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Session 170 l, Minutes July 7, 1997 Ms. Sara Johnson, 6323 Pershing, is special assistant to the Chancellor at Washington University. There has been no change. They continue to favor the Millbrook route. They commend the Council for the language in the resolution that acknowledges that the route serves University City. As far as the four amendments proposed tonight: no forced sales of property or homes - from the very beginning, the University has supported this route precisely because it does not require any forced sales of property, unlike the Highway 40 route. That should go back in the resolution. Secondly, park and ride lots - Washington University has again been clear from the beginning, that they do not intend to build park and ride lots on the campus for commuters. They support the neighborhood desire to avoid park and ride lots that are not adequate to handle the demand. The language about commuter parking, she believes, is really between the City and the neighborhoods. Regarding the last - cut and cover or tunnel construction, she wanted to be very clear about the construction the University has proposed east of Big Bend, which would be on the campus. In order to keep the line away from homes in Parkview and Ames Place, Washington University has offered to donate a strip of land on the south side of the highway on the campus, to keep the train as far from private residences as possible. It is worth a great deal of money and it has never been appraised to her knowledge, but the University is giving up the opportunity to use that strip offand for other purposes. The University will also bear the cost of relocating the buildings that are now there. The offer was made to do that based on certain conditions which the Chancellor sent to the neighbors almost a year ago. The University focused on outcomes, not methods. They are not trying to tell the engineers howto do the job. They felt it was important that the route be safe, that it not interfere with the teaching and research activities, that pedestrian and car access be preserved at street level - the University says the route needs to be a fully submerged open trench with protective fencing to keep people out. They are not persuaded that a tunnel is necessary to meet the goals of safety, access and so on. She supports Representative Bray's comments about being too restrictive and having limited funds. Council should pay attention to this. Mr. Pat McCauley, 6309 Pershing, said that there will, hopefully, eventually be a MetroLink extension along I- 170 and the Council may then want to consider a park and ride lot. Mirroring Representative Bray's comments, the City is in a strong bargaining position and the City should not assume that stations should be at Skinker or Big Bend. The City could use their bargaining power and position a station at Forsyth. There is an adequate amount of parking owned by Washington University and possibly an arrangement could be made to make a park and ride lot there. He cautioned Council not to paint University City into a corner. Mayor Adams wished to make a few statements, being there were no more requests to speak. At no time, has he ever said that he would be totally for the north route. What the Mayor did say was that if the northern route is constructed then these would be our conditions. He does believe that the northern route is the most cost eEcient and receives the largest ridership. He told the Council that as far as he was concerned, this resolution deals strictly from Skinker westward. How they get to Skinker is the problem of East-West Gateway and the others that have to make this decision. He, like most of the audience, on both sides of the issue, wish that East-West Gateway would make a decision, one way or the other. It has been very frustrating to him and to those in the audience, that East-West Gateway has not made a decision, when one was promised last November. They are still fiddling and obfuscating. He thinks that it is reprehensible and shows poor stewardship of the funds that have been given to them. East-West Gateway has dropped the ball. They need to do something so we can all get on with our lives. Mr. Wagner has made these changes and he is grateful to him. He apologized for the oversight which caused an omission of some of the conditions. The Council is telling East-West Gateway, in this new resolution, to get moving one way or the other. Council also attempted to incorporate some other things that they had been hearing, since the original resolution was passed, such as a desire to reconnect neighborhoods and correct the failure of putting highways through neighborhoods, such as with the Forest Park Expressway. He supports the concept that there will be no parking in the neighborhoods. He supports the concept of no park and ride lots. Mayor Adams asked Mr. Wagner if he would like to make a motion to amend the resolution as detailed earlier in the meeting. Mr. Wagner made a motion to adopt the resolution, as amended. Mr. Ueberman seconded the motion. Mayor Adams asked the City Clerk to read the resolution with amendments.