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HomeMy WebLinkAbout000192 PUBLIC HEARING CLOSURE OF VIKING DRIVE 6/2/1993 000192 CIBOOO8 Public Hearing CIooure of Viking Drive, (Copy Attached) 6/2/1993 Recorded for: City of Rexburg BLAIR D. KA VE .... I \ Ex..()fficio Recorder Deputy (/IA.}J State of Idaho) County of Madison( ss City of Rexburg) Public Hearing Closure of Viking Drive 6/2/93 Present were: Mayor: Nile Boyle, Councilman: Farrell Young, Brad Liljenquist, Glen Pond, Jim Flamm, Nyle Fullmer, Bruce.Sutherland; City Attorney: J. D. Hancock; City Clerk: Rose Bagley Committee: Randy Porter, Mary Ann Mounts, Clayter Forsgren, Superintendent. Orr, Brent Kinghorn, Mack Shirley and also President Bennion. Pledge to the flag. A Public Hearing, to close Viking Drive at 4th South between Center Street and 1st East Street. Any Public Easements shown in the right-a-way of said street shall remain as Public Easements and shall not be vacated. The mayor stated that this meeting will close at 9:00 P. M. and everyone that speaks will be limited to five minutes except President Bennion who will be giving information at first. The mayor explained a few things that had been discussed as a council. (1) 4th South will not be closed until 7th South is built and open. (2) The college will be asked 99 foot right-a-way from 2nd East to 2nd West and also for future development of the south arterial, down 2nd West and eventually swing in eventually into 11th South, which is right at the interchange. (3) The city would also insist on some cross campus connection, so if someone is working on the West side of the Manwaring center they can go to the East side without going clear around 2nd South or 7th South to get there. (4) Access and parking be improved. Parking is a real problem especially on the north side of the campus. (5) We are not sure on storm drainage and curb and gutter needs, if they are needed it would be the expense of the college. President Steve Bennion - Speaking on behalf of Ricks College. He appreciated the opportunity to formally make a request on be half of the college for the closure of one block of Viking Drive from Center Street to First East on Viking Drive. There has been extensive discussion about this and especially in the last three months, when the mayor appointed a committee to study it. They are making the request basically to ensure the safety if over 7500 students, nearly 900 full time and part time employees and many patrons who come to the college for a variety of different services from this community and far beyond. One of the things generating the issue from the standpoint of the college, is our own space needs. We have had a critical need to add somemore new buildings at Ricks. In January they received approval for the construction of one new bUilding, a Religion Building, and approved in concept a new Administration Building which would follow perhaps a year after. The master plan is for these buildings to be constructed on the South side of the campus. The construction of these two buildings would increase the daily pedestrian traffic crossing Viking Drive from about 11,900 a day to nearly 23,000 when those two buildings are finished. With the current traffic conditions it is already very risky for pedestrians and motorists. Doubling the foot traffic on Viking Drive would create a safety hazard that they did not feel comfortable with, therefore they are making a request for the one block closure. It is Obvious that everyone in the community thinks that Ricks is a ReSidential Campus. The majority students come from outside of the immediately area even though we have a sizable amount of students from the local area. These students come and walk around the campus, and we feel a strong need to have a pedestrian friendly campus where students can make it from building to building in 10 minutes. A survey was conducted by the committee with the vehicles using Viking 000r92 Drive. The results of that survey indicated that nearly 90% of the people driving on Viking Drive that were surveyed that day were there on College related business going or coming. We think it is safe to say that Viking Drive is no longer a major through street for most people. Less than three months from now the new Middle School will open at the west side of 7th South on the old highway. This is a Major Community development and affects the whole community. When you combine the Community needs, the College needs, they overlap. There is a vital need for a alternate east-west by-pass. The city council approved it over a year ago and 7th South was part of that plan for arterial street development. Ricks is a private college but they do serve many community functions. It is a complement to the community and the college as well. He summarized the functions that are held at the college: high school graduation, International Folk Dance Festival, the Messiah, special events for the Sunbirds, Church Conferences, special events and entertainment concerts are all held at Ricks College. They hold a number of educations functions at the college. He hoped that Ricks College is doing something to contribute to the quality of life in the community. The take a lot of pride in the physical campus. They have approval to develope a low maintenance arboretum on the south side of the campus south of 7th south. They anticipate that project will serve not just our campus but the community as well. They would hope that the existence of the college here blesses the community economically as well. There is many things the city does that are a benefit to Ricks College. The citizens and the city of Rexburg do much. The majority of the housing for our students is provided business people in this community. The city has given them good street service and police and fire safety. The committee chaired by Randy Porter has really enhanced the the discussion and the college is grateful for