NB debates removing parking spaces

By Barbara Brown
Back and forth motions failed Monday night at the North Branch City Council meeting during the debate over parking along Forest Boulevard (CR 30).
The council members confused each other at least twice during discussions about whether to remove three parking spaces on east side of CR 30 in front of Skellyís Hallmark Shop.
The county asked the city to review the parking situation because the countyís Public Works department wants to realign the driving lanes and adjust the traffic pattern at the intersection of CR 30 and Hwy. 95.
Currently, from the south on CR 30, through traffic must wait for anyone in front of them to turn left before continuing. The right hand lanes both north and south are for right turns only.
The county is proposing to realign the lanes and change the traffic pattern to have the left lane as a left turn only and the right lane as a through and right turn lane.
The change in traffic patterns should help alleviate congestion at the intersection and stop through drivers from using the right lane to swing around drivers waiting to turn left.
Several wrecks, including some head-on collisions, have happened in that intersection because of impatient or inattentive drivers.
The council agreed with the plan presented by City Engineer Julie Dresel that parking should not be allowed on the south and west sides of CR 30, but they could not agree whether to remove the three parking spaces at Skellyís.
Skelton Drug Store manager Jan Parsons asked the council not to remove the parking spaces because the storeís handicapped and elderly customers need them so they donít have to walk a long way to get into the store.
The council tied the first vote 2-2 with council members Kathy Blomquist and Rod Lofquist voting to remove the parking spots and Mayor Gloria Karsky and Councilman John Pace voting to keep them.
Council member Amy Oehlers was not at the meeting.
A second vote also failed 2-2 when Pace suggested North Branch should tell the county to work out a plan for the intersection that would include only two parking places for Skelton which would be shifted to the north, closer to Nelsonís, on CR 30.
Finally, the council voted to send the whole plan back to the county and request a presentation from the Public Works department on different scenarios of keeping and removing the parking spaces.
North Branch also may have more rental properties soon after the council voted to approve the idea of two new complexes within the city.
Two Harris residents, Wendy Swanson and Jeff Pfeffer, bought property on the corner of Maple St. behind the Conoco station.
The owners asked the council for a zoning change that would allow them to build two, single story, 6-unit apartment buildings on the site.
The council agreed with the zoning change. Previously, the land had been zoned R4 and could be used for trailer houses. The new zoning is R3 and can be used for multi-family housing.
The second apartment development request to the council was from Kelly Bros. to form a tax increment financing (TIF) district and award a conditional use permit so they could build two apartment buildings ñ one with 32 units and one with 24 units.
The owners would be required to use a scaled leasing schedule so that half the units would be rented to people who make only 80 percent of the areaís median income.
The TIF district will stay in place for 10 years. The council asked Finance Director Dave Stutelberg to find out if the scaled leasing schedule would be effective in perpetuity or if it would end after 10 years, when the TIF district benefit dissolved.
Also at the meeting, the council awarded two paving contracts to Gustafson Excavating. The first will pave 410th St. and extend Fletcher Ave. to serve the Industrial Park. Gustafsonís bid was $469,972.49. Bauerly Bros. also bid the project, but after the engineers re-calculated a math error in the bid, it came in second at $471,579.18.
The second Gustafson award was for a sanitary sewer extension south of Hwy. 95 on 5th Ave. for $33,963.43. Only one other bidder, Hyrocon, sent a bid at $34,553.60.

Top of Page

©ECM Post Review

6448 Main Street
North Branch, MN 55056
Telephone: 651-674-7025
Fax: 651-674-7026
E-mail: editor.postreview@ecm-inc.com