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the Planning Commission will act in an advisory committee capacity rather and the City Council will make the final decision.

The Planning Commission has made up of seven volunteer residents of the city of Bloomington.

We have four of those residents as planning commissioners here this evening, so we do have a quorum.

And we'll ask everyone in the chambers to please rise for the pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God, indelisible with liberty and justice for all.

There are four items before the Planning Commission.

This evening, there are all study items.

We are going to start with item number one, which is the City of Bloomington as the applicant.

Our discussion topic will be the American Boulevard corridor transit study.

Kirk Roberts from the city of Bloomington will be here as the staff representative.

I believe we also have Ms. Adele Hall from SRF will be presenting as well.

Yes, hello. Thank you for having me. I am not Kirk.

I will do the presentation and then stand for questions at the end, of course.

So, wanted to provide you all with some background because it has been a while since we presented the Planning Commission.

Kirk and I were last here in December. I believe there are some new commissioners as well. So, wanted to catch you all up a bit on the American Boulevard transit study.

The reason that Bloomington is studying American Boulevard is because it's time to re-invision this corridor, right?

I'd like to thank you for the information.

I would like to thank you for the information and the city really felt that that opened up an opportunity to re-invision what American Boulevard could be.

American Boulevard was long considered to be a reliever and built to be a reliever for 494 and so 494 taking on more capacity for cars and reducing congestion.

Maybe it opens up a new opportunity for American to become something else.

So, during this American Boulevard transit study we looked at three different components. We looked at the possibility of bus rapid transit on American Boulevard.

We looked at community priorities to inform what the street could become or what the street itself could look like.

And then we looked at what is the land use and what are the development and redevelopment possibilities along American Boulevard that could really help to reinforce and maximize the effectiveness of transit service on the street.

So just getting into a little bit of background on American it is of course a very important east west connector through the city.

And this study really focused on the area between 24th Avenue, so the north south street that goes to the Mall of America.

And on the east side and then France Avenue on the west side. That was the primary focus area. We also you'll see we did study a bus rapid transit alternative that goes all the way over to Norman Delake district too.

American Boulevard connects three of the city's major development districts and those include Norman Delake district the Pan American district as well as the south loop district.

And it also has several transitways that connect to American Boulevard. You can see orange line there in the center on 35 W with the station at Knox in American.

And then you've got D line there in green which runs on American between Portland and 24th Avenue.

And then you've got the red line BRT coming in from the south on Cedar and ending at the Mall of America.

And then you've got blue line L RT coming in through the south loop and ending at the Mall of America.

So American Boulevard has a lot of transitways service on across it. And then there's also transit service on American Boulevard today.

The route 542 runs all day every 30 minutes. This is a big increase in service that just happened this summer previously that route ran just during peak periods and just once an hour.

And in early April, south west transit also added a route to American Boulevard throughout 686. Now operates hourly on American Boulevard as well for its full length.

And so between those two routes, you've got service roughly every 20 minutes on American Boulevard.

So we talked about the transitways, the orange line, the D line blue line red line coming into Bloomington and serving American Boulevard corridor.

These dark purple spots and the bright yellow spot indicate where transit boardings on transit are the highest. And they really reflect the stations on each of those transitways.

So you can see those orange line stations showing up around American as well as down on 98th Street.

And then you can also see the D line stations along American and that yellow at Mall of America reflects really high boardings transit boardings happening there.

And with all the transitways as well as several local routes terminating at the Mall.

Then we have the street itself and the corridor itself. And what does it look like today? You all probably know I'm sure you've driven on and maybe walked along American Boulevard.

In many spots it is three driving lanes in each direction. Some intersections there are two left turn lanes. Many of those major intersections also have the slip lanes for right turns.

And so some of those crossings for pedestrian wanting to cross it's about nine lanes across to walk.

So the the land use along American is predominantly commercial. There has been some of course new residential development in the Pan American District in particular.

But it's a very very diverse set of commercial office lots of retail lots of varying styles and a lot of parking. I think you all probably have have witnessed that as residents.

So a few last things to sort of summarize the existing condition going into this study those changes to 494.

The redevelopment of American in those key development districts.

The transit investments have already been made along the corridor and the local service operating today.

And then just sort of opening up a time to really rethink American and change its its character from a reliever to maybe a street that serves blooming tin better.

And so it felt like a right moment to plan for the future.

So now I'll get into what we actually did during the transit study itself. So we started with a public engagement.

A month of public engagement at the very beginning of the study back in January.

We were out riding the route 542. We had a survey and we asked folks on the bus to complete the survey. The survey was also public publicized via Let's Talk Bloomington.

And we held an open house as well. We got a lot of great responses. Some of the themes that we heard about what people wanted to see on American Boulevard were dedicated space for transit for

cyclists for people walking and rolling. Safety came up a lot with the crossings in particular. But also about just people who are walk generally who are outside of a car on American, just not feeling very safe.

And then a lot of discussion about greenery and street trees and a need for shade.

And then just people appreciating all the places that they're trying to go along American Boulevard. Lots of destinations.

And trying to get their variety of different ways. So that's what we learned in public engagement and it was really helpful in informing what came in the study after that.

So what was studied for bus rapid transit during the study? We looked at four different routes for bus rapid transit.

All of the routes terminate at Mall of America. And you can see that big thick line. All of them use American Boulevard between the mall and Pan Avenue or really knocks Avenue.

And then we have the first route that goes all the way to south or to Centennial Lakes. Another second route that went to Southamal and then a third route that goes to the west of the Normandil Lake district.

And then finally alternative four we called it which is an extension of the route for. And the route for is a long bus route. It starts in northeast Minneapolis and goes through downtown.

All the way through south Minneapolis and rich field and today it ends at American and knocks. And essentially what we were proposing was extending that route along American to the mall.

And turning it into BRT. So really kind of a fourth alternative that's pretty different than the other three that we were testing.

So what did we learn in looking at these routes? The route that went to Southale, the route that went all the way to northeast Minneapolis for the two that really stood out in terms of performance and viability.

Because they connected the best the destinations the best. The route that goes to southale mall did this pretty well, the route that goes all the way to northeast Minneapolis does it very well. Of course it's a much longer route. It connects to many more things.

