HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015 01-14 Maplewood, Move MN outline city’s transportation needs MAPLEWOOD REVIEW2/4/2016 Maplewood, Move MN outline city's transportation needs I Li II ie Suburban Newspapers- LiIIIeNews.corn
Maplewood, Move MN outline
city's transportation needs
Submitted by admin 1 on Wed, 01/14/2015- 5:49pm
By: Erin Hinrichs
Potholes and crumbling laavernent along Snowshoe l.. ane are: not
scheduled for repairs :ar:fll 2017, :..:r:le; s the city finds at? aflenmhve source
of revenue, nue , (1::: fin I fin fichslReview)
A stretch of f.::rost Avenues shows lho result of the first phase; of the
Gladstone Rerfero ',,lcaprr:entproject, complete with lands(.,,aped inedians,
new larrippoles and sidewalks,
2/4/2016 Maplewood, Move IVIN outline city's transportation needs I Li II ie Suburban Newspapers- Li I I ieNews.com
roundabout was complet<.,mi during the first phase of the Gladstone
Redew.,,,lopment pr(..)ject,
2/4/2016 Maplewood, Move MN outline city's transportation needs I Li II ie Suburban Newspapers- LiIIIeNews.corn
As part oft e award winning «/..iving Streets" neighborhood prpiect in the
Baartela"a"alr...Meyer neacffataara"Iaood, the city added sidewalks and rain gardens
t'
o a"a"aa:ake the area a'a"aaar'e green and pa,dest.h aaa"a... baa;;Yadlli.
Mayor hopes for help from legislature
The potholes along Snowshoe Lane in Maplewood are a bit less obvious with snow packed like cement inside them, but gravel -
like remnants of the crumbling pavement reveal its poor condition.
"Snowshoe is in pretty rough shape. It's just deteriorating," says Mayor Nora Slawik, looking out the car window on a tour of the
city's local transportation needs with the city engineer and a representative of Move MN, a state-wide coalition advocating for more
transportation funding.
Coordination, cost the issues
For Mayor Slawik, receiving calls from residents who live along roads in need of repair is nothing new. In the 2015 Legislative
Session, however, she'd like to see a portion of the proposed transportation package earmarked for local transportation projects,
which are often overshadowed by demands for things like highway and bridge reconstruction.
"People are going from a city, to a county, to a state road all in a matter of minutes," she says, adding it's about "making sure the
whole system is better funded."
In preparation, Mayor Slawik has been working on the "84 Percent" coalition, with other mayors, to come up with a strategy for
securing a portion of the anticipated state transportation package for cities.
Although City Engineer Michael Thompson says Maplewood made good headway by investing in local transportation projects
when borrowing prices and construction prices were low during the economic downturn, he estimates 40 percent of the city's 135
miles of city streets are in poor or fair condition. These needs are coming up against higher prices and fewerfunding sources.
For instance, stretches of pavement along Sterling Street, Woodlynn Avenue and Lakewood Drive all need to be redone. The
causes: normal wear, bad winters and, in some cases, a faulty blacktop mixture used back in the late 1980s.
Thompson estimates the premature failure of the blacktop mix alone could cost the city up to $5 million to address.
2/4/2016 Maplewood, Move MN outline city's transportation needs i Li II ie Suburban Newspapers- LiIIIeNews.corn
Given resource constraints, the city slates roughly one road repair project each year, with costs borne in part by frontage property
owners.
In order to ramp up progress, it would need to explore alternative sources of revenue, such as a franchise fee. If that was used,
each resident would pay about $2.50 a month, in additional utility fees, that would go straight to designated street repairs, allowing
the city to fix a couple additional miles of street each year.
Not fair to city residents
Although Slawik says resident feedback indicates many understand the need for something like a franchise fee to keep up with
infrastructure, she holds that residents can't continue to shoulder increases in property taxes and special assessments in order to
repair city streets.
For instance, Maplewood has benefited from some recent redevelopment projects that city officials hope to continue emulating.
Thompson and Slawik point out the sidewalks, lamp poles and landscaped medians that now extend partway up Frost Avenue; the
new interchange at Highway 36 and English Street and the award winning renovations in the Bartelmy-Meyer neighborhood that
made it more pedestrian and environmentally friendly.
The changes, they say, make residential neighborhoods more appealing and accessible and the city as a whole more attractive to
business.
"A good transportation system allows us to be competitive," says Thompson. "It brings in the commerce.
Slawik, a former state representative herself, says the kind of transportation plan Maplewood needs has been in and out of
committees at the Legislature for some time, and now the timing is right to see it through. She posits it as an issue that affects a
variety of interest groups, from business owners who can't afford to be stuck in traffic or have customers inconvenienced to
students and the elderly who depend on reliable public transportation to get to class and appointments on time.
"What they say about passing bills in the Legislature is that you have to turn the heat up," says Slawik, calling for her constituents
to be more vocal about their local transportation needs.
"I do believe some form of transportation package will come out of this," she says. "Will it be everything we hope for? Probably not,
because that's not realistic. But if it balances those needs of us as a suburban city with the urban areas along with the rural areas,
and makes good transportation investments for a better Minnesota, then I think we're all winners."
Erin Hinrichs can be reached at 651-748-7814 and ehinrichs@lillienews.com. Follow her at twitter.com/EHinrichsNews.