03-25-1991 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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PLANNING COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING HELD FEBRUARY 20, 1991 MND'JT does have trie power no natter v;rid stand the very sure of where that might happen, to unilaterally object to Highway 55 City of Orono may te' Dodd Cosgrove, 1595 Fox R edge Road, stated that one of trie 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. He., can we possibly ally ourselves with Long Lake if we take a oosition 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 sure that we would get a 'no build' consensus from the City of Long Lake, because they want something changed to move traffic t.hrough there better. Bruce Carlson said, "It seems to me t.hat 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. Tnat causes us to think that there is no way to com.pro.mise and that the only solution is to get everyone to support H.ghway 55. v»e should consider this as a negotiating process with MNDOT. V»e look at what is best for Orono and what is best for Long L?ke to see if ther^ is way we can come together on the issue. VJe 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 exis .ng 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 so.me 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. We also dedicated to getting the line off of the map that go rough our particular property. The gentleman representing oo. ,^p is guite convinced that the Highway 55 issue is not dead. Discussions have teken 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;; Highway 55. The Highw.ay 12 corridor currently exists in a form that best serves local traffic. I do not believe we have given up on Highway 55 at all in our group. Our advisor indicates that is a very rational approach." Sherokee Use asked the Planning Commission membe.TS to express their own opinions relative to the Comprehensive Plan and what they believe they could agree on at this point. She further asked, "Can the citizens walk away from here this evening feeling - 14 -