This item was sent my Councilmember Elkins
Item 5.3A on Monday evening's City Council Agenda is the approval for City Staff, with assistance from SRF consulting, to move forward to develop a "Holistic Traffic Calming Plan" covering the area bounded by France Ave on the east, Normandale Blvd on the west, 84th street on the north and 90th St/Poplar Bridge Rd on the south.
Staff and SRF will be using the same basic approach that SRF followed with Edina City Staff to develop holistic plan covering northeast Edina recently. Like the target area in Bloomington, the problem in this area of Edina is that it has been faster to travel between Hwy 100/50th Street and Exclesior Blvd/France Ave on the local residential streets within the neighborhood than it is to drive around the neighborhood using the arterial streets that ring the neighborhood. To solve the problem, the Edina project team developed a plan that makes it easier and faster to use the arterial streets around the perimeter of the neighborhood (especially France Ave) instead of the local streets. They accomplished this by a combination of features that make roads like France flow more smoothly (such as added left hand turn lanes) and features that slow down traffic within the neighborhoods (such as traffic calming devices). (You'll receive a second e-mail shortly to will point you to a copy of a PowerPoint presentation describing the Edina plan that was recently presented at the University of Minnesota's annual Transportation Research Conference.)
Everything will be on the table as part of this plan, including a "Road Diet for 84th Street". This is the one and only opportunity that this neighborhood will have to participate in the development of a comprehensive traffic calming plan that addresses the longstanding problems on Stanley, Nine Mile Creek Parkway and 84th Street without making things worse for everyone else who lives in this study area. It's going to be extremely important that everyone who lives in this area participate in the process, which will include a number of public meetings and open houses. Monday's City Council meeting will be the first official step in this process and you should come to show support if you can (this will probably come up between 7:30 and 8:00 PM).
Regards,
Steve Elkins
Bloomington, MN City Council, District 3