Both routes do a good job of serving Bloomington residents who are likely to use transit. One of the things that we observed when we were.

Looking at the demographics of Bloomington was that to the east of 35 W way more potential transit riders.

Lots more zero income house or zero car households and lower income households both of which use transit at a much higher rate.

And so it was really important with these transit alternatives that we make sure that we cover that segment of American in particular, which all of our alternatives did.

Both alternatives provided great connections to the regional transit system. You saw all of those connections on the previous map and then there are also connections to the north that both make as well.

And finally that route for our alternative for builds on the route for ridership that exists today. So it stood out in terms of ridership.

Because it really takes in a very established local route and extends it to a huge regional destination and anchor, which of course is the Malva America. So this is what we saw in terms of BRT and let me see there.

I wanted to say a couple of more things about transit in particular and why it's such a key part of this study.

Safe fair and affordable Bloomington are values right that the city puts puts up across its planning documents and transit is really a key part of making those values come to life.

In part because it is not just transportation, it also enables development patterns and redevelopment that helps to satisfy other goals.

So things like enabling denser housing, a greater range of housing options,

and part through reducing parking requirements and therefore the cost of developing that housing and I'm building denser housing along a corridor like American allows Bloomington to grow and gain residents without having to change the stable single family neighborhoods that many in Bloomington really value.

And then also it enables a targeted and really focused approach to development along a transit corridor.

Finally, I know the city really values its partnership with Metro Transit. It is evident through all of the transitway projects and of course the regular route service on the street today and so investing in transit of course continues that partnership with Metro Transit.

As well as Southwest Transit and the Minnesota Valley Transit Authority which also operates routes in Bloomington.

I'm going to switch gears a lot because the the study also of course had a very major focus on land use and really it was it was about land use and redevelopment and so.

Again that nexus between transit and land use is really important and transit supports changes and intensification of land use and land use and increases and density also very much support transit ridership so there's there's a really strong link there.

And land use is of course you know transit is a regional decision and we'll talk about that a little bit more later.

But land use is within the cities control right it is fully within your per view and so it's a way for the city to sort of encourage transit investment by making changes to land use.

One of the comments we heard at planning commission in December when we were here with someone referred to American Boulevard as Bloomington's front porch and that was really a theme that that.

The team really absorbed and heard and and was one of the things that sort of influenced when we're talking about the overall vision for American Boulevard we kept saying.

If this is if this is Bloomington's front front porch what what do we want that to feel like what should it look like what what are the characteristics of that.

And how does that match what we heard from the public and as we thought it was very much in line with that.

And then the last piece also is of course the comprehensive plan is coming up you all are heading into comp plan season.

And so this study is wrapping up right now and and the things we learned through this study can translate into the comp plan and be used in the comp planning process.

So that was why we took a good hard look at land use as part of the study.

We did look at zoning as well as future land use really looking for those places where future land use might be aspirational and zoning is not matching the aspiration.

We looked at places and parcels along the American Boulevard corridor where the land value to structure value is lopsided.

So you have really valuable land with not very valuable structure on it that tells you that there may be time for that structure to go.

And that that land could be used for something much more valuable to take advantage of the lands inherent value.

And that that method is a pretty simple method there are many more much more complex market based methods we could have used this one was pretty straightforward.

But we use that to identify potential priority redevelopment parcels along the corridor.

And especially looking for those parcels that are very auto oriented or very low density in particular.

And we use those to develop a map which I'll show you here.

These red areas where the ones that stood out as parcels that either have a very low structure value.

Some of them are vacant today, but they stand out as potential redevelopment areas.

And this plan is just pointing them out.

It is not, you know, they're all either privately held maybe some of them are publicly held, but it doesn't.

The plan does not go any further to comment on, you know, what should happen with any individual property.

It's really just identifying and really I think pointing out a pattern right that there's a potential for major transformation in this corridor.

The other thing that the study does is it gets into some zoning and guide plan recommendations.

In particular, recommends two different new designations.

One is a high intensity TOD for parcels that are very close to American Boulevard within a five minute walk, allowing the highest density uses there.

And then corridor oriented development, which is a slightly lower intensity as you get a little further away from American.

So really putting the most intense uses right there along the street with transit on it.

This is a map showing where where those high intensity uses could be applied to those redevelopment areas.

The other thing that the study gets into is some broader thinking about beyond the sort of the land use map about what other things the city can do to make.

More intense and more dense development happen.

These includes some recommendations around parking requirements, including by for both cars and for bicycles.

As well as some built form guidelines, so things that really influence how does development look not just what land use type is it or how many units is it, but how does it actually appear.

Again kind of going back to that front porch theme.

How does circulation work some of these sites are really big and so thinking about when they redevelop do still want those cities still want them to be redeveloped as huge lots or do you want to try to get some internal circulation into and break up some of those sites.

The study comments on transit supportive uses what are they densities what is a transit supportive density and also touches a bit on public art.

So I'm now I'm switching gears again and going into the street component of this study and here a picture is worth a thousand words.

Where you can see this was the preferred concept that emerged from this study and the reason we've called it the preferred concept for testing is that we wanted to be clear that a traffic analysis a traffic study was not part of the American Boulevard transit study.

So the study was really focused on visioning we took all of the public input that we heard and we applied it to the street.

We looked at the right of way for the street it's quite wide.

And we looked for a way for the street to respond to some of the needs that we heard people identify right we heard a need for shade.

We heard a need for distinct spaces for people who are walking and biking and we heard a desire for space for transit.

So you can see all of those things represented here and this is a cross section total with 94 feet that fits in all of American Boulevard from France to 24th is either 94 feet or wider.

So this cross section would fit without requiring additional right away.

There are some pinch points to be fair.

But this concept has not been tested for with any sort of traffic analysis to see how it would work.

Our benchmark, however, is we did look at the annual average daily traffic volumes on American Boulevard.

They differ throughout the corridor. They're not it's not uniform.

But they are similar to Lindell Avenue, which is just one travel lane general purpose travel lane in each direction with left turn lanes at intersections.

And so that gives us some idea and a benchmark that this could work.

And I believe it's Lindell Avenue in Minneapolis just to be specific.

Yeah, not in Boomington.

