Mehelich, Director of Economic Development; Assistant Director of Economic Development, Heidi Steinmetz. Others Present: Lisa Raduenz of LJR, Inc., Transportation and Consultants and Planners Review of March 3, 2005 Meetuig Minutes (Approval of Minutes by Task Force, Ms. Raduenz presented a copy of the March 3 meeting minutes to each meeting attendee and requested comments from Task Farce members or approval of minutes. Mr. Anderson sought a clarification on page 2 of the draft minutes and indicated that his question under paragraph two on that page was a question about the requirements for school buses in terms of having sight lines at a bus stop for safer- purposes_ He stated that his concern about this issue related to school buses which he sees on Main Street that are traveling in both directions and which drop students off at street corners which intersect with Main Street. Mr. Anderson questioned the safety of buses mal~ng such stops as sight lines for other drivers may be restricted at certain locations along Main Street and this makes it difficult for drivers to see the school bus and its discharging passengers. Chief Beahen responded to IvIr. Anderson's questions about this issue and responded that there is no statutory requirement in state law that requires buses to stop at a certain point along a road. Chief Beahen said that school buses are only required to turn on their four- way flashers and extend the stop arm, which effectively prohibits drivers of personal vehicles from passing the bus from either direction when it is discharging students. He said that he thought perhaps Mr. Anderson was questioning the difficulty in seeing the corners near Lowell and Main Street, and said that current signage posted there requires a setback of 30 feet where no parking is allowed because of the sight line problems. Chief Beahen said that it may be possible to extend the yellow striping along the curb to improve sight lines and remind drivers of the no parking issue at these locations. He also mentioned that he thought the new King Avenue Parking Lot plan allowed for this issue at King and Main by putting ADA spaces by the corner rather than regular parking. Ms. Raduenz reminded the group that Mr. Maurer, the City Engineer, had purposely placed these spaces along the corners on Main Street near King so that fewer cars would be parked at the corners over a longer period of time. Ms. Raduenz asked Mr. Anderson if he felt his issue had been addressed sufficiently by the Police Chief and to satisfy his discussion about meeting minutes from the previous meeting. Mr. Anderson responded that he was satisfied with the answer. Members of the Task Force voted to approve the minutes with the answers as noted. King Avenue Parking Lot Task Force Minutes Apri15, 2005 Page 2 2. Update on City Council Meeting held Agri14 2005 Ms. Mehelich, the City Economic Development Director, reported to the group that the City Council had discussed two items of interest to the Task Force on the previous evening. The first was that the City has received quotes to remove the former Municipal Utilities building on the King Avenue Parking Lot site, and the costs for asbestos removal and the removal of the building are both under estimate. She said that the Council has approved the plans and specs of the parking lot's design, but that they had brought up a question about the location of employee parking. Ms. Mehelich mentioned that she reported to the City Council that the Task Force had determined that employee parking would be restricted to the northwest quadrant of the site and may be signed with employee permits distributed to businesses in the area for hanging on the rear view mirror as'was discussed at the last meeting. Ms. Mehelich noted that the City Engineer, Terry 1\faurer, would be going door-to-door to businesses located adjacent to the King Avenue lot «rith information on the reconstruction. Ms. Mehelich also mentioned that the HRA liked the idea of adding signage to the parking lot during the reconstruction process directing people to other parking locations in the downtown area during reconstruction. She thanked the group for putting time into making recommendations on the parking lot design and enforcement. Mr. Holme asked if the access'to King Avenue at F-Iighway 10 would be closed. Ms. Mehelich responded that yes, the City Engineer had been informed by MnDOT officials that the access should be closed at this time for good, and would be closed anyway in the future. Ms. Raduenz added that this-issue had been addressed previously in the Task Force's early meetings by Mr. Maurer. 3. City of Elk River Parking Policies/Enforcement Chief Beahen addressed the group about the policies and restrictions for public parking still on the books with the City. According to Chief Beahen, the current parking provisions have been around for 50 years, although at the outcry of downtown businesses the police department has not strictly enforced parking provisions since 1998. Rather, the police department now responds to calls, checks on signs and abandoned vehicles that are observed or reported to the department and looks at vehicles which have been parking over extended time limits. Chief Beahen said that there has been a "hands-ofp' policy about long term (8-9 hours) parking enforcement since he joined the department in the 1990s, and that he "raised hairs" last year when officers ~~=ere instructed to chalk the tires of vehicles parking in downtown public spaces to see when vehicles were moved. After this exercise the police have realized that there are "lots of vehicles that don't move all day" in the downtown Elk River area. Mr. Holme asked if there was a four hour limit to parking in the downtown areas and whether the length of time could be changed? He also asked if business owners could receive a tag or