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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION—MARCH 21, 2011 9 Mayor Grant permitted some comments from the audience. Pat Haik, 1550 Briarknoll Circle, stated that MnDOT is obligated to pay for the noise wall and that MnDOT is doing the bare minimum. Maurice Gieskc, 1817 Janet Court, stated the noise from I-694 is over standards day and night and as traffic speed increases, the noise will increase. He suggested the City issue bonds and tax all residents to cover the cost of the noise wall. Jolene Poucher, 1548 Briarknoll Drive, stated she has been dealing with this for 15 years with different Councihnembers and that she expects the Council to listen to the concerns of neighboring residents. She also stated there had been a commitment to have a specific surface on the reconstructed area which would reduce noise. - Public Works Director Maurer explained that the entire TH 10 diagonal would be resurfaced by a MnDOT overlay project. John VanBuren, 4276 Colleen Circle, asked the City to continue denying municipal consent. He believed that there are actually over 300 homes that will benefit from noise walls. Don Ortloff, 1803 Janet Court, stated his home is only 40 to 50 feet away from 1-694 and that his wife's day care children can't be outside during the day because of the level of noise. Mayor Grant reminded the Council and visitors that there would be no official action taken at this meeting because it is simply a work session. Councilmember Holmes stated that when they met with the State, the perception was that berming was not going to work as noise reduction. Public Works Director Maurer explained that MnDOT claims that the area, elevation, and storm water structures make standard berming impossible in portions of this project. They also don't believe much sound mitigation will be achieved by berming. He fixther explained that once the project has been completed, MnDOT will be placing landscaping along the project area. Councilmember Holden commented that the City had Chris Chromy perform a noise reduction review. Public Works Director Maurer explained that the Commissioner of Transportation can ignore the recommendation of the Appeals Board and proceed with the project as proposed because it is an interstate project. He stated if the matter goes to Appeals, the momentum that was gained during the meeting with Senator Goodwin may be lost and MnDOT could simply go back to the 14 conditions as originally presented. He questioned if it would be in the best interest of the City to proceed to the Appeals Board. He further stated that MnDOT has technical experts the City doesn't have and the City needs to be able to make a reasonable argument about the damage to our community caused by MnDOT's project. He added that we run a small risk of losing everything