05-13-1996 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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DRAFT COMMENTS REGARDING THE HIGHWAY 12 DECISION MnDOT has now announced the upgrade alternative for Highway 12 it proposes to carry into an environmental review process, and has provided a 33 day public comment period. The city of Orono’s position regarding the Highway 12 corridor has always been and continues to be that any upgrade of Highway 12 should occur on the existing corridor. The reasoning behind tl.e city ’s position has been documented as part of the Highway 12 Scoping Decision Document record. Feasibility of Upgrade on Current Corridor The city continues to believe an upgrade to Highway 12 on the existing corridor is feasible with manageable impacts. There has never been a concerted effort to develop a creative design concept that can provide for adequate local circulation while enabling a smooth flow of through traffic through Orono and Long Lake. Ironically, at the time MnDOT had prepared an initial design scheme to accomplish those two objectives, which was very cumbersome and lacking in creativity, MnDOT developed the Alternative 6 design which enabled many of the cumbersome elements to be eliminated. However, Alternative 6 also has its own set of disadvantages. Unfortunately the development of the Alternative 6 design also caused MnDOT to stop all efforts at developing a more effective design scheme for handling future traffic on the existing Highway 12 corridor. MnDOT Decision Eliminates Substantial Uncertainty MnDOT ’s decision to select a single alternative for further environmental review has eliminated the uncertainty that for a very long period has clouded many properties adjacent to the many corridor alternatives that have been under consideration. Orono strongly opposes MnDOT considering any additional new alignments in the remaining environmental review phase. If more than one alternative is carried into the environmental review it will re-inject more 1