designation indicating that an employee was using a particular spot. Chief Beahen responded that the department was considering issuing plastic mirror tags designed to hang from the rear view mirror and that the department would logistically need to determine how many to distribute to each business for their individual needs and also how to collect them after an employee left. Mr. Holme responded that business owners "needed to also take responsibility for this" and felt that afour-hour parking spot was "too long". Chief Beahen responded that there should be a shorter amount of time specified in the new King Avenue lot (i.e., two hours or less) and that extended periods of parking I{ing Avenue Parking Lot Task Force Minutes Apri15, 2005 Page 3 should be made available further away from the main areas downtown or on the fringe of downtown, similar to what is done in downtown Anoka. Mr. Holme asked how other communities enforced parking limits, and remarked that the City "couldn't have officers doing this all day long". Chief Beahen responded that there is a full-time parking enforcement person in Anoka and that perhaps if Elk River were to change its parking to two or three hour limits in downtown areas that perhaps a job share situation could be arranged for officers and/or public works personnel for enforcement. Chief Beahen indicated that the real problem was there was "no good employee parking in downtown". He mentioned the two or three parking spots for 20-minute only parking for picking up prescriptions along Jackson in front of Kemper Drug, and Mr. Holme responded that having shorter time zones in these areas would be "fine", but Mr. Anderson remarked that adding shorter time limits to these spots in front of the pharmacy would make backing up and watching traffic turn from Highway 10 onto. Jackson more "dangerous" as more vehicles would be backing up in the course of a day compared to_what is occuring now. Ms. Mehelich asked for Mr. Holme's clarification on whether the short-timed parking spots should be in the front of Kemper Drug or in the back of the store, in the lot. Mr. Holme responded that most of the customers stopping to pick up prescriptions are parking in the back of the store in the lot, and that the disabled parking spot already there was "used a lot". He also responded that the parking spaces in front of the store along the street were "packed most of the time". Mr. McCoy asked the Chief if parking restrictions would "go off at 5 or 6 pm at night"? He stated that most customers he had spoken with liked a one or two hour parking spot for his business. Mr. Anderson asked if two hour limits-were the norm? The Chief responded affirmatively, and added that longer limits were placed on the outskirts or further out of the downtown area in other communities. He also mentioned that other retail employers, like WalMart or Target, tell their employees where to park and its usually a long way from the front door in order to gi~-e customers parking.preference. Mr. Holme said that one of the apartment'dwellers o~-er the Travel stare had three "Junkers" he left in the parking lot without moving: The Cliief responded that he had looked into this issue previously and that the owner has a cotltract «~ith the tenants that allow for one car per resident at this site. Chief Beahen said the issue was "non enforcement" and that at least one of the vehicles had been'rowed last winter. He added that the upstairs usage of the buildings in this area have dwindled in recent years. Mr. McCoy stated that if the City were to tell people (employees) that they had to park in the King Avenue lot, it might be tough to get people to walk 1.5 blocks to work, and that as a business owner he was trying to find ways to work these issues out. Mr. Houlton asked Chief Beahen why there wasn't metered parking in downtown areas? Chief Beahen responded that he felt the best way to attack the parking issue was to first start with posted time zones, restricting longer parking to fringe areas, with enforcement. He said that the next step might be an inexpensive parking meter installed for on-street parking areas. Mr. Holme said his employees had a "fetish" for parking. The Chief responded that most businesses are this way but that in his view it made more sense to have customers park closer to the door of the business rather than employees, and he assumed that this is what most employers would want to do. Mr. McCoy stated that he has put in some extra parking behind his bar and that some employees park in this area, while others, including the pull tab people, park close in street stalls at night. He said that he has to constantly remind them to leave spots open for King Avenue Parking Lot Task Force Minutes Apri15, 2005 Page 4 patrons, but that the "block is full by 8:00 a.m." Mr. Holme added that he wasn't sure what The Bank of Elk River was doing, but when the King Avenue lot becomes full, is the City going to require all employees to park north of Highway 10? That would be a "real hassle", Mr. Holme said. He said that one day he was watching a person he knew try to cross at the lights and the person could not make it across the intersection in the amount of time given to him and was caught in the middle. Mr. Holme stated that in the winter it becomes more difficult to cross the highway because of water and slush issues. Mr. McCoy said that he walks across that intersection almost every day and he's never had a problem with crossing at the light and always has enough time to get across. Ms. Mehelich said that in the next few months or so there was. supposed to be a `countdown timer" installed at the intersection to let people know how much time they had to cross the intersection before the lights changed. Mr. Holme asked what happens to the signal when emergency vehicles went through the intersection