Receive Update on Highway 47 Plan

City Staff is working on a Highway 47 plan to improve the image of the corridor. Staff would like to update the City Council on its recent items in relation to the plan including feedback from the Highway 47 Kickoff Meetings held on July 26 and 27.

Twelve residents signed in during the two meetings and helped identify key issues along the Highway 47 corridor. The key issues for participants appeared to be:

• Traffic
• Trails, Connections, Landscaping
• Safety
• Signage (Trails, Parks, etc.)
• Noise (extending/constructing noise walls in key priority residential areas)
• Streetscape/Landscaping at Key Nodes (such as Bunker Lake Boulevard and 167th Avenue)
  • Branding the 167the Retail Node as the Elmcrest District to draw attention to access to Elmcrest Park.
• Code Enforcement

Next Steps

• Staff is following up with individual property owners for multipe code enforcement cases.
• Staff is working with the MnDOT to discuss a potential landscape partnership project along Highway 47. MnDOT is potentially providing the services of a Landscape Architect. Additionally, there may be some captial dollars for landcape improvements.
• Staff is working to get construction documents for the new Welcome Sign at the intersection of Highway 47 and Bunker Lake Boulevard.
• Staff will create a work session topic in October or November to discuss and prioritize key issues.
  • Public Workshop #2 (Did we hear your ideas correctly? Are these the right solutions?) will occur in late 2018/early 2019
  • Public Workshop #3 (Adopt the Plan) will occur in mid-2019
• Staff is looking into pricing for online mapping systems for others to participate easily on an ongiong basis.

Staff expects that participation in the project will increase as residents see actual plans and designs for the corridor. Staff hopes to increase participation through direct mailings, the use of social media, and word of mouth.