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Another design element that has arisen since the Feasibility Study was accepted by the City Council 34 is the deficient design of the roadway profile for the current 40 mile per hour posted speed limit. 35 While staff supports designing and building roadways to accommodate the prevailing and posted 36 speed on a roadway, the existing vertical curves on Victoria Street would require the roadway to be 37 elevated by as much as three feet in some sections on the north end of the project in order to meet 38 Mn/DOT State Aid design requirements for a 40 mile per hour speed, which is the current posted 39 speed limit on Victoria. This change in vertical profile grade would have significant impacts on the 40 adjacent properties and their driveways. 41 One option to avoid this impact would be to declare the roadway an urban section, as allowed per 42 State Statutes, and reduce the posted speed limit to 30 miles per hour. This would then allow us to 43 design the roadway to this new speed limit and the current roadway profile could be left as it exists 44 today. 45 Staff is not making this recommendation lightly and recognizes the potential for setting a precedent 46 on future projects. However, there are several elements that support this change in this particular 47 case: 48 1.The roadway was transferred over from Ramsey County to local ownership in 1996. At that 49 time, it was recognized that the roadway no longer met a regional purpose but was now 50 acting as a local collector. 51 2.There are two significant horizontal curves on the corridor, the radius of each only meet a 20 52 mile per hour design speed. A speed transition of 10 miles per hour between posted and 53 curve design speed is a better situation than the 20 mile hour transition that exists today. 54 3.An all way stop is located at one of the two horizontal curves. 55 4.The corridor is heavily residential with several driveways having direct access to Victoria 56 Street. 57 Given these considerations and in the effort to avoid impacts to residential properties, staff is 58 recommending that Council adopt the attached resolution (Attachment B) and declare Victoria Street 59 to be an urban district from Larpenteur Avenue to County Road B and establish the statutory speed 60 limit of 30 miles per hour. 61 PO OLICYBJECTIVE 62 Because this is a street reconstruction project, the City’s policy is to assess a portion of the costs 63 as allowed for in State Statute 429. Assuming this project is completed by fall 2015, the final 64 assessment amount would be determined following a thorough review of the proposed 65 assessments by the Council at an assessment hearing in the fall of 2016. These assessments can 66 either be paid up front in the fall of 2016, or be put against taxes payable in 2017 for 15 years at 67 around 5.5% (rate set at time of hearing). 68 The feasibility report details the proposed design, neighborhood impact, estimated cost and 69 proposed funding for the construction of these public improvements. Assessment shall be 70 equivalent or less than the anticipated increase in market value for properties being assessed. It 71 is the City’s policy to assess the cost to construct a 32 foot wide 7-ton road to adjacent property 72 owners as follows: 73 Adjacent residential property owner assessed for up to 25% of the cost. 74 All other adjacent property zoning assessed for up to 50% of the cost. 75 Page 2 of 4