Item B - Res.on River Ave.LID - Laserfiche WebLink

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The City Council held a public hearing on April 11, 2005. The record was left open until 5 p.m. on Tuesday, April 12 and three additional documents were received and are included as Attachment C. After the hearing, the City Council requested responses to a number of questions and these are included as Attachment D. River Avenue is major collector located on the north side of Eugene, running parallel to and then connecting to Beltline Road. River Avenue also connects to River Road, Division Avenue, and Beaver Street, and is one of only three ways to cross Beltline Road between the Northwest Expressway and the river. As a result of increased use, the existing roadbed is deteriorating and needs to be upgraded. In addition, development in this general area and two connection points to the Ruth Bascom Riverbank Trail System is creating a need to accommodate a variety of transportation users, including bicyclists, bus riders, pedestrians, and motorists, for current and future needs. The land use is primarily commercial, government (MWMC Water Pollution Control Facility, US Post Office and Veteran's Clinic) and multi-family residential. The process for design included notifications to and one-on-one meetings with affected properties about many issues including survey work, right-of-way acquisition and design issues relating to acquisition, trees, driveways, parking, utilities and sidewalks. A public open house was held in April 2004 at the Water Pollution Control Facility on River Avenue. A public hearing was held in June 2004. Following the Board of County Commissioners authorization in February 2005 to include unincorporated properties in the LID, an informational letter was sent out. Open houses were held on April 5 and 7, 2005. The project is designed in accordance with the adopted Eugene Arterial and Collector Street Plan (ACSP). Parameters that guided design were the nature of existing development and consideration of future development and redevelopment based on zoning, the right-of-way widths and costs of acquisition for commercial properties, impacts to properties, utilities and trees. The standards for a major collector street include sidewalk and bike lanes on both sides of the street, travel lanes, street lights and street trees. The design has taken exception to three items in the ACSP: 1) the standard width for sidewalks on commercial properties is 10 feet wide and the design includes a narrower width due to the type of commercial development seen along River Avenue; 2) the standard setback sidewalks are mixed with curbside sidewalks to minimize right-of-way acquisition, utility conflicts, tree removal and impacts to private properties; and 3) an optional turn lane is included on the west end of the project due to the close proximity and number of driveways and the volume of traffic. Bids for the project were opened on July 7, 2004, with Babb Construction Co. (dba Delta Construction Co. and dba Delta Concrete) as the apparent low bidder. The contractor has agreed to extend time for consideration of the bid, keeping the 2004 contract prices, until May 2005. The total project cost is estimated at $2,269,502.16, and is funded from several sources in the following approximate amounts: Assessments $1,067,627.86 (47%) City of Eugene $1,201,874.31 (53%) The City of Eugene funding includes primarily transportation and stormwater systems development charge funds. A small portion of stormwater pipe maintenance is proposed with this contract and stormwater utility funds would be used for that work. L:\CMO\2005 Council Agendas\M050420\S050420B.doc