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TRANSPORTATION INTENT Maintain a transportation system that provides for a variety of safe and flexible mobility aptions for people and businesses operating within the City, as well as provides for safe, high-speed access to the surrounding economic region all at a cost that is financially responsible to taxpayers. BACKGROUND Transportation in Pequot Lakes has evolved like most Midwestern cities—from foot,to horse,to horse or ox drawn carriage,to train and then to automobile.These modes of transportation shape the way neighborhoods have been built and have evolved over the many decades since Pequot Lakes was established.The City recognizes that,more than any other single factor,transportation improvements impact the physical characteristics of the City. The original Leech Lake trail ran through Pequot Lakes in about the same alignment as the current Highway 371. The trail was little more than a well worn path for loggers and early settlers.It provided basic access to the outside world that helped establish the early City of Pequot. The City grew during the rail era,which is visible in the development pattern of the downtown and surrounding areas. Lots are established in a grid pattern,which is characteristic of development in the rail/trolley era.This type of development is common where walking was the primary mode of transportation, and much of the old town is built in this style.Commercial development sprang up along the rail line and still exists there today. The town adapted fairly easily to the automobile.Highway 371 ran through the City two blocks east of the railroad. New development sprang up along this corridor. The area between the highway and the rail line thrived to one degree or another until the rail was discontinued and the highway was realigned. The realignment was an attempt to upgrade the highway to modern standards and increase the capacity. Pequot Lakes, as it existed at that time, was essentially bypassed with this realignment. The gas stations along the old alignment eventually closed and development patterns shifted west of the abandoned rail line and highway. The old alignment became County Road 112. City streets have developed in a mainly piecemeal fashion. In the historic grid portion of the City, many of the streets are paved,but few sidewalks or other pedestrian walkways have been put in. It is peculiar that so'me of the streets, in a seemingly random fashion, are not improved at all.There is certainly a story behind why each street was or was not improved,but most of these stories have been lost in the history of bureaucratic decision-making. The area surrounding downtown Pequot Lakes,what was Sibley Township, has developed with a different pattern. Old winding trails to lake cabins have been adapted to one degree or another as local roadways. Most of these are substandard in that they lack dedicated public right of way—they exist in a collection of prescriptive easements. Recent development has reflected an auto-oriented,suburban pattern complete with curvilinear roads and cul-de- sacs. These newer roads were constructed under modern processes and generally conform to standards of the automobile era. The fourth incarnation of the original Leech Lake Trail is manifested in the proposed Trunk Highway 371 improvements. The improvements are being proposed in response to increasing traffic counts as well as recent Comprehensive Plan Update—February 2013 38 � P a g e