During its meeting Tuesday night, the Laramie City Council unanimously appointed council member Pat Gabriel to the Harney Street/Union Pacific Railroad Overpass Enhancement Committee.
While serving as County Commissioner nearly 20 years ago, Gabriel was part of the original committee that first proposed the project.
“Twenty years ago, as county commissioner, I was on the original committee to look at the possibility of replacing the Curtis Street Viaduct at that time,” Gabriel said. “Here we are, 20 years later, we are starting to build, so I guess that is progress.”
Slated for completion in 2018, the four-lane Harney Street viaduct would replace the two-lane Clark Street overpass and allow for traffic to move over the railway between East and West Laramie.
The project serves as a solution to the growing number of safety hazards of the Clark Street Overpass. According to the project documents, approximately 60 percent of the pier walls exhibit severe chipping, delamination, and exposed and corroded reinforcing steel.
The Clark Street overpass is slated for demolition in 2019
As a member of the committee, Gabriel could participate in conversations regarding the approximately $376,000 of budgeted funds remaining after the city met its required project-funding match of about $37,000.
The council also motioned to authorize the final plat for the Timberline Business Park.
The project has been in development since 2015 and would allow for commercial and industrial land development consistent with commercial and industrial zoning.
The final plat, or the completion of the project, would allow for the sale of lots.
“What we typically see with the final plat, once it is approved and recorded, is the property owner is allowed to begin sale of lots,” Planning Manager Derek Teini said.
The motion carried with a unanimous vote.
A number of code amendments were made on Tuesday. Laramie Planning Division Senior Planner Charles Bloom said the city staff usually addresses code errors four times a year.
“This is what we tag as primarily a house-cleaning ordinance,” Bloom said. “It’s mostly done to correct typographical errors and other small errors throughout the code since using it the last time.”
Some of Tuesday’s changes made concerned a tree protection ordinance, correcting cross-references and changes regarding community development department from the city structure.
“We have not had many problems with that ordinance since its implementation,” Bloom said. “It only applies to construction tree removal being done in conjunction with building permits and for trees that are located in the yard of a property.”
Additional corrections were made to an ordinance for bicycle parking requirements stating that bicycle parking must be located on a concrete pad and detailed the number of bicycle parking spaces required in multifamily developments.
“There is always that one case where someone might say, ‘we’re not going to provide more than three bike racks for this 20-unit complex,’ and that creates problems,” Bloom said. “People begin locking up their bikes on poles and fence posts.”