this committee. It has helped a lot to enhance the understanding to understand the perspectives of different organizations and individuals. As the college has developed their master plan they have tried to listen and make modifications to that plan; to put more focus on providing parking as the mayor suggested both visitor parking and overall parking. They have provided for a pickup and drop off spot in front of the Manwaring Center and improve the entire parking access on the east and west sides of the Manwaring. They have also modified their plan so there would be more ways to get in and through the campus. The request assumes that Viking Drive will not be closed until 7th South is developed. At the same time the the college has the green light to build major buildings, and it will be an economic boost to the community as well as a blessing to the college. They would hope for timely and expeditious action. To put it on a holding pattern for a couple of years could seriously hurt their opportunities to build these facilities and it would lead to higher costs plus safety concerns. They recognize that during the construction phase, they might have to close the South lane of Viking drive during part of that in order to let construction vehicles use the south land, leaving the north lane open but alleviating the parking. You would have a two lane going through there but no parking. Funding for the buildings is a major concern. President Bennion hoped the State of Idaho would recognize the importance of this project and the urgency of it in the next couple of years. There are a large number of Idaho students educated at Ricks, over 2800. That saves the State of Idaho millions of dollars. . Safety issues for both the community and the college are vital. The college is in anxious within the authorization they have to help. The property for the South Arterial has already been approved for a donation by the board, 11 blocks. They have volunteered to assume maintenance cost of Viking Drive for the blocks that go through the college if the city desire. L.I.D. that are appropriate and other things within the precedent of the board and the direction that have given Ricks they could consider. He asked the City Council to take positive and timely action on this request and hoped that the council share the college's concerns for the safety and the esthetic development of the campus and the recognition of the city and college's mutual destiny and welfare of the college and City of Rexburg are Closely intertwine. 000192 Randy Porter, Chairman of South Arterial Committee then gave testimony. (copy attached) John Watson-1345 South 2nd East- He had lived in Rexburg since 1972. Every morning he use to drive down in front of the Manwaring Center and had run that stop sign many times. He noticed over the years a change of his habits, he does not go down in front of the Manwaring Center, even at that time of day because there is a stop sign there and never goes down Viking Drive during the day. He wanted to talk about the issue of accessibility' and site planning. He went to I.S.U. in 1970 and a handicapped girl was going to school and had to get to the third floor. She road the freight elevator every day and it upset her. In 1972 a document called American Standard for Buildings and Facilities providing accessibility and usability for physical handicapped people. Then the ADA was passed, showing a 1993 version. It is required to have handicapped accessibility for new buildings. There has been a lot of change. It has been an attitude change, thinking the building is assessable because we have a wide toilet stall and blue marked parking spots. He had measured the one in front of this building and it isn't even close to being in compliance. There is a lot more to making buildings and parking lots assessable. No new buildings can be built anywhere, without being in compliance with the ADA. On a campus or school campus, you have to provide accessibility from parking everywhere, building to bUilding. The law is very complex for the inside of buildings. Exterior you need significant more parking places identified for handicapped vans, sidewalks with certain slope and exterior lighting. It is considerable more than just one parking place painted blue and the larger toilet stall. He is in favor of closing Viking Drive even though he had used it for many years. The buildings and parking plans need to be assessable to wheelchair bound people, which make it more accessible to elderly people, to mothers with children and to everyone. He felt it was the responsibility of the city and the college to close Viking Drive to make the entire area safer and more accessible. He was in support of closing Viking Drive for those reasons. Cliff Jaussi-South Second East- He hoped the people Randy was talking about, don't come up 2nd East that want a faster way across town. There are also big trucks dragging trailers and gasoline tankers that go on 2nd East daily. He was concerned about safety. He isn't as fast of a walker as he use to be and he wants to be safe and go over and enjoy many of the things he attends at Ricks College. Where are we going to run all the cars, when we keep closing everything down? What good are the outside blocks, when you take the middle one out? He wondered if the police or fire truck was called up and they went on the wrong side, how would they get to the other side? We need to have better control of 2nd East, there are a lot of students that cross that street everyday several times, plus people and employees. 