In Richfield's 66th Street bike-friendly revamp, 18 homes must go

The Richfield City Council voted Tuesday night to approve a $37 million renovation of 66th Street to make it friendlier to bikers and pedestrians and safer for drivers, although it requires 18 homes to be demolished.

It will transform the busy four-lane street by adding protected bike lanes, wider and buffered sidewalks, medians and left-turn lanes.

The half-century-old street has deteriorated to the point where it needs to be redone, but that the county's goal on new constructions is to also include infrastructure that serve transit needs for all residents, said Maury Hooper, Hennepin County project manager.

"Give them the choice to either bike, walk, do a combination of those things and get on the bus, and also, the vehicles are important as well," Hooper said. "It's just a bigger picture approach."

The council voted 3-2 to pass the final portion of the reconstruction at a meeting on Tuesday evening.

Council Member Patrick Elliott, who represents the western part of the city, ultimately voted against the proposal because he felt it didn't do enough to reduce or slow traffic on the street. He supported three lanes on the street, rather than four, which he says would keep overflow off the road when nearby Highway 62 backs up.

"They kept talking about, this is a 50-year roadway for the future," Elliott said. "My understanding of our future is we're looking at lessening the impact of the combustion engine automobile, not enhancing it."

A minimum-impact alternative offered by the county would have preserved the 18 houses but put the road closer to the front door of houses on both sides of the street, which Elliott said would have been "intolerable."

About 20,000 cars a day pass through the portion of the street between Penn Avenue and Interstate 35 West. Hooper said changes proposed in the project could also calm traffic there, which typically exceeds speed limits.

"We proposed narrower traffic lanes," Hooper said. "We also think the medians and how they'll be planted, and the boulevards, those are possible locations where we could introduce some vertical elements that will also reduce speeds."

Hooper said including left-turn lanes and medians in the road are also expected to cut down on accidents on parts of the busy street by up to 50 percent.

The plan includes a number of designs aimed at making the street more appealing to pedestrians and bikers. It will create one of the region's first cycle tracks, which are dedicated bike lanes protected from car traffic by a buffer. In order to preserve houses' buffers from the street, the bike lane will terminate on the west end at Penn Avenue.

Another cycle track is being planned for Washington Avenue in Minneapolis, but the 66th Street cycle track will be much longer at about three miles.

Sean Hayford Oleary, a member of Richfield Bike Advocates, said it creates a strong regional biking connection between the western and eastern sides of the region.

Planners will be able to start assessing the values of homes to be acquired this winter. Construction is set to start in 2016.