Title
RESOLUTION RATIFYING EXECUTION OF VARIOUS AGREEMENTS WITH BNSF RAILWAY COMPANY PERTAINING TO THE WESTERN WATERFRONT TRAIL.
Body
CITY PROPOSAL:
RESOLVED, that the execution of the agreements listed below with the BNSF Railway Company making a temporary easement for the Western Waterfront Trail permanent and formally approving a trail crossing of the tracks, copies of which are attached hereto as Exhibits A, B, and C, at a total cost to the city of not to exceed $29,000, payable from Fund 437-030-5530 (Spirit Mountain Capital Improvement Fund, Finance Department, Improvements Other than Buildings) are hereby ratified:
Exhibit Document Title
A First Amendment to Easement
B Agreement for Private Crossing
C Crossing Surface Installation Agreement
Statement of Purpose
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE: The purpose of this resolution is to ratify agreements that amended an existing, temporary easement for the Western Waterfront Trail to make it permanent and to approve a permanent trail crossing of the BNSF Railroad tracks northeast of Spring Street. These agreements are necessary to straighten out some old property issues related to the Western Waterfront Trail (the “Trail”) northeast of Spring Street in Riverside which were brought to the fore by the construction of the Spirit Mountain Water Line Project.
In 1982, the City had acquired from the BN (predecessor to BNSF) a permanent easement for recreational trail purposes over railroad property northeast of the Spring Street area. This easement did not include property adjacent to the Tate and Lyle malic acid plant, which is located just northeast of Spring Street and southeast of the railroad. The original plan was to have the Trail cross over to Tallies Island and follow the river to the Riverside Marina before coming back to City-owned easements adjacent to Duluth, Superior, and Mississippi Railroad line.
Unfortunately, this plan could not be implemented, and in order to get the Trail built through the area, the City acquired a five year temporary easement from the railroad adjacent to the BN tracks through the area with the idea of replacing it with a more permanent location at a later date. Both the permanent easement and the temporary easement were limited to walking and bicycling purposes.
Some 30 years later, in the course of building the Spirit Mountain water line project, it was discovered that the temporary character of this segment of the Trail had “slipped off the radar” of both the City and the Railroad. The water line project now needed to use the Trail for construction access to the new pump house. When the railroad reviewed the project, they realized that there was not a currently valid easement for part of the Trail. Nor did the validly permitted crossing of the rail line accommodate the Trail. Additionally, the Trail was needed for vehicular access to the pump house to construct and maintain it, and the language of the current easement limited its use to walking and bicycling. Therefore, the railroad needed to have these issues adequately addressed as part of the overall construction of the water line project.
All of these issues arose in the context of water line project and, in order to have the water line available to Spirit Mountain for this winter’s snow making season, construction of the pump house needs to start immediately. This meant that all of these issues needed to be addressed immediately.
Normally, getting all of the agreements and easements needed would have taken some three months, obviously much too late to meet the needs of Spirit Mountain. However, by din of a herculean effort on the part of BNSF corporate staff as well as their property consultant, Jones, Lang LaSalle Brokerage, Inc., along with a similar effort on the part of City staff, Spirit Mountain staff and Spirit Mountain’s consultants, FJJ and SEH, the time frame for the needed documentation and approvals was reduced to a matter of weeks.
This resolution ratifies the execution of the necessary documents and formalizes the City’s approval of them.