So this is kind of indicating that that this may be feasible, but it needs some more study to really understand what it would look like here.

So with that, I wanted to just summarize.

We talked about bus rapid transit on American Boulevard.

We talked about land use changes along American and we talked about the street itself.

What's going to happen next?

I referenced early on that Metro Transit is the regional decision maker for bus rapid transit.

So this study Metro Transit participated in.

They were on the technical advisory committee for the study. They are very aware of it.

But they of course, you know, retain their position to make decisions about BRT for the region.

They are currently undertaking a study called the arterial BRT corridor prioritization study.

And they are looking at a bunch of local bus routes and determining which ones should be the JK and L lines, which will eventually become the next arterial BRT lines in the region.

The route for that I mentioned, the alternative for that we looked at is in that study and it's being evaluated.

It is not being evaluated to the Mall of America.

It's only being evaluated to Knox Avenue today.

And I think what we'll see is Metro Transit is going to finish that study.

See how it turns out, see what the JK and L lines are.

And then the city and Metro Transit can resume a conversation about American Boulevard.

The city has said that they will city staff have said they will tie the street improvements and the changes to the street to the potential for BRT.

So really cueing those capital improvements off of timing on BRT.

But then when it comes to the land use changes, those would be more immediate because of the compounding process coming up and that using that as a mechanism for those updates.

That brings me to the end of the presentation and I will stand for questions.

Thank you, Miss Hall.

We'll move into questions and discussion.

Start with questions.

Thank you chair.

Miss Hall, I understand that you do not work for Metro Transit.

I just want to ask you.

Just it sounds so you said they're just first question.

You said that they're currently studying the route for extension to American and Knox.

Is that correct?

Yes, they're studying the route for potential to convert to the route.

That's a really important thing.

Yes, the route that they are studying terminates at American and Knox.

And my understanding is that the Orange Line Rapid Transit BRT already runs through American and Knox is kind of its last stop in Bloomington.

It has one more stop in Bloomington after American and Knox at 98th and 35W.

That's okay.

I always forget we have planned north of the interstate.

So, thank you, Street.

Oh, I was thinking going north of my bed.

It stops in Richfield right across the North.

Okay, go.

Is there any thought in the kind of in your the guiding zoning to make American and Knox?

It sounds like kind of no matter what there's already BRT there.

Maybe more BRT is their guiding zoning to expand kind of the station capacity for lack of a better term there.

Yes, very much so and I'm not the expert on this, but the city undertook an amazing and extensive planning effort.

Ten years ago, maybe not quite ten years ago for the Pan American District.

And so those plans are in force around that Knox and American intersection.

It extends that far.

And one of the key redevelopment areas identified in this study also is the the parcels that are just north of American in the Pan American district.

So the parcels to the south of American have redeveloped, but there's still you know a lot of potential north of American.

And so that would really kind of you know fully complete that district when we see those those parcels to the north redevelop.

Thank you.

No further questions.

And there's a point of clarification that the orange line going north goes all the way to downtown.

Mr. Jones.

Yeah, sure.

Correct.

And if I can say had to what Miss Hall said about the city's actions following the Pan American district plan being completed.

So multiple developments have occurred since that time.

Most of those sites are zone C five.

So those were proactive rezoning actions at the city took in the Pan American area.

The Knox building.

Included application the first application the city of the highest density residential district we have our 100.

So I think the there is a good track record of the city taking proactive actions part of it is partnering with the private entities to own the significant lands in that area including south town.

So I would anticipate that will continue to be a major topic of area focused for the city's redevelopment area efforts in the area.

Thank you, Mr. Jones.

Miss Hall, I have a question.

So the four options you presented to us that were studied for bus rapid transit they all ended the mall of America.

Why why don't any of them go to the airport?

There's a hundred thousand people that go through that facility every day and a lot of them are working class people who may not have a car that work in the concession spaces, etc.

Why not go to the airport?

It's a great question and it's a question that our team asked ourselves many times over during the study and I sometimes give it really transity answer to this so I'll do my best.

The short answer is because there's an easy and fast transfer to blue line at the mall.

And by the time because the blue line gets to use a tunnel under the runways between terminal two and terminal one.

It is just as fast in a hypothetical setting to get off the bus at the mall transfer to blue line and then take blue line to terminal one assuming terminal one is your final destination, which it is for most but not all.

If you're going to terminal two is no question about it a bus with a one seat ride would be fastest to terminal two.

But then after terminal two the bus has to go way out and around the runway and then back to terminal one and so it's kind of a slow ride.

That said it is I can you could argue it both ways you have two pretty extraordinary regional destinations very close together.

So right now we're showing a transfer at the mall to the airport but the airport is not that far you could argue you should have one seat or one seat ride to the airport as well.

We chose to terminate at the mall for the purposes of this study but it is it's a valid question for sure.

Thank you. Other questions.

Miss all thank you. I think we'll call you back up the we need you will move into your discussion.

That's not.

I'm sorry.

Commissioner cutting it.

Thank you. I want to thank us RF and the city for all the work you guys put into the study.

It's cool to see that the city is interested in improving the front porch of the city as Miss all called it.

I really like alternate to but I know that we're not talking to Metro transit today.

I just think that eventually line for will come to America nox no matter what decent transfer spot if there's built out infrastructure.

And the alternate to that got us towards south Dale connects to Centennial Lake's in the nine mile creek trail system which I'm an active user of and so I hit.

That's just my thoughts on that my thoughts on kind of the preliminary.

Look at American Boulevard the lane layout like the bike lane I like the sidewalk I like the Boulevard the BRT stations.

The dedicated bike lane or not bike lane bust lane would be something I'd like to see studied.

You know the lindil avenue in Minneapolis was a really good comparison.

But I've sat on lindil avenue a lot when I lived in South Minneapolis and so I would just I'd like to see the findings on that but overall I think we're headed in the right direction.

Thank you.

Thank you commissioner Cunningham.

I think this is really kind of tricky because.

There are a lot of things I want to but we also have to have a lens of reality.

I like tree line streets and I like buses and I like walkable streets and I like bike lanes and supportive of all that and.

I am in the probably 98th percentile of people who actually take public transit I took it every working day for nine years working in downtown Minneapolis.

