okay i think we'll get started here um so the way this is running today we have we split the project into time zone so if you were one part of the project we invited you at 4 30 and then there'll be another group coming at 6 30 and on tuesday when we did it the 4 30 leeched into the 6 30 and it got kind of hairy so hopefully we'll get this moved and get your questions answered and so then we'll be ready for the 6 30 but first of all thank you all for coming um you are invited because you are the key stakeholders either as property owners and or business operators downtown so this is uh an historic project versus just a regular street project but joe i'm gonna have joe uh duncan our engineer and and jim harbaugh is from uh golden mink he's gonna kind of go through a presentation but joe is gonna kind of tell you how we got to this point and our timeline was uh changed on us a little bit um somewhat out of our control with a county project that kind of came at us that we weren't expecting and joe can kind of go into that and how that would tie into us behooving us to look at doing this phase first before we get into that project but um again what i want to impress upon you is this is a process that's moving kind of quickly just because of that compressed timeline and we had to change some projects around the other thing that's uh well underway but not finalized by any means is some funding mechanism so we've applied for some grant money we've applied for some state bonding money and we made the list on this bonding deal that we're in the discussion phase which was good for us to hear we made the discussion part of that um cut and i don't know when we'll figure out if that happens or not but that's in discussion um that's a huge part of that that's you know alliance big part of this project the other thing um that this is so much different than just a street anywhere else in town is we're dealing with mndot on part of it and we're also dealing with scott county so now you not only deal with two more government entities for approvals and accesses and all that stuff but we also can go after them for some funding mechanisms as well and that's all moving at warp speed too as we speak so um what what we did here um we engaged um bolton and mink and jim's been wonderful to work with he came down and had initial walk through and spent some time downtown and looked and really looked at our architecture as far as the building stock and what we have in as far as the building stock the other thing the other elements that we're looking to kind of enhance or build off the fun stuff is on top a sewer pipe's a sewer pipe we don't get to choose much about that i did learn something there's a different kind i learned yesterday but not that it really mattered to me but so somebody the other night made a reference of a cake and of course the bottom layer of the cake is going to be that sewer pipe and that's going to happen it has to happen and that's really what's driving this project to this point versus us only talking about the amenities on top which is kind of the fun part and that's probably some of the stuff that you guys are a little more interested in in potentially um because we can only put that pipe in one way so that's what made us look at this project is a sewer and storm water sewer our storm water underneath the ground and then now we're going to be talking a little bit about the frosting on the cake if somebody made it sound the other night um so jim took ideas worked with his team looked at you know our like i said our building stock the plaza townsend park our library area some of the other stuff that we have going on and kind of building with that theme in mind and so he has taken some snippets of other communities that they've worked in and kind of put into some conceptual stuff that you'll see tonight as he goes through what i want to say is this is that just that conceptual at this point nothing's been finalized nothing's been ordered joel tell us about the process as far as how the next steps of this project will move forward as far as what legally we need to do as a city for bonding and all that fun stuff that's so exciting to talk about i'll let joe do that so there is definitely a process time is moving quickly on us just we're splitting this into a two-year project if any of you are familiar with new prague they're in the second year of their two-year project and it's never easy when you're tearing up a business district because there's hurdles and there's hurt and we want to make sure that by doing it in two years we're just not you know in one year instead of one year we're just not going to totally paralyze the downtown we want to really be thoughtful as far as how we can do this to minimize the impact of everybody downtown so that's kind of where i'll leave it joe and jim will take it from here and don or i don't know if joe okay all right thanks mayor i'm joe duncan with the bolton and bank city engineers this is jim harbaugh he's going to be running through the slides i want to thank the mayor for introductions um again and to understand you know what the purpose of tonight really is and then how it's going to function so we're going to go through a short presentation and take about 30 minutes or so including some question and answer and that might bleed over but then we also have the ability to have kind of more of an open house feel to it we're going to turn the boards around that you see over here on the one side of the uh of the council chambers here and we'll be able to have maybe some more one-on-one conversations if if time so allows so i do also want to recognize that we do have council members in uh in the audience here tonight we have council members crings coop and uh lemieux is