7th South will be used by a lot of them coming into the campus that way. We need to look at other safety factors and make sure we are protecting all people. He didn't care what they do with that street but would not like to see it given away, just let the college use it the way they want to use it but not accept the ownership for it. We need to look at the traffic on the North end of Ricks College, because people will use that instead of 7th South. We need to take that into consideration and arrange so we can drive down the street without so many cars. John Porter - 228 East Main - Testimony attached. Senator Mark Ricks- He remembered when President Manwaring presided over the campus for 27 years and he made a statement to Mark and his wife about the property that Ricks College purchased up on the hill. It use to be the old airport. The college bought 200 acres for about $250 total sum. He said the brethren will thank me some day for acquiring that piece of property. He expressed appreciation to those who keep the grounds on Campus. He wae asked early in May to get an appointment with the State Transportation Committee. They happened to be on tour through this area, so former Mayor John Porter and Mayor Boyle got in touch with Mark and asked him to set up an appointment. Several were in attendance, John Porter, Mayor Boyle, Randy Porter, some City Council ---..------ 000192 Members and Brent Kinghorn was in attendance at the meeting. They had an opportunity to talk to that committee and see about the availability of funding. They wanted to know if it would be possible to get this local share which John Porter referred to that the City of Rexburg is entitled to. We are in the red and have over extended on that in order to complete that project on Second East. The purpose was to see if they would still let us borrow ahead our.rightful share of those funds. He did contact Mr Combell today to see if they had made any decision. He said he had talked to his staff and the people over in Boise yesterday and he said he could not promise that any immediate funding would be available, but said to tell your people to go ahead and get their consultant going and get those plans made. He said he thought it would be a year or two until Rexburg could go ahead on that project, but he was quite certain that they would be able to help us. At the present time we are in the arrears but by October 1993 we will be down to $55,000 that we owe in arrears. By October 1994 we would be in the black $129,000 and by October 1995 we would have $300,000. The state has about two and half million dollars available for this kinds of projects. They get requests from local governments throughout the state for their share and what they can use. He did tell Mark to tell Rexburg to go ahead and get their plans in and if there is excess money available there and if some of the others entities can't use or be ready for, certainly we would be happy to extend it to Rexburg's project. If that is the intent of the City Council to go ahead with this project, then start designing these streets and do what is needed on our end and submit to the state and tell them this project is ready to go and we have our plans and are ready to go as Soon as the money is available from them. We would need to consult with John Warneger 334-8271. He stated that people, rural people, are slow to make changes. It is essential that we have some plans and can plan down the road and make the decisions that will benefit us down the road. The mayor stated that anyone who does not want to testify at this meeting, we will accept written testimony in City Hall until June 8 at 4100 P. M. On June 9, the council will meet and made a decision. David Allen - 370 not fully paved. that street. South 5th East- The collector street on 5th South is For some of us we would use that street if it were Superintendent Orr of School District 321 - Impact of Middle school. 7th South is going to be developed one way or the other at some point in the future. What has happened is circumstances has brought it quicker. In consideration of that fact, the school has made some adjustments. They have made plans to provide adequate off street loading and unloading and all the buses will be taken care of off street with access to the street without too much problem. The school district have made adjustments to make it as safe as possible. They feel that the plans they are making for busing are so there will not be pedestrian traffic across the main arteries will make it safer. The bus routes to the Middle School will be at 910D A. M. and 3140 P. M. Dave Pincock - 510 Taurus- He wanted to speak in favor of closure of Viking Drive. He goes to the campus often, but takes precautions to stay off of Viking Drive as much as possible. He parks in front of the dorms when he has to go to the Manwaring Center to make it easier to go across and go down 2nd East to work and not have to go down Viking Drive. We have a beautiful campus and need to make it safe for the students crossing that street, by keeping the traffic off that street. Mack Shirley- He and Randy Porter had conferred as a point of clarification on the third page of the handout, it is the college's intent to have a usage street through the parking lot where the new buildings will be built. Following over to the right on the map over to 2nd East, they have planned to make an access street from that parking lot to 2nd East, so at 450 South people could access the campus at that point by going through the parking lots. The college will also maintain the part of Viking Drive that is not closed but goes through the campus. Robert Pederson - 29 South 3rd West- He serves on the campus. Some years ago when he was in the Junior High they put in an elevator for 000192 the handicapped. At that time it seemed like a lot of money, $30,000. Someone said that is a lot of money to spend but not if it is my kid. It is the same thing with the safety issue on Viking Drive, if the student is mine it makes a lot of difference. Even thought he goes up there a lot, he tries not to go down Viking Drive, especially when classes change. He would hope that Viking Drive would be closed. The mayor stated that we would adjourn and reconvene on June 9th at 7:00 A. M. for the decision. --.-.-