A Whole Lot of Buildin' Goin' On

As you travel through the Fifth Ward you can’t help but notice all the new homes and other development taking place.

NEW PREMIER BANK -- 37th Street and Broadway

CENTURY SQUARE PLAZA – Viola Road and West Circle Drive. Opps! Called it a ribbon cutting when should have been "ground breaking" ceremony. About a dozen hearty souls braved a chilly, windy ceremony this morning (April 27) including Mayor Brede. First business to take occupancy will be Leo's Pizza who were kind enough to bring some hot pizzas which we dug into to thaw out almost frozen bod's. Added bonus was that the pizza was great! Look for announcements of future businesses to join the Plaza.

STONEGATE SUMMIT TOWNHOMES (West end of Rocky Creek Drive): Several of you have noticed large construction equipment on Rocky Creek Drive, close to Broadway. By now you’ve probably seen the start of some grading and all that.

This is the first step toward the completion of the townhome development on top of the hill behind the cul de sac on 26th St. NE … a development that was approved in January 2003.

The land survey was completed and net buildable area was calculated for the zones (part is R3 – Medium Density Residential and another section is R1X – Mixed Single Family) and the plan shows 123 units down from the 144 the original GDP indicated in 2003. Neighbors will be invited to the Final Plat hearing sometime later this summer.

ROCKY CREEK DRIVE: Quite a few new homes going in.

STONEHEDGE – continues to expand.

CENTURY HILLS – building continuing down West Circle Drive

MORRIS HILLS and MORRIS HILLS NORTH – GDP’s approved. Developers getting closer to final site plan reviews.

We’re also looking at annexing new land and continuing north and along 48th St. but still several years away from having the necessary other infrastructure ready for development..

SEWER BYPASS – in response to the unfortunate sewer backup due to abnormally heavy rains on June 9th, 2004, Public Works, along with hired consultants, designed an improved sewer bypass that will greatly expand the capacity of the line running from the south-side of Rochester to the Waste Treatment facility. Work will begin in May and continue through the summer along Silver Lake Dr, 12th St NE to 2nd Av NE to the river and along the river to eventually the Waste Treatment plant. Affected neighbors and businesses had been notified, attended a couple of information meetings and are preparing for work to begin. We appreciate their cooperation with us and look forward to the successful completion of the project.

Hunting In the City Limits….Are you serious?

First of all, we need to set the stage right up front that our decision is NOT about whether to hunt or not to hunt. Hunting is allowed by the state at certain times of the year. It's not even a question whether or not to allow bow and arrow hunting in the city limits. The Police Chief has the authority to grant this today.

Rochester's growth has caused us to expand into our designated urban use area and so we've been annexing more and more outlying land that had once been farmland and wooded area used by generations of hunters. This land will be developed sooner or later but because it is now in the city limits it is off limits to hunting except if requested to, reviewed, and approved by the chief of police.

The Chief raised a concern over the lack of criteria needed to make his "go/no-go" decision. He made several suggested additions to the present ordinance to make hunting safer and a less subjective decision therefore our discussion scheduled for our May 2nd council meeting.

You may have noticed the evidence of the overpopulation of deer by seeing increasing numbers of them in your backyards ... eating your tulips, your garden, young saplings or perhaps lying on the street or road near you after being hit by a vehicle. I'd even been told of an instance of a bicyclist nearly run over by a deer and had a similar experience on the Douglas Trail. I get numerous requests about having "the city" do something to reduce their number.

The proposed "city limit" bow and arrow hunt is not a direct response to getting rid of those pesky deer in your backyard. (I happen to enjoy watching them walk through the yard but that's me.) We aren't talking about having "bounty hunters" walking down Wilshire Drive or Broadway. However, by allowing the thining of the herd in and around the outlying city limits in a safe manner less deer will need to forage in our backyards, cross our streets, and cause damage and injury by vehicle accidents and the like.