not here or or charred right we also have uh staff members city administrator don meyer we have finance director amy jurek we have public works representatives al fayhey sarah meinberg todd otto we have economic development directors and dismissed track i think i pretty much caught everybody with that right okay so briefly how did we get here and why are we having this discussion the city has a process to identify potential infrastructure projects and we go through that process on a fairly regular basis and we keep a list of those projects so that we can understand what might be coming in the future that's part of our planning process one of the projects that we were hoping to look at next was actually kind of preempted by a project that the county wanted to undertake here on state street and as a function of that we kind of had to back up our plans a little bit and look at our infrastructure because they wanted to basically do some surface improvements and our point to them was well before we go doing that let's make sure that what we have underneath the surface you know the city infrastructure the water and the sewer and the storm sewer are something that we should be putting investment over the top of so we did some televising with that and what we found were some problems with the sanitary sewer not only uh in that stretch but it's in in this entire area so as a function of that we kind of went to the county and said would you be opposed if we actually took care of some other areas prior to tying into your state street project and so that's kind of why we've developed in the sequence that we have it's not what we set out to do even four months ago we actually had the city council authorize a preliminary engineering report on state street and we had to back up from that and kind of re-focus our efforts so what we're looking for and why is why are we here tonight talking about the frosting on the cake well we're we're definitely going to be addressing the cake itself okay so we've got sanitary sewer issues that we have to address and that particular pipe is uh the lowest of all of them that exist in the street so when you're addressing that not only are you tearing up the surface but you have to make sure that you don't impact the other pipes along the way the water main which was done previously in 1999 the sanitary sewer was not so it was left in place and so that's something that we have to address at this time the storm sewer was also looked at that time but currently it does not adequately have the capacity to drain the downtown and we've had some issues with that already and so we've taken some band-aid approaches if you will on the periphery to make things work in the short term but in the long term we need to address permanent solutions and so that's what we're targeting with this infrastructure project we also have lights that were installed with the downtown project that are no longer available for parts and we have no more extra lights in our storage so we've got the lights to deal with and then we have some settling that's going along with the sidewalk that you know as long as we are talking about infrastructure project that has to be considered as well so if you set the stage and set the foundation with an infrastructure project in a downtown area there's a lot of aspects that impact the public at large a little bit differently it hits a little bit differently right than your regular infrastructure project in a residential area and so that's why we bring in this additional public input to talk about is there something different that you would like to see as a community as as a downtown core as a central business district different than what you've then what was envisioned when it was constructed uh previously and what we're talking about there is is our options and what we have tonight to present to you is concept concept information we have to have something to put out on paper for people to generally react to and say yes i like this i don't like this what about this have you thought about that can we incorporate something like this instead those types of things and so where our concepts are driven is largely in part to what we're seeing maybe other communities do and it's kind of an aggregation of what we're seeing other communities do and how they're embracing and interacting with their downtown maybe then differently how than how downtowns were constructed maybe even 20 30 40 years ago and so you're going to see that difference because putting it back would be probably something that's the easy part right just as it is today but now is the time to consider something different that could bring a little bit more vibrancy into your downtown if that's what you so choose if you think that that's going to be helpful it could be something that brings uh this is or identifies this as more of an uh an entertainment district if you will the options are there and so that's why we want to make sure that we're talking about them at this point so again without taking up too much time i'm going to turn things over to jim so he can walk through what we have for you to react to at this point and bring your questions and concerns and the whole idea is to make sure that we capture those and that we can respond to them likely on your website i assume i believe that we're already doing that and preparing for that based on the meetings that were held on tuesday this group tonight here at 4 30 is the phase 2 project so something that would not be if this were to move forward constructed until 2023 so this is meridian street south of maine and main street east of meridian street so that's kind of the phase that we're talking about here and we'll see that here on the slide shortly but as you are moving around