9.a) Staff Report-Log House LandingSCANDIA
Staff Report
Date of Meeting: January 20, 2015
To: City Council
From: Kristina Handt, City Administrator
Re: Log House Landing
Background:
The City Council appointed members to the Log House Landing Improvements Special
Committee at their October 2014 meeting. The committee has met nine times. Beginning in
December Washington County staff has helped facilitate the meetings.
Existing Conditions (Bonestroo Environmental Study, 2007):
205`h Street is a steep gravel road that ends with a circular boat launch area adjacent to the St.
Croix River. The road varies from 14' to 19' in width and extends 1, 000' between the railroad
tracks and the river. To the south of the road is Gilbertson's Creek, a designated trout stream.
Currently, a large area along the road drains to a ditch and culvert that discharges to the creek.
This runoff from the gravel surface is negatively affecting the vegetation, depositing sediment in
the trout stream, and creating erosion problems. Additional runoffflows down the street to the
boat launch area, where it enters the St. Croix River through several eroded channels that have
formed over time.
Several significant white pines closely border the road, along with dense vegetation.
Proposal Details:
The committee is recommending a 13 foot paved road from Quinnell to the landing. The road
would be slanted to the south with curb and gutter on the south side of the road only. The
committee is also recommending two pullouts and reduced parking. The parking areas would not
be paved and sloped to the north. Additional recommendations about the landing, signage and
future considerations is included. A copy of their complete recommendation is included in your
packet. The Planning Commission voted to recommend this project at their January 16, 2015
meeting.
The County conveyed the Fire Chiefs recommendation on a 20 foot road at their January 8th
meeting. The committee disregarded it. The Fire Chief provided information directly on
January 15th. Steve Kronmiller has provided a letter in response to the Chief s letter which is
included in your packet.
Even though County staff helped facilitate this discussion, it should be clear that they do not
endorse the recommendation, and the results are strictly the recommendations of the citizen
committee members. In fact, when the County first presented the alternative evaluation, the two
lane paved road best met the criteria (see attached chart from Washington County). It was only
after the committee saw the results and manipulated the criteria did they come to the one lane
road option. Not all of the recommendations made by the committee were approved unanimously
such as areas to be paved, pullout locations, ADA parking, and overnight parking.
Staff Comments:
A letter from the Fire Chief and attachment about minimum road widths is included in your
packet. There are approximately a dozen houses that the fire department would need to access
via 205th St east of Quinnell Ave. In addition, 205th St is the access road for the fire department
to respond to any rescue calls on the St. Croix River (6 miles of river way border the City of
Scandia) so the potential impact is greater than to those dozen residents. The fire department has
had multiple rescue calls to the St. Croix River, including some just last year, where they used
the Log House Landing to access the river. Within the last few years there was a structure fire
south of the landing. Again the fire department used the landing and transported their
firefighting equipment to the scene via boat. According to the Fire Chief there are 2-3 calls in
which they use the landing per year. There is no conjecture about the fire department may be
needing to use this landing. It has already been done on a regular basis. The small driveways in
the area already present a challenge. Creating a smaller road will only add to the complications.
Comments from the Sheriffs office were similar. The road needs to be wide enough to
accommodate the Sheriff s office's emergency vehicles such as water patrol trucks and trailers,
dive and recovery team trucks and trailers, SWAT vehicles and trailers and personal owned
vehicles by emergency personnel. Since radio service is weak in the area, all emergency
personnel would have to be in the area not in a staging area away from the scene. In drowning
cases, this is the only access point between William O'Brien and Osceola.
City Engineer and Public Works Director comments were as follows. With a 13' road it is likely
that vehicles will pull off of the paved surface to the north for either passing or parking. This
will lead to the edge of the pavement cracking and breaking up, particularly when done by larger
trucks such as emergency vehicles, garbage trucks, and construction equipment. If pullouts are
used, they should be graded to the north with a valley gutter to minimize impacts. The Council
may want to consider additional pullouts if they choose to keep this option. The County's first
plan had four pull outs to provide for adequate sight distances. Also, the use of multiple
different surface types is problematic for a number of reasons. It could drive up per unit costs
because the quantities would be lowered. Different surfaces require different types of
maintenance. More engineering costs would be involved in addressing multiple surface types
versus just one. The areas that the committee is proposing to not have asphalt are close to the
pretreatment systems. This could lead to plugging of the stormwater system and require more
frequent maintenance to clean out the structures. The committee made recommendations without
any stormwater analysis being completed. The engineer also suggests waiting to see how the
trees respond after some are removed before deciding to replant. Thining out trees could allow
more sunlight and space for the remaining trees to grow healthier. A final decision on replanting
should not be made until an arborist is consulted. The committee is proposing parking on the
north end of the landing. This may be the location needed for the stormwater treatment pond. If
parking is allowed there the pond would have to be pushed further to the north thereby impacting
more area. Lastly, the committee has expanded the scope of the project with recommendations
about future provisions. It is not clear if these are covered by a grant that is supposed to improve
access to a river way. These items should wait for a later date and seek alternative funding
(grants, donations, etc).