I'm a massive supporter of it.

But I think we also have to have a lens of reality and that looming to end right now is still in auto oriented city.

And if we're going to get people to the mall they're going to come here by car.

And if we're going to get people to all of our office towers they're going to drive to work every day and so I want to move us in the right direction to and I think.

This is the type of street and the type of amenities I want to but man we're talking about just some potentially very significant changes to American Boulevard which is in like.

The very busiest and most critical city streets we have and I'm concerned that we're going too far and look.

I'm the type of person that says go too far do it and we'll all figure it out and.

I'm a big I'm a big thinker I really am but.

I also think if we have a responsibility to be responsible to our residents and that if we choke American Boulevard we're going to put traffic on city streets.

And a bunch of people that live on 84 street and live on you know whatever street are going to see a bunch more traffic because we choke down American Boulevard too far because.

All of the assets that are bringing people to American Boulevard are still there all the office hours are still going to be there all our hotel towers are still going to be on American Boulevard so people got to get there.

And as much as I wish I could convince people to take the bus.

That's that's going to take decades to change American behavior to public transit it's not going to happen within even the lifespan of what we're talking about here and so.

I'm really torn because what's the balance between making improvements and and pushing us in the right direction I don't think we should necessarily say the same think we should try to push us towards more public transit less auto oriented we should.

But we I don't think we can do it overnight without absolutely causing havoc on other local streets and doing other things obviously we wanted to traffic study to bear that out but.

This is a lot this is a lot and I don't know how much of it I'm ready for.

Commissioner Lene.

Thank you very interesting presentation and I also really liked how was presented to us in advance I think building on that I think with the just.

And recognizing that this would not happen tomorrow I think that one of the real challenges is also understanding the impact of the 494 project because I think for a lot of Bloomington residents.

Their goal is to avoid 494 at all costs and American Boulevard and 98 Street and old shock appeal are obviously the three most likely alternatives to that and so.

Recognizing that we had the presentation at the last meeting on the update on the 494 project and how long it's going to be until the entire project is done I think particularly recognizing some of those concerns on the later portion of the project.

The part that really stuck with me was how small.

For 94 was going to go down to when they were doing the work by 77 I would want I would want to move very very slowly on making any changes to the eastern side of American Boulevard until that project is done because I think the pressure point for the community over there could all especially those who.

have no choice but to drive places could be fairly significant and then this is I don't know the answer to this question does MTC use some all or none electric buses on the BRTs does anyone know.

And then I have a follow up on that once I know here the answer answers some but not all so what I would say to that also is short of having an electric buses on American Boulevard I think.

If they're still running on combustor combustion combustion engines it makes it that much harder to increase high quality residential areas I think electric buses are dramatically different on the impact to residential areas there's so much quieter and whatnot but I think that's something else that I would be curious to see.

Before we move too far forward with this was how quickly that technology.

was implemented thank you.

We're sure cutting you.

Miss Hall since you're up there I have a quick question so you said that American Boulevard is classified as kind of a reliever street for born and before is 7677th in rich field also considered a reliever.

I don't know the answer to that I don't know if.

Sorry, thank you.

Mr. Robbins thank you.

Mr. Cunningham yes they were designed with the same mindset in mind as relievers to the 494 what's always been a little bit strange there is that.

If you you know your classic transportation planning you know you start with the local streets you take traffic that's just treated high access local streets.

That moves to collector streets which then moves you to those higher capacity higher volume our tool streets which then moves you to the highest volume highest capacity freeways there always the top of the list so when you think about the volumes that freeways carry.

That's 150,000 to 200,000 cars a day on some of those to think the nartorial of any sort even the type of American can really take enough volume off of those to.

Relieve it. It was a little bit backwards in terms of transportation planning and the only reason I mentioned that is because.

Kind of this our chance to make it right there was some questions about.

You know when the 494 is done traffic will decrease on American Boulevard it won't happen overnight you know those projects going to take a long time neither will the projects envisioned on American Boulevard.

Take place overnight some of these are five years out minimum 10 years out some of them some of the sections might not happen for 20 years and so the idea is rather than spend a lot of money to try to figure out where that traffic's going to go.

Engineers are very good at forecasting but those forecasts don't always turn out exactly the way we would look would like.

Let's develop a vision for that quarter based on our values and then as we approach those that five year mark the 10 year mark the 20 year mark we could see what volumes are doing at that time when all of those moving pieces are hopefully stop moving a little bit.

So the hope is that you know we can come up with a model then that is more accurate that plans for the future that we're building responsibly because.

As much as we'd all like to see those are their mandates we have businesses that have invested a lot of money and time in our community on American Boulevard with the assumption that people can get there safely efficiently.

We have own obligations those businesses we own obligation this community to continue that efficient transportation system.

So what I didn't want for this study was to get into counting lane numbers let's develop a vision based on our values and what would like to see.

And then we'll come up with the details is this hall moves forward over the next five 10 20 years and much of that beyond when any of us will be here at the city so thanks for that.

Thank you Mr. Roberts Mr. Johnson.

Thank you Chair Cochin if I can add to that just from a sequence standpoint at the timing of this is pretty excellent for us from a comprehensive planning standpoint so I appreciate.

The vision that's been laid out the work that's been done it's going to be really helpful to us when we're making decisions around future land use for this quarter.

I just want to remind folks that a comprehensive plan is a 20 year visioning document.

So we don't anticipate that this project or the facility would be competitive for regional funding tomorrow.

It's really setting the groundwork that can inform the land use that can build the density that over time.

The quarter can become more competitive for a regional transit facility like our theory will be RT so hopefully that provides a little bit of additional info just from a sequence standpoint.

Thank you Mr. Johnson.

I think I think Mr. Roberts laid out does make me feel a little better.

And that this is a 20 year thing it'll certainly all last any amount of time that any of us are on this commission and so it starts with a vision what do we what do we want what do we dream and then we make future commissioners have to deal with the reality that we have to actually make this work so.

I don't know I think that's a bit of a bit of reassurance that we're still in the dreaming phase here and that we shouldn't be too concerned about.

The little details right now we're not there yet let's talk about what our values are and kind of build off from there I think that's wise counsel and you have a thoughts on this side.