this is a fairly informal process here moving around grabbing a cookie or water there are comment cards that you can certainly grab you can choose to fill them out and add them to the the box in the back before you leave or you can choose to send them by email in and we'll collect that information at that point so with that i think i'm going to turn it over to you jim and we'll walk through this pretty quickly and and we'll get some of those comments coming back at us thank you thanks thanks joe uh again my name is jim harbaugh and i'm a landscape architect with bolton and mink and i want to walk through a little bit of the conceptual designs that we have put together and we really put this together as a springboard from some of the other downtown efforts that have been going on whether your shade sailed plaza some work in townsend park some of the historic architecture in the downtown area trying to pull those ideas together into into a concept that we can share with you so that we can get feedback tonight we want to hear your thoughts and ideas on what works what doesn't work what you want to carry forward as as part of this project so we've introduced the project i think joe did a pretty good job of of explaining that this is really an infrastructure driven project and it's a really opportune time to look at that icing on the top of the cake because we're we're taking that icing off anyway to be able to fix all the things underground so it's the most cost effective time to be able to make change on the surface and whether that be curb lines and sidewalk widths or some aesthetics part of that it's just that top layer that we see but it's really influenced with all that stuff that we're doing underground as well so we're here to listen to your concerns and you know some things that might be brought up or thought about is access during construction as a business owner and how we can do that and help you out business deliveries we had a lot of discussion last uh last couple uh on tuesday night with the last couple meetings about how things work or don't work currently and how a proposed design can can accommodate that a little bit about construction time frame which joe had mentioned it is a two-phase and two-year project just because of the magnitude of the project but also to make sure that we have enough flexibility to be able to get people to your businesses during the construction period because the last thing we want to do is rip out the entire downtown and walk away and to say come back in two years you know we want to be able to have a viable and functioning downtown throughout the whole construction process uh just functionality of the parking and parking lots in the downtown area and how we're looking at the system as a whole and bringing in actually more public parking even before we start the this project as a potential um just to to ease the concerns and the the adjustments and impacts that we have during the cons construction process so a little bit about the project overview and just to give you an idea of where we're looking at construction so if you start from the top we'll look at meridian from state street and we take the construction just to the south of townsend park currently it's a pretty long block there and it's a it's a good stopping point from for construction from where we we show it because of the the change and character of the uh the usage of the the corridor and then we're looking at main street if you're going from the west from willow all the way over to walnut we're also looking at church street which is a core piece of the downtown area but we're looking at it with a little bit of different character because of the the usage along that and also the the existing right-of-way with the space that we have to work with and then finally i want to also emphasize that we're looking at alley improvements as well to help with that the back door of businesses and to open it up i know there's there's been some closures on the alleys these days in terms of deliveries and getting in there and we want to make sure that we're not only upgrading to the front door but also the back doors of businesses as well so a little bit about what's out there currently this is a depicting what's out on main street currently the roadway and all the parking is about 78 feet wide if you were to look from one curb line to the other curb line and then the sidewalks are about 11 feet give or take that sounds a little wide but you have to consider that we have all sorts of vertical elements that are in conflict with it so really though the walkable area in a lot of cases is about six feet wide there and i think uh one of the things to emphasize too that i think that the city's done a good job in the last year of trying to to be able to have outdoor dining in the downtown area and what one of the things that that is emphasized that the sidewalks for flexibility whether it be an art walk or a special event in the in the downtown area you know in other communities that we've worked in they have classic car nights or or bike nights or that sort of thing there's just a very confined space in the existing sidewalks that we have in the downtown area to the point where to be able to even get outdoor dining in the downtown area we're actually setting up in the parking areas currently just to be able to provide that so the concept that we're looking for here in the downtown area along main and meridian is to look at angle parking on one side and parallel parking on the other side as part of this project so in plan view if you're looking you'd have angle parking one side here and then parallel parking on the other side so what we're trying to do is actually maintain this the same driveway or drive lane widths that we