Workshop Item: 1 - Robert Therres, Public Services Manager
Title
MEDIAN MAINTENANCE ON LANDSCAPED MEDIANS
Background
The purpose of this memo is to discuss the future of city maintained landscape medians in the community. The City currently maintains approximately 4 miles of landscaped medians in the City. These include landscape medians on both City and County Roads. The City roads include:
Rice Creek Parkway
89th Ave. between Polk and University Ave.
Paul parkway from Oak Park Blvd. To Highway #65
Portion of Pheasant Ridge Drive from Lexington Ave. to corner
The County Roads where the City maintains landscaped medians include:
Radisson Road 101st to 125th
University from County #10 to 93rd
109th from Davenport/Club West Pkwy to Radisson Road.
There are additional 11.25 miles of landscaped medians in the City that are maintained privately, some on City streets.
With recent staff reductions and budget issues it is becoming more of an issue to maintain the landscaped medians in top condition. Staff estimates it costs approximately $10,000 a year in materials and rentals to maintain the 4 miles of landscaped medians. This does not include labor costs or replacing/upgrading the landscape beds.
Typically, maintenance on the landscaped County Road medians requires us to use all our available staffing in parks, street, and utilities for the day that we work on the beds. This is done to make the best use of the equipment we need to rent for the required lane closures to provide a safe work zone.
The City is reaching a point where we will need to spend additional funds to restore some of the landscaping beds to their original condition. Over the years plants and trees have died and been removed and irrigation systems will need to be replaced. For example, we are estimating that bringing the Radisson Road planting beds back to their original condition will cost approximately $25,000.
Staff is looking for Council direction on what we want to do with city maintained landscaped medians. The options include:
-Continue with status quo - Continue to maintain medians within existing budgets
- Budget additional funds, $20,000 a year, to hire contractor or seasonal staff to provide higher priority and level of service for landscape medians
- Phase out landscape medians and replace with concrete over a period of time. Spend approximately $10,000 a year on filling in medians.
- Meet with neighbors in Rice Creek Parkway and 89th neighborhoods as these two areas are in residential neighborhoods on residential streets.