Well thank you to Miss Hall for that wonderful presentation.

We look forward to seeing you again.

We will move that item number two the city of Bloomington is the applicant again to talk about the annual pavement management program and capital improvement plan Bob Simons from the engineering department is here with the staff report.

I see Amy Moron is here as well.

All right we're good evening as as mentioned at Bob Simons I'm a senior civil engineer in our streets and in our engineering department.

I lead our street design and infrastructure area over engineering.

With me here tonight Amy Moron or assistant traffic engineer and we're going to give you an update in our pavement management program and some transportation items with an RCIP.

This is our annual update we give every year to the planning commission I'll give a quick overview of the pavement management program hopefully I don't get your eyes glossing over during that part.

And then Amy will jump into the 2026 and 2027 pavement management program areas and we're not asking for any sort of formal decision on anything tonight but any input you'd have on any of the areas and the information we give would be welcome to take.

All right our pavement management program or PMP as we refer to it it was established back in 1991 with the overall goal to reduce the cost of our street repair by taking the right action at the right time.

To do this every street segment in Bloomington has a pavement condition in next value where a PCI value as we refer to it so every year one third of the city streets are walked.

Overall conditions monitor this is entered into a database that gives us this pavement condition in next value on a zero to 100 scale zero to 35 on the low end being a street that's maybe a need of a full street reconstruction.

35 to 65 in the middle maybe a million overlay and 65 in above more on the seal code side more in adequate condition.

We use these PCI's to come up with a forecast for the upcoming typically five years of what we're be looking at doing for maintenance techniques.

And when we put these projects out for bid we typically bid them in larger amounts larger mileage.

We'll do like two and a half to three and a half miles of reconstruction.

7 to 9 miles of overlay and like 25 miles of seal code to get us a much better economy of scale for bidding which in turn helps to lower the assessments of the adjacent property owners for a reconstruction projects.

And just lower the overall cost for city tax bears.

And speaking of assessments we do have a cost share for our street reconstruction projects with the adjacent property owners where we assess 25% of the cost for surfacing and curb and gutter if new curb and gutters installed the single two and three family properties.

And then all other property tights commercial industrial artists 50% rate and I'll get into that a little bit more here in just a minute.

So our different construction techniques which I've kind of mentioned already we have our full street reconstruction or the entire payment sections are moved in replaced.

If there's not existing curbing gutter on the street new curbing gutter is installed.

If there is existing curbing gutter we typically just do spot repairs of that.

This is done by a contractor hired by the city.

We have a street mill and overlay technique which I mentioned is kind of in that mid range of PCIs.

That's where a portion of the existing payment is grown off and a new layer is paved over the top.

This is done by a contractor hired by the city.

We have a street seal code technique which is just basically on the surface at two minutes that he's a visited aggregates added to that and the access is swept off.

This is done by a contractor as part of a self metro joint power agreement that we have with a few other self metro cities.

We used to do this internally but found it's more cost effective through this self metro power agreement to go through that road.

And we are also introducing this year we did a test area of what's called reclamite.

It's similar to seal code in the type of technique where it's just applied to the surface but it gets more into the actual asphalt material itself to rejuvenate that material to extend the life of it.

So similar to a seal code and application but it's just a different option that we have.

Different price point to that and also a different length of time in between needing those.

That's where we're looking at that and being something in our toolbox for maintenance as well.

And then we have our trail inside walk construction maintenance as well that's both done by a contractor hired by the city and also our city's maintenance department takes care of some of that.

With any time we bring up PMP we show this pavement life cycle on the left you see a roadway that's with no routine maintenance.

It's a much shorter lifespan than what we show on the right with the implementation of a PMP introducing seal codes and overlays at the opportune times we can greatly extend the life of the pavement.

It varies greatly depending on the existing soils but this is the overall goal of the program.

We have a few street policies that we follow some of them as you can see have been in place for quite some time since 2002.

For streets that don't have existing curb and gutter and we reconstruct those streets we install.

B618 our standard curb and gutter that you'd see in any of our residential neighborhoods.

And also we have with the when when we do reconstruct those streets we have some with with that we follow.

If that's the street is 31 feet or greater which a lot of our streets are in that 34 to 36 foot range and we're reconstructing and adding curb and gutter.

We reconstruct it to a width of 32 feet anything less than that as you can see up there that the reconstructed with changes in this varies depending on the area we find some areas that we may go less than 28 feet based on the conditions.

Or greater than 32 feet based on the conditions.

We don't have many miles left of streets that don't have existing curb and gutter it's in the 5 to 10 mile range closer to the 5 mile range currently.

But when we come through and reconstruct street segments that have existing curb and gutter we leave that existing curb and gutter in place and we do spot repairs.

But with that said when we we look at opportunities where we may have a utility project coming through like for example this year we have our cell central sanitary sewer project on 100 street in the pleasant and third avenue or pills buried third avenue area.

If we have the opportunity where we're already planning on removing curbing gutter on an entire side of the street which we are for that utility project we look at the opportunity to reduce the street with if we can that existing street is 36 feet wide with curb and both sides.

But since we're taking the curb out entirely on one side for that utility project we're going to be reducing the width to 32 feet to meet our current standard.

So we look for those opportunities where we can.

When the streets are reconstructed with curb and gutter as you can see in the bottom of the slide there's some parking restrictions that are involved with that 24 to 28 foot widths parking is all on one side and then less than 24 parking is not allowed on both sides.

When we're going through our payment management program list and looking at our areas we also look at our complete streets checklist so we look at existing conditions.

Other plans and policies in the area as we're working our way through project design and construction.

We look at opportunities for multi-modal improvements ADA improvements things of that sort as an example in 2024 with our payment management program.

We added about 50 new pedestrian ramps we removed and replaced around 150 we installed about 4,500 feet of new walk sidewalk we fill sidewalk gaps and things of that sort which we look at when we hold our PMP scoping meetings.

We installed about a half a mile of new multi-modal trail.

Replaced almost 10,000 feet of sidewalk and installed between one and one and a half miles of new bike lanes so those are the items that we look at.

Through complete our complete streets checklist when we're going through each of our individual areas.

As I mentioned earlier and I'll just glaze over this with our street reconstruction projects we do have a special assessment included with that.

