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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, July 22, 2013 7:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 3 of 20 (5. DAKOTA TRAIL PARKING AT BAYVIEW PLACE, Continued) Gaffron stated he is not sure how that specific area of gravel occurred but it may be one of the areas where the City added some gravel at some point in time. Boe Carlson, Three Rivers Park District, stated one of the elements of the original master plan for the trail corridor was a pretty extensive planning process with the communities along the trail and identifying design components along the trail and trail support amenities within each community. One of the resolutions that were passed by the Three Rivers Park District Board at that time, as part of the master plan, was to identify establishment of up to six parking stalls in each of the communities along the trail. Through the years Three Rivers has worked with those communities to establish those various parking locations that then ultimately became authorized trail parking locations. Those were established at the trail head both in Wayzata and St. Bonifacius and in Mound at the park-n-ride station. Completion of a trail connection at Gales Wood Farm has provided for some additional parking, and just recently Three Rivers has completed a small extension of the City of Spring parking lot to add six stalls at their city hall location. The two areas where Three Rivers has not been able to identify good parking locations for authorized parking have been in Orono and Minnetonka Beach. Minnetonka Beach has indicated they do not want any formal parking in their city for the trail, which places a bigger burden on the City of Orono. Carlson noted that the Bayview Place parking location has never been identified as an authorized parking area by Three Rivers. The Hennepin County Regional Rail Authority does not like to see a right-of-way being used for parking unless a request is made by Three Rivers and authorized. That particular right-of- way has been secured for transportation purposes. Hennepin County Regional Rail Authority has allowed Three Rivers to operate the trail and place trail parking upon certain conditions in specific locations being met. The location on Bayview is not a location that was ever approved or identified as a trail parking location from Three Rivers. Due to all of that, Three Rivers is willing to take the lead in addressing this issue in conjunction with Orono. Bremer asked what Mr. Carlson’s thoughts are regarding the Navarre parking lot, its distance to the trail, and whether it would be feasible to utilize that area. Bremer noted some people have been parking in the northern section of the parking lot. Carlson indicated that area has always been identified as a possible parking location but one of the flaws is the lack of a good connection from that point up to the trail. Orono and Three Rivers have discussed a trail connection that could go along County Road 19 and at one point the City and the Park District approached Hennepin County about widening the sidewalk along County Road 19 as well as possibly adding a bike lane. Carlson indicated both projects are expensive and feels neither one of these options would be a great solution. Without the participation of Hennepin County, that project is outside the budget of the Three Rivers Park District. Carlson stated one possibility is to look at it at the time County Road 19 is reconstructed. Item #03 - CC Agenda - 08/12/2013 Approval of Council Minutes 07/22/2013 [Page 3 of 20]