The Crookston Ways and Means Committee held its meeting immediately following the city council meeting Monday night and discussed several items, including updates on the city’s new comprehensive plan, the active transportation development project, and the proposed demolition of the Tri-Valley building in the downtown area.
COMPREHENSIVE PLAN UPDATE
Joel Quanbeck of KLJ Engineering presented a draft of the plan to the council, which is designed to show the city’s long-term plans and goals concerning housing, industrial and retail development, and parks and greenspace. He said the plan is stretched out in some spaces to encourage future grant proposals and other initiatives.
“The main thing I want to say about that first slide that we just passed is that state law encourages that your zoning be based upon a comprehensive plan. So that’s what you see in the first major bullet there. But it’s also about creating a vision for the future, and it’s also something that we want to use,” said Quanbeck. “And one of the main reasons we kind of have stretched things out is so that we can incorporate initiatives, recommendations to help get to additional grants down the road. If we’ve got it in a plan, it makes it so it’s an easier sell for getting grants.”
Quanbeck said the draft plan is in the final stages, as he was seeking any additional comments from the committee before finalizing a draft plan to be considered by the Planning Commission. He said that presentation could be as soon as the commission’s next scheduled meeting on June 16.
ACTIVE TRANSPORTATION DEMONSTRATION PROJECT (BARRETTE STREET)
Following the completion of the Active Transportation Plan in March, city staff and representatives from the Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority (CHEDA) were focused on the 11 short-term projects identifiewd in the plan. Taylor Wyum said one of those projects will be addressed this summer through the Active Transportation Demonstration Project. She said the project will create pedestrian bump-outs at the intersections of Barrette Street and Cathedral, as well as Barrette Street and Central Avenue.
“This demonstration project extends from the intersection of Central Avenue and Barrette Street and then goes down to Cathedral on the south side. What we’re looking at, these red markings along the intersection and a couple spots on the south end of the street are what’s considered bump outs or extended curves,” said Wyum. “And they just are painted onto the street to shorten the distance that a pedestrian is in a lane of traffic as they cross the street.”
Wyum said the goal of the project is to improve public safety in the area, reduce vehicle speeds, and encourage more pedestrians to walk in that area. She said volunteers are needed to help with painting the bump outs and placing markers along the east side of Barrette Street, which will take place on June 1. The project is expected to be completed before winter begins.
DIOCESE AND TRI-VALLEY DISCUSSIONS
The committee turned its attention to a discussion on the old Diocese property located south of the golf course on Interim City Administrator Darin Selzler informed the committee that the city has an agreement in place with the Diocese through January 20, 2027 that allows the city to either purchase the property with a right to first refusal if someone else were to purchase the property.
Selzler said, “The goal of the steering committee would be to, among others, but just kind of to hit the high points, would keep the project moving forward by establishing timelines, identify and develop priorities or housing types such as single housing, high-end housing near the golf course, senior or retirement housing, twin homes, other or a combination of all. Moving forward would be to review the RFP to make sure it aligns with our city goals and our comprehensive plan to help attract developers to that project.”
The plan that had been previously discussed mentioned that if the city were to purchase the property, they would want to work with a developer to build housing in that area. Selzler said if that idea were to move forward, a steering committee would need to be established to find a developer and get a plan together ahead of the end of the current deal with the Diocese. Members agreed that purchasing and developing the property would help address housing issues that were identified in a recent housing study and the draft of the new comprehensive plan. It was agreed to move forward with finding a developer, and Council members Clayton Briggs and Morgan Hibma would be the council’s representatives on the steering committee.
Selzler then presented an updated cost analysis for the demolition of the old Tri-Valley building on the corner of Highway 2 and Broadway. He said the average cost to demolish the building in the summer could be around $1.1 million, but the cost is lower, around $937,000, if the demolition occurs in late fall/early winter.
“The total range of the project is detailed in two categories. At the bottom are two columns, which are kind of summarized in like a winter demo and a summer demo,” explained Selzler. “The methodology of thought behind this, just working with our engineers and other projects that they’ve helped with, is that it may be cheaper to demo the building in late fall, early winter, as many or a lot of contractors are busy with projects that can only be completed during the summer months.”
The committee agreed that the opportunities to get this building demolished ahead of the Highway 2 reconstruction project in 2027 are dwindling and that it would be opportune to take advantage of cost savings. Selzler said the city would most likely bond the project, but there is a demolition loan program through Minnesota DEED that could be used to pay the bond on the project to get everything started as soon as possible.