We follow a state statute that allows cities to assess based on the benefits that that's received from the project and we do this we use a policy that's been in place since the early 1960s.

We've tweaked it a few times here and there but it's based on an adjusted front footage value all quats all lots being equated that of erecting either lot and we use this to come up with the cost per foot for the reconstruct projects.

And we assess for when a street is getting new curb and gutter installed it doesn't have existing curb and gutter it gets an assessment for curb and all streets that are reconstructed to get an assessment for surfacing.

So overall in summary, pavement management program is in place to prolong our pavement life keep our cities infrastructure and good working condition and just to reduce the overall cost for our cities taxpayers.

This is just a quick project timeline showing the process of the PMP timeline.

We have in the spring we have our PMP driver on so as I mentioned we have that map that we create for like the next five years.

We do drive rounds every spring to update that map we look at other projects that maybe would cause us to push items backlake for example the 494 project or other items like that.

We hold a PMP scoping meeting in the summer months after we do the drive run with our planning division park and rack all the public works to look at what other projects could be incorporated into this work or maybe reasons why we should push it off.

And then we're here tonight you see the first yellow star on there at planning commission we typically come around this time of the year and just give an update of where we're at for the next two years.

And then moving into the fall we have our preliminary preliminary estimate and assessment estimate that sent out to the adjacent property owners for the recon project.

We hold the neighborhood meeting which we're holding an early November this year and then we go to council in November typically to order the reconstruction project and acknowledge streets for our overlay project and then you see the green star on there that's.

Typically we'll come back if there's any items that we're planning on implementing transportation related items that we're planning on implementing with our 20 not would be 2026 project we'd come back this winter to planning commission to give an update on that as well.

And then we move from there into year two which would be next year 2026 it'd be our final we do our final design.

We'd be bidding the projects in the spring and we move into construction in the summer and then we come back in the fall for those reconstruction projects for our final assessments and our neighborhood meeting on those assessments and then we order the assessments at council for example this year's project.

We're ordering it next Monday at that's our city council meeting and with that I'll let Amy get into the 26 and 27 project areas.

Now we're going to start the quiz portion to see how you retain that and thanks Bob.

So we'll get into the details of the a little bit of the details of the things that we're starting to look at as we prepare for the 2026 projects.

This graphic isn't necessarily intended that you're going to be able to tell exactly where it is but as we start to look in a little bit more closely it's kind of hard to tell where they are throughout the city 35 W is.

This line here just for for a little reference.

So the first one we're going to look at here is bush west bush lake road area so basically we're looking at the segment of high from highwood drive down to west 87th street.

There's a mixed use trail on the west side there side walk on the east side and the road is about 32 feet at varies it's a little wider at the intersections.

Some of the things that we're going to be looking at before this road is reconstructed is to take a look at the meat some of the medians along this road at the intersections.

Some of the widths of this roadway to see if we need any striping modifications and the project will also include some retaining a wall work and sanitary sewer work.

Commissioner chair Cookton you're discretion on this but if you want to just have any questions or comments on each slide as we go through them where we'd be comfortable with that or if you want to save them for the end that's that's yours as well.

What are we sitting for the end? Okay.

All right, the next one we're going to highlight is Stanley Avenue so this section of Stanley Avenue is between 84 street and 9 mL Creek Parkway.

So there is a gap in our sidewalk network.

This is a safe route to school walking area and also a lot of neighborhood pedestrian traffic in this area.

There's sidewalk on 84 street as well as sidewalk on 9 mL Creek Parkway.

This project was submitted for safe routes to school, state, infrastructure funding and we were awarded for that.

So this is it actually will have its own project number.

We are sharing it as part of the reconstruction project because it will be constructed by the same contractors the reconstruction project.

So wanted to make sure that we have that included in here. It does fall under different little bit of a different process than the one that Bob just went through as they are not being assessed for the change in the curb on this one and for the work because it is where reconstructing the curb simply to narrow the roadway.

So we can construct sidewalk on one side of this roadway without impacting the trees on this road.

Also to provide some roadway narrowing for some traffic calming benefits in this area as well.

So we're going to be going from the existing 36 foot wide cross section down to 28 foot wide cross section.

There is a public open house for the residents on Stanley Avenue.

Next on October 22nd at POPPER Bridge Elementary where we will be sharing back the information about this specific portion of the project.

We will be adding parking restrictions on one side of the road now when we go from a 36 foot wide down to a 28 foot wide.

Another segment we're going to look at is the humbled area. So the graphic show you can see 35 W so we're talking about humble to Avenue is just on the west side of 35 there.

It is about 30 feet wide. There's no parking on the east side of this road. There is sidewalk in place along this road from 90th street up to 88th street and then north of 88th street. There is no sidewalk to get you up to 86th street.

We also with the 494 project some of the things that we're doing around 80 second street will also construct some new trail inside walk that will go essentially from 84th street all the way up through 80 second street and connect to some new facilities up there.

Our goal is to provide better connectivity to the Pan American district and the orange line station up in that area as well. So we're going to be looking to see if there's a way to reconstruct this section of road maybe a little narrower to also get that sidewalk connection through there as well.

All right, now we're going to move on to some of the overlay streets.

Beard Avenue. So this is east a section grouping of streets that are east of France Avenue north of 100 second street kind of kitty corner from Jefferson.

Okay, there's we did have some meetings with neighborhood. We've had meetings with most of these neighborhoods and so some of the issues that that were brought up at the meeting with this one was a gap in this sidewalk network along Beard Avenue.

So there's nice neighborhood sidewalk connection north of this called a sack. So the road network doesn't go north but the sidewalk system does which provides a nice neighborhood sidewalk for students who are walking walking to school, but there is a little gap in the network along Beard Avenue.

So we're going to be investigating to see if there's a way for us to construct that within the existing right away.

We also had some concerns from some residents about vehicle speeds on Drew and 100 one and a half street. We're just in the process of collecting that data just to validate and see if see what the vehicle speeds truly are in that area.

So we will continue looking at that.

Humboldt road. So this is just off of Lindale and it's basically between 100 second and 100 sixth street.

One of the issues that we're going to be specifically looking at in this area is there's a very skewed intersection of Hopkins and mission road.

