02-20-1991 Planning Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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! : r. 1 .■‘•'I VH k f\ -*' »"Ipr I m :^:- '¥ il?/; ^i: PLANNING COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING HELD FEBRUARY 20, 1991 Maresh stated that the School Board, at its next meeting, may request more definitive information from MHDOT about the meaning of the potential routes. He said, ''The problem the School Board has is that it deals with several communities. It will be difficult to come out with a hard statement recommending that the corridor be placed in one community as opposed to another." Goetten asked Mr. Maresh if he would notify each of the City Councils for the Orono School District communities of the meeting date for the School Board to discuss this issue. Maresh stated that if and when such a meeting is planned, the Board would notify all of the persons in the Orono School District. Kelley stated that he had been informed by City Staff that the scheduled safety improvements for Highway 12 would not occur until 1993 because of no funding. Dave Fritz suggested that it may be beneficial to have the citizens form a coalition with members from the other communities. Cohen said, "For those here this evening that think nothing is going to happen, you are wrong. Something will happen. I agree with comments made earlier about the impact that these lines on the map have for persons that may wish to sell their home. I still have not been given a true consensus of what you (the public) think is going to happen." Maresh reiterated that though there are three routes proposed that go through Orono, Orono can still take the position that they do not want the corridor to go through Orono at all. John Massopust, 440 South Brown Road, agreed with Cohen's earlier comments. He said, "We have to face the reality of this situation. I moved to Orono for the same reasons that everyone else did. I think the City needs to do everything possible to preserve the Comprehensive Plan. However, I also think we are fooling ourselves. If we put our heads in the sand, we are basically allowing Larry Dallam to make decisions based on what he thinks should happen in Orono. If we do not face the reality of what is going on, we are just deceiving ourselves- All you have tn do is drive on Highway 12 i a the morning or late afternoon and you realize that something has to be done. The reality is that millions of dollars have been spent to bring 1-394 right to Orono's border. MNDOT is not going to admit that they should not have done that and that all of the money spent to do so was wasted. They will work off of that. I appreciate all of the arguments made this evening in favor of Highway and have made those same arguments myself. However, MNDOT is not - 9 -