have currently in the downtown area really pretty wide driving areas for a couple reasons we know that we have deliveries that come in here and impact the those drive lanes we're making it wide enough that you can still drive around two cars at a time between utilizing that drive lane on both sides and the buffer strips we're maintaining that angle parking on on one side and parallel on the other and that narrows that roadway and excuse me not the roadway but the the pavement to where you park or drive to about 63 feet the advantage of that in this particular concept is we're starting to capture more pedestrian space in the downtown area so instead of that the narrower sidewalks that we have we actually have uh about 12 and a half feet of usable space before we even get into the the vertical elements or infrastructure pieces here those those lights or the trees or benches and that sort of thing you'll see in the concept so we have usable outdoor pedestrian space that can be captured by the businesses and really connect right to their buildings instead of having you know having to walk across the sidewalk and have to get into the parking lots to to be able to utilize things so church street is a is another uh area like i said before the the right-of-way is a little bit narrower here the roadway with is is a little bit different we're trying to maximize the amount of parking here based on the usage that we have out there and then in the narrow or roadway we have existing sidewalks out there that are as narrow as three or four feet depending on where you're at and we're trying to capture as much space as we can on those sidewalks as well so we're looking at about an eight foot sidewalk in this church street area and then we're also looking at a couple different concepts in terms of parking and how closely we take it to the existing uh intersections here so these are two examples one taking parking a little bit closer to the to the corner here on this side we're looking at the option of implementing some bomb pot areas and some green space and narrowing that the space that you would have to cross here in terms of a pedestrian accessibility so a little bit about streetscape elements and some of the items that we're looking at potentially implementing in the downtown area here again we're trying to build off some of that passion and some of the aesthetics of the the improvements that have been in downtown on the in the plaza areas and also some of the historic architecture in in the downtown area the the other element that we really want to look at is the longevity of the project so we're looking at very durable materials that we can use in the downtown area with the potential of concrete sidewalks that just have a decorative element in the in the jointing looking at colored concrete as a potential for crosswalks to differentiate to drivers that people are crossing here when they're coming up to it they understand that hey look for for pedestrians here we're also looking at looking at pavers in the parking areas here these are actually previous pavers that treat the storm water the storm water runs through the pavers and into the sub-grade downtown belt plain has a very sandy soil condition down there so it's really a opportune time to be able to recharge the aquifer treat and store that water into the subgrade and cut down on some potential storms tour cost as well so if we're looking at parking in excuse me if pavers just in the parking area it looks something similar to this where we have pavers in the park areas and then a bituminous roadway in the plan view so in plainview view look something like this the pavers here pavers here and then normal roadway in the center so it's a it's a nice aesthetic difference it's a nod to the history and the architecture of the downtown area and it's a it's a good storm sewer solution for the downtown area as well so some of the streetscape elements although they're a minor cost to the project really define and give a brand to downtown and what we're looking at is some of the different elements that we can integrate whether it be things like lighted benches that we have in the downtown area that really stand out at night could be using natural limestone that's very native to the local area here that we could use for either planter curbs or or even benches or seat walls looking at a little bit of landscaping in the downtown area and we're trying to balance that maintenance need of landscaping that we the city would have in the in the long term with bringing that green infrastructure and softening up the downtown area at the same time joe had mentioned lighting is at its end of life in terms of the ability to get parts and and replace things uh technology has changed a lot in lighting too and and we would be looking at led lighting since instead of what you have currently so they're much more efficient light gives a nice good clarity in the in the darkness and we're also looking at beyond just the the roadway but also the pedestrian side so if you were to picture a little bit higher light on the roadway side of things and then a little bit lower pedestrian level light we're putting emphasis both on the cars but on the people too in terms of of importance for lighting and we're starting to pull in things like bike racks that emulate the some of the belt plane symbology that we have as a city is that the prairie elements if you picture waving grass here looking at bike fix-it stations and i do want to emphasize that what we're looking at is we're trying to get people into the downtown area and instead of just using cars we're using cars and and walking and and bikes we want to be able to bring people on bikes into the downtown area but not right through the downtown area