10/05/1998 Park Board Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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. JOINT COUNCIL MEETING JULY 29, 1998 Ms. Ford supported developing a light rail transit system to take traffic off of the roads. She suggested getting together with industrial employers and developing some sort of a "mini mouse"transit system because not all employees live in the twin cities. If employers can reduce cars in their parking lots, this means less traffic on our roads. Mr. Sand said he actually sees more reverse commuters. Ms. Ford felt it was important to get together and work on trail corridors to maximize state grants. She was referring to the "greenway"proposal. Mr. Willenbring said extending the "greenway" corridor south into Ramsey County would be an important portion of that system. He felt the communities should do a good job following up with requests for legislative funding.Ms. Ford suggested getting the Parks and Recreation Departments of each city into the process. She noted that it is hard for a single city to get any funding. Mr. Willenbring expressed the need to do this as a cooperative effort. He stressed keeping everyone including the counties and Rice Creek Watershed District involved. Mr. Goeffon said that Hugo has to keep working on getting the people out of the industrial park area. Ms. Barnes noted that Hugo has been meeting with Lino Lakes for at least five(5) years and stressed the need to continue these meetings. She noted that the east/west route in Hugo is extremely important to Hugo and felt that the Rice Creek Watershed District should also be involved in this matter. Ms. Barnes said it is important to continue this focus because then they can see what impact Hugo's development has on neighboring communities. She felt that it was important for Hugo to "go back to the drawing board and see what can be done. Mr. Arcand said the County Road J interchange is important and should be stressed. Mr. LeRoux thanked White Bear Township for coming and participating. He stated the Township is mostly a spectator in this discussion, however, their experience and expertise is needed. Mr. LeRoux said that unfortunately, often times, what communities are considering is retro-fit. The planning process was not in place and we did not have a crystal ball to know that this is where we would be. He felt that the cities need to consider the inplace residential development when planning transportation routes. Unfortunately there has been a hodge-podge of residential development and sometimes the provincialism that exists between communities is an inhibitor to getting anything accomplished. The Hugo Council is very interested in the neighboring communities. Mr. LeRoux felt that the continuity of city councils is nebulous at times in some of our communities so that creating these relationships between the city councils and getting things accomplished is difficult. As far as plan A and plan B are concerned,they have been discussed substantially in Hugo but maybe there is an alternative to each because each brings some tangible negatives to rectify. Maybe the need for this route has not PAGE 13