04 - Resolution Regarding Hwy 371

Home Browse Search

WHEREAS, during these meetings it became increasingly difficult for the City and Mn/DOT to come to agreements on the final configuration of Highway 371 due to issues involving safety and closure of accesses; and WHEREAS, on June 6, 2006, the Pequot Lakes City Council adopted Resolution 06-23 in support of re-routing Highway 371 to a corridor east of town, which identified that the through-town alignment: ➢ clearly and without remedy divides the City into two separate halves and provides no reliably safe way for school children and other citizens to pass from one half to the other, and ➢ closes the majority of existing access and egress points onto and off of the highway and,in doing so,would create undeniable congestion and inconvenience for residents and visitors alike, and ➢ the projected cost to the City of five million dollars to make the proposed through- town route workable is far beyond the City's capacity to handle without a severe increase in taxes, and ➢ the lengthy disruption to downtown businesses caused by the proposed expansion of the through-town roadway might prove destructive to their continued well-being; and WHEREAS, in January of 2007, the City Council established the T.H. 371 Study Group consisting of members of the City Council and the Planning Commission, for the expressed purpose of studying the issues and impacts of an easterly alternate route for Highway 371 so as to develop the best corridor alignment possible, and WHEREAS, the T.H. 371 Study Group met nine times between February and August 2007 to hear expert testimony and receive public feedback regarding an alternate alignment for T.H. 371, and WHEREAS, following its study of the alternate route, the committee identified all issues that were studied in a report entitled "Highway 371 Alternate Route Study Group Report", which included findings that: ➢ There would be no adverse impact to school bus routes, and ➢ The old highway will likely become property of Crow Wing County once the alternate alignment is built, and ➢ The MN Power substation will not be physically impacted by the construction,and ➢ Some work will need to be done to the City's water and wastewater systems, but the alternate route will not have a significant impact on the viability, or future expansion, of the City's utility systems, and ➢ That Mn/DOT is responsible to provide a separated crossing for the Paul Bunyan Trail (a crossing that goes over or under the new highway), and ➢ That all of the new highway intersections will be at-grade, and ➢ That only minor change to the local street system will be required to accommodate the alternate route when it is built, and 2