Administrator Comments. The committee is proposing a 13' wide road which is more narrow
than the existing 14-19' road which gets even wider near the Clapp driveway. Is this consistent
with the Comp Plan goals and policies for the St. Croix River Corridor which states" Improve
physical access to the river corridor where public lands may provide access opportunities. "? It's
clear from video shot by a visitor this summer that the current use of the road extends beyond the
gravel portions onto the shoulder. Vehicles pull off the road to park and parking goes all the way
up the hill. The video can be viewed at httpJ/vimeo.com/111783771 We don't plan stormwater
facilities to only treat the average daily runoff. We're required to plan for the heavy rains (100
year flood levels). Why are we only planning enough parking for the slow weekdays and
ignoring the busier weekends? The EDA has never taken a vote on the Log House Landing
project so their position cannot be adequately explained by members of the Log House Landing
Committee. In general they have talked about promoting tourism opportunities and bringing
more people to Scandia. Many times the EDA has talked about the need for additional signage in
the City so the recommendations in 6.b) would not be consistent with the EDA objectives. The
speed limit on the road will remain 30mph regardless of how many lanes it is. As the Council
knows, the speed limits are established by the state.
Staff Recommendation:
Staff has heard the concerns from residents about trees and wanting to maintain the rural
character of 2051h St as much as possible. However, we have very serious public safety
concerns. Staff would suggest the following compromise, that the design standards of the
committee (curb on only one side, tilted road, less parking, natural stone for retaining walls,
DNR standards for launch area) are acceptable but that there be a 20' driving area and all
surfaces are paved. This is a significant compromise from the original grant application that has
a 26' paved width from face of curb to face of curb (32' in parking areas), curb and gutter on
both sides of the road and parking for 12 trucks and trailers as opposed to the 6 in the
committee's plans. This proposal is only projected to impact an additional 6 trees (estimates
from County drawing). The engineer will work to curve the road around significant white pines
as was proposed in the 2007 plan. It seems protecting a life should be more important than
saving 6 trees. Having all surfaces paved will lower long term costs and maintenance as well as
allow for better runoff treatment.
Staff s proposal is consistent with the Comp Plan goals related to the project. Specifically it
meets the goals of improving physical access to the river, protecting natural and scenic resources
while still allowing traditional recreational use patterns to continue, and protects surface water
quality. This site has long been used as a recreational access point to the St. Croix River. That
use should be allowed to continue as provided for in the Comp Plan and should not be restrictive
or cumbersome to users. Additionally, the area will remain heavily wooded so scenic views and
the rural character will be maintained. The 20' road would be narrower than other roads in
Scandia. The development code (which was deemed to be consistent with the Comp Plan when
it was adopted) requires 24' roads edge of pavement to edge of pavement so clearly special
consideration has been given to this road to deviate from that standard. Lastly, being able to
catch and properly treat the runoff is consistent with the goals to protect surface water.
Fiscal Impact:
The cost of the committee's recommendation is: $282,647
The committee's recommendation will include higher long term maintenance costs to care for
different surface types and the more frequent replacement of the road edge as it cracks off.
The County is still working on the cost of the staff recommendation and should be available by
the time of the meeting on Tuesday.
Options:
1) Approve Preliminary Design recommended by Committee
2) Approve Preliminary Design recommended by staff
3) Approve an amended version of either recommendation
4) Do not make any improvements to the area
Recommendation:
Committee: Option 1)
Staff: Options 2) or 4) Staff feels maintaining the current width is safer than reducing it to 13' so
would recommend doing nothing over the 13' option. Preventing gravel from going into the
river is not as important as the possibility of saving a life.