We think that there's an opportunity to realign to better assign the right away and improve sight lines at this very tight angled intersection right now we have a yield sign for the northbound traffic.

Anyway, we're looking at we've got the information we're working on a few designs to try to better provide some better guidance to drivers in that area.

All right, Chicago Avenue. So this is on the graphic. This is American Boulevard. So we've got a section of Chicago north and south and then 80 second street.

The thing of note in this area is this connects up to our new pedestrian bridge crossing over 494 so we're just going to be taking a look at the sidewalk connectivity in this area with the 494 project we did

Work with men. To ensure that there is new sidewalk along this side of Chicago Avenue.

A few years ago we constructed sidewalk on this side of Chicago Avenue, but we are aware that there's a couple of parcels along here that have

Sidewalk gaps in the system. So we'll be looking at if it's feasible to fill in those gaps with this project or if it would have to be a separate future project.

I think that's it for that one.

And then we've got a nice long section of east old shock appeal road that is part of the overlay.

We are one of the things we're looking at is there's a section.

The cul-de-sac is quite far to the east and so there's a significant section of roadway that's not really service serving the public good.

And anyway, that section of road that goes beyond the entrance to the US Fish and Wildlife Service had to quarters. So we'll be looking at possibly shortening that roadway and reconstructing a cul-de-sac in that area.

Anything else to note on that one bud?

For this area just that looking at a possible crosswalk addition at 33rd and old shock connecting to the north there from the kind of the old serity and area to the north.

We've had some requests in that area so we'll be taking a look at that as well.

Thank you.

All right. And then with this, we also start looking ahead into 2027.

Just so we can figure out what areas we'll need more more thorough analysis and some advanced traffic study.

So section of fifth avenue between 80 first and 86th street.

This one we met with the neighborhood. There were some concerns about traffic speeds so we're just going to start getting ahead of that.

Gathering some speed and volume data to see if there's any modifications or if this would be a good potential.

Newborehood traffic management program area as well.

Upcoming overlay candidates.

West 84th street. So this is one that this is a section between France and Normandale.

You guys heard about this recently in the update where they were there was a study of the intersection of Normandale and 84th street and a lot of discussion about how to provide.

And we're going to say for by comped crossing at that intersection.

That analysis will tie into this but what we need to do is study this entire corridor.

We've actually been waiting quite a while to do this. There's been so many traffic impacts on 84th street during the 494 construction.

That we're approaching council asking for funding to do a 84th street corridor study next year to prepare recommendations to be implemented with the 2020.

2020 7 overlay project.

Highland greens area. So this is just off of Normandale Boulevard just to the west of Normandale Boulevard.

Some modifications will be made at the intersection of Highland greens and Normandale with the upcoming Normandale Boulevard trail inside walk project.

The rest of Highland greens and Briar Road will be in the overlay in 2027. And so we'll be looking at some remaining mediums there in that and that roadway section.

We've had some concerns or requests for sidewalk connection on a couple little segments. So we'll be looking in that area a little more closely.

Humboldt Avenue area. So this is over near what's north 100 sixth street.

This is close to Oak Grove Elementary School. We in 2024 implemented school zones, B limits for Oak Grove Elementary School on 104th street.

We'll also be taking a look at the pedestrian and the school activity at the crossing of Humboldt Avenue to see if we need to add a school zone in that area as well.

If there's any other modifications that need to be made this Humboldt Avenue used to be a foreland and divided roadway.

It was one of the early ones that we converted to a two lane with a wide shoulder.

We think that's trippings looking working very well, but it's something that we just will reevaluate and make sure that see if there's any modifications that need to be done along with that.

We also have had a couple of issues with the signal detection at 100 sixth street and so we'll be looking at any modifications that need to be done for video detection or any other mods at that signal at 100 sixth and Humboldt.

All right, so we want to mention some other CIP transportation projects that are coming up that are not part of the PMP, but just so they're on your radar.

We've got the Normandale, the Normandale Trail or the Normandale PMP Trail Insightwalk project.

This is one that I think we're all very excited about. We've been working on to move this one forward for a long time. So it's the section of Normandale from 94 Street to old shocker P-Rone.

It will construct a trail on the west side and walk on the east side. Funding comes from the PMP trails program plus a million dollars from that was awarded for the state safe routes to scroll infrastructure funding.

Almost two million dollars from the regional solicitation for carbon reduction funding and 500,000 dollar cost share from Hennepin County.

This one has been visually working on the right away acquisition right now and is intended for construction in 2026 and 2027.

All right, 93rd and Russell. This is another one that is we're happy to highlight. This is from our updated neighborhood traffic management program.

This was our first applicant into the updated program. So it was our 2025 applicant. We have done a demonstration trial of a couple different devices. We did a traffic circle device trial.

And that one, the feedback from the neighborhood was that they didn't think that it helped reach the goals that they would like to see.

And so this year we installed trial using curb bumpouts and then modifying it from a side street stop control to an always stop control with those curb bumpouts.

And the we just closed out the survey and it looks like 70% of the people that responded were very much in support of the moving forward with the curb bump out and always stop project. So at this point we are also approaching council for funding for this, but we intend to build this as part of the PMP for next year as long as we are successful in getting the funding.

All right, touching on some other agency projects, helping County has quite a bit of work coming up in Bloomington. They have a chip seal project on France Avenue from 100th Street to old shock P road.

This happened to be identified in parallel with the city conducting a school zones, be the main study to address the county roads. And so this is a section of road that we already had study and do worry.

And of course, having been County is one of our stakeholders as we were moving through that study. So the the opportunity was identified.

And one of the recommendations of the school zones, the student study was that the county consider a four to three laying conversion on this section.

So speed the speed limit is posted very high and driver speeds are even higher.

And we have a lot of pedestrian activity or this close to the school. So we did some additional signal operations analysis with the school zones, be the limit study for a hadn't been county to use as they were looking at the potential to do a four to three laying conversion.

This is not the final approval on that four to three segment, but I'm working with the county where you are getting information we're going to be sharing with the community. This proposed change will be using mostly our let's talk Bloomington site to share that information.

And we'll likely be going to the council for a recommendation to the county to move whether or not to move forward on that.

