City Council Minutes 2015 05 19 - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Council Meeting Minutes May 19, 2015 Page 23 of 34 concerns. The projections are intended to represent an order of magnitude and not be exact. Specifically, the existing development in the areas of change, as well as what is allowed in those areas under the current development regulations. The Main Street realignment has a lot of potential cost from a social and property owner perspective as well as from the City's perspective. If the City Council chooses not to include it in the study, it will be removed from the study. The realignment is being discussed for the following reasons: 1) The pedestrian crossings of SBR are lacking, uninviting and perceived as unsafe; 2) Traffic congestion in the Corridor is a threat to the success and livability of the corridor and 3) Downtown is lacking a gateway from South Boulder Road. Additionally, the 2013 Comprehensive Plan provides policy direction to "Explore realigning Main Street on the southern edge of the (SBR) corridor to align with Centennial Drive to provide a gateway to downtown and provide a safe and efficient access plan for the (SBR) corridor". The City is limited in its options to accommodate future traffic along South Boulder Road. Widening the roadway from 4 lanes to 6 lanes is not feasible. The current configuration of Main Street and Centennial Drive intersection creates problems for traffic flow on South Boulder Road. The signals are too close together and the volume of turning movements from Main Street and Centennial Drive alters the necessary operations of the corridor from South Boulder Road progression to managing the number of vehicles stacking between the signals. Options: Three options with variants are being requested for further evaluation. Each option represents both a transportation solution and corresponding land use scenario. Option 1: This option represents the do nothing alternative. This alternative should be considered because it establishes a baseline from which alternatives can be tested. Option 1 leaves the signal configuration unchanged. Pedestrian improvements in this alternative would be limited as the often requested pedestrian underpass would not be feasible near this intersection because of pedestrian approaches and likely right -of -way impacts. In this scenario the current Residential Low density (RL) zoning of the property would remain unchanged. Current RL zoning would allow up to 26 residential units. Staff estimates 16 of those 26 units could be constructed when all access and design requirements are met. Option 2: This option realigns Main Street west to Centennial Drive and the property acquired for the roadway would be tumed into a community park. Two pedestrian variants are introduced. One variant uses an at -grade pedestrian only signal near the BNSF rail road. The other variant uses a pedestrian underpass that can take advantage of acquired right -of -way and Centennial Drive. Option 3: This option also realigns Main Street west to Centennial Drive. Staff determined shifting a potential pedestrian underpass to the Main Street right -of -way infeasible because of the BNSF right -of -way. The difference between option two and three converts excess land acquired for the roadway to a mixed use commercial and