What is proposed for council action is simply the addition of text to the existing ordinance to better define hunting conditions taking out the guess work for our police.

Here are the suggested changes:
1) The shooting occurs on property the person owns or on another person's property
2) The arrow does not travel beyond the boundaries of that property (and that's easier to control than you would think especially with something I want to add).
3) Unless otherwise specified by written permission of the property owner, any shooting must occur at least 500 feet from any building and from any land not owned by the landowner .
4) The shooting does not endanger anyone else. (Well of course! I searched the internet for safety statistics and there has not been a reported bow hunting injury in the whole state .. period. I'd not heard of an injury in my experience back in Illinois at our Archery Club and we'd have a hundred or more members on the course in the woods firing at targets on the range summer and winter.)

I do see a couple of items I think are missing that were in other city's hunting rules that I think should be added and have suggested the same:

5) The applicant must purchase a Regular Archery License or All Season Deer Liciense (a state law anyway but might as well make sure someone doesn't read more into the ordinance than we mean)
6) The applicant must complete an Archery Proficiency Test and be prepared to show proof of this proficiency as granted and administered by a certified Archery Instuctor.
7) Hunting must make use of a tree stand at least 5 feet from ground level. (99.9% of archers use these stand today.) This forces downward shooting and makes travel to 500 feet impossible. Arrows don't ricochet very well. They stick in the ground or in trees or break on rocks but don't go flying all over the place.

A recent Post Bulletin “BackTalk” survery resulted in 197 votes for the hunt and 94 against.

For those of you completely against any kind of hunting, I understand and respect your position. Again, I repeat, our May 2nd discussion is NOT whether to allow huntng or no hunting but simply changes the ordinance to help the police with guidelines that will make it safer for those who chose to participate.

As always, I welcome your questions, comments, or suggestions.

Century Hills/Emerald Hills Traffic Signal

The much desired traffic signal at Viola Road and Century/Emerald Hills Rd has moved another step closer to being installed. A Professional Services Agreement was approved by the council at our 4/4/05 meeting to Yaggy Colby for the design of the signal.

The signal has been included in our 2005/6 CIP (Capital Improvement Plan) so the city is willing to pay it’s half of the estimated $200,000. We are simply waiting for the traffic volume statistics to meet the state’s “warrant” for a signal and the county traffic engineer has control over this. (Viola Road is a county road after all.)

Our public works traffic engineer and myself have been keeping on top of this and Mr Sheehan, the county engineer, has been most cooperative.

I’d like to tell you that it will be in yet this year but can’t but at least we’re moving in the right direction.

As always, feel free to contact me directly about any concerns you have in your neighborhoods or anything we’re doing concerning the city.

I’d be happy to visit with you and your neighbors anytime.

Bob

Speeding and Speed Limits

One of the most frequent complaints I get about residential neighborhoods has to do with driving at excessive speeds. WHat's excessive? To some people and at some times even 20 miles is too fast. I agree. Current speed limits are set at 30 mph.

Minnesota statues set these limits and we as a city are obligated to follow these laws unless a major state-wide change is made.

Even so, numerous studies have shown that lowering the speed limit will NOT change the speed pattern. (Refer to http://dot.state.mn.us/trafficeng .) Drivers are much more influenced by roadway conditions and so you will notice that we are requiring developers to take steps to narrow streets in their development, add median strips, put curves on straight runs, and take other steps to help keep the road from being a raceway.

Stops signs are equally ineffective as they cause drivers to speed up to "make up" for lost time both before and after the stop sign.

We do have an effective program to help reduce speed in your neighborhood called "Traffic Tamers". Basically this is a program where you and a couple of neighbors can check out a radar gun from Rochester's Crime Prevention Unit, register speeders on a log, turn it in to the police and a "warning" notice will be sent to the offender. This has shown to be especially effective for youngsters using the family car as the letter goes to the registerd owner of the vehicle. For more information on this call the Crime Prevention Unit (507) 281-6045 or call me.