or when a train came through? Mr. Holme also commented about how Main Street was safer than Jackson as there were fewer people crossing the intersection and fewer right turns, but that he had seen people running the lights at the intersection and that'the Bank has requested he timers for a long time. He asked Ms. Mehelich if flashing lights that show that the light is going to change would be feasible at the intersection. Chief Beahen responded that=these types of lights were very expensive to put in and that they cost "hundreds of thousands of dollars as they are linked to signal systems over a broader area". He said there had been a number of studies done and that drivers had to drive over 70 miles per hour in order to make the lights before they turned from green toned. Mr. Holme asked if this was a "painted crosswalk or main crosswalk with a blinking sign" and wondered if a painted crosswalk would help? He also asked about cameras that take pictures of people running lights. Chief Beahen said that these types of cameras are "not okay with the courts". Mr. Anderson asked Chief Beahen if when people were trying to cross Highway 10 and they were in the crosswalk when the hvo trains that come through town along 10 went by would the lights affect the train? Chief Beahen responded that the train would have the right of wav and that it "overrides everything else". Ms. Raduenz asked the group if they had any other questions for Chief Beahen or ?~~Is. Mehelich. Mr. Holme asked Chief Beahen when enforcement would begin on the Kuig Avenue lot. Chief Beahen responded that after the lot was finished he would work «~ith city officials on beginning to enforce parking areas. Mr. Anderson asked if tines were still $5? Chief Beahen responded that he thought parking fines were $10 and that if a driver had three or more unpaid tickets the vehicle was "towed and locked". i~Zr. Holme asked what the group had to do to make some parking spots two hours versus four hour parking areas. Ms. Raduenz answered by saying that the Task Force would submit a recomnnendation to the HRA and City Council about which spots in the area should be two hour and which should be four hour, and where they should be. She said this would be discussed at the May meeting of the group. (At this point in the meeting, Chief Beahen and Ms. Mehelich left the meeting). 4. Policy/Enforcement Examples from Other Local Communities Ms. Raduenz passed out information she had gathered about how other local communities and commercial districts addressed tight parking for employees and customers. The graph included information from Edina's 50~h and France area, Grand Avenue in St. Paul, the downtown area of Anoka and downtown Stillwater. Mr. McCoy asked if there was some formula that stipulated "for this amount of square footage you get this amount of parking King Avenue Parking Lot Task Force Minutes Apri15, 2005 Page 5 spots". Ms. Raduenz responded that yes, there were a universal set of parking space regulations that most city planners and public works personnel used to define how much public parking should be made available at a particular location, including disabled parking spaces and those available for employees. Mr. McCoy asked why the group could not do the same fox the downtown area of Elk River. Ms. Raduenz responded that the charge for this particular group was to address how the King Avenue lot should be designed and function in the short term, and that the Ciry would most likely be doing some sort of parking study to address broader downtown parking issues at some time in the future, perhaps once the new redevelopment had occurred. Mr. Holme remarked that "some people were not interested in continuing a Task Force". Ms. Raduenz responded by saying that she would put together a series of recommendations from Task Force members about what they felt should happen for the future as part of the final report of the group that she will compose at the end of the process after the May 2005 Task Force meeting. She also stated that perhaps there should be a committee set up under the Police Chief's jurisdiction that addresses parking and traffic issues in the downtown area as is done in Anoka. Ms. Steinm~t~ said that she had previously discussed this idea as it related to working with the Rivers Edge Do~z-ntown Business Association, and that no one had remarked about it being a good idea. ~Ir. Holme said he thought the idea of a commission under the Police Chief was a good one and that "someone has to be a watchdog". Mr. Holme also asked Ms. Steinmetz about parking behuid the theater. She responded that parking in this location would not be a~railable. He asked about parking behind the Sunshine Depot or First National Bank. Mr. Houlton said that he owned all of the land behind those Buildings and the Bank would have to seize the rest of the land back there if it is decided that the riverwalk project will be pursued. There were many issues associated with this land, mainly topographic and concerning the shape of the lot and its steepness, that would make adding additional parking difficult, according to Mr. Houlton. Mr. Houlton stated that in two years, after the redevelopment has occurred, it will be an "entirely different political environment" and many more changes will probably occur. Adjournment The meeting of the King Avenue Parking Lot Task Force adjourned at 9:10 a.m. The next and final meeting of the King Avenue Parking Lot Task Force is scheduled for Thursday, May 5, 2005 at 8:00 a.m. at the First National Financial Center in the 2nd floor Board Room. Members are asked to be ready to walk around the downtown area to insect Flaces that could house 2, 3 or 4-hour harking for final recommendations to the HRA and Elk River City Council. Submitted by, Lisa Raduenz LJR, Inc., Transportation and Consultants and Planners