05-03-2021 - Park Commission Packet

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO PARK COMMISSION Monday, February 1, 2021 6:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 2 of 13 Three Rivers Park Commission was before the Orono City Council and developed potential routes through the area for the project. They took those potential routes forward to public engagement over the summer and he noted with COVID that really changed things a lot. Most of the public engagement relied on their website which had a web map where people could place comments; they had about 550 comments on their web map and around 70-80 general comments, as well. Mr. Shurson noted the website was the focus for public engagement and they did a lot of different things to get people to the website to comment. In December Three Rivers met with City Staff and reviewed their analysis of those particular routes as well as the comments; tonight they bring those forward to the Park Commission to hopefully get their concurrence on a recommended preferred route for the Diamond Lake Regional Trail. Subsequently Three Rivers will attend the City Council meeting to get their approval and later in the year they would begin drafting of the Masterplan. He turned the floor over to Stewart Crosby. Mr. Crosby noted this is information that the Commission has all had a chance to review and he would run through it quickly. The way they worked this analysis was by dividing all of the potential route segments or alignments into sub-segments, numbered and lettered those, then went through a fairly detailed analysis and looked at a number of different components including the length of each of these sub-segments, whether or not they touch private or public property, whether they used right-of-way, if they had impacts to natural landscapes, wetlands, steep slopes, etcetera. They also looked at utilities and adjacent parks. On screen he noted a high-level summary of some of those route analyses. He said with the connection in Orono a couple of things stick out: on the East side of Long Lake there is the brand new trail that Three Rivers is very excited to have incorporated into this trail Masterplan. Mr. Crosby noted it is a beautiful segment going around the east side of Long Lake and that is a keystone to this portion of the trail. They are also looking for a connection to Orono City Park on the southeast side of Long Lake as a potential trailhead. One of the big questions is whether or not to use the Luce Line State Trail or connect through Wayzata Country Club on old Long Lake Road. The other thing to consider is the new trail along County Road 112 and the connection that already makes that heads into Long Lake. There are a lot of different options, they weighed them and looked at them pretty heavily as they put together the recommended route. On the north, Mr. Crosby noted that Spring Hill Road has two different options: west on O8 or east on O7, and that has been determined by which direction they are planning to head in Medina. As the Commissioners will see, they recommend heading west along 08 toward Tamarack Boulevard. He showed the connection into Wayzata on screen and noted the starting point will be in downtown Wayzata with the Dakota Rail Trail and they have been working with the City of Wayzata on getting connections. W2, Wayzata Boulevard would go over Highway 12 and 394 and cut up through the Country Club, going up Ferndale Drive North and connecting to the Luce Line. Mr. Crosby said they have had conversations with the DNR and they are interested or excited about the potential for having the regional trail on the Luce Line Corridor. On the southeast corner of Orono, those are the two alternatives Three Rivers is looking at. Mr. Shurson showed the northern route on screen and noted a listing of the comments they received (about 46 in Orono) and noted the blue represents positive comments, red represents negative comments, and yellow are neutral/benign comments. In general the comments on Spring Hill Road were not so much about the route itself but concern about the crossing of Highway 6, which Three Rivers is concerned about as well. Both commenters suggested a grade separated crossing there. He thinks that is somewhat feasible on the west side, and the east side will be more problematic in that regard. Regarding the O6] section, the commenter thought it was beautiful and thought it was a great idea to transform the old road into a trail. There were mixed comments on the O2 segment; people that lived in that area had some concerns about loss of privacy and potential loss of some trees and vegetation, even though it is in the existing at Old Long Lake Road and positive comments were the beauty and scenery. He said there were