03-11-1991 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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!■! feu. PLANNING COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING HELD FEBRUARY 20, 1991 sucB of whsrs thst rnight hsppsn. MNDOT do©s h3vs the power to unilaterally object to Highway 55 no matter what stand the City of Orono may take." Dodd Cosgrove, 1895 Fox Ridge Road, stated that one of the problems is that the City is considering the City of Long Lake to be an adversary. He said, "The City of Long L*ke is potentially our greatest ally. How can we possibly ally ourselves with Long Lake if we take a position to locate the corridor through the middle of their city? It seems to me that the strongest stance we have is to say 'no build' and send it someplace else. That also supports our Comprehensive Plan." John Massopust said, "I'm not oure that we would get a 'no build' consensus from the City of Long Lake, because they want something changed to move traffic through there better." Br:ce Carlson said, "It seems to me that we have inflated the negative impact in our own minds of what could be a creative solution on the existing alignment to the point where we think it is going to wipe out Long Lake. That causes us to think that there is no way to compromise and that the only solution is to 0yQfyone to support H.'.ghway 55. We should consider this as a negotiating process with MNDOT. We look at what is best for Orono and what is best for Long Lske to see if there is way we can come together on the issue. We can start out by saying that Highway 55 is the preferred solution. If it later becomes apparent that it will be more sensible to upgrade existing Highway 12 and other existing roads, that will evolve out of the process, but it will be something that may be acceptable as a reasonable solution. Another point is that it seems to me that there has been some reference made about the north and south groups. Our feeling in the northern group is that we want to cooperate with the City of Orono to help develop a consensus and a negotiating strategy that makes sense for Orono as a whole. W*5 are also dedicated to getting the line off of the map that goes through our particular property. Tne gentleman representing our group is quite convinced that the Highway 55 issue is not dead. Discussions have taken place with the Metropolitan Council about the differentiation between through traffic to western Minnesota onto major thoroughfares that are logical for that kind of traffic, such a.s Highway 55. The Highway 12 corridor currently exists in a form that best serves local traffic. I do not PsXieve we have given up on Highway 55 at all in our group. Our advisor indicates that is a very rational approach." Sherokee Use askt»d the Planning Commission members to express their own opinions relative to the Comprehensive P » and what they believe they could agree on at this point. She turther asked, "Can the citizens walk away from here this evening feeling - 14 -