Adopt Resolution to Accept Metropolitan Council Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Grants

In December, 2012, the City was successfully awarded two (2) grants from the Metropolitan Council's Livable Communities Program. The Grant Program is known as the Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Grant, and is available for certain areas surrounding transit opportunities throughout the metropolitan area. The City received a grant for the design, engineering, and partial construction of Center Street within The COR ($650,369) and alternatives analysis and geotechnical studies for Mississippi Skyway ($100,000), a grade-separated pedestrian crossing over Highway's #10  & #169 in the vicinity of The COR.

The City must now accept the grant and execute a Grant Agreement with the Metropolitan Council.  In addition, Staff will be forwarding to City Council (and thereafter to Metropolitan Council) work plans with keystone dates and potential Requests for Proposals (RFP) at a future date.

A copy of the grant applications are attached for your review as background. 

No notification required at this time.

The grant term for the Center Street Grant is three (3) years from the date of the award. It is anticipated that the design phase of the grant would be accomplished in 2013, with construction in 2014. Staff will forward a more refined work plan in the near future. The Center Street construction would accomplish an important north-south connection in the center of The COR. The connection/corridor provides important automobile and pedestrian connectivity to the station area, to Municipal Plaza, to Bunker Lake Boulevard. The project will provide benefit to Ramsey Town Center 8th, 9th, and 10th Addition, as well as Seasons of Ramsey, a 50-unit housing development currently under construction.

The grant term for Mississippi Skyway is two (2) years from the date of the award. A primary location was identified in the grant application as a connection to the existing Ramsey Northstar Station skyway.  Previous Council direction was to examine using the Armstrong interchange as the primary pedestrian crossing for the area.  Consequently, it should be noted that a component of the grant agreement is for alternatives analysis. A component of this stage will be to explore all possibilities to provide an essential safe pedestrian crossings across Highway 10.  Parallel to this analysis, Staff anticipates to review pedestrian connectivity associated with the future Armstrong Boulevard grade-separated interchange to the west.

Alternatives

Alternative #1 - Accept the Grants as Requested. As considerable staff resources went into preparing the applications, and the fact that both projects provide for important connections that add to the success of The COR, staff recommends this alternative. By not accepting these grant opportunities, future opportunities from the program may be impacted.

Alternative #2 - Not accept the grants. As noted above, this is not a preferred alternative by Staff at this time. The City would lose out on an opportunity to provide an important connection.

Staff recommends accepting the grants and executing the required grant agreements.

Funding for the noted activities are provided by a grant award from the Metropolitan Council.  There is no matching requirement.

Motion to accept the Metropolitan Council Transit Oriented Development Grants for Center Street and Mississippi Skyway.