so we're developing landing spots on the periphery of the downtown for cyclists so that they have nice bike racks to lock up fix it stations whatnot so that they can get down to the downtown have a safe place to park their bikes and then really utilize the downtown and spend some time there and then finally other amenities that bring some character to the downtown area with the waste receptacles uh drinking fountains and the ability to to bring people in and really keep them in the downtown area mentioned plant material a little bit previously but i want to expand upon that you know the downtown urban core on a public project we tend to look at at planting that very hardy perennials and something that's easy to maintain from the city's aspect it's not going to be a delicate english garden it's going to be a massive color that's that's can be seen driving by but also can be experienced up right up close to it as a pedestrian we also tend to look at very hardy tree species that can unders really stand the test of time in in an urban and hot in environment and that aren't aren't messy you know we want to do things like a honey locust if we were to use a honey locust it's got very small leaves that tend to blow away we want to make sure that we pick a variety that doesn't have any thorns or fruit and pods is part of it outdoor dining has been a big discussion just because of the pandemic i think it's brought awareness to it and that's one of the things that we're looking at as part of wider sidewalks and i think that's a certainly an important aspect these are some of the ideas that the city can look at as on a policy level so instead of having to to walk across the sidewalk and then into a parking area we're starting to connect those dining areas right to a a business here and then still have our pedestrian walkway so the the benefit of wider sidewalks gives you the ability for outdoor dining but like i said before it's much more than just the outdoor dining part of things it's future proofing it and giving some flexibility for the downtown area to do a lot of other pedestrian things as well whether it be special event space special events in the downtown area like i said like that art walk or music in the downtown it just gives a lot more flexibility and a much more friendly pedestrian space for the downtown area so what might a representative block look like this is just a one block example of the streetscape concept we're looking at that angle parking on one side and parallel on the other and then the use of some bump outs which i kind of glossed over and i should probably hit on a little bit harder we're looking at bump outs that are designed so that you can get large vehicle traffic around it and it's easy to snow plow public works has beat me up a lot on in terms of what that functionality would be on a maintenance level and we would want to build things so that it's easy to maintain easy to drive around but also has a nice function of pedestrian safety so instead of crossing over that 70 plus feet of pavement you have a much narrower area to process a pedestrian we're really not narrowing the roadway at all the drive lanes at all but it gives that perception to drivers to get them to slow down a little bit as part of that the other nice thing is it brings their stop signs out closer to the drive lane right now you have some intersections that those stop signs are tucked back behind parked cars or way back and you all probably know exactly where they are and when when to stop but our goal is to bring visitors into the downtown area that that don't know that and provide a safe space for them so we talked about just a little bit of landscaping in the downtown area that's just shown in the green here just uh throughout the block and then a few street trees in this area and then developing that pedestrian area that sidewalk that has some nice jointing and paving to it but it's really designed to be very durable it's designed to be very handicapped accessible for the people in the downtown area and provides a little bit of extra width and flexibility in the downtown as well one thing that the city's looked at is that public parking aspect of things and a project that they're looking at is at maine and chestnut here really developing that into a much more usable public lot not not only in terms of number of parking spaces that you see here and expanding that lot up and uh making it uh get it cleaned up for the public use but also starting to capture some space that you know you can't park here but this is a nice gateway into the downtown area and starting to pull in some of those existing ideas that we have in the downtown area as a gateway for to the rest of the downtown so this is an enlargement of the the parking lot itself we're looking at about 45 stalls for the downtown as a as a public parking area which brings a lot of parking ability in the downtown uh and really expands the horizons as far as event use for the downtown as well whether it be utilizing something like a small plaza on the corner here or even developing this into a special event space here where you know maybe in the future you might have a covered um system here over the the parking stalls there that could be used for farmers markets and something that's easy to really pop up in an afternoon and utilize and be a boon and to bring people into the the downtown area so i know i glossed through a lot of information quickly in to respect your time here and i guess at this point i want to open it up to any questions or thoughts ideas on on what we've seen here as a group the boards over here are really a synopsis of what i've shown here as well and i know that it's hard to sometimes see that it on the screen especially when we get into the