They will be doing their chip seal. Regardless of whether it's a four to three striping conversion or not.

They also are going to be doing an overlay on old talk to be read from Tone Highway 77 to American Boulevard. You've probably already seen them out doing quite a bit of work. They were doing a lot of the ADA upgrades and advance of that.

And then in 2027 they're going to be doing their overlay on old shock P road from 169 to Nezbada Avenue. They also have done already completed quite a bit of the ADA improvements for that project, but there is a real real crossing.

Improvement that has to be completed before they come through and do their overlay there. So that's the reason that that will be a 2027 overlay.

All right, one last one, I think. Handling county is also in the middle of studying Nikolay Avenue for a major reconstruction project.

I think, you know, they're looking to make multimodal safety improvements on this corridor. I guess the key information there is they have the third public open house for this on Tuesday October 14th at Fire Station 1.

From 430 to 630 really honing in on final alternatives and getting feedback to make their final recommendations and that will be advanced into their design for project for construction and the years of 2027 and 2028.

That's the entire segment of Nikolay in Bullmington from American to old shock P.

All right, thank you miss.

Thank you miss. We're on Mr. Simons. It's moving to questions.

Can we start counting him?

One, excuse me, one quick one, I promise all the way back at the West Bush Lake Road project.

I think you mentioned that there is some retaining wall and sewer improvements happening on likely to be happening at the same time.

Are those improvements part of the assessment to residents or handled separately?

I can take that. That's a great question. They're not part of the assessments. They're retaining walls. There's one on the west side that there's a location at 83rd Street where the the road settling buckling a little bit.

There's one smaller retaining wall that needs some work there and then one on the east side that we're also looking at. That's not part of the assessments for that work. We have a funding funding through our maintenance for retaining walls.

We also use state aid dollars for retaining walls as well. When it comes sanitary sewer, that's funded through our sanitary sewer utility fund. So no direct assessments.

Thank you, Mr. Simons.

Other questions?

I'd like to put another another request for that sidewalk at 33rd Avenue there.

I'm South Loop. For a couple of reasons one with the new tenant that has gone into the office building there across old chalk.

It'd be road. There definitely are more people traversing that and it's someone who lives locally there. I see it a lot.

And as someone who's also made that trek, that's a lot of lanes across and you've got people driving pretty quickly coming around the curve there from 34th Avenue and it's not grave visibility.

That's a bit of a scary one out of state across.

So I would really like to see a crosswalk there.

I like that because not only because I live locally but just as a planning commissioner, we talk all the time about South Loop and Blue East and Central Station.

And we're all, I think there's just some frustration sometimes on this commission of like why aren't things going a little better there.

And so let's look at the details and one of the ways we can make it better is by getting more people to that coffee shop right and so now we've got like hundreds of people that are now working across the street and it's kind of scary for them to get to the cross to get to the coffee shop.

And so like I have no doubt if we put a safe crosswalk there, that coffee shop will get more business and convince the developer that they should put another retail in that neighborhood.

And so like, you know, as we talk about making Blooming Central Station and South Loop better, these are the type of details that I think matter is to what can catalyze more development is by getting a safe crossing there.

I also worry about that new senior development that went across over a 34th Avenue.

I think there's probably a crosswalk close enough there where we don't need to do any additional crosswalks, but I hope there aren't seniors crossing 34th Avenue to pick on seniors.

But that's a bit of a terrifying cross itself if you're not using a crosswalk.

Other than that, I'm in favor of what I saw here.

It's great. I can't believe it's my sixth and final pavement management program presentation.

So sad, maybe I'll come back and send the audience next year just to make sure you don't feel like I'm left out.

Other comments?

Well again, thank you. I think the city's doing this right and it seems to be working great. So thank you very much.

All right. Thank you.

Very well. We will move then to item number three, which is consideration of the draft planning commission meeting minutes from September 18th.

And I will look for a motion.

Commissioner Lenay. I move that we approve the planning commission meeting minutes from September 20th.

Okay. Remember what the date was. September 18th.

September 18th.

Is there a second? Second motion. And a second to approve those minutes from September 18th. All those in favor say hi.

I'm opposed. That motion passes five zero.

We'll move into item number four, which is the planning commission policy and issues update.

Mr. Johnson. Thank you chair.

Kirkton as per usual. Give you a preview of the upcoming next two planning commission meetings. The first one is on October the 23rd.

There is one public hearing schedule for that for the miscellaneous issues ordinance. So you saw the policy change items before you in a study session. You'll see all the remainder of the other miscellaneous issues as part of that package in a public hearing format on the 23rd.

The also be a study item on another planning commission work plan project the official height map review. So the height map regulates structure height throughout the city.

So we're doing an intentional review of that policy.

On November 6th, shaping up to be a busier meeting. Three public hearings. The first one is a privately initiated city code amendment related to existing remote airport parking facilities.

The second public hearing would be a city code amendment. The phase two of the small business ordinance. That's the one that focused on refuse and recycling standards.

The third public hearing would be a follow-up from tonight's item.

Asking you to take formal action recommendation on the American Boulevard Transit study.

The fourth item would be seeking a recommendation on the Bloomington ferry road.

A quarter study or forgive me that might just be an update. I think it is a recommendation. Thank you Amy.

The fifth item is the annual planning commission review for compliance with the comprehensive plan of the city's capital improvement plan CIP.

So the planning commission has a formal role in responsibility to affirm that the city's CIP is consistent with the comp plan.

And then finally a study item on the November 6th meeting looking ahead to the 2026 planning commission meeting schedule.

So typically what we've done in years past is bring it before you in a study session format.

I'm not seeking action potentially at the first item unless there's broad consensus.

But we can present a draft calendar to you. There's always some discussion about the number of meetings when to have the meetings at that at that item.

So it's always a fun discussion. And that's it for November 6th. But yes, six items on that agenda. So shaping up to be a bit of a longer meeting.

And that's my update.

I look forward to the fun on that calendar update. Mr. Johnson.

Yes, of course.

Great deal.

Any other items that planning commission would like to address that were not on the agenda this evening.

Seeing none that concludes this October 9th meeting of the Bloomington Planning Commission. Good night.

Thank you.